11 burning questions before Ozark’s finale

On April 29, , one of Netflix’s biggest original series, officially after four seasons by dropping its last batch of episodes. Created by Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams, the crime drama’s primary star is… well, its blue-tinged lighting, honestly. So burning question number one: Must almost every shot be either darkly lit or under a cobalt haze? We’re kidding. Sort of.The show follows the Byrde family, who move from Chicago to the Ozarks to launder money for a Mexican cartel and create utter chaos in their wake, and boasts a cast including Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, Sofia Hublitz, Skylar Gaertner, and Julia Garner, who rightfully won two Emmys for playing Ruth Langmore. As the show wraps up its run with seven final episodes, here are The A.V. Club’s most pressing questions.

Within the span of four 10-episode seasons, the Byrdes have accomplished the following: Marty (Bateman) and Wendy (Linney) worked their way back from an affair; moved to the Ozarks with their kids; basically took the Langmores out of the gene pool; opened a riverboat casino; managed a strip club; laundered for the cartel, and still had time for nightly family dinners of home-cooked meals. Probably a better question is, aren’t they tired? Seriously, the amount of intrigue and event in a single episode would be a whole season on any other show. Hopefully, the show answers exactly how much time it took for the Byrdes to stir up chaos in the Ozarks. [Matt Schimkowitz]

One negative aspect of Ozark packing so much into every episode is that some characters just disappear. Rachel Garrison (Jordana Spiro) brought a lot of down-to-earth normalcy to the Ozarks, which seemingly fell away in recent seasons. In season one, after learning of Marty’s laundering business, she flees with some cartel money. We all know that she got hooked on drugs and later turned into a snitch. She last appeared in season two, when Agent Roy Petty (Jason Butler Harner) used her legal troubles to get her to spy on Marty. It’d just be nice to get another “Hey, I’m doing okay!” from her before we say goodbye. [Matt Schimkowitz]

After Wendy killed her brother Ben in season three, and Charlotte helped to cover it up, Jonah began badgering his sister with the loaded hypothetical: Would you ever kill me to save yourself? This question, posed directly by the series, needs to be answered before the finale–and, at this point in Ozark’s run, we can already guess how that might happen. That is, it’s entirely possible a major character’s death (if it happens) might be caused by Charlotte’s action or inaction, and that doesn’t look good for Jonah. [Alison Foreman]

A kind of leveled-up Lady Macbeth, Wendy Byrde spent her four Ozark seasons accruing influence in local politics. Her initial aim–to see the Byrde family clean-nosed and prospering outside reach of the cartel–gradually morphed into an insatiable hunger for power that put the lives of the Byrdes and countless others on the line. Now, it’s a race against the clock to know if it was worth it for Wendy. With just a handful of episodes to go, can she still win the recognition she craves? [Alison Foreman]

Poor tiny baby Zeke. Ever since Pastor Mason (Michael Mosley) and Grace Young’s (Bethany Anne Lind) son was born, he’s been swiveling from one home to another—and in the Ozarks, of all places. He’s been in state custody, and then with Mason until Marty kills him. Zeke then becomes a foster child for the Byrdes before they’re forced to hand him over to Darlene Snell (Lisa Emery) because—no big deal—she shaved Jonah’s head as a warning. But what happens to Zeke now that Darlene and her new husband, Wyatt (Charlie Tahan), are also dead? Wendy got quite attached to the kid, but she continues to deal with numerous problems of her own. Will she still step up for Zeke, or will Ruth somehow get involved? Our two cents are that none of them should raise baby Zeke. Hopefully, someone far more responsible weighs in and gets him out of there. [Saloni Gajjar]

If Ozark hasn’t been building up to Ruth Langmore supremacy, what is even the point? She started as a rookie and Marty’s apprentice, but has climbed her way up and transformed into a smart and resourceful businesswoman. Her character development has been one of the show’s biggest assets. It looks like, ideally, Ruth would be poised to take over as the new criminal kingpin, especially if the Byrdes get out of town. It also looks like she’s in deep revenge mode now, and no one can really blame her. She was barely moving on from her boyfriend Ben’s (Tom Pelphrey) death when she stumbled upon her beloved cousin Wyatt’s dead body. She is enraged and wants to kill Javier, even though Marty begs her not to. She doesn’t normally act in haste, but the trailer shows Ruth shooting Javi. Is it just nifty editing, or does Ruth really take the enemy out? And what will a possible murderous spree mean for her? Ruth is more than capable of leading the casino, Darlene’s farm, or anything else thrown her way. But here’s hoping she gets to escape the Ozarks, and live a relatively peaceful life instead. [Saloni Gajjar]And now for fun, let’s revisit her screaming match with Marty when he’s trying to stop her from killing Javi in the season 4A finale:

It’s a weird, full-circle moment to think about the beginning of this show now that we’re at the end of it. For example, half of the first episode was Jason Bateman watching a tape of his wife Wendy doing it with Gary “Sugarwood” Silverberg (Bruce Altman). So what happened? Is the tape collecting digital dust on a Dropbox somewhere? How is Marty dabbling in revenge porn not brought up in every argument? [Matt Schimkowitz]

It makes sense for the Byrdes to fully take over the cartel while actual leader Omar Navarro (Felix Solis) rots in prison. Of course, they have to face Javi, the FBI, and a bunch of other problems if they do so. But it sure looks like Marty and Wendy are ready to get the hell back to Chicago. Will they finally manage to make a deal with Agent Maya Miller (Jessica Francis Dukes), or are they just doomed to keep their family in the Ozarks? If they survive, that is. [Saloni Gajjar]

On the note of Marty and Wendy’s survival, if the duo manages to stay alive after all this time: Should they even be together? They’ve gone through affairs, lies, and intense therapy sessions. They always band together for the sake of their kids, but more often than not, their contempt for one another is also very evident. They’re both horrible people, so in that sense, they deserve each other. But their relationship was always doomed, wasn’t it? [Saloni Gajjar]

Ever since Ozark debuted in 2017, each episode’s title sequence has included a carousel of cryptic symbols taunting viewers with dramatic foreshadowing. Sometimes the payoff was clear (think of a crucifix preceding a pivotal scene in a church), but other times these puzzles were vaguer. It’d be nice to see something more happen with this element of the show. At the very least, we can look forward to whatever the series finale’s symbols will be. [Alison Foreman]

Jason Bateman, this is an intervention. You have “text neck” from playing Marty Byrde. This man’s posture has been ravished from texting, slouching, and burying his hands in pockets all the time. In all honesty, Bateman’s texting work is one of the show’s most weirdly compelling features. There are few things less interesting than watching someone else text, but Bateman makes it work. Strangely enough, hunched over and furiously tapping, “Ruth, please do not do that,” and then immediately shoving his palms into those pockets, is how we’ll always remember Marty in the end. We wouldn’t have it any other way. [Matt Schimkowitz]