While the Byrdes try to settle in their new life, the Langmores and the FBI keep a close watch on the newcomers. As Ruth deals with her family's impatience, Charlotte and Jonah come to terms with learning the truth about why they moved to Missouri.
Life in the Ozarks is not going so great for the Byrdes. This episode starts off with the movers refusing to put the family's furniture into their house for some reason. It's just one more thing Marty and Wendy did not need to be dealing with. On top of that, Buddy (the house dying owner) is walking around naked, and the kids are not too thrilled about the whole "your father works for a Mexican cartel" revelation. Wendy argues that she told them the truth because they are "too smart for bullshit," but that does not change the fact that Jonah is concerned and Charlotte is annoyed. If episode 2 seemed to revolve around struggles, "My Dripping Sleep" toys with the idea of concern and explores it through several characters.
First, Marty is loosing sleep over the fact that The Blue Cat is not going to be enough to wash all the money he needs to wash. He is restless in his intention to find another solution, and spends the entire episode focused on that, until he finally decides to look into the local strip joint again. On his end, Jonah is super concerned about his dad's coworkers and does his own research on the cartel. He discovers what they are capable of through gruesome online videos and worries about what his father got them into. Meanwhile, Wendy feels like they are being followed and watched, and numbers of vultures lurking in their backyard are not helping calm her nerves. But the main reason to be worried appears in the form of an FBI agent who shows up at the Byrdes', telling them about Bruce's disappearance and making it clear he knows Marty is working with the cartel. That agent is none other than Petty's ex-boyfriend, and Petty is now in the Ozarks to keep an eye on the Marty (and appears to have a lot of his own issues).
As Wendy pretty much forces her realtor to hire her, Charlotte blows over a job interview at a store when she notices the Langmore kids hanging out outside. Since they are the ones responsible for getting her in trouble in episode 2, she gets payback by punching Wyatt (Charlie Tahan). Poor Wyatt, being a Langmore is no fun and he clearly demonstrates in this episode that all he wants is to get out of the Ozarks. But Ruth is the boss of the Langmore clan, and she has a plan for them all. She blackmails Marty into hiring her at The Blue Cat (which he does after making sure that if he ever gets in trouble with the feds, she'll go down too), but her true intentions are to learn money laundry from him and then take him out. Ruth is ruthless, and she is probably going to get even more dangerous as the season progresses.
Things are getting tougher and tougher on the Byrdes. When Wendy loses it at the grocery store over the absence of organic pistachio ice cream, she represents the whole family's feeling of lack of control. The arrival of the FBI in the Ozarks is turning the pressure up and the characters are slowly losing control over what is happening to them because they are too busy handling a million things at the same time. So as the vultures are ready to eat the Byrdes, the ice cream melts, and the obstacles keep coming their way.
