Ozark
Season 4 Part 2 has finally arrived on Netflix and there's a lot to break down surrounding
our final 7 episodes with the Byrde family.
After the tense ending to Season 4 part 1, Part 2 continued to keep us on the edge of
our seats and delivers quite the thought provoking ending.
I'm going to be breaking down Ozark Season 4 Part 2, explaining the plot, the
ending and giving you my brief review for the second half of the final season.
This analysis will contain spoilers, so if you do happen to be someone who hasn't caught
up on Ozark yet, then I would recommend watching this video
after you've seen it.
But if you want to keep up to date on all of my videos on shows like Ozark and Better
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But without further a do, lets dive into Ozark Season 4 Part 2 explained.
So the first part of Ozark season 4 ended with quite the shocking twist, when cartel
boss Javi killed Darlene Snell and Wyatt Langmore, leaving Ruth in a state of grief and wanting
revenge, with even the Byrde family fearing what she would do in retaliation.
Well, we get the answer to that very early on in part 2, as episode 8 opens with a quite
unstable Ruth hunting down Javi.
After an episode of conflictions and seeing the emotion that Ruth feels towards what happened,
she tracks down Javi and shoots him right in front of the Byrdes and
Shaw medical boss Clare Shaw.
Quite the reverse happens at the end but what really is the focus, is the feelings of each
of these characters, and it's primarily Ruth that conveys this in
the opening episode.
In the aim of protection for themselves and Ruth, Marty and Wendy cover up what she did
by telling Omar Navarro that his nephew has disappeared, presumably dead
and that they no nothing of what happened.
We know this will come back to bite them eventually, but for the meantime, Navarro is happy that
he now has a chance to get out and re-establish his extradition deal with the
FBI.
But it also gives him the opportunity to re-establish his leadership within the Cartel and that
would have to come via Marty Byrde himself.
So he sends Marty to Mexico to deliver a message to the Cartel, one that falsely states, that
Omar himself had Javi killed.
While Marty is there he has to temporarily act as the
leader, playing the role of Omar and being stronger then we would all expect.
Of course, this news doesn't go down well with those who have supported Javi, leading
to an attempt on Omar's life in prison, with that coming from
his own sister Camila, who is also Javi's mother.
On the other side of events, Clare Shaw is put in quite the tense position, and after
cleaning up the mess of Javi's death in her office, she organises a deal with Ruth instead
of the Byrdes, to supply her company with the drugs from Darlene's organisation.
Ruth agrees to this because she can use the money earned
to buy the Missouri Belle Casino from the Byrdes, and it's also a way of screwing them
over too.
To be honest, I was routing for her to achieve this after all she's been through,
and you know it's good writing when a show can get you on board with her character rather
the main ones, who we also want to escape this life
too.
Well, everyone except wendy I guess.
But coming back to this development, The Byrdes refuse to give away the Casino to Ruth and
a reintroduced Rachel, because it's the main use of
laundering money for the Cartel.
Ruth doesn't quit, and because she's inherited Darlene's estate as well as her shares in
the Casino, she buys the remaining shares off Charles Wilkes,
gets her criminal record cleaned up, ultimately leading to her becoming the owner of the Missouri
Belle and the first Langmore in generations to be clean.
Quite the story we wanted Ruth to have and while it does eventually
go south, this moment did bring quite a smile to my face after all she's been through.
But this decision leads to the obsessive Wendy Byrde, finding a way to turn around Clare
and get her back into the drug-supply deal with the cartel.
It results in a multi million dollar donation to the Byrde foundation, as well
as shares put in order for cartel mother Camila in Shaw Medical.
So they've got some footing, but losing the Casino does become a problem that
they need to resolve quite quickly.
They need it to launder Omar Navarro's money, and he is pressing the Byrdes to move up the
extradition plans to only days.
Ruth however, has had enough with giving in to the Byrdes and their
operation, instead, wanting to run the Casino as a legit, clean business.
So the way out of this for the Byrdes is to come up with another
plan.
The FBI state that they would be happy for Marty to run the cartel operation, if Omar
were to be killed, following that previous hit on his life.
They want to keep the money rolling in and because they've formed a working
relationship with him, this would be the positive outcome.
We know that this isn't going to work, but it does fuel a quite deadly plan
from Wendy.
