- In the Ozarks, Marty struggles to find a local business he can use for money laundering, while his kids make new friends but neglect a crucial duty.
- The family is staying at a roadside motel.
At breakfast, Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) is upset that they are at a cheap motel instead of a Marriott and that her parents are still not being honest with her and Jonah (Skylar Gaertner). Marty (Jason Bateman) says they have to watch their spending. While Wendy (Laura Linney) looks for a house, the kids will stay in their room as all their possessions are there.
As Marty drops her off at a Realtor, Wendy asks what they are telling the kids. Marty replies sarcastically that they should tell them the truth. Wendy reminds Marty that an innocent man, Gary, was murdered, and that she had an affair because she was not happy. Marty only reminds her that they have $20k and she needs to search for a starter home and to check with him before signing anything. He goes on to say they aren't husband and wife anymore -- they are business partners in raising their kids. He admits to not keeping an eye on Bruce, but he says that he was occupied with keeping track of Wendy's mysterious phone calls, texts, and evenings out. And worst of all, she liquidated their accounts, knowing that he needed the money to pay off Del (Esai Morales), and Marty knows she didn't do that by herself. He says the only thing that gets him to sleep is remembering Gary slamming onto the pavement. She slaps him, then punches him and leaves.
TITLE CARD - A barrel on its side with liquid pouring out, a storage shed, a jawbone, an empty suitcase and fishing waders.
Wendy enters the office and finds one employee, who is enjoying having his feet licked by a dog.
Lying by the pool, Charlotte sees the housekeeper approach their room, and tells her there's no need for her services.
Marty is at the registrar's office. A woman, who uses the term "colored folks" to describe the guests at an Oprah taping she attended, shows him where the public records are filed. He says he's an angel investor helping struggling businesses turn around. She notices his swollen lip and recommends he put some ice on it.
Marty has found a self-storage place with the owner delinquent on his property taxes. Marty tries to convince the owner that he would invest in the place and improve it. He offers to be a client as well, and notices a large shed that he offers to rent. The man gives him the keys - the shed is currently storing a pontoon boat that was impounded by the police. The perp had cut the tip off a pontoon, and put it on a hinge to smuggle methamphetamine back and forth across the lake. Now that he has Marty as a paying client, he refuses Marty's investment offer.
The next day, while Marty meets with a lake tour boat operator and then a hardware store, Wendy looks at houses with cockroaches and leaking ceilings. The teenage custodian of the motel, Wyatt, invites Charlotte wake-boarding with his cousin, Three. Jonah reminds her of their job, but she scoffs that they only have three iPads and a Pandora bracelet and runs off.
Marty talks to the owner of a gentleman's club, but the man immediately recognizes that Marty is trying to use his business to launder money. He declines.
The Realtor shows Wendy a lake-front home. The current owner, dragging an oxygen tank, is working on his car next to the house. The Realtor tells Wendy the house is under her budget.
Marty is sitting by the lake, eating lunch. He gets up, tosses half of it and watches it as it falls into the lake.
Wyatt, Charlotte, and Three set off. Wyatt says his father, a Kansas City lawyer, is not happy with his choice of a journalism major at Mizzou.
Jonah, bored of watching TV in the room, packs the family's computers in a backpack and leaves the room.
The owner of the lake-front home, Buddy (Harris Yulin), explains that he will live in the finished basement while the family can have the rest of the house. He has heart issues (he calls his cardiologist a "dot head") and has a year or 18 months left. He wants to stay in the house until he dies, and has priced the house low because of that unusual condition. He asks about the children and when Wendy tells him Charlotte is fifteen, he worries that since he has a septic tank instead of sewer lines, her "period plugs" will clog the system. Wendy appears to be offended but backs off. After they leave, Wendy comes back and asks Buddy if he had indeed said he has a year left.
Jonah is at the arcade. Charlotte is having a good time on the lake until a state trooper lights them up. Wyatt rushes to get Charlotte a life vest as she realizes that this is not his boat, and that his story about his father and college was a lie. He throws her off the boat, and the trooper breaks off the chase to rescue her. Jonah walks through town to the lake and sees a developmentally disabled boy fishing. Jonah says hello and the boy says his name is Tuck and gives him a pocketknife.
