‘Ozark’ Season 4 Episode 5 Recap: “Ellie”

By
Alison Helms
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Ozark Season 4 Episode 5
Katrina Lenk as Clare Shaw, Julia Garner as Ruth Langmore, Jason Bateman as Martin ‘Marty’ Byrde, and Laura Linney as Wendy Byrde in ‘Ozark’ season 4 episode 5 (Photo Courtesy of Netflix © 2021)

We open Netflix’s Ozark season four episode five with Private Investigator Mel Sattem (Adam Rothenberg) visiting the evidence locker at a police station. He’s talking on the phone with someone while taking out a bag of drugs and snorting a line. Just then the light turns on and another officer catches him.

Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) is in the middle of taking her SATs when she gets up, rips up her paper, and walks out.

Wendy (Laura Linney) and Clare Shaw (Katrina Lenk) are at the casino and Clare’s not happy with the turn of events. Because Javi’s refusing to make opium deliveries, the Byrdes are now working with Ruth (again) and she’ll be the one supplying heroin to Clare’s company. Wendy assures her this is just a temporary solution.

Meanwhile, Ruth’s (Julia Garner) waiting for them with the heroin so that Clare’s trusty sidekick, Connor, can test the authenticity of the drugs. After he tests the drugs, Ruth asks if they have a deal.

Frank Cosgrove Jr. (Joseph Sikora) is getting out of his car when Darlene Snell (Lisa Emery) approaches. Naturally, he backs away after what she did to him in season three. Darlene cuts to the chase and reveals she’s aware he’s not happy his dad backed out of their distribution deal. She insinuates he’s an outsider within his own family and his dad’s now taken away his living.

Darlene’s full of insincere apologies this season and says she’s sorry she shot off his private parts. Of course, Frank Jr. declines to accept the apology. She gives him a sample of her drugs and lets him know she’s got lots of product available for him to sell.

Wendy receives a text from Senator Schafer requesting a meeting and assumes that’s a good thing. Suddenly Marty (Jason Bateman) pulls over and Wendy’s confused. “What did you expect, Wendy?” asks Marty, pointing out the dozens of missing person signs that have been put up in support of her brother, Ben.

The Byrdes are sitting down to dinner when Wendy accuses Jonah (Skylar Gaertner) of being responsible for the missing person posters. With a smirk on his face, he informs her he didn’t do it but admits Darlene did. Marty changes the subject – forever trying to play the peacemaker – and asks Charlotte how the SATs went. She confesses she left in the middle of taking them.

“What’s the point? I’m not going to go to college,” says Charlotte. Marty’s shocked but Wendy isn’t. Wendy says Charlotte’s turning 18 in a couple of months and can make her own decisions.

Marty abruptly gets up and asks Wendy if he can speak with her in the bedroom. They have a private discussion and Wendy reminds him not everyone goes to college. Sarcastically, Marty asks if she’s ever heard of a unified front, pointing out it’s Parenting 101. Wendy being Wendy turns it around on him and asks, “Since when did you become so collaborative, huh? I don’t recall you ever asking me if you could do a mammoth pharmaceutical drug deal with Ruth.”

Marty points out it’s saving their butts and it’s not the same thing as what’s going on with Charlotte. Marty uses this opportunity to point out her brother’s not missing; it might make her feel better to pretend otherwise but this is a problem that won’t go away.

Marty asks Charlotte if she can reach out to Wyatt and have him press Darlene to take those missing person posters down. She wonders if Wendy knows he’s asking her and Marty confirms she doesn’t. Marty hopes this can stay between them.

The following morning Wendy and Marty are discussing their plans for the day when their favorite PI shows up asking if they’ve heard anything from Helen yet. Marty tells him no and Wendy jumps in, adding they haven’t heard from Helen in over a month. To Marty’s shock, Mel asks if that’s because Helen’s dead. He lays out what he thinks happened: her brother killed Helen and the Byrdes are protecting Ben. Wendy wants to know why he would ever think that and Mel explains Helen got Ben tossed in a mental institution. When he got out he was probably upset – and now he’s missing and so is she.

Mel informs Wendy he just got back from North Carolina and spoke with her father, Nathan Davis. Her dad thinks Ben went down to Knoxville. Wendy abruptly ends the conversation and says she’s got to go to work.

Wendy and attorney Jim Rattelsdorf (Damian Young) sit down with Senator Schafer (Bruce Davison) and he asks about her foundation’s dealings with the FBI on corruption cases. Schafer explains he has a difficult family situation; it appears his son got tangled up in a federal wire-fraud net in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Jim rolls his eyes and interjects, “Your son – the federal judge.”

Schafer confesses his grandson, Liam, is caught up as well. Liam built voting machines with some proprietary tech and Schafer says some people “might” have found out about it in advance and made stock offerings. One of those people is his son.

