The last seven episodes ofOzark dropped, officially marking the last we hear from Marty (jason bateman) and Wendy Byrde (laura linney) insist that they are "thenshut down" to get out of its endless corrupt cycle of scheming and scheming. The Byrdes' definition of "shut down" in the case of season 4 part 2 means solving some minor problems like figuring out how to keep Mel as a sattem private detective (Adam Rothenberg) approach them, stop Wendy's psychotic father from taking Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) and Jonah (Skylar Gaertner) with him to North Carolina, and secretly ordered the death of Mexican drug lord Omar Navarro (Félix Solis). Of course, there's also one more little hiccup that sets the final seven episodes in motion: Ruth, driven by revenge and her trademark bravado, kills Javi Elizondro Navarro (afonso herrera).
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After Ruth (julia garner) kills Javi in retribution for killing Wyatt (Carlos waits), Marty and Wendy must struggle to figure out how to salvage the situation. That's where the final season introduces Javi's mother and Omar Navarro's sister, Camila (veronica falcon). The Byrdes lie to Camila and tell them that Navarro ordered Javi's murder. Navarro then sends Marty to Mexico to assume leadership of the cartel in his place, where a guilt-ridden Marty orders the death of the man who was allegedly responsible for ordering a murder on Navarro in prison. Turns out they got the wrong guy: Omar's own sister, Camila, ordered the hit as revenge for what she believes Omar killed her son for.
Meanwhile, Ruth manages to clear her record and pull the rug out from under Marty and Wendy by taking possession of the Missouri Bell. She recruits a now sober Rachel Garrison (Jordana Spiro) as her new business partner, convincing her to leave Miami and return to the Ozarks with her. Throwing another impossible wrench into Marty and Wendy's plans, Rachel is forced to kill Omar's killer, Nelson (Nelson Bonilla), after he tries to murder her and Ruth when they refuse to let Marty launder money through Bell for Navarro. The Byrdes (once again) perform a miracle and come up with a hasty solution: they convince Camila to discreetly kill her brother and then assume leadership of the cartel herself, in addition to taking Javi's place in dealing with the FBI. . She agrees, but after meeting Omar in prison, she learns that he was not the one who ordered Javi's murder. Still, she sticks with the plan.
To make matters worse, Wendy's father, Nathan (ricardo thomas) hires Mel to find out what happened to Ben. He makes a move to get Charlotte and Jonah away from Wendy, convincing them to return to North Carolina with him. In her latest desperate scheme to keep Charlotte and Jonah from living with their abusive father, an increasingly erratic Wendy checks herself into the same mental health facility as Ben (tom pelphrey) was admitted in the hope that the children would feel guilty and stay.
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Charlotte and Jonah go to North Carolina with Wendy's father?
At the start of the series finale, Wendy is still at the facility and refuses to leave, so Marty visits Ruth unannounced and gives her a cold ultimatum: talk to Charlotte and Jonah and convince them to stay with them, or Marty will. tell Camila that Ruth murdered her son. Backed into a corner, Ruth visits Wendy at the mental health facility, where the two share an unexpectedly civil conversation given their hostile history. Wendy promises that as long as Ruth tries, she will make sure Marty doesn't tell Camila. Before leaving, Ruth tells Wendy that she was right: if she had left Ben at the facility, he would still be alive.
Ruth acts small-town charm and invites Wendy's dad out for a farewell drink with a bottle of whiskey (and we all know how he likes his drink). She catches him off guard by giving up on the act and pulling a gun on him with the threat: if he leaves here with Charlotte and Jonah, she will shoot him in the head. In the next scene, Charlotte and Jonah enter the mental health center to see Wendy. As usual, Ruth fucks up.
In an unusual move, Wendy relinquishes her strong hold over Charlotte and Jonah and allows them to make up their own minds. The next scene shows Charlotte, Jonah, and Wendy leaving the facility together, an unspoken confirmation that the Byrde children have decided to stay.
And that car accident scene?
The Byrde family leaves the scene in their minivan, sharing a brief moment of happiness before (think Season 4, Part 1 opening scene) being involved in a brutal car accident after swerving around a transport truck. towards them on the wrong side of the lane, causing the car to overturn. Somehow, the Byrdes survive with little more than a few scratches. Given Marty and Wendy's endless tango with the license plate and the ever-growing list of enemies, there were plenty of predictions about who might be behind the mysterious car accident. Surprisingly, it was nobody: the car accident was a random act of bad luck. So why play around early in the season?
