‘Ozark’ Season 3 Episode 10 Recap: “All In” Season Finale

Ozark Season 3 Episode 10
Janet McTeer and Laura Linney in ‘Ozark’ season 3 episode 10 (Photo Credit: Netflix)

The season three finale of Netflix’s Ozark picks up right where episode nine ended with Wendy (Laura Linney) still pulled over on the side of the road. Later, we see her pull into the parking lot of the store she and Ben visited.

Nelson (Nelson Bonilla) returns with Ben’s body and Marty (Jason Bateman) and Ruth (Julia Garner) are there to meet him. Ruth coldly asks, “Do you like your f*ckin job?” Of course he doesn’t respond.

After Nelson and Marty slide Ben into the cremation chamber, Nelson leaves. Marty warns Ruth she can not go after Nelson. Marty admits he can’t afford to lose her too and makes her promise she won’t kill Nelson. Ruth wants to know how they found him and Marty semi-lies, saying Ben called Helen. He was trying to come back but that would never be possible.

Back to Wendy we go and she’s now changing in a restroom. Marty’s finishing up and retrieving Ben’s ashes while on the phone with Wendy. He asks if she’s ready to tell him her location. Wendy pours herself a Vodka and tells him no. She doesn’t want him to know where she is. Marty says he and the kids are waiting for her to come home.

In Mexico, Navarro’s new son is in a church being baptized while it’s being streamed live for him to watch at home. Suddenly, armed men burst through the doors and kill everyone there except his baby. Navarro witnesses it and goes ballistic.

Following the hit, Navarro tells Helen (Janet McTeer) he needs to get his affairs in order. The baby is not in his will yet. He quietly admits they’re losing this war and wants her to take his two older boys to America until things are safe. He also wants her to transfer his assets evenly between his three boys.

Navarro senses she has something on her mind and encourages her to speak. She drops the bomb that she would like to take over Byrde Enterprise’s affairs, reasoning, “Just in case their involvement continues to prove erratic.” The scene ends without Navarro giving an answer.

Wyatt (Charlie Tahan) visits his sister at her trailer and asks what she’s going to tell people about Ben. Ruth reveals she’s going to say he went to Knoxville. He wants to know what happened to Ben and Ruth explains he made the mistake of calling Helen. Ruth admits she’s tired. She then changes the subject and asks how Darlene is doing. Wyatt says Darlene wants him to meet her mom. Ruth laughs, believing that’s weird.

Ruth changes the subject back to what happened with Ben. She confesses she can’t make sense of it. Wyatt, who’s not a fan of the Byrdes, begins to put ideas in Ruth’s head. He thinks she should be asking more questions. He believes the guy he knew…because he knew Ben so well…was living for Ruth and would have made it back here if he could. He thinks that when something feels off, it probably is off.

Over at the casino, Sam’s (Kevin L. Johnson) continued gambling has his girlfriend concerned and she asks him to stop. He proposes to her with a creepy ring made of his mom. (Yes, you read that correctly.) She’s happy at first but still wants him to stop gambling. Agent Maya Miller (Jessica Frances Dukes) interrupts the proposal to arrest Sam for money laundering.

Helen meets with Charles Wilkes (Darren Goldstein), who we haven’t seen in a while, to ask if he can get her a casino license. She admits she thinks Marty and Wendy are awfully close to losing the casino. Naturally, he would like to know why she feels that way. She can’t disclose why because she’s their attorney, but she believes time is of the essence.

Marty comes into his office and finds Maya waiting for him. He’s angry about Sam and wonders what her bosses will think when they’re forced to let Sam go because they don’t have any evidence. Marty claims Maya thinks she’s above everything. He has given her good, solid evidence against people and she chooses not to use it because she’s waiting for the world to fit her pristine belief system. That will never happen.

Back to Wendy in the same parking lot of the same store heading in to buy more alcohol. After a child grabs her hand mistakenly thinking she’s his mom, Wendy drops her things, gets in her car, and finally takes off for home.

Marty’s there to greet her outside when she pulls up. Once inside, Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) is happy to see her and gives her mom a hug. Jonah (Skylar Gaertner), on the other hand, isn’t so welcoming. He wants assurance she’s there for good and she tells him she is. Jonah’s pleased about that but wants to know what she’s going to do about Helen. She asks what he means and Jonah becomes angry. “She killed your brother,” he replies.

