perhaps it's unfair, but it's hard to not compare this show to Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul which it seems like it really wants to emulate - especially BB
obviously any scripted story is going to be a contrivance, but Vince Gilligan/Peter Gould seem obsessive about erasing their fingerprints from the chess piece moves so the story flows 'organically' -- it's also 'simpler' for BB/BCS since its focus is on how the characters respond to crises, vs the crisis itself
Ozark seems to 'want' to emulate BB/BCS or Fargo which emphasize characters responding to (mostgly) offscreen (violence) ACTION
BUT Ozark tends to more closely resemble shows like (the last few seasons of) Peaky Blinders or Banshee or (last few seasons of) Sons of Anarchy where the writers really push characters to make choices bc it ramps up the drama to fevered heights. but, those other shows have epic violence to distract from the overt machinations and hand waving
Ozark does not have that epic violence (thankfully - nttawwt) so the machinations are more distracting
and then since we know jason bateman produces the show, we know Marty is most likely to 'win' the season - there were really only 3 possible losers. Helen, Darlene, FBI lady. There's very little backstory/emotional pull for FBI lady so not her. Darlene was planting seeds and not going directly against Marty so not her. that leaves Helen who really only had a daughter to heighten the stakes and who had the foreshadowing scene with Nelson. the writers pretty much signaled the whole season that Helen was done