The following contains spoilers for Ozark Season 4, Part 2, now streaming on Netflix.
Ozark's series finale was filled with the high-stakes drama fans of the Netflix series have come to know and love, and in true Ozark fashion, nobody in the Byrde family's circle was safe. But while Season 4 was a concise ending to a tumultuous and dark series, the final seven episodes were not perfect. Staying true to the show's established path may have short-changed its own story in the end.
Season 4, Part 1's ending saw the deaths of Darlene Snell and the terrible Wyatt Langmore at the hands of Omar Navarro's volatile nephew Javi. Early teasers and trailers for the second half of Season 4 showed Wyatt's cousin Ruth -- a longtime Ozark fan-favorite -- exacting her revenge on his killer, which caused a multitude of problems for Marty and Wendy Byrde and their arrangement with Navarro and his cartel. The final episodes of Ozark had a lot to wrap up, but seamlessly followed multiple storylines before they all converged in the series finale, in which established themes overrode character development.
Camila Elizondro’s Late Entrance Made It Difficult To Connect With Her
One of the highlights of Ozark was its main villain, Omar Navarro. The ruthless, cuthroat leader of a notorious Mexican drug cartel, Navarro was Marty's boss since the beginning, mostly as an omnipotent force in Seasons 1 and 2 before taking on a more hands-on approach in the last two seasons. Part of what made Omar so fascinating was despite his pacifist mask, underneath was a ruthless murderer who was not afraid to show he was in control.
That was what makes the addition of Omar's sister Camila so fascinating. Like her brother, Camila was softspoken yet calculating and highly observant, analyzing those around her and identifying their strengths and weaknesses -- particularly using Marty's empathy against him early on in Season 4, Part 2. After Omar's arrest and imprisonment and Javi's death, Marty and Wendy shifted gears and focused on Camila as their way out. However, Camila's entrance felt a bit too late.
While she was an interesting character -- a mourning wife and mother who'd lost essentially her entire family to cartel life -- she was also just as cutthroat. Her late-stage arrival made it difficult for Camila to be seen as anything other than a means to an end for the Byrdes. If that was the entire purpose of her character, that was plenty of wasted potential at the eleventh hour.
Ruth Fulfilled The Langmore Curse
Something haunting Ruth over the course of the series was the "Langmore Curse": a superstition created by her cousin Wyatt that detailed the life of crime nearly every Langmore had succumbed to. Ruth was thrust into criminality from a young age, something alluded to throughout Ozark and elaborated upon further in Season 4, Part 2, when she was explaining to a judge that her father had her breaking into trailers since she was three years old. Ruth was spunky and smart-mouthed -- a true product of living in a small town while growing up in a family of delinquents.
But since meeting the Byrdes, her life rapidly spiraled downhill, including the deaths of her uncles, father and then Wyatt. By Season 4, Part 2, Ruth was at her breaking point, blinded by bloodlust and hungry for revenge. She tracked Javi to Chicago (where he was meeting the Byrdes and the Breaking Bad-esque Clare Shaw), and succeeded in exacting justice for Wyatt, but at what cost? Javi's death did not bring Wyatt back; it just meant Ruth could add "murderer" to her impressive rap sheet... before she herself was killed. The theme of the Curse was maintained, but it didn't have to be.
Wendy Byrde Got the Happy Ending Ruth Deserved
Ruth tried to turn over a new life by getting her criminal record expunged and purchasing the Missouri Belle after she inherited Darlene Snell's stake in the casino. She even tore down her family's trailersto make way for the fancy new house she and Wyatt had always talked about. It seemed like Ruth would finally be escaping the life that had haunted her in favor of the one she'd always wanted. But when dealing with the cartel, nobody is safe -- something Ozark has proven time and time again.
Though she got her resolution by killing Javi, Ruth was unable to escaping a grieving Camila's rage, and ultimately paid for his life with her own. To kill off someone as beloved as Ruth in the finale did give Ozark a sense of finality and follow through on that theme, but it wasn't satisfying for fans who wanted better. The Byrdes arrived in the Ozarks trying to escape the dangerous world they'd found themselves in, only to bring the danger with them and ruin the lives of practically everyone around them. Meanwhile, Wendy ended up seemingly on top -- suggesting that the true villains of Ozark were the Byrde family themselves.
All four of Ozark are now streaming on Netflix.