The family Byrde, as we left them at the end of Ozark Season 3, was in a perilous spot. Heck, when are they not—am I right?! But one can see how Season 4 was going to be the final go-around because how much can one family endure and still walk away from a brush with the cartel where one actually lived to—of course—not tell the tale.
Cartel lawyer Helen (Janet McTeer) had her brains blown out right in front of Marty (Jason Bateman) and Wendy (Laura Linney) by the nefarious leader of said organization, Omar Navara (Felix Solis) at the conclusion of last season and this season picks up immediately after the shocking turn of events. Marty and Wendy are washing brains and blood off of themselves as they “ready” themselves to return downstairs in Navarro’s castle and enjoy the remainder of the party.
But let’s make one thing clear that might have been lost in the shock and awe of the conclusion of the last season and then the angst of the wait for a return of one of television’s finest programs for its newest go-around. It was this: The Byrdes are in the pole position to help Navarro with his plan and have the entire family, both families for that matter—being able to walk away from this entire affair without injury, death, or worse, prison. Granted the hill they have to climb for this to be a success is more like Mt. Everest on top of Mt. Everest. It’s the closest the Byrdes have been to seeing a light at the end of this terror tunnel since a colleague took a nosedive off a Chicago building in episode one of Season One.
As a whole, Season Four Part One is simply impeccable. Just when you think the tension or this family’s ability to break free from the bonds that they are chained by the quicksand gets deeper and the challenge appears to exponentially cause all hope to disappear from the family Byrde’s emotional cache. These first seven episodes, aka Part One, of the final season, exemplify that with each passing episode. By the time one gets to the end of episode seven of Season Four, prepare to be exhausted on a myriad of levels. Witnessing Ozark is a physical, psychological, and ethereal experience that packs such a punch in just under an hour that it is completely normal to be spent after an hour with the Byrdes. But then again, it’s hard to stop with just one. Actually, it’s impossible! But do proceed cautiously…
Episode 1: The Beginning of the End
The first episode of 2022 commences with the Byrdes, visibly happy (imagine that?!), driving in their silver minivan down the highway. Then, the car violently crashes, and filmmakers flashback weeks prior for the season to truly get going. Filmmakers basically just asked, “Do we have your undivided attention?”
That they certainly do, which is not easy these days with our phones by our sides and demands from it chirping at us for multiple occasions throughout any given hour period. That is certainly something that Ozark has done extraordinarily well since the get-go. It is impossible to focus on anything else other than what is happening on the Netflix hit original program. That’s why, amongst other reasons, during the pandemic—in particular—the popularity of the beloved show found unforeseen new heights of popularity and pop culture relevance.
The biggest flash and honestly, largest splash for the entire season, has to be the arrival of Navarro’s nephew, Javi (Alfonso Herrera) Elizonndro. Yes, he is Chicago schooled with an American university, but he almost seems more old-school Mexican drug kingpin/gangster than his uncle. The moment he arrives on the screen, one immediately senses that things are about to head south for somebody… or everybody.
He is attempting to carve his space into the family business and seems to be of the impression that this Marty and Wendy are fishy at best and at worst are by far the cartel’s weakest link. That is a problem. As handled by the creative team behind the camera, so much is said with so little. That is absolutely the case with the fresh dynamic that is the Byrdes and Javi.
Just as it seemed the light at the end of the tunnel could actually be seen, even if you had to squint, by the close of Episode One, that light may have dimmed. Julia Garner’s Ruth knows the Byrdes business inside and out and that is troubling, particularly a Ruth who is driven by pride and revenge. It doesn’t help that Ruth is out on her own, specifically working with her beloved Cousin Wyatt (Charlie Tahan) and his girlfriend, poppy farmer extraordinaire Darlene Snell (Lisa Emery).