The idea is to have Omar killed and replace him with his sister, and it's revealed that
she tried to kill Navarro with the previous hit.
In a moment where this could all collapse, Camila agrees to this proposition
and it gives the Bydres a way out if they can pull it all off.
But despite having this opportunity, it's clear that the Byrdes family are in way to
deep, and the developments over the course of this season leads to their children, Jonah
and Charlotte, being fed up with their parent's
ongoing lifestyle.
Wendy won't pursue this opportunity because of the love she has for her children, and
it means that for any progress, she and Marty would need to re-establish that
relationship.
And this is formulated in the chaotic plotline surrounding Wendy's father, who is back in
the Ozarks and wants to know what happened to his son, Ben.
Once he learns that she ordered the hit on her own brother, he convinces Jonah and Charlotte
into moving away from their parents and going with him.
Wendy is furious and this leads to her even handing
herself in to the institution that previously housed Ben.
She refuses to leave until Marty get's their children back, and with them already
walking a tightrope, this just makes things even more tense.
So the only possible way that Marty can make this happen is for him to tell Ruth that if
she doesn't help get his children back, he will spill the beans to Camila about
the death of her son.
As expected, she agrees and let's Jonah and Charlotte in on the truth about Wendy's father.
He's a drunk and moderately abusive person, whose real reason
to go up against Wendy, was that he wanted to beat her and make her feel the embarrassment
that she made him feel.
So quite the crazy development that would of course send the
kids right back to their mother.
So Charlotte and Jonah listen as Wendy tells them the truth at the institution, admitting
that she's been controlling them, trying to build something
for them with the help of Marty, and that she will not control them any longer.
She tells them the partial truth about Ben and they leave,
reunited as a family.
And this is the scene that leads to that car-crash incident we saw at the beginning of Season
4 part 1.
They accidently crash and it's revealed that this is the
scene spelling out the message that the Ozark showrunners wanted us to feel.
And that is that this isn't a show about whether they are good or evil, and rather that it's
about the unpredictability of the life they've been
trapped in and have gone deeply into.
After this, they all stay alive and begin to make their way to foundation event, scheduled
to take place later that evening.
So all seems to be getting better for the Byrdes, with their plan to get out of the
drugs business staying afloat and having given Ruth and Rachel control of the
casino under witness by the FBI.
But this is where we come to what is likely going to be a very controversial ending.
In the ending of Ozark, the foundation event is well underway, and it's at this point where
Camila arrives and has suspiction over what actually happened to her son in Episode 8.
She rightly believes that the Byrdes and Clare
know more about her son's death than it appers.
She has Omar killed in the process, but after finding out that he wasn't involved in Javi's
death, it makes her suspect that they were up to something.
During the tense conversation, the Byrdes, having experience in this kind of situation
before, remain calm and don't mention a thing to her.
But it's actually Clare who partially reveals what happened, leading to a chain reaction
of devastating events.
She tells Camila that it was Ruth who killed her son and
that the Byrdes weren't there.
So while they appear to still be free, the crosshairs now turns to Ruth.
Camila tells her hitman to kill Jonah and Charlotte if Ruth is warned in any way
about the hitman coming to kill her, leaving Wendy and Marty completely distraught over
having to let Ruth die.
Ruth Langmore is shot down by Camila at the Langmore stronghold, putting
an end to the relationship she carried out with the Bydres.
It's devastating and acts as a somewhat reflection of Episode 8 when she previously shot Javi,
and in the episodes since, weve seen her envision the dead Langmores,
as if the show were warning us that her end is nigh.
The truth got out and there was clearly, no way out for Ruth, ragardless of cleaning up
her criminal record.
But that wasn't the last card being played in this finale, as there was one more event
left to unfold.
It's perhaps the scene that is going to divide people the most and it acts in a
similar way to how HBO's The Sopranos ended many years ago.
In the final scene, we get the return of Mel Sattem, following the Byrdes having him relegated
back to the Chicago PD, so that he couldn't take them to court.
But Mel comes back, this time with the goat cookie jar, telling them that he's know about
Ben's death.
They offer to pay him, but Mel seems done with it,
saying that they don't get to win this time.
And with that, Jonah arrives, raises a shotgun, one that he's used before but not to kill
anyone with, pointing it straight at Mel.
