Ozark Season 4 Part 2 Review: A Complex Ending That Will Not Make Everyone Agree, Satisfying and Disappointing At The Same Time
Starring: Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, Sofia Hublitz, Skylar Gaertner, Julia Garner, Jordana Spiro, Jason Butler Harner, Esai Morales, Peter Mullan and Other
Directors: Amanda Marsalis, Melissa Hickey, Laura Linney
Streaming Platform: Netflix (click to watch)
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Ozark Season 4 Part 2 Review: What is the best way to end a series? In recent years we have seen several season endings of shows acclaimed by audiences and critics, from Breaking Bad to Game of Thrones, and very often a good slice of the public hated the conclusions conceived by showrunners and screenwriters. From April 29 on Netflix is available Ozark Part 4 Part 2, the second chapter of the final season of the series created by Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams focusing on the Byrde family and their intricate involvement with Mexican drug cartels for which they have cleaned up millions of dollars, including tourist villages, casinos, motels, charitable foundations and funeral homes.
Three months after the beginning of the end of Ozark , one of Netflix’s most loved and awarded series comes to its natural and functional conclusion. In the first part of the last season (recovered our review of Ozark 4 Part 1) we had left the Byrdes still struggling with the agreements with Javi, who is now ready to become the successor of his uncle after the betrayal of Maya Miller chooses to kill a cold blooded Wyatt Langmore and Darlene Snell, guilty of not accepting his terms.
Ozark Season 4 Part 2 Review: The Story
Let’s make a brief introduction: while we try to avoid spoilers on these final episodes of Ozark, some small reference to the previous episodes and seasons will be inevitable. As you know for sure, in short, the Byrde family found themselves embroiled in money laundering from the illegal activities of a major Mexican drug cartel. If you know Breaking Bad or Weeds, you will already know what happens when a new subject interferes in the illicit affairs of others: the inexorable descent into a downward spiral that leads to increasingly crude criminal acts, in order to guarantee survival in the world of the ruthless. organized crime.
After discovering the murder of her brother, the last and most affectionate relative left to him, Ruth Langmore seeks revenge on Javi, facing the Byrdes intent on protecting him instead. The mechanism begins to turn and the gears to intersect each other, in this second part of the final series, an arrival point where every card is discovered, exposing the less exposed bowels of the corrupt personalities at stake, masks that finally fall to the ground to reveal the most macabre and now unsavable faces of a family exact personification of the blackest and sickest heart of the American dream.
Precisely in light of the escalation of acts of indiscriminate violence of which the Byrdes are both victims and perpetrators, the two heads of families Marty and Wendy decide to have enough: for all its entirety, Ozark Season 4 is focused precisely on the search for freedom from ties that bind them, in an indissoluble way for years now, to the business of the boss Omar Navarro. In order to try to free themselves from a life now entirely devoted to crime, the Byrdes also begin to collaborate with the FBI. It goes without saying that this choice, if on the one hand it would seem to be able to simplify their exit from the world of crime, on the other hand it risks compromising their relations with the cartel. The Byrdes are a long way from being safe at this stage of their catharsis process, but if they can eventually get out of this incredibly delicate situation safely, that would be a big step forward. Coming out clean and free to start a new life, then, would really be the perfect ending for the Byrde. But it will be up to you to find out if the most criminal family in Netflix’s stock park will be able to save their skin!
Ozark Season 4 Part 2 Review: And Analysis
A season – and a conclusion – that is a woman, starting from the intrinsic femininity in the word revenge. In reality, Ozark has always been a tale of female emancipation, in one way or another, but the emergence of this central narrative aspect only began to appear clear in the second part of the show. It is no coincidence that 6 of the 7 final episodes were entrusted to the vision of 3 different and new directors of the project: Amanda Marsalis, Melissa Hickey and also Laura Linney, who took the helm of the eleventh episode. A final arc full of comparisons and reflections on manipulation, abuse and patriarchy, on how difficult it is to love and on how easy it is to lie, hate, hold a grudge forever. If Ben was the sick but positive part of the Davis family, it is now Wendy’s father (a very good Richard Thomas) who comes into play, determined to find out what happened to his son and wreak even more havoc in Mrs Byrde’s life.
The problems are many, stacked one on top of the other in a staggering tower ready to collapse under the weight of murders, betrayals and lies, all elements that the series has always treated with the utmost respect because the focal engine of the story, of the steps forward and of side of the protagonists, of the very evolution of the series. And as we said, revenge has a primary role: that of Ruth, the other of the Navarro, and then of Wendy’s father and again of the investigator Mel. There is no escape for anyone and everyone, some more and some less, is preparing to face their demons, as the tagline then announces: “Nobody comes out really clean”, not even the birds that stand out from a pool of blood flight, free but forever marked.