Schafer wants to see the file. If his son’s a target of an investigation, he’s going to want to get out in front of it as privately as possible. Jim asks if this has anything to do with Schafer sitting on their board, and the senator says it’s hard for him to think about sitting anywhere with this hanging over his family. Wendy understands what helping Schafer means. She smiles and lets him know she’ll see what she can do.

After Schafer leaves, Wendy hands Jim the private investigator’s business card. Mel’s been sniffing around and Wendy needs Jim’s help digging up dirt on the PI.

Ozark Season 4 Episode 5
Joseph Sikora as Frank Cosgrove Jr and Lisa Emery as Darlene Snell in ‘Ozark’ season 4 episode 5 (Photo Courtesy Of Netflix © 2021)

Ruth shows up at the Snell farm for the heroin only to find it’s all gone. Darlene confirms she sold it to Frank Jr. an hour before Ruth got there. Ruth wonders when Darlene was going to inform her of this deal and Darlene’s suspicious of what Ruth was going to do with it. Ruth simply says it’s moot now anyway.

Marty, Clare, and sidekick Connor (David A. MacDonald) are waiting for Ruth, and Clare’s noticeably agitated because Ruth’s late. While they’re waiting Wendy calls Marty and asks him to get a file from Agent Maya Miller in Jefferson City. Marty reminds her he can’t because he’s in the middle of a drug deal. She then asks him to call Maya and have her put it aside; she’ll get it herself.

Ruth finally arrives and wants to talk to Marty alone but Clare won’t allow it. She gives them the bad news that Frank Jr. bought the heroin. Clare wants to know who that is and Marty simply says Kansas City Mob. “How many f**king heroin dealers do you people know?” asks Clare (giving Ozark fans a good chuckle.) Marty actually answers and says just three. Clare threatens to go back to the Tasmanians but Marty insists he’ll fix this.

Before taking off, Clare warns that if they bring down her family’s company she’ll drag him down with them.

Marty demands Ruth call Frank Jr. and, after some choice words, she confirms she already called him. Frank offloaded the drugs to two other buyers and Marty isn’t happy. Ruth points out she told him beforehand she had concerns about the deal. Marty decides to sweeten the deal and give Frank Jr. an extra $100,000 along with an extra $100,000 for each of the other buyers. Ruth wants $100,000 as well and Marty agrees to the new deal.

Wendy stops by Maya Miller’s (Jessica Frances Dukes) place to get the file she needs and Maya wonders what brings Wendy to Jefferson City. Wendy says she had a meeting at the Capital, but when Maya pushes for more Wendy simply smiles. “You like being a big fish in a small pond,” observes Maya.

Wendy switches topics and wants to know where the FBI stands on the Navarro case. Agent Miller reveals they like where it’s going but the key to her is whether or not he’ll agree to do real jail time. Maya offers Marty a job, again, and asks Wendy to let him know.

Wyatt (Charlie Tahan) receives a text message while setting up at the farmers market with Darlene. He excuses himself by claiming he’s getting something to eat.

Wyatt meets up with Charlotte and after some small talk, he apologizes for ghosting her. She apologizes too, confessing she knows her family messed up a lot of things and she’s sorry for that. Charlotte knows Darlene hates them but has a favor to ask anyway.

Marty and Ruth are at Buddy’s mausoleum (where the Byrdes stash their money) and Marty asks how Jonah’s doing. Ruth thinks he’s so good at laundering money at 14 that by the time he’s Marty’s age he’ll leave his dad in the dust.

Ozark Season 4 Episode 5
Laura Linney as Wendy Byrde in ‘Ozark’ season 4 episode 5 (Photo by Steve Dietl / Netflix © 2021)

Wendy looks at the row of missing person posters featuring her brother and has an idea. She pays a visit to the new sheriff (CC Castillo) and fills out an official missing person’s report on her brother. (Some viewers might be left wondering what kind of game she’s playing.) The sheriff’s glad she’s doing this and informs Wendy she even has some tips and possible sightings.

Of course the sheriff questions why Wendy didn’t do this sooner, and Wendy really lays it on thick – tears and all. She claims it was a family issue and they didn’t want to waste the department’s resources. She makes sure to add, “We just miss him so much,” through her tears.

As Wendy’s leaving the station, she calls Darlene and in the sweetest voice she can muster lets her know she’s calling to express her gratitude after Jonah informed her she’s the one who had the missing person posters put up all over town. Wendy claims she really appreciated the support.

“Oh…and also I just filed a missing person report over at the sheriff’s so fingers crossed,” adds Wendy as if it’s an afterthought. Darlene’s only response before hanging up is, “I’m happy to oblige.”

Ruth, Marty, and Connor make a smooth exchange of the heroin they need from the first man Frank Jr. sold it to.