Marty and Wendy are in the sheriff's office while towel-wrapped Charlotte waits in the lobby. The boat was damaged upon its return so the sheriff looks to the Byrdes to pay for the damages as Wyatt and Three Langmore certainly can't. Marty tells the sheriff that he and Wendy are being blamed because the deputies think they have money, and the deputies are too lazy to investigate further and arrest the Langmores. Wendy tells Marty to shut-up. The sheriff points at Marty's swollen lip and then smirks at Wendy. The sheriff explains that he has a small department and is tasked with protecting the lake and its tourist industry interests. When people come and disrupt those interests, he suggests they go to Branson. Wendy asks if the sheriff is appointed or elected. He says elected. Wendy asks if the Langmores vote or pay taxes. The sheriff guesses that they don't. Wendy says her family is buying a home there, and they DO vote and pay taxes. The sheriff says they are lucky Charlotte didn't get mixed up with the Langmore's cousin, Ruth - 19, smart, mean, a criminal whose potential is not yet tapped, a B and E magician. The sheriff suggests they don't leave anything of value near Ruth. The sheriff calls his deputy to pick up Wyatt and Three - they live at their father Russ's trailer at the cove.
They go back to the room, Jonah is there. Marty notices the room has been cleaned, but Jonah says he cleaned it. Marty notices the pocketknife and Jonah says he went on a short walk and a friend gave it to him. Marty looks under the bed and pulls on the duffel bags and the rolling suitcase. The rolling suitcase is light. As he pulls it out, Wendy urges the kids out of the room. Alone, Marty opens the suitcase and there is only one bundle of cash inside.
Charlotte returns to the room and says she knows where Ruth and the Langmores might have gone, but she doesn't know how to get there. Later, Marty calls the sheriff and he tells him Ruth lives with her uncles, Russ and Boyd. They haven't been seen since the morning.
Marty is at the hardware store purchasing fishing equipment, two large rolling ice chests, and ice. He's at the dock renting a motorboat, and then pays a fisherman $100 for the catfish he has on a line. He loads the boat and studying a map, heads to the other side of the lake.
He drags the ice chests through some woods and stops when he sees a trailer. He walks further in and sees a rest-stop restroom building. There are voices from inside and he pulls a switchblade but thinks better of it and pockets it. Ruth (Julia Garner), the housekeeper at the hotel, is telling her family that so much money must be ill-gotten, so they have as much right to it as the Byrdes do. Marty barges in and yells, they do not. Ruth, Wyatt, Three, Russ (Marc Menchaca), and Boyd (Christopher James Baker) are there, stuffing the cash into a cavity behind a urinal. Russ pulls a gun. Marty says they can't just leave the money behind the urinal, or put it in a bank, or go on a shopping spree. Marty says the money is his, and technically, he is only responsible for it -- Omar Navarro is the money's owner. Three calls up Siri and is shocked by the search result - he shows Wyatt, Russ, and Boyd. Boyd doesn't believe a smart drug cartel leader would trust someone like Marty with $3 million. Marty says he in fact trusted him with $8 million, the rest is still under the bed at the motel. He assures the Langmores that they are making a big mistake - that if they steal the money, they will have to kill Marty. Otherwise, another man is going to come to town and ask Marty who took the money, and when he replies, the Langmores, that man will find and kill them all. Ruth pipes up and says taking the money is a good thing because Marty has been aiding and abetting the sale of drugs, possibly to kids. She says they can buy slightly used cars for cash. And the purchase of a big screen TV would not interest the IRS. The family is never going to get another opportunity like they have now.
Marty asks who the weak link is in the family - who has the big mouth, who drinks too much, and who will spend all his share too fast. He says unless they're willing to kill Marty and then their own family member in a death penalty state, that they should rethink their plan. Wyatt immediately leads Three out of the restroom. Three apologizes to Marty about Charlotte, but Marty says, not good enough. Boyd says they'll just take $100g, but Marty says that Navarro will come for it. Russ decides they'll take $20k for their trouble and dashed expectations. Marty says they will have to deal with the consequences. Russ and Boyd leave. Ruth tells Marty she almost got it done, and she has the feeling that they both know he'd be better off dead.
