Ozark Season 3 Review: Place Your Bets

The Byrde family is back on our screens and their lives are getting even more complicated.

I don’t say this kind of thing often, but Ozark Season 3 is a perfect season of television. Just as the first two seasons did so well, the third season offers a perfect balance of suspense and character development as it moves its plot forward.

Ozark Season 3 is a fascinating exploration of human nature, and it may very well be the best season of the series so far. (Spoilers ahead, by the way.)

Six months have passed, and the family is now running what’s already becoming a successful casino. Marty is still trying to be careful, while Wendy has big ideas for expansion.

Their differing ideas about how they should move forward is ultimately what drives the season, and it’s fascinating to watch. 

It’s almost easy to forget, at this point, that it was Marty who brought his family to the Ozarks. Wendy is in this, and she’s not just driven by wanting to keep her family safe. She “wants it all.” She wants to be successful and to make to a name for herself. She likes the idea of being a powerful person in the Ozarks and beyond.

Marty, meanwhile, has had the same goal all along. From the beginning, this was about protecting his family. It was a desperate attempt to save his own life and save theirs by extension. 

Even with the most awful things he’s done, it’s always been about protecting his loved ones, and he’s always wanted to have a plan to get out. 

Twice now, though, that plan has changed because of Wendy. And no, she’s not driven entirely by success. In her mind, this is all the better way to keep her family safe — to expand, to have legitimate business, and to become untouchable.

Laura Linney’s performance as this character in the first two seasons was incredible to watch, but in Ozark Season 3, she’s a marvel.

Linney embodies this character and her every emotion so perfectly that it takes your breath away, from the way she can talk herself out of trouble to the way she deals with the emotions that arise because of her brother — who arrives this season to throw everything into chaos.

We first meet Ben, played by Tom Pelphrey, on Ozark Season 3 Episode 2, “Civil Union.” He’s a substitute teacher who grabs our attention right away, regardless of the fact that we don’t know who this man is at first.

He’s boisterous and has no time for nonsense, but he’s obviously a person who cares about the right thing even though he doesn’t make the best choices — like flying off the handle when he realizes a picture is going around that’s hurting one of the students.

He doesn’t just get angry, he collects all of their phones and takes them out to destroy them, and act that feels satisfying and terrifying at the same time. 

It’s not until he arrives at the Ozarks that we learn this is Wendy’s brother — who we’ve heard about before. Ben suffers from bipolar disorder, and it hasn’t been dealt with in the best of ways. 

Ben’s arrival winds up changing everything. But in the beginning, what’s most fascinating is that he offers the audience a chance to see this family through a new lens. He knew them before. He knows a different side of Wendy and a different side of Marty. 

His reaction to everything, from learning about Wendy’s affair to realizing the mess the Byrde family has found themselves in, is telling. It’s also endearing the way he cares for his niece and nephew.

What I love most, though, is how immediately taken he is with Ruth. 

This is really the first time we’ve seen a romance develop in a “will they / won’t they” sort of way where the audience is truly rooting for them. The two have great chemistry and their characters feel like a perfect match right away. 

Unfortunately, Ben’s conscience combined with his impulsivity put everything, and everyone, in danger. Even when he’s beating someone to a pulp, Ben becomes a moral compass. He’s constantly pointing out how problematic everything is — all of the decisions that his sister and brother-in-law have made, the danger their children are in, the danger Ruth is in. 

But again, Ben is bipolar and from everything we know, it hasn’t been handled properly. He’s also not taking his medication, and it’s clear that this is what causes his impulsive actions. 

He gets himself into trouble after beating a man nearly to death while looking for Ruth’s attacker, calling in Helen, “the family lawyer” to help, which takes things to an entirely new level of complicated.  

Though Wendy and Marty believe having him committed is a fate better than jail, Ben’s breakdown suggests that’s not the case. Thanks to Ruth, Wyatt, and ultimately Darlene, he’s able to get out, but that’s ultimately what ends his life. 

The latter part of the season becomes about protecting Ben — trying to get him away from Helen before she can have him killed. 

