Ozark Season 1 Episode 1 Recap – Sugarwood

A man drags two ice chests to his boat. He fills the chest with ice and puts his fish inside. He goes back to the docks and loads the chests in his car. The man drives home, but he dumps the fish once he arrives. The fish was just a cover-up to hind what he was going to bring home. The man opens the second ice chest to reveal that it is full of money. He hid the money in a metal tube that looked like oil drums in what seemed to be his garage or tool shed. The man’s name is Marty, and he’s a financial advisor. He was talking to his potential clients when he opened his email and saw something labeled “DO NOT OPEN AT WORK.”

Marty proceeded to open the email, and the attached video file was a porn clip. He was watching the clip instead of focusing on his clients when a guy walked in on the meeting. He was Bruce Liddell, Marty’s business partner. The two of them were running a financial company named Liddell & Bryde. Bruce tells Marty’s clients that they’re no longer accepting new clients. He tells them about another firm down the street willing to take them as new clients; however, Bruce offers to accept them as clients if they’re willing to open an account with them for $5000. Marty’s clients were eager to join them, so they opened the account without hesitation.

After the meeting, Bruce takes Marty to show him their new office. They met up with Bruce’s girlfriend, who showed them the place. Bruce likes the new office, but Marty wasn’t in the mood. Bruce knew something was up, so he told his girlfriend to leave for a bit so they could talk. He caught Marty watching porn while interviewing his clients, so he knew what the problem was. Bruce was concerned that Marty was no longer getting enough sex. He’s been married to his wife for 22 years, and although that’s a feat, he may be getting rusty sex-wise. Bruce suggests Marty vacation at a place called Lake of the Ozarks. Bruce gave Marty a brochure of the place and told him that it was majestic.

Marty took the brochure and went home. That night, things get a little heated during dinner. Marty has a nice little family of four. He has a son, a daughter, and a loving wife, but things weren’t working out for him. Marty’s wife asks how his day was, but he returns the question to her. He also got into an argument with his daughter over $10. Marty didn’t want to give his daughter $10 so that she could give it to her friend Hannah who was raising money for her psoriasis. After dinner, Marty returned to his laptop to continue watching the porn clip from his email. His wife opts to go to bed ahead of him because he isn’t in the mood to talk with her. Marty responds that he has a lot on his mind at the moment.

Marty went to check on his kids, who were already asleep. He left for a little drive and picked up a prostitute from the corner of a street. The woman he picked up knew that Marty hadn’t cheated on his wife before. She assumed Marty’s wife didn’t allow him to do what he wanted with her. She told Marty that if she were his wife, she’d let him do whatever he wanted with her. The woman asks Marty not to come too quickly as she pulls out his penis and gives him his head. Suddenly a woman knocks on Marty’s window and tells him to stop jerking off and leave. It seems Marty imagined how a prostitute would interact with him. It was like a scene from a porn clip that turned him on.

Marty puts his penis back in his pants and zips it up. He was about to leave when he received a call from Bruce. It sounded urgent as Bruce wanted him to meet up at Hanson’s trucking. Marty refused to meet up with Bruce, but he had no choice as Bruce told him that a guy named Del was also at the trucking. Marty arrives and sees Bruce, all worked up with Mr. Hanson and his son. Del comes out of the bathroom and shakes Marty’s hand. Del is looking for his money worth $5,000,000. Mr. Hanson collects the drug money and hands it over to Bruce and Marty so they can launder it; however, Del is missing $5,000,000, and he thinks someone is stealing from him. Bruce brought his girlfriend, Liz, with him, and she wanted to go to the bathroom, so Del allowed her to leave.

Del tells them a story about his father’s grocery store when he was still little. He started working at the store when he was nine years old. Del tells everyone about his Aunt Carlota. She works at the store as a cashier, and he got used to seeing her every day that she finally calls her Aunt Carlota. One day, Del’s father caught Carlota stealing $5 from the till. Carlota begs Del’s father not to fire her. She just needed the extra money because her son has asthma, and she needs to buy medicine for him. Del asks everyone what his father should do with Carlota. Mr. Hanson and Bruce respond that they should give Carlota a second chance. Marty knew Del was trying to get one of them to confess that they were stealing his money.

Marty tells Del that he couldn’t just come to them and rattle their cages. He didn’t get intimidated by Del. Del pulls out his pistol and starts shooting at the bathroom door. Bruce was shocked and started calling out to Liz, who was still inside the bathroom. Del’s men entered the room and took everyone outside. Everyone was on their knees as Mr. Hanson begged Del not to kill his son. Del killed Mr. Hanson’s son, and one of his guards killed Mr. Hanson. He then approached Bruce, who confessed that he was stealing Del’s money. He told Del that Marty didn’t know and that he was clean. Bruce confessed that he stole $8 million in 3 years. Del takes his pistol and shoots Bruce in the head. Marty begs Del not to kill him as he takes out his phone to leave a message for his family.

Del asks Marty where his family is. Del couldn’t leave any loose ends, so he also needed to kill Marty’s family. Marty begs Del not to harm his family, but none of his words mean anything to Del. He suddenly remembers the brochure that Bruce gave him earlier. Marty tells Del all about Lake of the Ozarks. He told Del that he could launder more money for him at the lake because it was away from the prying eyes of government agencies like the CIA and the FBI. Marty finished his spiel, but Del didn’t care. He aims his pistol right at Marty’s face, and his whole life flashes before his eyes.

