Ozark spoilers follow.
Netflix crime drama Ozark has never failed to keep us hooked and now it's back, with more money and more problems.
The Byrde family have fully had their wits put to the test over the course of the show, with season three alone seeing them pushed to the brink in the name of their money-laundering business.
Marty was abducted and tortured by the drug kingpin himself, Omar Navarro, who isn't done with his star accountant and Wendy just yet. Meanwhile, the Byrde matriarch was forced to do the unthinkable and order a hit on her own brother Ben to save their family from being slaughtered by the cartel.
Now the two are back following the death of the Navarro lawyer Helen Pierce, and things are about to get very real. Season four part one begins with the couple washing pieces of Helen out of their hair. Moments later, they're brokering a deal with Navarro for their freedom.
However, to achieve this, they must also secure a deal between Navarro and the FBI where the mass-murdering crime lord gets off scot-free.
This seemingly impossible feat takes them on a bumpy ride that comes to a crashing halt with the death of a Langmore, someone out for blood, the head of the cartel being stitched up, and the planned extradition of a criminal.
Not bad for just part one of the fourth season. Still, the million dollar question on everyone lips remains: have the Byrdes finally succeeded in attaining their freedom?
Here's everything you need to know about Ozark season four part two.
Ozark season 4 part 2 release date on Netflix: When will it premiere?
By now you've almost certainly caught up with part one of Ozark's fourth and final season. If not, you're playing a dangerous game scoping out info for part two. Dodging spoilers is no easy feat.
Part one of the 14-part series was finally released in January. However if you're waiting for news on when you'll be able to get your hands on the remaining seven nail-biting episodes, you're in luck.
The second instalment is set to land on Netflix on April 29, 2022. News of its return broke with a tense trailer featuring Ruth Langmore, who is of course still in shock from the death of her cousin Wyatt. In the new trailer we find a distraught Ruth cruising around in her car, gun at the ready, looking for revenge. Her vacant expression is accompanied by a hair-raising inner monologue.
"My childhood traumas are not like yours," she says. "You see, I'm a cursed Langmore. Long inured to violence and death. In the case of a Langmore, perhaps not soon enough."
Her chilling words may be a nod to Wyatt's demise, or could foreshadow her own fate in the coming episodes. For more on the trailer for Ozark season four part two, scroll down!
In an interview with The Wrap, showrunner Chris Mundy explained why he felt season four needed to be a two-part wonder.
"We always thought five [seasons] was the outside number," Mundy said, speaking of the decision of how to bring the show to a close. "It just felt like after that – we didn't want to repeat ourselves. We didn't want the show to feel like it was continuing because it was a TV show and it had to continue. So really the decision has always been between 'is it four [seasons] or is it five', and then Netflix hit upon the idea of saying, 'We'll do four but we'll make it long and split it in this way,' and that felt perfect."
Mundy felt that the traditional format of 10 episodes per series was not enough and that the split would do justice to Ozark's ending.
"We could make these seven [episodes] feel complete and make the second seven feel complete, even though it's all one continuum," he added. "I think 10 wouldn't have been enough to tell the story in the way we wanted to. So any number over 10 and under 20 was gonna be good in my book."
"We're so happy Netflix recognised the importance of giving Ozark more time to end the Byrdes' saga right," Mundy added in a statement (via Variety). "It's been such a great adventure for all of us — both on-screen and off — so we're thrilled to get the chance to bring it home in the most fulfilling way possible."
"It was originally going to be 10, but we wanted a little bit more," Mundy said (via TVLine). "And then we kind of [arrived at] 14 together. Fourteen was something that, if divided up, would [allow] each part to feel substantial and distinct. And it felt like a good number where we could [finish out] the story but not overstay our welcome."
Jason Bateman added: "A super-sized season means super-sized problems for the Byrdes. I'm excited to end with a bang(s)."
Netflix may be holding back part two but fans will be pleased to know that Mundy has confirmed that the remaining seven episodes are locked and finished.
Ozark season 4 part 2 cast: Who's in it?
In typical Ozark fashion, we lost some people in season four.
The following characters were not invited to the part-two party on account of their lack of a pulse:
Corrupt sheriff John Nix (Robert C Treveiler), who was shot by Navarro's loose-cannon nephew Javi Elizonndro (Alfonso Herrera) after he went poking around into the disappearance of Helen Pierce.