Wendy reminds him Helen is their partner and therefore they can’t do anything. Jonah’s upset with that answer, wanting to know if they’re just supposed to forget about Ben. He tells his mom he hates her.

Charlotte heads down to the basement to see Jonah and asks what he was thinking of, yelling at their mom. “You know they can’t just magically make all this go away,” she says, reminding him of their predicament. Jonah brings up how she sued to try to get out of the family and he points out that she came back. He thinks maybe she shouldn’t have.

Charlotte’s had enough of her brother’s attitude and says, “F**k you,” before leaving him alone to pout.

Marty and Wendy meet with Helen, and Helen wants an explanation as to where Wendy went because she didn’t come home right away. Wendy admits she needed time to clear her head. Helen, not sympathetic at all, asks if her head is clear. Marty changes the subject, stating they’re committed to moving forward. Helen uses his “moving forward” wording to let them know her client wants to diversify control of his children’s assets between the three of them. When Marty asks, “Meaning what?” Helen claims she needs to become a signatory in Byrde Enterprises. When Marty brings up that he was under the impression just he and Wendy would be on the casino license, Helen lies and says she has no interest in being on the casino license and knows how hard they worked.

Marty and Wendy speak alone and Wendy believes Helen’s going to have them killed. Marty warns her to not act crazy which is exactly the wrong thing to say at this moment. Wendy yells at him not to call her crazy. She explains she can feel what Helen’s planning to do.

Marty can be so bad at reading people sometimes and makes excuses as to why he thinks Helen’s not going to have them killed. She tells Marty one last time she can feel it; Helen is going to have them killed. Marty finally concedes she may be right. He suggests they need to get out in front of it and remind Navarro of all the sacrifices they’ve made for him. Marty offers to do it, but Wendy thinks he needs to hear it from her.

Wendy calls Navarro and starts by apologizing about his girlfriend. He cuts her off, wanting to know why she’s really calling. Wendy explains something happened that she thinks he should know. She reveals her brother was staying with them when he saw Marty get abducted and taken to Mexico. She describes trying to shield him from the situation but, unfortunately, he knew too much. Wendy tells Navarro her brother had a mental illness and they thought he could be a real danger to his organization. Navarro says, “And so, you had him killed.” As she cries, she chokes out, “Yes.”

Navarro understands she’s telling him this so he’ll know she’s loyal to him. He believes she did what was required of her and shouldn’t act like he should be grateful.

As the call ends, Ruth storms in demanding to know what happened to Ben. Marty says he told her already, but she insists on hearing it from Wendy. Wendy explains Ben called Helen and they must have tracked them down. Ruth wants everyone to stop lying to her; she wants to know why Ben is dead.

Wendy’s done being nice. “He’s dead because you got him out of the hospital. He was safe. He’s dead because you thought you knew him better after two f**king months than I did after his whole life!”

Ignoring her, Ruth asks Marty if he knew about this. She looks at Wendy and says, “You murdered your own brother.” Wendy gets up and, inches from her face, tells Ruth this is on her. She did this. Wendy reminds her they got her out of the trailer (not really, she still lives there) and brought her into their family. She thinks Ruth is still too dumb to listen to them. Ruth quits. She’s done with Byrdes.

Marty runs after her, pleading to work this out. Before driving away, she tells him she’s grateful for what he’s done but she’s not a part of his stuff anymore.

Back home, Wendy climbs into bed, crying. She simply can’t do this anymore. Marty asks what she wants him to do. Should they run? Does she want him to take the deal? She brings up Ben, upset they were only four hours from Knoxville. He reminds her they would have all been killed. She then brings up the baby they lost and wonders what it would have been like. He tells her to get up and that she came back for a reason. She replies, “I ran out of Vodka.”

Ruth’s next stop is at Helen’s house where she lets the lawyer know she quit working for Marty and Wendy. She doesn’t want anything and doesn’t have a beef with Helen. (Which is interesting since she’s the driving force behind Ben being dead.) Ruth adds that she isn’t a rat; she’s just done. Helen asks, “If Marty and Wendy were out of the picture would you consider coming back?” With a smirk on her face, Ruth responds, “I ain’t hard to find.”

Darlene (Lisa Emery) and Wyatt are in bed together when Darlene asks if he thinks Ruth’s really breaking away from the Byrdes. He doesn’t see how she could stay and tells Darlene what happened with Frank Jr.

