WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Ozark Season 4, Part 1, streaming on Netflix now.
Ozark‘s Ruth Langmore has been put through the wringer too many times thanks to her connections with the Byrdes, Snells, cartel and mafia that surround the Lake of the Ozarks. She’s pushed to her absolute breaking point when her cousin Wyatt — whom she’s worked so hard to protect since Season 1 — is killed in the Season 4, Part 1 finale.
By that point, she has nothing left. At the beginning of the series, Ruth didn’t have a mother. Throughout the seasons, she’s lost her father, uncle, boyfriend and now her cousin. She’s suffered more than most of the other characters in Ozark, and she’s been pushed time and time again to give up hope for any future that doesn’t involve pain. In Season 4, Episode 7, “Sanctified,” she doesn’t seem to care if she lives or dies. She just wants revenge for the crappy hand she’s been dealt in this life.
At the very end of the episode, Ruth drives away from the Byrdes’ house to find Javier Navarro, who killed Wyatt and his unexpected girlfriend Darlene Snell. Baby Zeke cries from the backseat as Ruth desperately backs out of their driveway and rushes off. The eerie ending gives audiences a sense that something big is going to happen, following Ozark‘s usual trend of leaving viewers on the edge of their seats and desperate for the next season’s release.
The reality of what she’s driving into holds significant weight for Ruth. Javi is the presumed leader of a drug cartel after his uncle was taken into FBI custody earlier in Season 4. He’s also a trigger-happy individual; he’s killed multiple people without much rhyme or reason. There’s a decent probability that he could simply shoot Ruth on sight when she confronts him, but for the sake of the final season, something more interesting might be even more possible.
Ruth might come to her senses and realize she can’t just come storming in on Javi with a baby in the backseat. She could recruit help, especially from Frank Cosgrove Jr., her former enemy turned ally this season. He might be reluctant to work with her at first, but she’ll convince him that they both need this win and he’ll feel compelled to act.
Another outcome could be that Ruth confronts Javier and he doesn’t take her seriously enough to see her as a threat. He might try to make her his ally instead — since they share a hatred of the Byrdes. He can reveal to her that he’s been working with the FBI as an informant and they can work together against the Byrdes, particularly the overly villainous Wendy. Ruth might be resistant to this idea at first, considering he just murdered one of her family members, but her hunger to see Wendy and her family taken down several notches might outweigh her desire for revenge (at least temporarily).
Either situation would make for a much more thrilling development in the series rather than Ruth or Javi killing each other. The series has also never directly put Zeke in any actual harm, so his crying is almost like a hint to the audience that Ruth is going to be okay when Season 4, Part 2 premieres later in 2022. There are plenty of theories about how the series will end, especially now that it’s gone off the deep end, and Ruth’s latest meltdown ensures she’ll play a major part in any resolution.
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