Episode 2: Let the Great World Spin
The key to the Byrdes “I’m Outta Here” plan is FBI Special Agent Maya Miller (Jessica Frances Dukes). During Episode Two, just how ridiculous the idea comes to light. But what else happens is we keep hearing Omar not being happy with the word “impossible” that Wendy kept uttering during their meeting where he put forth this idea initially. Think about it, a drug lord in real life walking away from “the life” unscathed, without doing any prison time, in a deal with the FBI that includes his being able to travel freely between America and Mexico while providing tons of intelligence—sure—but no jail time? Free in every sense of the word? Yeah, Miller pushes back on that just a tad and by a tad, we mean a lot!
To make matters even more complicated, Sheriff Nix (Robert C. Treveiler) has gone missing—yeah Darlene’s in her pocket lawman. A temporary new sheriff, Kim Reddick (Dani Deetté), has come on, and let’s just say she has a lot of questions for a lot of our players. Sure, Ozark creators, turn up the heat even further—it’s not like it’s already scorching in here!
Meanwhile, Wendy is doing her best to secure the final $150 million they need to launch the Byrde Family Foundation. That comes in the form of Shaw Pharmaceuticals, led by Clare Shaw (Katrina Lenk), a ripped from the headlines company like those behind the Oxy epidemic, who need a product to make their drugs—enter Marty and Wendy.
Episode 3: City on the Make
Agent Miller and cartel head Navarro meet face to face in what has to be one of television’s great moments of 2022. Yes, the year has just got started. The electricity between Dukes and Solis is so searing that I would blindly wager that it will still be one of 2022’s top 10 scenes on TV 11 months from now when we’re looking back on the year that was.
The other headline from City on the Make involves everyone’s favorite outlaw, Ruth, going behind her new partner’s back. Because doing that kind of thing always works out well when it comes to Darlene… have you met her, Ruth?! Believing that it is better to ask for forgiveness than permission, Ruth thinks that a bag full of money will make Darlene just smile and walk away. Again, have you met Darlene?
On that front, as well, is the burgeoning cash washer that Ruth, Darlene, and Wyatt have employed—Jonah Byrde (Skylar Gaertner). He shows an incredible aptitude and shows that the apple does not fall far from the tree. In fact, at 14 Jonah is near to par with his father and with some experience, there’s no telling what this kid can do. Yes, we’re talking about a teenager worth six or seven figures. Gaertner has literally and figuratively grown into his role as the youngest Byrde. What’s fascinating is he may be young, but he’s the first of the main four—including his sister Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz)—to be moving on with his life with what is the, hate this word, new normal. Gaertner and Hublitz are still fabulous in portraying siblings, but this season there is a bit of a rift between the two. Nothing serious, but Jonah is having his rebel moment like his sister did prior when she went down that emancipation road.
It’s so nice to see a fully-fledged television family portrayed as they are on Ozark. During the teenage years as your children are becoming their own versions (perhaps of you), it’s a dance that every member of the family must do daily to not step on toes or inflame the emotions of two hormone-driven souls. As captured by those at Ozark, it’s a much-needed shot of reality for a show where everything else is seemingly amplified real-world chaos.
Episode 4: Ace Deuce
This episode was a fascinating one as one of the most swing into a rage on a dime characters in all the right times actually had a moment that the minute it happen, I knew it was a mistake. Wendy let an emotional element of her life influence her action on a particular subject. The second she started talking on this subject—which is her dead brother—I knew that it was going to be a huge problem.
Words have consequences. Ruth saw the Byrde Family Foundation treatment center ribbon-cutting press conference where Wendy made that false admission. It sent Ruth into an angry-revenge-laden whirlwind. There are casualties when Ruth is in that mode. We also get to know that celebrity chef influencer, but not in an effective way, and of course, it manages to be something that could bite the Byrdes in the ass. Something happens that is surely going to bring unwanted attention, especially when there is a new sheriff sniffing around.
Episode 5: Ellie
Marty and Wendy are looking to fill their foundation’s board with friendly (and powerful) folks. That includes courting a recently retired senator, Senator Shafer, to join their board in what would be a power play and PR coup. Senator Shafer is played by X-Men veteran and all-around terrific character actor, veteran Bruce Davidson.
