Does Marty Die On 'Ozark'? The Father's Mortality Is A

I'm not gonna waste time with a preamble. Let's just jump straight into the biggest and most baffling dropped plot of the show:
1) Why the fuck isn't Wyatt in college?
For the entirety of seasons one and two, Wyatt's character (and Ruth's, by association) revolved around him breaking the cycle of poverty and getting into college. And by the end of season two, he'd succeeded! The Langmore curse was, at last, broken! Sure, there was a sizable body count leading up to his acceptance letter, but Wyatt broke free of the Ozarks.
...or so we thought. Season three opens up with Wyatt squatting in someone else's home (which notably plays into the "Impostor Syndrome" theme of the show), going to jail, living with Darlene (more on that shit in a moment) and conspicuously Not Being in College at All. It's like the first two seasons hadn't happened, with the exception of the dead uncles. What went wrong here?
The only explanation I've been able to come up with is that Wyatt can't afford it without accepting Ruth's money, which sounds totally reasonable. So why isn't this ever explicitly stated? For a show that relies 100% on rote exposition, it wouldn't be out of place to have an exchange such as the following:
Charlotte: "Hey why aren't you in college?"
Wyatt: "Oh because Ruth killed my Uncles and I won't accept her blood money."
Charlotte: "Oh okay."
Instead, we get a whole season of Wyatt puttering around town and inexplicably getting involved with the (arguably) shittiest adult in the Ozarks. Speaking of Charlotte:
2) Why the fuck doesn't Charlotte talk to Wyatt?
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new season who dis
So, as a viewer, you see Wyatt Not Being in College at All, and despite your cognitive dissonance come to accept that as a fact. The next logical thought you have is, "Oh, well at least he and Charlotte can develop their relationship further."
Haha. Nah.
If you recall, Ruth had told Charlotte that Wyatt was leaving town and didn't know if he was coming back. Charlotte put on her sad and confused face. Certainly she would be happy that Wyatt was still in town, right? Certainly one of them would pick up the fucking phone, right? RIGHT?? It's not like they'd broken up or had some tragic falling out. In fact--and perhaps I'm of the minority opinion here--their relationship with one another was crucial to their development. It wasn't overtly romantic or sexual, and Charlotte's privileged approach to the world was a good foil for Wyatt's bleakness. They were helping one another become more rounded people.
But then season three happened, and:
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what happens when you spend your money on old people sex cgi
Not one conversation between these two characters takes place in season three, despite them being close friends in the first two seasons. Unlike Wyatt Not Being in College at All, I can't rationalize this away. I can only conclude that the writers just fucking forgot, and I hate it.
3) ...didn't the KC Mob fucking blow up Marty's office?
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Exhibit A: Explosion
Oh yeah, I guess they did.
Just kidding! This scene never happened. Actually, it was just an unrelated scene of Frank blowing up some unrelated office that has nothing to do with the show.
Jokes aside (kinda), this leads into my main criticism of the KC Mob: they don't really have a place in Ozark. They don't actually do anything except react to stuff. Frank is a toothless antagonist who never delivers on his threats, and the only time he did something (this explosion) was retconned. Where's the CRAAAAZY GUY that Buddy warned about? Like, the guy made a deal with a woman who blew his son's dick off with a shotgun. Let me tell you: I'm a fucking coward, but I'm confident I could piss on Frank's car and get away with it. And I would piss on his car, because his character sucks.
Why'd they bring the KC Mob in at all? I get that it initially was to create like a "villain circus" Marty had to navigate, but after Wendy sabotaged their escape (*scream*) they stopped serving a purpose. Please, if you're going to retcon something, retcon the Mob. You could strip them from season four and no one would notice.
4) Darlene is fucking insane but can play 5D Chess with everyone apparently?
Darlene: "I cut a baby out of a pregnant woman, blew a man's head off on a whim, poisoned a bunch of people with fentanyl, and am generally just crazy."
Also Darlene: "I have outsmarted the Byrds, the Cartel, and the KC Mob, plus I am now taking care of the baby, plus I can pull younger ass whenever I want. GG fiveheads"
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just in case you forgot
I wouldn't mind Darlene so much if she wasn't fucking up other people's characters. Like, if she played the role of some spooky witch-lady everyone stays away from while she secretly rebuilds her heroin empire, that'd be dope. That'd be believable. You know what isn't believable? That Darlene is suddenly lucid and rational enough to groom the Langmores into serving her, make deals with the KC Mob, and all the while not killing someone every fifteen fucking minutes. You're telling me the lady that's quick to jump for the lemonade at the slightest inconvenience is orchestrating all this? Give me a break.
