Ozark Season 4’s Surprising Ending Explained

Ozark season four part two landed on Netflix on April 29, and options the present’s remaining seven episodes ever. Endings aren’t straightforward, particularly for a present so critically acclaimed, however after 5 years Ozark lastly has one. Whether or not it is a good ending, nevertheless, relies on who you ask.

Ozark started in 2017 with Chicago accountant Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman) making a deal for his life: After discovering himself on the improper facet of a drug cartel gun, he says he’ll launder cash within the Ozarks in trade for the protection of his household. By the point we obtained to season four’s first half, again in January, Marty and his spouse, Wendy (Laura Linney), have been in deep with that cartel. 

They’d arrange a on line casino to launder tens of millions, had buckets of blood on their palms and have been working with each the cartel and the FBI to strike a deal that will lastly allow them to skip city and begin afresh. All through Ozark’s 4 seasons, the couple continuously obtained themselves into tight conditions that they have been capable of slip out of on the final second. However the partitions have been closing in on them as season 4 half two started: May they pull off a remaining Houdini?

Because the petition to remake the last season of Game of Thrones exhibits, devoted fan bases could be troublesome to please. A few of what goes down within the remaining episode has followers cut up. This is how that story ends. Spoilers forward.

Pour one out for Ruth Langmore

Earlier than we get to the Byrde household, the large information merchandise popping out of the Ozark finale as a substitute surrounds Ruth Langmore. Whereas the Byrdes might get a cheerful ending, Ruth does not. She was shot and killed by Camila Navarro, the brand new cartel boss.

Performed by Julia Garner, Ruth is a constant spotlight of the present, and her turbulent relationship with Marty was particularly compelling in Ozark’s first three seasons. Season 4 half one ended with Ruth charging down a highway seeking Javier, the nephew of Omar Navarro. (Recall that a lot of the occasions of season 4 revolved round Omar’s concern of his hotheaded, bold nephew: Sensing bloody usurpation by Javi, Omar strikes a cope with the FBI that finally backfired.) Javi had simply shot useless Darlene Snell and Wyatt Langmore. Wyatt was Ruth’s closest relation, the one she hoped would finish the “Langmore curse” of ending up prematurely useless or in jail. 

Ruth wished revenge for her cousin’s dying. And revenge she obtained. 

Within the second episode of season 4 half two, Ruth traps and kills Javi. It went down contained in the workplaces of Shaw Medical. Ruth hijacks a dinner between the Byrdes and Shaw Medical CEO Clare Shaw. (The cartel through Wendy struck a cope with Shaw in season 4 to offer low-cost heroin, a key ingredient in lots of pharmaceutical merchandise, and Shaw in trade would make a big donation to Wendy’s basis.) At gunpoint, she calls for Shaw lure Javi into the workplace to signal a deal handing shares over to Javi’s mom. When Javi rocks up, Ruth shoots him down. 

Happily for Ruth, Omar Navarro takes credit score for the homicide of Javi. Plotting with the Byrdes from jail, Navarro needs to take again management of his cartel. To do this, he sends Marty to Mexico to tell the cartel that Navarro was the one who killed the over-ambitious Javi. Whereas there, Marty meets Camila, sister of Omar and mom of Javi. 

Enter Camila, the brand new boss

Camila pretends to know cartel politics however orders successful on Omar in jail. Omar survives the assassination try and suspects one among the many cartel ranks was behind the plot. Extra treachery: The Byrdes plot with Camila to overthrow Omar, organizing one more hit and for Camila to strike the identical FBI deal accepted by Omar that will see the Byrde’s wipe their palms of the entire cartel factor. 

That plan goes awry when Camila goes to jail to say a remaining goodbye to Omar. There Omar, realizing one thing’s amiss, tells Camila that he did not kill Javi in any respect and that he does not know who did — he solely is aware of what Wendy Byrde informed him. Camila believes him however goes by with the assassination anyway. After 4 seasons of pulling strings, Omar Navarro is taken out. 

The ultimate scenes of the ultimate episode middle on a Byrde Household Basis gala, the place huge donors are coming by to make the entire Byrde’s fantasies come true. The gala is attracting big-ticket donors, to allow them to return to Chicago and dwell out their days because the charitable homeowners of a large non-profit group. Lastly, they did it. Till Camila enters the get together. 

She confronts Clare Shaw concerning the day Javi died. Camila says that she’ll forgive Shaw for hiding data if she reveals it proper now, however all kinds of unpublishable issues would occur if she finds out Shaw had been mendacity to her. Shaw buckles and tells Camila that Ruth Langmore did it. (Shaw does lie although, overlaying from the Byrdes by saying solely Shaw and Javi have been within the workplace on the time of the killing.)

Camila calls over one among her henchman and tells him to kill the Byrdes and their children if Marty or Wendy attempt to give Ruth any advance discover and Camila is coming for her. Within the remaining scenes, we see Marty and Wendy congregate about their choices and understand they’ve none. After 4 seasons of wriggling out of robust spots, they’re completely powerless.  They’re secure, however can do nothing to avoid wasting Ruth — which is painful to each them and us.

