(*Edited)
So as I mentioned in a previous post, as a retired aspiring screenwriter (lol), I have pronounced Ozark as the best TV series I have ever seen.
I was looking for some of Ruth's best Ozark scenes on YouTube, because IMO, Julia Garner has likely become one of the best actresses of our time - her Emmy last year for best supporting actress is only the beginning for her, I suspect ;)
And no, by the way, that is not her real accent - Julia was born in the Bronx, grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio - but living fairly near the Ozarks area myself, in Kentucky, I can verify that she's got the mid-south, backwoods-redneck, trailer-park accent down pat, it sounds 100% authentic ;)
Just for a bit of background history first, Wendy Byrde (the cool blonde at the desk, played by Laura Linney) first had Ruth's father killed for trying to blackmail her, and now had Ruth's first and only love, Ben, killed - who is also Wendy's own brother.
Why?
Because he discovered Marty and Wendy's money laundering scheme for a Mexican drug cartel - plus he was bipolar and went off his meds, and thus can't control his judgment, his emotions, his impulses, or his mouth - so she ordered a hit man to kill her own brother.
Ruth already understands why Wendy did it - she just wants Wendy to admit she ordered his murder to her face.
However, she won't - and in fact, instead of taking responsibility for having him killed, she tries to manipulate Ruth to take the blame, by projecting her guilt onto Ruth, blaming her for his murder, by letting him out of the mental hospital and not forcing him to take his meds.
Contrary to what Wendy says here, Ruth does feel badly about that privately, but she's not going to let Wendy see it, because Wendy already knows she does and is trying to manipulate her with it - anyone who's ever dealt with a bipolar knows you cannot and should not force them to take their meds.
Forcing a mentally ill person to take their meds is very codependent thing to do - because you are exerting control over them and their choices, when it should be their choice. You can encourage and remind them to take them, even suggest hospitalization, but you should never force or threaten them.
If they are truly in danger of harming themselves or others, then temporary court-mandated hospitalization is an option, but afterwards, it's still their choice whether to take their meds, and I get why they don't want to - though today's meds are better than they use to be, they still complain that they feel numb and don't feel much at all.
In this case, this is the exact reason why Ruth gets him out of the hospital and doesn't push the meds - because not knowing the bipolar drill, he complains he can't feel, he's numb on them.
Also, though Ben was off his meds and couldn't control his impulses, he wasn't a danger to himself or others, and his hospitalization wasn't court-mandated - Wendy just took him there and gave him no choice, in effort to use his bipolar status to discredit him from anybody believing him about their money laundering.
Regardless, Ruth was in love with Ben - she did not order his murder, nor even want him to die - Wendy did.
Not that Ruth is a saint - no one is innocent, on this show.
She's a lifelong petty thief, and she is directly responsible for her uncle's death, Wyatt's father, as Wendy says - which she also feels remorse for, and vows never to be responsible for anyone's death again, unless it's direct self-defense or true justice - because what law enforcement or lawyer is going to help career criminals from impoverished backgrounds, with just a little more money than they had before, obtain true justice?
Wendy, on the other hand, despite her guilt projections here, is actually the one who blames everyone else, justifies her actions, and feels no lasting remorse - she accepts no guilt at all.
In fact, Wendy justified ordering her own brother's murder as a sort of mercy killing - telling herself and that she had no other choice, though there were other options, and continues to blame Ruth for his murder instead of herself, who literally ordered his murder.
Ruth stands up to Wendy and holds up a big mirror to who she actually is, when no one else will (well, except for Darlene, who's just as dangerous as Wendy, just more unpredictable, a loose cannon kind of crazy, rather than Wendy's calculating kind of crazy), seeing past her manipulative/guilt-projecting BS.
Just a forewarning - explicit language in this scene from Season 3 - not for kids.
And the answer is, yes - Wendy most definitely would have someone kill Ruth, after this, if she could - but she couldn't, at that time, because she and Marty needed her - Ruth is the one who figured out how to now launder the money through the casino, by recruiting locals who'd gamble and pretend to win the drug money, making it the money "clean," laundered through the casino, and getting a cut of it.
Now, what surprised me were the comments under the YouTube video - 700 people agreeing with the comment that they agree with Wendy, that Ben's death was Ruth's fault.
I didn't comment, but if I did, I'd say:
"Erm - may I remind you people that Wendy co-owns a money-laundering racket with her husband for a Mexican drug cartel, and that it was Wendy that literally ordered Ben's murder, her own brother.
