Final season of ‘Ozark’ is expectedly stressful
The Byrde family is cruising down the road, with Sam Cooke’s “Bring It on Home to Me” playing on the car radio.
“God,” says Laura Linney’s Wendy Byrde, “I love his voice.”
She is in the passenger seat as her husband — Jason Bateman’s Marty — drives and teen children Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) and Jonah (Skylar Gaertner) sit behind them.
Marty and Wendy are 48 hours from an important meeting with the FBI. Two days stand between them and the freedom they’ve long sought from the criminal life they’ve built for themselves.
“What’s their temperature?” Wendy asks.
“Does it get above chilly?” Marty responds.
All seems reasonably well, but, after some more chit-chat among the four … something happens.
We won’t say what, but it’s unexpected.
So begins “The Beginning of the End,” the first episode of the fourth and final season of Netflix’s hit drama series “Ozark.” The streaming giant is releasing the season’s first, largely satisfying seven episodes this week, with another batch of seven to debut at a yet-to-be-announced time.
For three seasons, beginning in July 2017, the stress-inducing series has explored, as Netflix puts it, “capitalism, family dynamics and survival through the eyes of (anything but) ordinary Americans.”
The Byrdes certainly are not ordinary Americans.
After relocating from Chicago to Ozarks, Missouri, they’ve built an ever-expanding business empire propped up by criminal endeavors and political influence — all while being under the thumb of a bigger bad, Omar Navarro (Felix Solis), leader of a Mexican drug cartel.
After the aforementioned opening sequence, the Andrew Bernsteindirected episode moves us to where we last left Marty and Wendy: Mexico. They are trying to wipe away the murder of a former associate — both figuratively and literally, the shocking execution of the woman occurring right next to them and leaving her blood caked to clothes, skin and hair — and move on with their constantly evolving, ever-dangerous reality.
Omar wants something from them, something that will be very difficult to deliver. However, if they can achieve the goal, they will be free of their obligations to the cartel. (And, of course, if they cannot, they will die at his powerful, far-reaching hands.)
In Mexico, they are introduced to Omar’s nephew Javi Elizonndro (Alfonso Herrera), a slick, ambitious, business school-educated lieutenant in the cartel. It’s clear from the jump he is going to be a problem for the Byrdes.
Yes, the addition of the volatile Javi into the mix feels like showrunner Chris Mundi and the other writers going back to the playbook from last year, when they inserted Wendy’s bipolar brother, Ben, into the Byrdes’ life to complicate matters. However, whereas Ben felt like an out-of-nowhere plot element — the surfacing of the never-before-discussed family member is a tired conflict-creating device — Javi’s sudden presence feels at least a bit more organic.
Speaking of Ben, two characters are struggling with his unpleasant fate at the end of the third season. Understandably, his girlfriend — “Ozark” mainstay Ruth Langmore (the always-enjoyable Julia Garner of the well-received 2019 drama “The Assistant”) — is torn up about it. And then there’s Jonah, who bitterly resents his mother for the hand she had in Ben’s demise.
As these seven episodes progress, the relationship between Wendy and her son becomes untenable — especially after Jonah enters into high-stakes criminal activity outside of the family. (And Wendy certainly isn’t thrilled with Marty’s obvious pride that his son has become a chip off the ol’ money-laundering block.)
On the other hand, Jonah grows a bit closer to his sister, but he worries that Charlotte is becoming too comfortable as she entrenches herself in the family business, helping to run the Byrde’s casino and more. Charlotte obviously loves impressing her mother, but Jonah warns her to prepare for the moment she disappoints Wendy.
At this point, Wendy has grown into something akin to this show’s Walter White — she’s broken beyond bad, a character who now causes you to wonder what she WON’T do to get what she wants. Linney (“Sully”), as always, is terrific, the acclaimed actress knowing exactly when to take it up a notch emotionally.
Then there’s Marty, played with so much mellowness by Bateman (“Gamenight”) that you almost forget he’s working to put out three raging fires at any given time. You could knock the actor for not bringing enough intensity to the role — especially in these episodes, as Marty works toward his highly desired endgame — but Bateman remains uniquely appealing. Marty is, perhaps, unlike any other criminal we’ve seen on screen.
Although Bateman typically directs the season premiere and a handful of other “Ozark” episodes each season — and has shown a gift for it — he’s not behind the camera for any of these episodes.
The most notable director credited in these episodes is actress Robin Wright, who made an impressive debut as a feature director with the strong 2021 drama “Land.” She does fine work at the helm for the sixth episode, “Sangre Sobre Todo,” as well as the eventful mid-season finale, “Sanctified.”
As longtime fans know, a viewer is required to suspend a lot of his or her disbelief to enjoy “Ozark” to its fullest. That won’t change now, as swallowing even that the Byrdes are still alive at this point will take some effort on your part.
And, hey, how COULD you buy the squirm-worthy romantic coupling of ruthless farmer, heroin supplier and shotgun enthusiast Darlene Snell (Lisa Emery) and Ruth’s gentle cousin Wyatt Langmore, who’s a fistful of decades younger than his best gal?
By the way, Darlene, Wyatt and Ruth form a destined-to-be-rocky business partnership, and, sure enough, Darlene does not embrace Ruth’s plan to sell their product as “designer heroin” with a huge markup. (Cleverly, she pitches it as “farm-to-needle” fare to a Chicagobased celebrity chef.)
Netflix doesn’t want reviewers to reveal any of the coming deaths — but this is “Ozark,” so you should expect a few — and we don’t want to give away much of the overall fun, however anxiety-inducing it may be.
Will the Byrdes ultimately rest in peace with so many others who’ve crossed their paths these last few years?
“You don’t win until I win, Marty,” Navarro says ominously in the season premiere. “Don’t forget that.”
Earlier in that episode, though, Wendy says to Marty, “I’m not (expletive) losing.”
We wouldn’t bet against her.