On some level, the reveal can feel like a letdown. But the car accident is more than a red herring. This begs the question: are the Byrdes really invincible? The parish priest of Navarro, Father Benítez (bruno bichir) suggests to Wendy that her near-death experience is a warning from God, while Wendy, with her trademark irritating political smile, disagrees: it's a sign that they're survivors and they'll make it out of the billboard safe against wind and tide. .
What happens to Omar Navarro?
Meanwhile, Omar Navarro, who has always seemed nearly invincible, is not so lucky when he finds his deadly fate at the hands of none other than his sister, Camila. Although Camila discovers that Omar was not in fact behind her son's murder, she still goes along with Marty and Wendy's proposal to kill her brother and become the head of the cartel. Omar is taken out of his cell for an alleged transfer. It is driven by two men in police uniforms, one of whom stops to presumably urinate. Instead, he gets out of the van and shoots the officer in the passenger seat before handing Omar a gun and telling him that there is a car half a mile away that will take him to a plane. It isn't until Omar takes a few steps that he hears a gun go off. He turns around and is shot dead by the man who gave him the gun, which was obviously empty.
What's wrong with Ruth?
Finally, it's the Byrde Family Foundation gala night. Everything is going suspiciously well. The FBI deal is successful, the Byrdes have a waiting list of important people who want to join their foundation, Wendy can now shut down Senator Schafe (bruce davison) voting machines (Wendy may have ordered or caused the death of several people, but she draws the line on voter fraud.)
of course that isOzarkafter all, then you know there was no way this could go smoothly. Camila, Clara Shaw (Katrina Lenk), and Wendy and Marty are celebrating their success when Camila threatens to kill Clare if she finds out she knows anything about who killed Javi. After an unbearably tense moment of silence, Clare breaks under the pressure, confessing that Ruth killed him. Camila knows that Marty and Wendy have a close relationship with Ruth and threatens that if they try to warn Ruth or even make eye contact with her, she will kill Charlotte and Jonah without hesitation.
Wendy, always quick to find loopholes and outsmart her opponents, says there must be something they can do. But alas, it is Marty, who has always had a special bond with Ruth, who makes Wendy see the inevitable: saving Ruth would be suicide. They put smiles on their faces and go out of their way to keep up appearances for their lavish guests. The camera pans back and forth between the Byrdes and Ruth, who is driving back home, smiling to herself, unsure of what awaits her in her trailer.
When Ruth arrives home, there is a car parked outside with no one inside. Camila then comes out of the woods pointing a gun at Ruth's chest. Ruth, one of the toughest heroines in television history, who never falls for a coward, looks Camila in the eye and tells her she has no regrets because her son was a "murderous bitch". In the most painful moment of the final episode of Ozark, Camila shoots Ruth in the chest, killing her.
What does this final scene mean?
The Byrdes return home, where they find Mel holding Ben's ashes in the infamous goat cookie jar. She's realized that Ben isn't really missing, but dead, and the Byrdes clearly have something to do with it. Mel doesn't stop when she harasses them: "You can't win. You can't be the Kochs or the Kennedys or whatever the fuck the royal people think you are. The world doesn't work that way." For a brief moment, it seems inevitable: the day has finally arrived when the Byrde will have to pay for the death, destruction and misery they left in their wake.
And then Wendy speaks the final words of the series, two words that underscore the grim reality that captures the essence of what the series finale is all about: "Since when?"
The bang of a gun can be heard - it's Jonah, pointing a shotgun directly at Mel. The screen fades to black and a shot is fired. The credits roll to the tongue-in-cheek melody of Al Green's "Love and Happiness".
The last episode ofOzarkanswers our most pressing question that's been on our minds for four seasons: yes, the bad guysto doGet away with it, but at what cost? As Jonah points the shotgun at Mel, the shadow of a calm but triumphant smile appears on Marty and Wendy's faces. His pride is unmistakable. As much as Marty and Wendy claim to want their children to be safe, they cannot hide their true nature: they crave power and may never be satisfied with a "normal" life. The shrill sound of the gunshot followed by a charged silence says it all: nothing has really changed for the Byrdes and probably never will. Marty and Wendy are the real villains and have basically doomed their children to follow in their corrupt footsteps.
The end of Ozark is frustratingly cruel and terribly unfair, but inevitable: sometimes, the bad guysto dogain.