Emmy Episodes: Ozark

It’s always my policy to watch every Emmy-nominated episode each year, which leads me to sample a handful of shows that I don’t tune in to on a regular basis. For the fourth year in a row, I’m making a special effort to spotlight each of those installments to offer my perspective on shows that I don’t review each week.

Ozark: Season 2, Episode 6 “Outer Darkness” (B-)

I’m skipping ahead in this season a bit to reach the third of the show’s six submitted episodes for Best Drama Series, which picked up with everyone even more miserable than before and still grappling with so much crumbling around them. This is far from an optimistic show, one that’s often drowning in moodiness and rarely brings good news for anyone. From context clues and conversation, it was evident that Wendy and Buddy were out trying to take care of more damaging threats than the fire they started, and all of the exertion cost Buddy his life. I’ve been a fan of actor Harris Yulin since I first saw him in the second season of “24,” and I enjoyed his brief appearance in the final season of “Divorce” a few weeks ago. It was interesting to see the spotlight on Jonah who, after getting suspended for cheating and fighting, called the Kansas City mob to come to Buddy’s funeral and expressed just how close he was to his late best friend. It’s not good that Charles is ready to talk to the FBI in exchange for immunity and protection for Wendy, and Roy seems desperate to get anything on Marty, be it sending Rachel in or linking the bones to a DNA match, a plan that was skirted by Marty ensuring that his ancestors’ remains were all that could be connected to them. I was surprised that Rachel was kissing Marty, but she’s obviously very loyal to him, to the point of showing him the wire that she was wearing, the one bit of good fortune he’s had in a while.