It becomes the first time the Byrde’s have to consider making a personal sacrifice. Marty, Wendy, and the kids have had their own difficulties, but they’ve been able to stay together and stay safe. Now, there’s a choice to be made. Wendy chooses to sacrifice her brother in order to, at least as far as she believes, keep her children safe. 

That’s a hard thing to wrap your mind around. 

Tom Pelphrey’s performance as Ben is another one that steals the show this season. He delivers such emotionally raw performances, whether they’re ones that reveal his anger or his deep sadness, that you can’t help but feel it all yourself. It’s one of the most memorable things about the season overall.

Now, let’s back up a bit because while all of this is happening, the casino is being watched by the FBI, and Marty finds himself in his own kind of danger. 

FBI agent Maya Miller is smart and observant enough to see through just about everything that’s happening at the casino — and she sees the good in Marty. It’s another example, actually, of a new character coming into the let us see things through a new lens.

She knows what Marty is up to, but she also seems to understand exactly why he’s doing it and that he’s in danger from the cartel. So she offers him a deal. He could go to jail for eighteen months and then begin working for as an asset for the FBI. 

It sounds pretty great, actually.

At first, he doesn’t want to take it, but it doesn’t take Marty long to change his mind. Again, Marty’s goal with all of this has been about survival and protecting his family. He doesn’t want to work with the cartel. He wants to have something that resembles a safer, simpler life. 

So it’s not entirely surprising that he agrees to take the deal. But just as he does, he’s taken away to Mexico by the cartel, where he’s tortured in a way that changes him at his core. 

It’s hard to watch. Marty is locked up with blaring music and the lights are on all the time — a form of mental torture that nearly breaks him.

He comes face to face with Navarro, who’s developed his own unsettling relationship with Wendy, and until Marty gives Navarro an answer to the question “what do you want” that Navarro accepts, the torture continues. 

Navarro has been talking with Wendy on a personal level, which Wendy knows she has to keep up in order to remain safe. Marty, though, has been listening to their calls, which Navarro finds out pretty quickly.

Marty’s first answer to Navarro’s question is what he’s wanted all along. He wants to see his wife and kids again. He wants them all to be safe.

But after being tortured longer and doing deep into his childhood memories, Marty gives a different answer. That, combined with a risky move from the FBI agent, is what saves him and allows him to return home.

But the Marty we knew isn’t who returns. It’s a new Marty, one who’s changed. It’s frightening and fascinating, and although it’s subtle, the change remains for the rest of the season. He’s a little colder, a little darker, a little more empty, and his goals have changed ever so slightly.

Ozark Season 3 Episode 10, “All In,” brings everything to a tipping point. All of the dynamics have changed.

Ruth, who has now lost the man she only recently fell in love with and who was already feeling betrayed by Marty and Wendy because of their refusal to have Frank Jr. killed, is now willing to partner with Darlene. (She also gets a visit from Helen, and she expresses a willingness to partner with her too — but, it looks like that can’t happen now.)

Darlene, by the way, is now in a romantic relationship with Wyatt, which is another shocking and unsettling development this season. It’s that relationship that winds up bringing Wyatt back to his cousin, in a way, though. And Darlene is more than willing to show her loyalty.

This development means more trouble for the Byrde family when they do return home. Darlene wants Ruth and Wyatt working with her, and that alliance has the potential to become a powerful one that could undermine everything Marty and Wendy have been working toward.

They don’t know this yet, though, because they’re getting on a jet with Helen to head to Mexico. 

They’re nervous, clearly, knowing Helen is now a very real threat to both of them. But Wendy’s powers of persuasion have an effect on Navarro they don’t see coming. 

Navarro is more than willing to cut anyone out of his operation if it means something better is on the horizon, and that includes Helen.

Just as they all arrive in Mexico and Navarro greets them, Helen gets a bullet to the head. With both Marty and Wendy now covered in her blood, Navarro hugs them both and celebrates their future working together. 

That’s the image we end on, and it’s one that I won’t be forgetting any time soon. 

What did you think of Ozark Season 3? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Ozark is currently available for streaming on Netflix.

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