KC mob boss Frank Cosgrove senior (John Bedford Lloyd) also took a bullet to the chest during a confrontation with Darlene Snell (Lisa Emery).
Darlene gets her comeuppance later on down the line when she is shot by Javi for refusing to close her drug business. Wyatt Langmore (Charlie Tahan) gets caught in the crosshairs and earns himself a bullet for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
So, who's left standing?
Well, all members of the Byrde family – Marty, Wendy, Jonah (Skylar Gaertner) and Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) – have made it to the final lap. Omar Navarro (Felix Solis), Ruth Langmore (Julia Garner) and FBI Special Agent Maya Miller (Jessica Frances Dukes) will also be joining the Byrdes at the finish line.
Jim (Damian Young) – who has graduated to becoming the Byrdes' lawyer – avoids death despite being threatened by Javi.
Frank Cosgrove Jr (Joseph Sikora) does not meet the same fate as his father. FBI agent and Petty's former lover Trevor Evans (McKinley Belcher III) has only made a minor appearance, so we suspect more is to come from him in part two.
Three Langmore (Carson Holmes) and Sam Dermody (Kevin L Johnson) are still along for the ride. As for Helen's daughter Erin (Madison Thompson), she's alive for now – but may not be for much longer if she keeps pressing about the death of her mother.
The following newcomers have also made the cut:
• Retired Illinois senator Randall Schafer (aka former X-Men star Bruce Davison)
• Trigger-happy Javi
• Determined PI Mel Sattem (Adam Rothenberg)
• The Navarros' priest (Bruno Bichir)
• Sheriff Leigh Guerrero (CC Castillo), whose approach is very much "my way or the highway".
• Clare Shaw, CEO of a top biopharmaceutical firm (Katrina Lenk). Her "judgement is corrupted as she learns the true cost of power".
Ozark season 4 plot and spoilers: What will happen?
"It's nerve-wracking," Tahan told NME in regards to how it all wraps up. "With an ongoing show, you don't have all the scripts, it goes on for years. So you know, you have no idea how the show's going to turn out. But I have a lot of trust with the writers at Ozark."
As you'd expect, Bateman has always been in the know about the ending.
"I do know where everything is going to end," he said (via IndieWire). "I was interested in the big question he [Mundy] has the opportunity to answer: Are they going to get away with it, or are they going to pay a bill? What does he want to message to the audience about the consequences of what the Byrdes have done – or lack thereof?
"We had some great conversations about that, and he's got really good ideas about that. Specifically, what kind of happens at the end of the last episode: I know, and it's great."
Speaking on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in December 2020, Bateman said of the writing team: "I don't know how they keep escalating the danger without killing us or putting us in jail. We make as many mistakes as you can without being killed or incarcerated. And we've got more in store for this [season].
"We do land the plane in a very satisfactory way," he continued.
Bateman was two weeks into shooting the final season when he made those comments, so there's a good chance he dropped a couple of potential spoilers there. It looks like death and jail are off the end game table for the Byrdes, unless he was performing a pretty major misdirect (he is an actor, after all).
But it does seem like there will be consequences. Bateman said of Marty: "He's probably a little bit dumber than he thinks he is, so he backs into some bad decisions and he thinks they're good decisions, and then he's got to pay the price for cutting corners."
At the end of season three, Navarro chose the Byrdes over Helen, giving Wendy the assurances she had asked for by shooting his attorney in the head.
Helen was making moves in a bid to take the reins from Marty and Wendy, in turn proving them redundant and ensuring their deaths. But she failed – and even with his (temporary) imprisonment, the Byrdes still remain in bed with the head of the Navarro cartel, Omar Navarro.
Chatting to Entertainment Weekly about that shocking finale, Mundy said: "We thought of the first third of the season as Marty vs Wendy, and Wendy kind of wins that battle, and then it transitions to this tentative alliance between Wendy and Helen, and by extension Wendy and Marty vs Helen.
"By the time it came to the end, we really wanted to hold that tension of these two things [that] cannot cohabitate, somebody's got to win this battle because Navarro isn't going to put up with anything unstable and he was going to have to pick a side."
He added: "As good as Helen is, there's other lawyers in the world. But Wendy and Marty have now pulled off two impossibilities for him.
"One is getting a casino to launder through in the first place, which is sort of the holy grail of money laundering.
"And the second is that, at least in Navarro's mind, their claim that they have the FBI on their side and can swing the power of the US government in the intervention in the drug war against their rivals, that's something virtually no-one else can do, and that essentially tipped the scales for Marty and Wendy."
