ST. LOUIS — "Well, it's the kind of role that any actor would be excited about. What makes it really great is that the writers have allowed for the layers to be exposed and peeled away over time."
Tom Pelphrey could have been talking about Ben Davis, his latest role in the third season of Netflix's "Ozark," when we spoke a few years back about his key role on Cinemax's "Banshee." Ben shares a few things in common with Kurt Bunker, the reformed neo-Nazi turned deputy-even if the roles have different overall strokes and shades.
*MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD*
Ben arrives in the second episode of the third season of "Ozark" playing the brother of Laura Linney's Wendy. It doesn't take five minutes for us to realize what kind of person Ben is and what he's capable of, for better or worse. A substitute teacher trying to connect with a group of texting, adrift students in a math class, Ben soon realizes there's something wrong with a certain student. When he finds out the rest of the class is laughing at a very private picture of the aforementioned student that has been anonymously shared, Ben loses his temper. He collects all of the student's phones in a trash can and heads outside to a wood chipper to destroy them. Ben ends up beating up the landscaper.
It is during this initial glimpse that we see the soulful, if chaotic, side of Ben, and it's a Pelphrey showcase. We don't know all the details about him just yet, but have an outline to draw from as the season progresses and Ben's role in the season arc grows into fruition. He shows up in his sister's town next, becoming smitten with Ruth Langmore (the brilliant Julia Garner), which only entangles him more in the season's main plot.
For the majority of the season, Ben's role is minimal and earnest, leaving one to wonder where it will go and how it will develop. It's a slow-burn performance that matches up with the pace. Ben sets up roots in his family's held-by-duct-tape life fairly quickly. Before long, he befriends Marty Byrd's (Jason Bateman) son, Jonah, shares a few sweet moments with Wendy and grows closer to Ruth. All the while, as the Byrds become entrenched with the FBI and furthermore with Helen (Janet McTeer) and the Cartel, Ben starts to slowly become aware of how deep his sister has sunk into the world of crime. The brilliance in how the "Ozark" writers work Ben into the fold is sinister, sad and blunt.
*MODERATE SPOILERS AHEAD*
Throughout the ten-episode season, we get little hints about Ben's condition and what it is exactly. He’s got secrets of his own, but they don’t break any laws ... at least not at first. Marty and Wendy are cautious about many things but whenever the topic of her brother comes up, they both seem to have grown some cobwebs on their soul due to his presence. They each tell him to leave for his own safety, that this place will only enhance the demons Ben is fighting. Ben doesn’t listen. This is where Pelphrey really gets to show his range.
Without spelling it out for you, Ben has a disorder that works as the perfect storm in a place packed with mischievous characters, bad intentions, and plenty of murder and betrayal. This requires an actor who can go sunny to dark in 60 seconds, which Pelphrey can do. On "Banshee," there was a scene where Bunker was walking out of a diner, saw some of his own White Supremacist pals, and unleashed a violent torrent of behavior that shocked his partner, the older and wiser Brock Lotus (Matt Servitto). "Ozark" viewers get a taste of that in our first meeting with Ben in the classroom, seeing a guy go from 0 to 100 in an instant.
While Bunker was wrestling with the decisions and sins of his past, Ben Davis is fighting something that has grown inside of him and attached itself to every aspect of his life. Being bipolar makes everyone around you-including the people who love and adore you-walk on eggshells around you, making sure not to set off. To them, you are the hulk. It's like stepping across a field of land mines for Marty and Wendy, but Ruth doesn't know all about it yet. You don't know about bipolar disorder until you experience it first hand. Pelphrey, along with the writers of the series, takes this fuel and run with it. The result is a performance that works as the highlight of the third season. A much-needed grenade thrown at the Byrds' feet.
*MORE SPOILERS AHEAD*
All of it comes to a head in Episode 7, where Ben is fully aware of what's going on and trying to make drastic decisions. One of those involves wrecking a charity event that was going to extend the Byrds' legitimacy credit around town. In a thunderous show-stopping moment, at least the first of them, Ben crashes and ruins the entire party by calling out Marty and Wendy in front of everyone. Pelphrey can do something with his eyes and face at once, a tightening mechanism that seems to shrink the world around him, which is equally terrifying and hard to turn away from.
Episode 8 features the largest solo character monologue sequence of the entire show and easily one of my favorite scenes from the past year. It's Ben in a cab detailing the frequent instances of his life where confusion and explosion have ruined his world. Through endless words and constant face twitches and relentless anger, Ben is trying to explain his life while connecting with the stranger/ the driver. Imagine listening to someone fighting with their mind and this is what you get: a man at war with himself, yet bringing several others around him down. Ben steps on a hornet's nest eventually and it's a truly bittersweet experience. You know deep down Ben is trying to do good, but he's working with matches and gasoline instead of water and blankets.
*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*
Here's why I think Ben was vital to the third season. It further details the way that Marty and Wendy react to personal catastrophe and the amount of miles they are willing to put on their soul in order to fulfill the objective. This especially cuts toward Wendy. What she does in the final episode to squash a problem should shock and horrify you. Her actions pale in comparison to what she did at the end of season 2.
Ben created that storm. It creates a bigger divide between the Byrds and Ruth, and even more so between the Byrds and their kids. It's something that I think will grow branches of despair as Season 4 unfolds. One of the great things about "Ozark" is the poisonous seeds it buries at the end of each season, setting up the explosion next year. Season 1 was Marty finally getting Wendy and the kids to accept the life and bring Ruth in. Season 2 was seeing Wendy let power consume her entire being. Season 3 is their past and the decision-making attached to it going up in small flames--along with other things I won't spoil.
Pelphrey was the best addition this season. He is a master at playing complicated men. On "Banshee," he was a guy trying to rinse the hateful spirit of neo-Nazi fellowship out of his soul. On "Ozark," he's a seemingly decent guy with a trigger code built into his body that can go off at any moment. On "Man With The Iron Fist," Pelphrey lent the character of Ward Meachum some credence and depth, even if the writing wasn't there to back him up. Few actors can dial into these sort of roles, but Pelphrey has a back road to them.
There's another scene that takes place in a mental hospital toward the end of the season where Ben goes from lost in a thousand-mile stare to slowly losing his cool and temper. It's the most honest portrayal of bipolar disorder on camera since Bradley Cooper's award-nominated work in "Silver Linings Playbook," and I'd wager Pelphrey takes a more bitter, undaunted approach to the effect of the disorder on someone. There's no false notes, weak crying, or over-manipulation of the audience. You just see a guy come undone, and no one can help him. He's a race car with bad brakes, someone who can't look behind him but only forward.
They say an actor needs range to last. Tom Pelphrey has range for days. Just watch the third season of "Ozark," which is brilliant by the way.
Expect to see more of this New Jersey gent as the years pass. As a friend of mine commented on my Facebook post, “If he’s in, it’s a must-watch.”
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