The next day, Darlene follows Frank Jr. and after he turns into a parking lot, she pulls a shotgun on him. She points the gun at his privates and asks if the reason why he likes to beat up women is because he’s tiny down there. Justifiably scared, acknowledges he understands she’s talking about Ruth. He apologizes but she shoots him anyway and walks off.

Ozark Season 3 Episode 10
Laura Linney and Jason Bateman in ‘Ozark’ season 3 episode 10 (Photo Credit: Netflix)

Wendy receives a call from Jim (Wilkes’ right-hand man) telling her that she didn’t hear this from him, but Helen’s being issued a casino license. Based on Wendy’s reaction, he realizes she really didn’t know. He suggests she proceed very cautiously.

After hanging up she tells Marty it’s happening – Helen got on their license. They scramble to figure out a way to get Navarro on their side and Wendy suggests they end the war for him. She learned from Agent Miller that if a drug cartel commits violence on US soil, the government sends troops in response.

While discussing this Marty asks if Wendy thinks Agent Miller is just going to take his word for it. Charlotte casually says as she sips her coffee, “Jonah has video of it.” Marty and Wendy are shocked and turn to stare at their daughter.

Wendy calls Navarro to tell him the plan but first explains she wants some assurances. After telling her she doesn’t get to make demands, she simply says it is a request. Her request is that Helen is out of Byrde Enterprises. After ending the call, Jonah asks Charlotte what’s going on. She explains they’re trying to make sure Helen doesn’t kill them.

Speak of the devil, Helen is meeting with none other than Agent Evans (McKinley Belcher III). She suggests Marty’s willing to turn himself in to the FBI in exchange for his family’s safety. She requests a copy of this agreement in writing.

Marty’s also meeting with the FBI, but his meeting’s with Agent Miller. He hands her all the information on Navarro’s rival.

The scenes jump back and forth between the two FBI meetings. Lines are drawn and it’s now a battle between Marty and Helen. Agent Evans questions Helen on how she can represent Marty and the cartel at the same time. Marty continues to pour over all the evidence on the rival cartel with Miller. Ultimately, Agent Miller says she’ll think about it. Marty warns Miller she needs to act on it or his family will be killed.

Darlene pays a visit to Ruth and informs her she shot Frank Jr.’s little “junior” off. She offers Ruth a job, believing she and Wyatt should be elevating people who are from there. Ruth declines, but Darlene keeps talking. Ruth finally decides to go with Darlene.

Ruth accompanies Darlene to meet the senior Frank Cosgrave. Darlene’s honest and explains Ruth had nothing to do with what happened to his son. However, what’s fair is fair. She refuses to let him speak and reveals she needs someone to help handle her heroin business. Darlene’s willing to split it 50/50 with him. She leaves before he gives an answer.

Navarro calls Wendy to let her know he asked Helen to bring his children back. He claims he’s decided to have a second baptism for his son and expects Marty and Wendy to be there. He won’t take no for an answer and says a car will be there to pick them up in 15 minutes.

Helen prepares for the trip by gathering all the paperwork, including a fake confession with Marty’s forged signature. Jonah shows up and points his shotgun at Helen. He reveals he knows she killed his uncle and is trying to kill his parents. She admits she did have his uncle killed because he was going to get them all killed. But then she twists the story and turns it on Wendy, explaining it was Wendy who told them where to find Ben. She taunts Jonah, saying he knows his mother did this and that’s why he wants her to stop talking. Helen realizes she got in his head and gets up and walks away.

Darlene and Wyatt show Ruth their poppy fields. Darlene has baby Zeke strapped to her back as they look out over the fields.

As Marty and Wendy are about to board the jet to Mexico an incredibly angry Agent Maya Miller calls him asking why he’s taking a deal from Agent Evans. He’s shocked and quickly denies knowing anything about a deal. Miller warns him he better get to the casino to explain what’s going on. He informs her he can’t do that because he’s about to get on a jet.

Jonah comes home and sits down at the table with his gun in his hands. He sees his uncle’s ashes. After crying, he takes his gun and shoots out a window.

Marty, Wendy, and Helen pull up to Navarro’s house. As they get out of the car, Navarro’s greeting them when suddenly Helen is shot in the head. As a shocked Marty and Wendy stand there with her blood on their faces, Navarro says, “Welcome to new beginnings.”

And that’s how season three ends…with a literal bang.