Then, complications arise with the Shaw deal. Marty and Ruth have to team up to try to get the drugs back that were marked for the pharmaceutical company. In this show, I’m telling you, these characters go through a virtual lake of quicksand! How could writers creatively put our protagonists in more hot water, all without them burning—at least not yet—and simultaneously raise the stakes? They do. I don’t know-how. But they do. I tell you… this is a series that will be studied, specifically in writing classes, for decades to come.
Charlotte is always doing her thing as the daughter of the Byrdes, but it appears that she may be cut out for this kind of work and considers not going to college… but at what cost? It is clear as everyone tries to talk to her about it that she’s seen things that have altered her view of what the life path should be and now it’s been altered. Now, the door is not closed. As handled by Hublitz, Charlotte is so deeply loyal to her parents, it’s as if she has become the polar opposite of Jonah. But there’s a but… overall if there is the smallest thing missing from Season Four Part One it is something substantial for Hublitz to do. Sure, she has to meet Helen’s daughter. But that and a few more moments are not enough for a character that showed such richness during the emancipation battle and subsequent fallout.
Episode 6: Sangre Sobre Todo (Blood Over Everything)
The second-to-last episode of the first part of Season Four possesses the most perfect of monikers. Because in the end, many choices are made on Ozark because of blood, i.e., family.
Also, all those recent FBI successes that are messing with Javi and all part of Omar’s big plan to work his way into the good graces of the United States government come to a head when one of those trucks that the Feds pull over explode as agents descend on it, sending several to the critical care unit of the hospital. We know Javi did it, but what the feds need to know is that Omar had nothing to do with it and has tasked Marty with proving that fact. How he does that is the crux of Episode 6, but also seems like a forgone conclusion.
The thing about Javi is he is more of a scorched earth kind of fellow and that is not necessarily the way of his uncle, Omar. It certainly has not been the way of doing things since Wendy and Marty started managing things state-side for the drug cartel leader. This is a balancing act that is playing out in real-time as Marty sees his freedom and hope for a future with a pulse lay in the fact that Omar is able to walk free at the conclusion of this endeavor. Javi doesn’t necessarily care or at the last share that view of the future. His is just beginning and he expects Marty and Wendy to stay with him and not check out of this life by a longshot.
Also, there’s the shocking moment where we learn that Wendy has sent a red flag flying on her son’s Jonah work with laundering money. He calls his father who fixes it. \Wendy was ready to send Jonah to jail, being aware that he is a minor and that his record would be sealed when he turned eighteen. Marty does not see this as a good parenting move, but it is yet another example of Wendy taking her own road to parent and business without consulting Marty. One has to believe that this will come to a head at some point, whether it’s in Episode 6 or 7, or during Part Two of Season Four. Either way, it’s going to happen, and it is not going to be pretty. With everything going on in their lives, the Byrdes need to be on the same page in every facet of their lives, especially parenting.
Can Jonah and Wendy ever find a place of reconciliation? That’s the million-dollar question that will not have the easiest of answers by a longshot.
Episode 7: Sanctified
The final episode of the first part of Season One finds drug kingpin Navarro and the FBI finally meeting face-to-face. Let’s just say it doesn’t go as expected or planned. Episode 7 has a ton of explosive drama that will reverberate throughout the Ozark world. For one, Darlene takes matters into her own hands when it comes to the head of the Kansas City mob, Frank Cosgrove (John Bedford Lloyd). Ruth, feeling a connection to Cosgrove’s son, plays the honesty card with his son, Frank Jr. (Joseph Sikora), and in the process feels that she may have just saved her cousin Wyatt from being lumped with Darlene in any kind of payback that may be arising out of KC.
With the conclusion of Season Four Part One, fans will be halfway down the rabbit hole of the conclusion of one of TV’s most beloved hours of programming in recent memory. The way with which show creators Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams have first gotten us to this point is mind-blowing. Secondly, how they handle the concluding chapters of their epic series will largely serve as the narrative for how people look back on Ozark as a whole. That was certainly the case with Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and other shows that make a seismic mark on the television landscape. Thus far, history will be not only kind to the Bateman-Linney starring vehicle, but I believe based on the first half of the final season alone, this show will go down as one of the best to be broadcast using the medium of television.