PI Mel’s checking into the Lazy-O when Sam asks Mel how he heard about the place. Mel asks if Jonah Byrde works there, claiming he’s a friend of the family. Mel then asks what Jonah does around the motel and Sam nonchalantly says he handles their finances which, of course, earns him a puzzled look from Mel given that Jonah’s just 14 years old.

Ruth and the gang are waiting for the other guys to bring back the heroin when they pull up, don’t like what they see, and drive off. Frank Jr. calls and asks what’s going on and the man informs him his guys didn’t think it was legitimate. Frank Jr. points out the buyers are throwing in another hundred grand for his troubles, but the dealer thinks he’s sitting there with cops.

Ruth wants to go to the dealer’s house and get the drugs but Frank Jr reveals he can’t go. She insists she’ll go get it and informs him Marty’s also paying her $100,000. She can’t collect it unless she gets the heroin back. Jr.’s worried this will get back to his dad, but Ruth assures him everything will be fine.

Frank Jr. finally apologizes for roughing her up (in season three), saying, “You know, I shouldn’t have roughed you up like that. I’m sorry.” Ruth smiles and admits she probably shouldn’t have thrown him off the boat.

Wendy calls Marthy while he’s on the way to the drug dealer’s house and he’s forced to let her know they’ve hit a speed bump. They’re working on it but he probably won’t be home for dinner. Wendy informs him she gave Schafer the file and he seemed pleased. She also lets him know she got information on Mel and it turns out he’s a former detective who lost his badge due to a little coke problem. But, he was good at his job.

(As they discuss Mel we see the PI’s currently following Jonah.)

Darlene and Wyatt are packing up at the farmers market when Jonah shows up saying he has checks for her to sign. Darlene, abrasive as always, demands to know what Jonah told his mom about the signs. She then accuses him of telling his mother she was going to build the rehabs. Jonah insists he didn’t tell her about them. She begins to lay into him when Wyatt tries to intervene, reminding her Jonah’s just a kid. That just makes Darlene even madder and she threatens Jonah. Darlene questions his loyalty and asks Jonah what his parents did to the sheriff. He coughs up the news that they got rid of his body at the crematorium. She seems satisfied with that answer.

Marty, Ruth, and Connor show up at the second drug dealer’s place to attempt to get the heroin back. Connor volunteers to go in and shoot everyone. Marty nixes that; they aren’t going to kill anyone. Ruth says she’ll go in and Marty tries to protest but she knows he won’t do it himself.

Sidekick Connor jumps on the phone with Clare and attempts to get the go-ahead to go in guns blazing. (It must be the former Marine in him.) Marty demands to talk to Clare and gets Clare’s word she’ll give Ruth five more minutes before sending Connor in.

The drug dealer plays a video game while giving Ruth a hard time, obviously not convinced she isn’t a cop. He makes a ridiculous suggestion, telling her to leave the cash and come back in the morning for the drugs. She’s adamant she isn’t leaving without the drugs. She tries to throw around Omar Navarro’s name in an attempt to intimidate him but it doesn’t work.

Ruth continues to get lippy and he has one of his men slap her across the face.

Back at the car, Connor calls Clare and explains it’s been seven minutes. She gives him the okay to go in. In a last-ditch effort, Marty strips Connor of his gun and demands he remain at the car. It’s not in the least bit surprising that doesn’t work and Connor’s able to disarm Marty and hit him. Before things can escalate, Ruth comes back with the drugs.

Wendy and Jim meet with Senator Schafer who’s now in spirits. Schafer assures them he’s joining the Byrde Foundation board. Wendy can’t let it go and asks why she gets the feeling this is more than just stock trading. Wendy keeps probing and Schafer finally explains his grandson developed a state-of-the-art program and one of the engineers might have been considering spilling details about the technology. After Senator Schafer leaves, Wendy realizes the grandson’s technology can suppress votes.

Wyatt suggests to Darlene the missing person posters might be going too far and could be upsetting Ruth. She wants to know who’s asking him to confront her about the posters, even though she knows who’s behind it. She reminds Wyatt she only has one rule: never lie to her.

Ruth returns home and finds Mel on her doorstep. He asks about Helen and if Ben ever hit her because he has a drug problem. Upset, Ruth says Ben never had a drug problem.

Season four episode five ends with a shocking scene between the series’ two most vicious women. Darlene shows up at the Byrdes’ place and thinks she’s got the upper hand (and maybe once upon a time she did) by letting Wendy know her own boy ratted her out about the sheriff. Wendy plays dumb and thanks Darlene for letting them work with Ruth. Darlene has no clue what she’s talking about so Wendy fills her in on what transpired with her heroin. Darlene doesn’t respond to that bit of news and instead demands she keep Charlotte away from Wyatt. Wendy assures her she’ll do nothing of the kind.

As Darlene’s about to let Wendy really have it, Wendy gets in her face. Darlene collapses on the ground and appears to be having a heart attack. Wendy ghoulishly sits on the ground next to Darlene and watches her writhe in pain.




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