"We sacrifice for each other because we love each other, very much."
This line isn't delivered until the end of "One Way Out," but it nails down the complex and tragic story this episode ambitiously attempts to tell. Ozark is always bleak, but here it has moments that border on black as it paints out a wide spectrum of characters, all operating in outwardly different, yet surprisingly similar areas of gray. We jump right into this morality tale with the Byrdes defending their character to an unknown party. Are they good people? Cut to Cade and Ruth, who are in the beginning stages of some small-time crime. It's clear that Ruth feels she needs to do more to please her dad. Soon, they graduate to bigger adventures; they plan to steal a boat. At home, Wendy and Marty bicker over the Blue Cat. Wendy wants to avoid suspicion, but Marty wants to see Rachel again. He heads over and, after a tense conversation via text (why did neither of them turn their sound off??), he lets Rachel know that he can't help her with the FBI. After, he meets with a PR agent who wants to rebrand the Byrdes as wholesome via a magazine interview. What she certainly doesn't count on is Wendy getting kidnapped! Wendy's captor puts a hood on her and takes her to a basement. She hears prayers as she waits. Meanwhile, Cade and Ruth make their play for the boat. When the boat's owner almost catches them, Ruth must face up to her temporary fear of water by taking to the lake to avoid getting caught. At Mason's, Marty brings Zeke and they make the exchange. Naturally, it does not go smoothly. Mason freaks. He thinks that Marty has done something to hurt his baby, who is crying incessantly. There's a scramble and a desperate Mason ends up holding Wendy at knifepoint. When he won't give her up, Marty shoots him. Mason dies on the floor as Zeke cries. Back at the lake, Ruth is weeping. The hideout in the water has thrown her over the edge and she apologizes to her father, desperately seeking some kind of comfort from him. In a rare moment of understanding, he gives it to her: "There will be other boats." Ruth reacts strongly to the approval by opening up and telling Cade where she thinks Marty hides his money. As Marty spreads Mason's ashes in the lake, it's goodbye to hope for a while. At least the Byrdes will have each other.