In a Sopranos esque move we cut to black and hear
the shot go off, leaving us with the questions over whether Jonah did actually kill him.
Did Jonah kill him or did he just shoot as a
threat for him to back off?
Marty and Wendy looked quite okay with this and it seemed like the only solution.
If it means one more death to ensure their freedom, they seem happy with
Jonah killing Mel to let that happen.
But whether they got their freedom or not, what the ending leaves us with is a message
surrounding morality.
There's no good or no bad, they are a family who went further and further down
a road in a world that is unfair.
Life is unfair and unpredictable and this whole final season really dives into that
concept.
But what is final about this ending is the idea that for
the first time in years, the Byrdes are united as a family again, and the pain they have
suffered infdividually is what brings them back
together.
God will still know of the pain they've caused on so many people, as reiterated throughout
the last 7 episodes, so it proposes a losing scenario anyway.
They can't take that back, regardless of what the outcome was and
that is what the final scene is telling us.
Again, it will surely create divide and even I haven't truely let it sunk in yet or decided
whether I liked it or not.
So what did I think of the final season and ending to Netflix's Ozark.
Well the show had 14 episodes to give us an answer to the Byrde family’s final leap
for freedom.
This could have been a shorter outing, but it's clear that
with more episodes, they wanted to let the main characters have their space to really
deliver the message that this ending contains.
Yes Season 4 has twists and shocking deaths, but I think
what they focussed on here was the message of what this life means for the family and
also the ramifications with the depth they've gone to.
It can either be an ending that leaves you frustrated and wanting more conclusions, or
it can be one that you find very powerful when it comes to the themes and style of what
Ozark is.
I honestly don't know what I feel about the ending and like I said, it gives me a similar
feeling tot the ending of The Sopranos.
And over time this can either be a good thing when
it comes to rewatching the show or it may not have the longevity that HBO's show did
back in the early 2000s.
What I will say though, is that Part 2 of season 4 is not a happy ending
nor one that tries to celebrate the characters and I think that's a good thing.
You feel the tension right up until the final scene and by not giving them a definitive
happy farewell, they focus more on the truth.
Many shows fall apart when they try and give us happy sendoffs rather then lean into the
truth of characters like this and what the ultimate destination
is for them.
And while the cut to black approach may feel dissapointing right now, I think with the
ending not playing out their freedom onscreen, it leaves us with the dark messages
that this show should end with.
And the final season leaves us with another question too.
Is life fair and do the bad people win?
The truth that is answered in this question, is that
there’s darkness to it regardless of the outcome.
Being in the Ozarks, the Byrdes have put so much pain on many others, and it's not necersarily
about whether they succeed, rather, it's about the painful truths in the life
they live.
It recognises that there is no good, no evil, and instead, it's all about the construction
of an ideological force that builds within over time.
We see that in all the characters to differing degrees and I think the ending works well
in that regard.
Anyway, that's how I saw it and I am particularly interested
to see how this ending will sit with me and many others, as the years go on, because it
will definitely create a divide right now.
But that was my video explaining the plot and ending for Ozark Season 4 Part 2.
The second part of this final season is all about it's character driven focus rather then
the big twists that say a show like Game of Thrones pushed
across in it's final season.
It fully understands how to tackle it's characters and the relationship between them come it's
final act.
Viewers will be debating whether it was the right move, but I think the more it sits with
me, the more happy I am they took that route rather then tying everything up in a neat
bow.
Again, to some degree it's similar to what The Sopranos did back in the day and look
at the longevity that had.
But it's down to how this is looked at in years to come, and hopefully,
it's the kind of ending that people appreciate more on rewatch and after more thought.
And there's also an argument to be made that the ending doesn't really matter when you
consider what the whole season leans into.
Overall, the final season of Ozark had gripping performances, absorbing production and tension
filled writting, that all combine to tell the story of
characters that display the truth in the road they have stayed on.
Is there really a way out for characters as bad as this.
I'm giving the final 7 episodes of Ozark a rating of 8.75
out of 10.
But to those who have already seen the end of the series, what are your thoughts on all
the events that went down and were you satisfied by the ending?
I will be expanding on my thoughts on the season in a video essay
in the coming days too, so keep a look out for whenever I post.
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