That of the Byrds is the story of a family reunited in crime, first destroyed by paternal failures, of man, then sunk by maternal, feminine ambition, and finally found itself equally strong and delicate. From the ashes of the familiar phoenix, therefore, something different is born, more aware and disillusioned, capable of supporting the ferocious matriarchal aims as a whole and transforming itself into death. Laura Linney remains an exceptional actress and her transformation perhaps represents the conceptual union of the relationship between Skyler and Walter in Breaking Bad, managing to be both in a single solution, more dynamic and decisive and cruel than Marty, than when she must “being a boss” he does it with a determined pulse but full of remorse, even making a mistake, worrying. Her emotions are real, her restlessness palpable, while those of Wendy are increasingly difficult to decipher. Together with Linney, last but deserved applause goes to Julia Garner, capable of giving courage and fragility in equal measure to her Ruth, who has here his most beautiful and intense arc, solitary and meaningful, moving. Her is the character who has lost more than others but has never given up, facing the toughest challenges.
She represents the true soul of the series, the gentle but turbid heart of the Ozark, attacked by the Byrd’s cancerous cells, invited to enter the lungs like smoke, sometimes aware and sometimes less of the consequences. A difficult ending, his, as well as that of Marty’s family: choosing between salvation and condemnation. In our opinion, the creators of the series and Jason Bateman himself have chosen the right conclusion, perhaps even the only possible one, something that would act as an emblem of the show, that was a terminal and decisive landing without being neither black nor white, trying to ride the grays of the Byrdes. He succeeds with great intelligence, satisfying where and when possible and disappointing in the same way, just as true endings can do, without getting anyone to agree. And the truth is, that’s okay.
Ozark is a series with a rather irregular course that often enjoys shuffling the cards on the table. For example, the idea of laundering dirty money for a drug cartel came from Marty, who had thought of repaying his debt to Navarro in this way, accrued because of the thefts skillfully (but not too much, given that were discovered) orchestrated by Marty himself. Obviously, this is an extreme choice, which Marty takes to guarantee a safe life for himself and his family; in short, if he hadn’t decided to launder Navarro’s money he would have died, just like his fellow scammer, as we saw in the first season of the series. A bit of everything Ozark revolves around the extreme decisions that people make when their only other alternative is death: in these cases, any action, from drug dealing to murder, is lawful.
Marty Byrde thinks so, yet, at times, we can see him hesitate when it comes to making delicate and extreme decisions that, however, could benefit his family. Marty hasn’t completely renounced his humanity, but his wife did. Wendy Byrde is an incredibly fascinating character, from the point of view of the screenplay and its characterization: if initially she was convinced by the words of her husband, an excellent storyteller, to undertake a life dedicated to crime, as business got complicated, yes. she is increasingly interested in this aspect of her new life, but not because she loves the criminal life itself.
Much like Lady Macbeth does in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the wife’s ambition clearly dominates that of her husband, going so far as to persuade him to do acts that go against his own nature out of lust for power. This is the key to reading to always keep in mind when it comes to Lady Byrde. To move her actions, however, there is also another factor: the desire to protect her family, even if, often, this is attributable to the simple survival instinct of Wendy herself: we must not forget, in fact, that Lady Byrde has arrived. even to have her only brother killed, to protect herself (and the rest of her family too). Where Marty hesitates, Wendy is determined; when he shows her feelings, she denies them. As the story of Ozark Season 4 continues you will notice how Lady Byrde becomes more and more cold, numb, calculating. By now, she is the true criminal mastermind of the Byrde family.
Another very important theme of Ozark Season 4 is that of revenge: you will certainly remember that Ruth wants to kill Javi Elizonndro, the man who killed her beloved cousin Wyatt. The problem is that Javi is Navarro’s nephew and taking him out might not be such a good idea on Ruth’s part, because that would mean antagonizing the entire cartel that Elizonndro is a part of, which, in turn, would mean putting in very serious danger to his own life. But Ruth doesn’t care at all. The girl does not act, in fact, simply in the grip of her own feelings, because she is perfectly aware of the fact that, if she manages to kill Javi, someone will try to kill her; she just doesn’t care. Ruth may end up in jail or killed, and she knows it very well, but she won’t care if she manages to avenge Wyatt.
From this point of view, Ruth and Wendy are two diametrically opposed characters: both perform extreme actions, but Ruth is a victim of her feelings, Wendy of her cold calculations. You will find out how the murky story of the Byrde family and all the people they ruined their lives ends with the last seven episodes of Ozark Season 4. Disturbing, compelling, dark, murky, Ozark Season 4 is enriched with another 7 episodes full of action, suspense, double games, unexpected plot twists and a good dose of blood. Highly recommended for lovers of the genre, Ozark is a hidden gem that deserves to be appreciated by as many fans as possible.
Ozark Season 4 Part 2 Review: The Last Words
After five years of militancy among the first line of Netflix originals, the award-winning Ozark it reaches its narrative climax, the natural conclusion of the Byrd family’s criminal history. A complex ending that will not make everyone agree, satisfying and disappointing at the same time, but which is basically right for this tale of corruption, manipulation, betrayal and lies, key elements of a tale of ambition as black as the abyss, patriarchal and then matriarchal, in constant evolution and change from beginning to end. The skill of the cast should once again be underlined, first of all Laura Linney and Julia Garner, always great stars of the scene with their characters equally strong and delicate, courageous but fearful, sometimes glacial and others of great heat. A series, Ozark, which has shown great narrative and productive compactness, taking the right credit for the necessary time.
