WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Ozark Season 4, Part 1, now streaming on Netflix.
All betrayals and shady deals with drug cartels must come to an end, which leaves Ozark with seven more episodes to determine the fates of its not-so-beloved characters. The Byrde family has been dodging bullets left and right when it comes to the cartel, the FBI and Ruth, but will they make it to the end of their own series?
The first part of Season 4 leaves many questions unanswered that will hopefully be addressed in the last seven episodes of the series. Ruth is on the warpath, Javi is gaining more control as Marty and Wendy are losing theirs and private investigator Mel Sattem seems to still be snooping around. Here are six theories on how Ozark will wrap up these stories in its series finale.
Agent Miller and Mel Sattem Will Team Up
Agent Maya Miller went rogue near the end of Part 1 by arresting Omar Navarro against her superior’s orders. This leaves Maya on her own, with no protection from Marty or the FBI to back her up. In another subplot, Mel has been badgering the Byrdes endlessly about Helen’s disappearance, claiming he just needs her signature to finalize her divorce, but his insistence makes it seem much more dire than that.
Mel and Maya’s stubbornness puts them in difficult and dangerous situations that may only be solved if the two team up. They both have valuable information that the other needs to finish the Byrde/Navarro cartel puzzle, which can put an end to the illicit activities, but at the cost of the Byrdes being taken down.
Marty and Wendy Take Over the Cartel
This one seems obvious considering Marty and Wendy are always finding a way to put their family first, and the answer to that may just be that they take over the operation that is threatening their lives in the first place. With Omar out of the picture, Marty and Wendy are in the home-stretch, but Javi is still an emotionally impulsive obstacle that the husband and wife duo must conquer.
Wendy even proposed an insane plan last season to kill Omar and take control of the cartel themselves, but Marty brushed it off as irrational. The sudden death of Helen may have put a dent in Wendy’s plan, but with their current sticky situation with the FBI and the cartel, wouldn’t it just be easier to be the ones in charge? It wouldn’t be necessarily hard for the duo, with Marty’s intuitiveness and brains combined with Wendy’s tenacious drive to protect her family.
Jonah Will Take Down the Cartel
If there’s a chance the cartel will be disbanded by the end of the series, Jonah may just be the one to finalize the act. Jonah betraying his parents this season to work for Darlene and Ruth’s heroin business is a more extreme version of any teenager’s rebellious phase, but it could do some good for his family and the FBI. Jonah’s odd interest in money laundering at a young age has come in handy as he’s become a master at the age of 14, and he can sniff out the evil in people, so he may use his skills to take action.
The death of Wendy’s brother has been haunting Jonah since discovering the hard truth, destroying the relationship between him and his family. He connects their willful involvement in the cartel to his mother’s decline in humanity so he’ll stop at nothing to make sure that the cartel is served justice. How Jonah will take down Mexico’s second most powerful cartel is up in the air, considering he is just a teenager, but that may mask his approach. No one expects a teenager to be a threat, but he’s just waiting in the shadows for his opportunity.
Ruth Will Make It Out, but Won’t Have a Happy Ending
Ozark is often compared to Breaking Bad for their related subject matters and characters, with Ruth being described as the Jesse Pinkman of Ozark. Her story revolves around being manipulated by the rich and privileged Byrdes in their schemes, whilst losing everyone she loves at the same time, including her boyfriend Ben and cousin Wyatt. Ruth is the supporting, sympathetic character that has gotten wrapped up in everyone else’s mess, and it would be fitting for her to be the last woman standing.
All that being said, she wouldn’t necessarily have the happily ever after. Jonah set Ruth up for her own death by telling her in a time of grief that Javi was the man responsible for Wyatt’s demise, which only means she’s put herself at war with the cartel. Ruth may not necessarily die, but she’ll be all alone to live the rest of her life away from the Ozarks, as she intended to do with Wyatt and Three. It’s a rather tragic ending for a tragic character.
At Least One Byrde Will Die
Season 4 of Ozark opens with a devastating car crash involving the Byrde family as they plan to move away from the Ozarks to return to a normal life. Part 1 doesn’t answer the fates of the Byrdes after the crash, but for the sake of tension-gripping drama, there must be a death involved in it. It’s probable to say that karma catches up to the Byrdes and all of them die, making for a shocking ending that fans wouldn’t expect. But there’s also a chance that the Byrdes will die another way.
The car crash was made to seem like it was set up, and the only enemy of the Byrdes that would be so deranged to do so is Javi. If the Byrdes make it out, their final confrontation could end in Javi killing a Byrde, which sets the others on a warpath. Either way, it would be odd for all the members of the laundering family to meet their happy ending, since Ozark has never seemed like the type of drama to pull a stunt like that.
Is Ben Still Alive in Ozark?
This one is an extreme reach, but as many fans have pointed out, the series never showed Ben’s death or his cremation. If Ben was alive, Ozark would have some serious catching up and explaining to do in regards to the cartel covering up his “death,” and Ruth being given his ashes. But it would explain Wendy’s strange behavior when being told that a body similar looking to Ben was found. It was as if she believed he really was missing, or perhaps Omar felt sympathetic towards Wendy and spared Ben.
Ben’s reappearance would be a poetic ending to the series. Ruth’s reunion with him may finally give her the happiness she deserves, and it would be a smack in the face to Marty and Wendy, who often dismissed his mental illness as craziness. The revelation of his survival can also serve against the cartel, as he still plays as the wildcard of the series that will spill anything, no matter the cost.
Ozark Season 4, Part 1 is now streaming on Netflix. Season 4, Part 2 is expected to release in 2022.
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