Marty remembers how his family enjoyed the trampoline they bought a few years back. Marty thought he was already dead, but Del had second thoughts about his offer. Del cuts Marty loose and tells him to get his money within 48 hours. Del gave Marty another 48 hours to get his family to the Lake of the Ozarks. He gave Marty a request, and he wouldn’t let him down. Del and his men left Hanson’s trucking with a few extra barrels. Inside the barrels were the bodies of Mr. Hanson and his son, Bruce, and Liz. Marty knew he couldn’t mess things up, so he went home and told his wife, Wendy, the truth.

Wendy is shocked upon hearing the truth. She wants to go to the police, but Marty tells her that going to the police will only put them further in danger. Marty has a plan, and that is to do everything in his power to save his family by helping Del get his money back. Marty tells Wendy he will try to come up with $8,000,000 over the next 48 hours while she and the kids pack up all their stuff. They must be on the road by Friday afternoon, heading to the Ozarks. The next day, they break the news to their kids, and the eldest, Charlotte, doesn’t take it lightly. She didn’t want to move out of their house, but she didn’t have any choice. Charlotte didn’t accept their decision and left the room. Wendy follows Charlotte so she can talk things over with her.

After breakfast, Marty went to their financial firm to liquidate all of their assets. Marty is getting close to $8 million, but he wasn’t sure Del would honor his part of the agreement. Marty knew he needed a plan B, so he called in a friend. Meanwhile, Wendy went to see her friend as well. His name is Gary Silverberg, and he’s a partner in a law firm. Marty knows who Gary is, but what he doesn’t know is that Wendy is cheating on him with Gary. While Marty is talking to his friend about Wendy and Gary’s relationship, Marty receives a text about Wendy withdrawing all of their savings. Marty’s friend tells him where Gary’s address is, knowing that Wendy will be there. Wendy took out all their money and went back to Gary. She sees Del talking to Gary.

Marty rushes to Gary’s address; he had just found out that his wife was cheating on him with Gary, and he didn’t know what to think. This was on top of their Del problem. Gary dropped in front of him on his way to the building. Del and his men threw Gary from his balcony. He hits the pavement like a pancake and instantly dies. Marty knew Del was up there, so he didn’t bother to go up. Instead, he went back to his car and drove away. After a few minutes, Marty received a call from Wendy’s phone, but Del was using it.

Del knew that Marty lied to him, and they were planning to run from him. Marty told Del that anyone would have lied to him to save their family, but that was before he found out that Wendy was cheating on him. He wouldn’t have risked his life if he had found out earlier. Del gave Marty his options. He could welcome Wendy back into his life despite all the problems that will come after their confrontation, or Del could take care of Wendy for him. Del asks Marty what his father did to Aunt Carlota because he never answers the question. Marty told Del that his mother and father decided to fire Aunt Carlota because it wasn’t the first time she stole from them; it was the first time they caught her. After the conversation, Marty went back home with a heavy heart.

Wendy returned with him, meaning Marty chose to save her despite what happened with Gary. Marty doesn’t have time to feel emotional. He went to the bank to get his money. Two FBI agents were waiting for him, thinking he was in danger. They scanned him for any wires, but he told them directly that he didn’t have any wires on him. The bank called the FBI as part of their protocol, thinking that someone had been kidnapped and that Marty was taking the money to pay the kidnappers. He told everyone that no one was kidnapped and he needed his money. The bank didn’t want to give him $7,945,400, but he threatened to cause a commotion outside. The bank couldn’t risk that either, so they gave him his money, and Marty left in peace.

After getting the money, Marty meets up with Del in the park. He allows his men to count the money, telling him Marty is a little short. Marty admits that he’s short but has already sold his car. He needs to sell his minivan to come up with it. Since Marty is short, Del told him that he’s willing to buy his minivan and rent it back to him to make up the money. With the deal done, Marty wants to know the truth. Del told everyone that he was looking for $5,000,000, but Bruce and Mr. Hanson’s son stole $8,000,000. Del responds that he only had a hunch that someone was stealing from him. Bruce gave himself off because he was silent the whole night, and he wasn’t a quiet person, which means they did steal from him.

Del plans to give all the money back to Marty so he can take it to Ozark and launder it. Marty told Del that the money he gave him was already clean. Del responds that he needs to make sure that Marty does whatever he told him last night. He wants assurance that Marty could deliver on laundering money for him at Ozark, and the money he just got will be his test. Meanwhile, Marty’s family is packing their stuff and preparing to leave. Charlotte knew something was going on, but Wendy couldn’t tell her. She just told Charlotte to help her out the next few days.

The FBI went to what supposedly would be Liddell and Bryde’s new office. They went over to collect all of the bugs that they had planted in anticipation of the move. They already knew that Bruce was working for the cartels, and they just needed more evidence to turn him into a witness. With Bruce gone and Marty on the run, they knew that something spooked them, and they needed to find Marty if they ever wanted to catch Del and his cartel. Meanwhile, Marty and his family were on their way to Ozark. Once they reach their destination, Marty finds out that there’s nothing out there but trees. Now he’s going to face the daunting task of proving that he could launder money for Del if he wants to survive.