Darlene has ruined Wyatt's character, and she seems on the way to ruining Ruth's character as well. I understand the underlying assumption of their relationship, that Wyatt is lost after finding out Ruth killed his father, but...no. My brain cannot and will not accept that. Again, the first two seasons for Wyatt center around the idea of him being very aware of his surroundings and wanting to leave, and now he's having sex with Darlene, a known drug lord and self-confessed murderer? Now he's suddenly heading up a heroin business? He's doing all this despite the fact that he has the means and opportunity to just leave, which is what he's wanted his whole adult life?
Now, I will say that Darlene's motherly approach to her minions (*vomit*) is a great foil to Marty's robotic management style.
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Pictured: \"The boy who couldn't cry...\" - GOB Bluth
All Ruth wanted was a fucking hug. Marty doesn't hug people. You know who does? Darlene. It makes sense that a family starved for a mother finds one in Darlene, who's starved for a family...at least, it would make sense if there wasn't a mountain of other shit going on that screams THIS IS NOT A GOOD MATCH. A mountain of shit that people as smart as Ruth and Wyatt could smell a mile away.
The perfectly reasonable and interesting Charlotte-Wyatt dynamic died for this shit. Why is Wyatt suddenly a fucking dull moron?
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just in case you forgot again
5) Not really an inconsistency, but they shouldn't have killed Agent Petty.
Alright, so, I have a theory that Ozark suffers from an identity crisis, and has suffered from it since day one. Is it a spiritual successor to Breaking Bad, Twin Peaks, what? Agent Petty brought a surreal, weird-fiction element to the show that's noticeably gone now. Him watching Gunsmoke (or whatever) while sewing little buttons in his trashed motel room is just *chef's kiss.* I mean, the guy was literally losing his mind in the Ozarks; the place itself seemed to have a corrupting energy that affected his soul. Without Petty, the town doesn't seem to possess this palpable, mysterious substance, because it doesn't affect anyone else.
Listen, I don't think Ozark should be compared 1:1 with Breaking Bad. They're different shows, obviously, and should be judged on their own merits. But can you imagine Breaking Bad taking place anywhere other than the American southwest? Could Twin Peaks have taken place anywhere other than Twin Peaks? The places themselves become an inextricable part of the shows' iconography and substance. Because they're so firmly rooted in place, their imagery is all the more memorable. Think of Walter and Jessie cooking in the desert. Indelible, right?
Another example are the overhead shots in True Detective, season one, of the uninhabited Louisiana coastline. That's the shit I'm talking about.
Aside from the lake itself, I don't find Ozark a particularly memorable place. Ozark as a whole is a well made show that deserves its critical acclaim, but you can't say its imagery is memorable. The vast majority of scenes are people sitting down and talking. It's office rooms, houses, etc. The show could take place basically anywhere. The only times they really leverage the place as a canvas is when the preacher was doing his thing on the water. When Marty stumbles across the lake church service, it was an "aha, this is interesting" kind of moment. The show is carried by its actors, who are all phenomenal, and its characters, of which Petty was a standout.
Petty's character was one of the few consistent things that rooted the audience in the place of the show, by virtue of just navigating it. I think it was a big mistake to kill him off. Imagine Marty's plan to flip the FBI agent and having it be Petty; imagine how fucking enraged Petty would be at the mere thought. I wanna watch that show, man.
rest in peace you beautiful angry gay angel
I think that's all the dead horses I wanna beat. I didn't expect to write this much about the show, but when I get on something I really get on it. Thanks for reading!

Previous Heather Teague posts here.
Here are highlights from a local article:
Chip Adams: "That’s a good question. The 911 calls themselves, because there are discrepancies in the two calls, it opens the door for more questions. Basically, we call into question the witness. Tim Walthall is the individual who made the calls. Ms. Teague and I have heard the call in ’08 that references a mosquito netting or an actual wig that the perpetrator wore. The call that’s been released to us from KSP does not have those specific words anywhere in that call. It raises a lot of questions."
Chip Adams: "You've got to be careful to speculate. You've got to be careful. We don't want to start throwing mud to speak negatively. It calls into question ... and I can put my hand on the description of Marty Dill ... Marty Dill was in Webster County Jail just weeks before this abduction took place. There's no physical way for him to have the dark, bushy hair and beard. The state police, the investigators on this case, they're not interested in pursuing whether this witness ... whether this individual met this physical description. It's causing problems, or it's leading to the conclusion if we're having so many problems with these collateral issues, description of the perpetrator, whether they're going to release these 911 calls ... there not supposed to have anything to do with the crime. Heather Teague is gone. She was abducted. Why are we having so many problems with these collateral issues unless there's a problem with them all."
Edit: Clarified link