Marty has been close to walking away from the money-laundering operation on two occasions, but his partnership with the crime lord still stands... for now. Will he make the leap in season four?
"It [the show] is working out better than I could have ever hoped for, and I had high, high hopes" Bateman told IndieWire. "Those first two scripts that I read, there was a lot of mood, a lot of danger, a lot of crisis, a lot of things that I was really curious to see if I could deliver to an audience as a director.
"The fact that people ended up watching [Ozark] is the part that you have zero control over, [but that] encourages us to keep going and make it even better and slightly more challenging. It's been very gratifying, and it fuels me to try to take even a bigger, more challenging swing on the next project."
So, what's in store for our characters? Poor Ruth seems to have lost it all. Her money-laundering business has taken a nosedive, and Wyatt has sadly met his maker. Now Ruth is out for blood and is intent on killing his murderer Javi, but will she meet the same end as her cousin?
Mundy told Entertainment Weekly that Ruth will continue to play a central role in the drama. "I think it will be about whether or not Ruth really can create something of her own that she wants and is sustainable, or if she wants something else," he said.
"And I think it will be about if the Byrdes can turn the biggest mistake of their lives into this huge advantage, and how much will karma catch up with them if they do?"
Then there's Jonah, whose resentment towards his mum for ordering the hit on his uncle Ben has caused him to act out. However, acting out in the Byrde family means temporarily money-laundering for Ruth, moving out from home, and spilling family secrets left, right and centre.
It's safe to say that he's not handling it very well, and we'd expect that to ramp up in the next chapter.
Skylar Gaertner has been discussing Jonah's journey in season four (via Starry Mag) – starting with where his character lands at the beginning of the season.
"Well, he's alive… which is saying a lot for a show like this. I can't disclose many other details, but it's clear that the dynamics are changing at the end of season three. Jonah is at a bit of a crossroads when it comes to his family; until then, he had gotten through by being extremely adaptable, loyal, curious and optimistic.
"The Byrdes' way of life has constantly tested those traits, but he always pulled through and, in fact, thrived because he had some foundation (however unstable) in his family. The end of season three; however, really threatens to topple all of that.
"After learning the truth about his mum, we can only guess how his outlook on life will be affected. He's followed his parents fairly unquestioningly until now, so it'll be interesting to see how his rationale changes as he copes with the latest tragedy."
Skylar has experienced a pretty obvious growth spurt between seasons. He is no longer the 12-year-old kid who began in season one. When asked if this had any impact on Jonah’s maturing into adulthood, Mundy explained that the two kind of went hand in hand.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Mundy said: "I think because of where we left him at the end of season three shooting out those windows, that was really his first act of defiance. And Skylar, every year, he just gets better as an actor. So it was really feeling like we had to answer to that moment from the end of season three, and we knew Skylar could handle whatever we gave him."
He added: "I also think it helps that he turned 18 at the end of filming and was 12 or 13 when [the show started]. He obviously changed more than most did – the rest of us just looked the same, but a little older, while he looks like a whole different person. I think that did help make his scenes with Ruth feel more like a partnership."
When it came to Marty and Helen's relationship, Mundy answered a question many fans have been wondering from the get go. Do they love each other? At times it's felt as though the two down right despised one another, however Mundy confirms this isn't the case:
"I think they love each other a lot," said Mundy to The Hollywood Reporter.
"That doesn't necessarily mean they should be together or stay together, but I actually think there's a deep love there. It's not just history, it's actually love."
If love isn't enough, what does that mean for the two who have been through thick, thin, blood and death threats? Could this possibly be hinting to the end of their relationship?
Whether a romantic end or a more final ending is in store is uncertain, as Mundy teases us with more clues than a scavenger hunt. During his interview (via The Hollywood Reporter) he finally explained what that literal car-crash flash-forward was about in the beginning of episode one.
"Even as you're trying to control everything, there are always certain things in life that are just completely out of your control. Marty, especially, is always trying to control everything – and he's so smart and verbally dextrous that he usually can.
"So some of it was just a reminder that the world is unpredictable that way. Obviously, we will catch up to that at some point. But as much as anything, it was just that feeling that even in moments of relative peace that life can slip through your fingers at a moment’s notice."