Wendy is directly responsible for Ben's death - she literally ordered her own brother to be killed by a hit man, because she feared him screwing up her little empire!
Ruth shouldn't have gotten him out of the hospital, true - but he begged her, and she can't and shouldn't force him to take his meds, which would be sealing her status as a codependent of a mentally ill person.
Regardless, Ruth never wanted Ben to die - she was trying to find another way - and she certainly didn't literally order his death - that was all Wendy.
And hello? Perhaps Wendy shouldn't launder money for a Mexican drug cartel in the first place and none of it would've happened, hmm?
And if you say Wendy had no choice or be imprisoned or killed by the cartel - don't forget, the Byrdes had the chance to walk away after they bought the riverboat casino - but they didn't because Wendy wanted to stay in, get in even deeper - because of her own greed and power hunger.
And there was the option of sending her brother overseas to a mental health facility - but instead, she directly ordered him to be murdered?!?
And yet 700 people are liking the comment that blames Ruth for his death, by letting him out of the hospital, too?
Honestly, what is wrong with people?
It scares me that people's morality is so skewed - 700 people who genuinely cannot tell which end is up, here.
The point of the entire show is none of this is moral - morality gets compromised again and again, choices are made, lie upon lie, justification upon justification, until what have you become but - Wendy?
Completely lost on them.
It also amazes me how many people equate people who make a moral/ethical choice with being "dumb" - far from it - it doesn't mean they're stupid, it just means they have integrity and principles, and won't stoop that low for their own greed, power, or even for their own safety.
The point of this show isn't to admire anyone for criminal smarts, but how screwed up everyone is that enters this world, and how much more screwed up they become as they go along - and no one is going to get out clean or alive - a point which has been completely lost in the audience, who instead, admires the "smartest," richest, and most immoral and violent criminals.
I mean, in this show, no one is innocent or moral, but the people agreeing with the comments saying it's Ruth's fault - seriously?
Wendy is a power-hungry control freak, a manipulative monster and bully, who orders repeat murders, while calmly smiling in people's faces - no one should be agreeing with anything she says, because despite what she accused Ruth of, she's actually the only character that never takes responsibility for anything she does.
(Typical female bully for you - some women are power abusers same as men in power - only in a different way. They manipulate with guilt trips, often just their own projected guilt, or using your own fears or weaknesses against you - often doing their nastiest stuff behind your back, using other people to do their dirty work - or threatening you when no one else is around and no one would believe you, because they have more money and power and are gifted at saccharine manipulation. I have a family member much like her, only she's not a money launderer lol.)
Now, as for Ruth, here's where we are today - how the comments have changed under this next one
SPOILER ALERT - stop reading here if you haven't watched this season yet, particularly the final scene of the first installment of this season (the 7th episode of 14, the last 7 coming later this year).
At this point, Wendy is pretending she doesn't know where Ben is and is actually using his "being missing" for PR - a business deal with a pharmaceutical company, lying and saying that in addition to being bipolar, her brother, Ben, was a drug addict, and that the pharma company she's working with to sell opium too is also building addiction clinics.
The problem is - though Ben was bipolar, he wasn't a drug addict, he never touched drugs - and all of this is flying in Ruth's face on TV.
Also at this point, Wendy had Ruth's father killed, her own brother and Ruth's first and only loved killed - and additionally, Ruth just found poor sweet Wyatt shot to death - her cousin, who is like her little brother - the only person in this world she truly cares about, by her own admission.
He was killed simply for being with Darlene, who refused to stop growing poppies and selling heroin (competition for the Mexican drug cartel).
Ruth's entire family is now dead - with the exception of Wyatt's little brother.
Just a forewarning, she goes uncharacteristically ballistic - keep in mind, though everyone is certifiably crazy on this show for doing what they do, she's not emotionally and unpredictably crazy (like Darlene), she's just traumatized in this scene - because she just found her "little brother" (actually her cousin), Wyatt, dead - now making it her entire family dead - and all of it is related to the Byrdes.
Can you blame her?
IMO, Julia's best acting scene yet - another Emmy on its way?
Again, not for kids - the cliffhanger end from Season 4, Episode 7 - the last 7 of the series coming later in 2022.
Keep in mind, they are all deeply-embedded now, they are all career criminals now - and no law enforcement is going to help any of them, even local since Javi killed the Sheriff, too, so Ruth is on her own.
Well, at least under this one, commenters get it - people are NOW saying, "Go Ruth!" lol
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