Kaleidoscope

"All those stories about all those babies curing cancer. . ." Episode 8 of Ozark's premiere season, "Kaleidoscope," is best summarized here by Marty Byrde, but we won't hear about it until the end of the episode. Ozark has painted a picture of a thousand moving pieces and in this out-of-sequence flashback to 2007, we start to see how a few of them come together. "Kaleidoscope" is, at its essence, an episode about missed opportunities. We open on Marty and Wendy, looking truly normal for the first time in 8 episodes. They chat about Buddy Holly and D-Day, but their conversation is cut short when they are hit by a car. Cut to the firm of Liddell & Byrde, where Del is looking for "further development in the global market." We know what this really means, but it becomes clear during their meeting that Marty and Bruce aren't clued into the Cartel game yet. In fact, Marty says he can't really take the work until he looks at the numbers. Investing in her own career, Wendy is interviewing for a campaign job; it's not going well. Her interviewer doesn't mince words rejecting her.

In another time and place, Agent Roy is approaching a man in a park. The man is Louis Zehner, an associate of Del's. Roy is trying to get him to narc on his boss, and it seems that Louis is considering the offer. Roy follows up the rendezvous with a meeting with his mom. Later joined by his current boyfriend, the three talk about Roy's mother's unemployment. As she leaves, Roy's boyfriend notes that his mother's eyes indicate she might be "on something." Flashing forward to the resort, Marty is fresh off his midnight meeting with Del. He tells Wendy about the job offer. Although he notes that he turned Del down, he does admit, "I would do it really well."Wendy resists but entertains the idea with him. "It's not like you'd be stealing," she says. They go back and forth but before they even admit it aloud, we know what will happen: they agree to move forward with Del. Flashing a final time back to the resort, Del kills Louis in front of Marty and Bruce. His services are no longer needed, and the message has been sent: the Cartel will not tolerate liars. Marty's hand has been dealt. His chances for "human decision" are thinning out.

I'd been struggling with this series until this episode. There has been darkness, but no why. No spoilers here, but we get an explanation why the Byrds are where they are. There are several different timelines, which chop and change throughout the episode,(very Nolan-esque!) but which all come together towards the end. Superb!

While this episode gives a lot of backstory about the relation between Marty and his former partner (Bruce), his wife and how they came into business with Del it does so in an ineffective manner. The shifing of timelines within the flashback does not add any cinematic value nor does it help in plot development. A simple flashback would have served the purpose better.

This episode is a break from the current timeline. It takes us back to how things started and actually adds more depth to the events that happened in the pilot episode. Which makes me wonder why isn't this the first episode? I think it'd feel more natural and less rush, but nonetheless, having it here does the job just right. We follow how Marty and Wendy get entangled with the cartel and Roy's motive for chasing down drug dealers. On the whole, a really good filler episode, that further sheds more light on the whys and wherefores.

Filler! I like the show. I have never straight up skipped an episode but I got half an hour through it and it was all filler backstory. It adds to the characters but doesn't advance the plot. Just skip it you don't need it