Because the Byrde household takes the stage at their gala, Ruth Langmore is confronted exterior her residence by Camila. She is aware of what’s coming, however is defiant ‘until the tip. “”I am not sorry,” she tells Camila. “Your son was a murdering bitch. And I now I do know the place he obtained it from.” Camila shoots Ruth proper within the coronary heart. 

Explaining the dying to Vanity Fair, showrunner Chris Mundy mentioned Ozark could be an excessive amount of of a fairytale if Ruth have been to outlive. “I wished everyone to have energetic selections within the final seven episodes,” Mundy mentioned to the publication. “Ruth might go for revenge or not, and he or she is aware of if she did, it’s going to unleash issues which may find yourself along with her getting harmed.”

A miraculous escape

Earlier than we get to different huge second, a fast word on the automotive crash that opened season 4 half one. Within the scene, when you do not recall, the entire Byrde household is within the household automotive speaking about their huge transfer to Chicago now that they are accomplished with the Ozarks. Amid the euphoria, Marty stops paying consideration and swerves off the street, making the automotive flip and tumble off street.

It seems it wasn’t a dream — or something vital. The crash occurs in the course of the ultimate episode, however improbably, nobody is damage. It comes after one among season 4 half two’s largest subplots, that of Wendy’s dad Nathan Davis attempting to get custody over Jonah and Charlotte. He performs the a part of involved grandpa, and Wendy has a breakdown that sends her straight right into a psychological well being facility. 

However because of an interrogation from Ruth Langmore, Nathan is proven to be nothing greater than a vindictive dad who’s taking Jonah and Charlotte away purely to spite Wendy. As soon as Nathan Davis, held at gunpoint by Ruth, tells this to Jonah and Charlotte, the children resolve to reunite with Marty and Wendy. 

Their pleased automotive journey house is when the dramatic however insignificant crash occurs. 

Jonah turns into a Byrde once more

After the gala, moments after we see Ruth killed, the Byrde household arrives at their residence. The youngsters run inside, and Marty and Wendy are each crestfallen on the destiny that fell upon Ruth and their incapacity to do something in any respect about it. 

Marty sits on the household desk, head in palms, and the digital camera pans out to point out us that the glass door has been shattered. Somebody’s been inside.

It seems to be Mel Sattem, a disgraced ex-cop turned personal investigator. He made his Ozark debut in season 4 half one, the place he was investigating the disappearance of Helen Pierce. He returns right here, working for Nathan Davis in an effort to seek out Ben Davis. Ben was notably killed in season three by order of his sister Wendy as a result of Ben’s antics would have actually gotten all the household murdered. After all, nobody is aware of that aside from the Byrdes and Ruth.

Sattem discovers that Wendy had been mendacity concerning the final time she noticed Ben and obtained photograph proof of Wendy taking Ben into the diner that was to be the location of his final identified look. He turns into a key asset in Nathan Davis’ try and get a courtroom to separate Jonah and Charlotte from their dad and mom, so Marty and Wendy have him taken out. Not with violence, however with candy diplomacy.

Since arriving on the present, Sattem has sought vindication. He was fired from the Chicago PD for stealing cocaine from proof however, other than that, gave the impression to be a reputable and good-intentioned cop. Now he is drug free and needs again into the pressure. Marty and Wendy, properly linked with Midwest officers, get him reinstated. However there is a catch: If he needs again, Sattem has to go instantly. He cannot testify towards the Byrdes in courtroom. 

Depart he does. Sattem was staying at Ruth Langmore’s Lazy-O Motel and checks out to go again to Chicago. As he leaves although, he notices that the massive goat cookie jar he noticed in Langmore’s trailer was now on the Lazy-O. He does not understand it, however that is the place Ruth has been preserving Ben’s ashes. 

When he will get again to Chicago, he simply cannot do it. He retains fascinated about the Byrdes, and about that cookie jar. Then it clicks: Ben wished to purchase a farm and lift goats, and Ruth was preserving his ashes in a goat-themed cookie jar. The ashes of Wendy’s brother represented chilly, laborious proof towards the Byrdes.

The Byrdes attempt to purchase him off, however Sattem refuses. 

“You aren’t getting to win. You aren’t getting to be the Kochs or the Kennedys,” he says. “World does not work like that.” Wendy replies: “Since when?”

Then we hear a gun cock. It is Jonah Byrde, who for each half one and two of season 4 has been estranged from the household. He cannot sq. the immoral acts his dad and mom have dedicated, and is very pissed off by his unrepentant mom. But there he’s, aiming a gun squarely at an investigator attempting to do good. Marty and Wendy look on, satisfaction creeping onto their face as Jonah accepts the household and what they’ve accomplished. 

Because the display fades to black we hear a gunshot. However who, or what, did Jonah shoot? Did he shoot Sattem, or did he shoot the cookie jar to destroy the one proof towards his household that exists? Some have speculated that Jonah, with the keenest sense of justice amongst them, would not have shot useless Sattem. 

When you go by what showrunner Chris Mundy says, Jonah shot the Sattem. Mundy informed Vainness Truthful that Jonah’s muder of Sattem confirmed “the household being introduced again collectively by this act of violence.” However that killing is not proven on the display, so is finally left open ended. Who, or what, do you suppose Jonah shot?