It is now dark and Marty rolls the ice chests through the woods to the shore. He places the fish carcasses on top of the cash, and fills the gaps with ice. He returns to the other side of the lake and drives to the storage place, where he unloads the chests, removing the fish and ice first and then pulling out and placing the cash into the pontoon that already has some cash inside.
The FBI are swarming over Hanson Trucking. A tech hands Agent Petty what appears to be a desiccated jawbone.
Petty is working out. He tells Evans the jawbone was Hanson Sr's and that Bruce Liddell is probably also in that ooze. Petty is transferring to Missouri - Marty Byrde's Amex was used there. Petty wonders why Marty liquidated his company (and someone does the same to Bruce) and moved his family to Missouri. He also took $8 million, which was clean. If Marty thought the Feds were going to freeze the money, he would have sent it offshore, so obviously Marty needs the cash for something else, something illegal. And Petty will catch him, catch the cartel, seize all the money, and make his career. He intends to do this without Evans.
Marty is in bed and dreams of standing at the edge of the precipice where he had lunch the other day. He gets up and kisses Charlotte and Jonah. Jonah wakes and apologizes for leaving yesterday. He says he made a friend yesterday, Tuck, who works at the Blue Cat Lodge - where no one stays, eats at the restaurant, or drinks at the bar. Jonah says that's Marty's kind of place. Marty wakes Wendy and they go outside. By the pool, he tells her the insurance payout is a million dollars. He wants Wendy to take the kids and live off the credit card until the payout. He says he lost them everything and that they'll be better off. He sees no way he can wash $8 million for Del in the Ozarks in three months. When he's dead, Del can retrieve the cash to make him whole, and then there'd be no reason for Del to come after the family. He gives Wendy Del's email address and the location of the cash. He asks her to wait three hours and then call the sheriff - that Marty went hiking by the lake and hasn't come back. She begs him not to go through with his plan, but he is insistent.
On his way to the lake, Marty pulls off the road and calls his private investigator, Bob, and asks him if he's handled any insurance investigations before. Marty says he has a friend who is looking for some statistics on whether companies still pay out if there is suspicion that the policy holder committed suicide. The investigator says the insurance company would be suspicious if the policy holder recently had financial problems, or quit his job suddenly, or had a spouse who was unfaithful. Dejected, Marty hangs up and sees a road sign pointing to the Blue Cat Lodge.
Wendy has locked herself in the bathroom and has made the call to the sheriff and is finishing the email to Del. Marty returns to the room and says he wasn't thinking straight. Wendy sobs into a towel. Marty asks Jonah about the Blue Cat Lodge.
Marty is at the Blue Cat. The signs outside are faded, the lone gas pump is out of order. He is talking to the owner in her office, but he's obviously not convincing her and she urges him out. He admits to not knowing anything about her business, nor how to improve it; but he is there to invest in people, not businesses. The owner is still skeptical and tells Marty she already has a mortgage, and while his investment may lead to more guests over the summer, after Labor Day, she will be deeper in debt to the bank and also be in debt to Marty.
Marty goes to leave but gets back out of his car to go to the bar. Tuck is serving behind the bar and one of the redneck customers calls him "the biggest retard" he's ever seen. Marty, at the other end of the bar, tells the redneck not to use that word. Marty then notices the owner heading into the bar, and he turns back to the redneck, saying that he won't tolerate that kind of disrespect to the boy or to the lodge. As the owner watches the scene, Marty points to a photo frame on the wall and says the father and son in the picture are purposefully holding out the fish they just caught to make the fish look bigger to emphasize the memories they will have of the lodge. Marty demands the redneck apologize to Tuck, and calls him a miserable redneck cocksucker. The redneck gently places one hand on Marty's shoulder and punches him in the face with the other hand. The owner looks on half bemused, half stoic.
Wendy and the kids take a taxi to the lake front home. Charlotte notice Buddy looking at them from an upstairs window and asks who he is. Wendy explains he'll be living in the basement for a year, give or take. Charlotte demands to know what they are doing there. Wendy tells the kids that Marty is laundering money for a Mexican drug cartel.
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