The performances are exquisite and pitch-perfect. Each actor plays their role to absolute precision. From the stars that headline the show, to the bit players who are still very much a part of this universe, such as Tahan’s take on Wyatt to the fierce bravado of McTeer’s Helen, each performer has outdone themselves and their participation in this perfect example of the titanium era of television will follow them for their entire career.
Although the directors may change over the course of the seasons, from Bateman to Alik Sakharov and even Robin Wright, the tone never changes, even if each helmer brings something unique to the experience. It was only fitting that Wright, after making a huge splash with her directorial debut in Land, is the one behind the camera for the final two episodes of Part One of Season Four. There’s a desperation that drips through every frame of Wright’s directorial debut that is exactly what the doctor has ordered for Episode 6 and Episode 7. It sets us up for a Part Two of Season Four that is going to be equally explosive as it is jaw-droppingly compelling.
Everyone loves Ruth, and Garner is a force of nature that grows fiercer with each passing year. But a spotlight must be shined on Linney and her work as Wendy. When this series, she wasn’t exactly a wallflower, but let’s just say that the journey she has been on since that point has unleashed a woman who… basically, can give a woman like Darlene a heart attack. She is every bit the savvy and ruthless drug kingpin as Navarro, which is why he sees so much in her and it appears has a special affinity for the blonde Byrde. When he uses words like “disappointed” and it’s directed at the Byrdes, everyone on the planet knows Omar is speaking directly to Wendy. This is no former head of the PTA. Wendy has evolved into who she was always destined to become, and it has been one of the great joys of television viewing that has existed.
How Linney has evolved her Wendy is the stuff of legend. She commands respect from drug dealers and political operatives alike… and that is a priceless commodity. The word “afraid” was used at one point this season by a politico to describe Wendy Byrde and that is not necessarily the woman we met in Episode One in Season One. Linney will be hard-pressed to top this kind of character development in her career. If she does not win an Emmy for this role, it will be a mark on the Television Academy’s record, not Laura’s.
We’ve become accustomed to watching Bateman and laughing. The man has the gift of comedy, but his dramatic chops are on full display regularly throughout Ozark. The man, who is also a co-producer of the show—along with Linney—emits a sense that what his Marty is working on is about to spin out of control, yet it does not. His projection of calmness seems to result in sticky situations being emerged from largely unscathed. What his character and his family have been through in the last several years is nothing short of a miracle and recalls that old Grateful Dead lyric in U.S. Blues… “I’m still alive. Ain’t no luck, I learned to duck.”
Then, there’s Ruth. That is one of the great characters of the 21st century and when all is said and done, Ruth Langmore may go down as one of the top 10 television characters of all time. As Garner portrays her, we pull for the young woman to pull herself up and out of the situation she was born into and rally into a life worthy of her heart and soul. She’s tough, sure, but there is a heart there that makes her staunchness palpable and tolerable.
Ruth is as fierce of a television character as has come along in some time. In fact, the passage of time will show that it Garner’s creation is downright revolutionary. She’s not exactly educated, i.e., she did not go to college. But she is brilliant in what she does. She keenly knows how to work people and systems to her advantage. With so much loss in her life thus far, one wouldn’t blame her for taking a back seat to any cash-generating operation she is a part of, yet throughout Ozark, Garner’s Ruth is at the forefront of a deal gone down—always trying to live up to the reputation she believes her last name conjures.
As Garner inhabits Ruth, she employs the entire emotive spectrum in what could have been a two-dimensional hard-nosed rural petty thief. Instead, the actress has unveiled a chillingly convincing incarnation where her Ruth could go toe-to-toe with Navarro or anyone else for that matter. Simply the way she yells, “Marty” alone causes the hair to stand up on the back of one’s neck!
If this is the beginning of the end, then we are all in!
In whatever way that Ozark concludes, the journey has been the most joyous part. There have been few television programs experienced over the last five decades that match the ferocity of Ozark coupled with the emotive connection to the protagonists that actually make the entire show experience more a familial check-in than escapist television at its finest.
Grade: A+