Ozark season four part 1 spoilers follow
Netflix’s crime drama Ozark is back with a nerve-inducing bang. Seasons one to three have been all high stakes, savage slaughters and dirty betrayal and when it comes to part one of the fourth season the creators do not disappoint.
At the end of the third season money-laundering marital duo Marty (Jason Bateman) and Wendy (Laura Linney) Byrde have narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Navarro cartel. Season four picks up with them washing off pieces of Helen Pierce (Janet McTeer) at the home of Omar Navarro after the mob's lawyer was shot in front of – or rather to the side and all over – them on a hit ordered by Navarro himself.
It turns out the kingpin drug lord saved the lives of the Byrdes over Helen because he has some juicy plans in store for them. So what are these plans and what's awaiting the shady Byrdes?
Ozark season four ending explained
The poor Byrdes. Every opportunity to escape the Ozarks seems to have eluded them thus far, but it seems they may have found a viable way to leave their criminal lifestyle behind them once and for all… with the help of Omar Navarro (Felix Solis). What?
Yes, scrape your jaw off the floor. Navarro has offered the Byrdes an out – but of course there are more strings attached to this deal than to a marionette.
It turns out the gangster Navarro wants to live the clean life too. As well as his eagerness to keep his family safe, Navarro senses a threat from within. His nephew Javier (Alfonso Herrera), who he suspects is moving against him and anyone who is important to him, ie the Byrdes.
Navarro elicits the help of the Byrdes to strike up a deal with the FBI. He wants Wendy and Marty to use their influence with Agent Maya Miller (Jessica Frances Dukes) to allow him to walk away from his business without threat of arrest and assassination. In layman's terms, the murdering drug lord wants to go skipping off into the sunset, moving freely to and from the US and Mexico without consequence.
His offering himself up to the authorities is the bargaining chip the Byrdes need to be absolved of their crimes and will free them of any obligation towards him. Hence the reason they proved more valuable than poor ol’ Helen.
At first the Byrdes agree the plan is ludicrous but in true Ozark fashion they can't escape resist an impossibly dangerous plan so they go along with it – but things don't run smoothly.
Meanwhile over at the Langmores the murder of Wendy's brother and Ruth's lover, Ben (on Wendy's orders) has brought Jonah Byrde (Skyler Gaertner) and Ruth (Julia Garner) closer together. Resentment over his uncle's death has caused friction over at the Byrde home and influences Jonah's decision to help Ruth with her new business: laundering money through the Lazy O Motel that she has just brought.
Ruth, her cousin Wyatt (Charlie Tahan) and drug farmer Darelene Snell (Lisa Emery) have partnered up to sell the heroin Darlene grows against the wishes of the Navarro cartel. This spit in the eye of the cartel will come back to haunt them. Hang tight. We'll get there.
All this shadiness is going on underneath the very watchful eyes of PI Mel Sattem (Adam Rothenburg) who has been tasked with finding out where Helen is by her husband who eagerly wants a divorce. Aww, now that's love. Mel's nosing around causes the death of Sheriff John Nix and threatens to unearth the Byrdes' illegal activities.
Speaking of illegal activities, Wendy is working hard for their freedom and in doing so is trying to gain national influence by getting all the midwest elections to go through the Byrde Foundation.
Old foe Randall Schaffer (Bruce Davison) is one of the big wigs she'll have to schmooze to get what she wants. However that turns out to be a doddle when admits he needs a favour – help keeping his son and grandson out of trouble manufacturing machines that can suppress electoral votes.
Wendy's terrible deeds don't stop there. The Byrde matriarch also needs £150 million in the bank to fund her mission, so what does she do? She schemes, coercing Clare Shaw (Katrina Lenk) of Shaw Medical Solutions into donating the money by accepting heroin instead of medical grade opioids. This saves the struggling medical company £300 million, half of which ends up in Wendy's pocket.
Season four part one spends a lot of time focused on the brokering of the deal between Navarro and the FBI, with the Byrdes playing middle-men trying to keep both parties sweet. Navarro offers his impulsive nephew the keys to the cartel kingdom whilst agreeing to give his entire cartel up to the FBI.
As a show of good faith Navarro allows the FBI to seize one of Javi's drug trucks but this backfires. Javi retaliates by organising a fake drug run and plants the truck with bombs taking the lives of the federal agents on the operation. The FBI get nervous and threaten to pull Navarro's deal off the table but instead end up offering another deal.
Navarro must carry on running the cartel for another five years, giving up intelligence to them when called on. Javi won't take the demotion well and Navarro knows this will mean having to murder his nephew – he's less than pleased but agrees, as immunity is off the table.
The Byrdes finally, finally, get the sweet taste of freedom they've been itching for but the Ozark creators love to tease don’t they? Agent Miller thinks the Bureau only wants to keep Navarro on for another five years so that they can enjoy the financial influx the money seizures provide. Miller does not take this well and so orders the public arrest of Omar Navarro.
Oh how the plot thickens.
Javi has a murderous to-do list and he's checking it twice. First on the chopping block is Darlene Langmore. Yes, you read right. In the midst of all this murdering and money laundering the former Mrs Snell found time for love and marries her young beau Wyatt Langmore.
The romance is short and sweet because the comeuppance mentioned earlier comes back around and Darlene is shot for not shutting down her drug operation. Wyatt also gets the axe for… well, just being there.
Next on the list is Marty. Javi accuses Marty of being behind his uncle's arrest, as well as the money seizures and threatens to kill him. However Wendy manages to persuade Navarro to con Javi into accepting the same deal he had with the FBI. Javi accepts, not realising he will be arrested, which secures Navarro extradition.
Navarro and the Byrdes are not the only ones who want out of this life. When Ruth's business deeds don't pan out Marty offers to buy her product for the Shaw foundation. Her selling means she can leave all this behind and start afresh with the money. But that would be too easy.
Many loose ends are left in the wind by the end of season four part one, but the juiciest one of all may just be Ruth Langmore's revenge. She is distraught after discovering the murdered body of Wyatt and this derails her escape plans. Ruth demands – at gunpoint – that the Byrdes tell them who did it (those poor Byrdes just can’t catch a break).
They deny, deny, deny, of course, knowing there will be consequences but poor, bitter Jonah’s passive aggressiveness rears its ugly head again and he tells her it's Javi. Now Ruth is off to kill herself a drug lord, which could spell D-E-A-T-H for her in part two.
Ozark is available now on Netflix.
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TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since. For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing. She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel.