Chatting previously to The Hollywood Reporter, Mundy didn't say how the series would wrap up, but he did promise an "emotional" finale: "We're building little things in, if we keep on track for the emotional ending we're guessing we'll have."
Because, yes, despite all the wildly illegal stuff the Byrds have got up to over the course of the series, Mundy still expects you to feel for his lead characters, saying: "They've done terrible things, and they've been terrible parents in so many ways.
"It's an interesting thing on shows and movies where the heroes are flawed, as these guys are, yet you still want them to succeed. I would hope that people could disagree about this and feel strongly on both sides.
"As we were plotting the end of the series, we had this exact argument in the writers room. Some are like, 'I'm not cheering for them at all,' and some were like, 'Of course we're rooting for them — these are our characters.' It's a healthy debate even among those of us making the show."
Expect major surprises in the second half of Ozark season four – some are so shocking they even caught Mundy off guard.
"There were pieces we didn't know until the last second. But the fundamental, main thing we've known since sometime in season two – or at least I have," he said. "I knew the emotional landing point. I didn't know all of the details that would get us there. We tried to layer in some stuff in the earlier seasons [leading to it]. But there are a few things that took us all by surprise, to be honest, as we broke the very end."
But no matter how unexpected elements of these final elements of Ozark may be, fans aren't in for a Sopranos or Line of Duty level controversy. There will be closure here.
"I always want closure," said Mundy. "I don't want to feel messed with. I want to feel like, 'OK, that was the end.' So hopefully people will feel closure by the end – whether they like it or not, I don't know.
"In terms of tone, we're going deeper into the family and their bonds. Is family the ultimate bond? Is friendship? Is marriage? At what point is it almost unhealthy to stay, even if you love somebody? We're going to delve into that with Marty and Wendy. Hopefully, the back half will still be fun and exciting, but also really emotional for the Byrdes and Ruth."
Will there be a trailer for Ozark season 4 part 2?
The full trailer for season 4 part 1 (featured at the start of the article) dropped on January 6 – and it was jam-packed full of goodies to get us interested in what's to come.
The tagline "your greatest threat will always come from the inside" – which Navarro tells Marty – we now know is a reference to his nephew Javi, who plans to move against him. However could it also be hinting towards another, even greater, betrayal from within the Byrde household?
We know that Jonah's relationship with his parents has been fractured following the murder of his uncle Ben. His resentment has caused him to push them – particularly Wendy – away and act out. How far is he willing to take his grief-induced grudge?
However, when it came to the trailer for part two, the focus (as mentioned above) is well and truly focused on Ruth Langmore. The clip of an emotional Ruth is interwoven with flashbacks of Wyatt and her gun-point confrontation with the Byrdes following her cousin's death. This heavy featuring of a grief-stricken Ruth suggests that her loss and heartbreak may be a driving force for the finale.
Mundy revealed to TVLine that part two is set to pick up directly where part one ended with very little time passing. "We pick up right away," said Mundy. "We would be cheating everybody if we jumped past the emotional place we were in [at the end of Episode 7]."
The trailer also does a very good job of saying virtually nothing while insinuating everything. The tagline 'The end arrives sooner than you think,' serves as a double entendre. Yes, with it being the Ozarks' final outing this is the end, but it could be referring to the car crash flash-forward we have yet to address. The Byrdes think they are on the home stretch to a life free of crime – but could the end be looming? Only time will tell.
Since then, we've since had some more major hints about the fate of the Byrdes in the form of a longer part two trailer, which promises an action-packed, and extremely exciting, final run. You can watch that below.
Ozark is available now on Netflix, with the final episodes premiering on April 29.
Netflix/Left Bank Pictures The Crown season 3 with Amazon exclusive box artwork
House of Cards - Season 6
Freelancer writer
Sam is an entertainment writer with NCTJ accreditation and a twenty-year career as a film journalist.
Starting out as a staff writer at Total Film, moving up to Deputy Online Editor, Sam was responsible for Total Film’s YouTube channel, where he revolutionised the magazine’s approach to video junkets, creating influential formats that spread to other outlets.
He’s interviewed a wide range of film icons, including directors such as David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Sofia Coppola, Ridley Scott, Michael Bay and Sam Raimi, as well as actors such as Meryl Streep, Nic Cage, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Anne Hathaway, Margot Robbie, Natalie Portman, Kermit the Frog, all of the Avengers and many more.
Sam has also interviewed several comic creators, including Stan Lee, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, and he has a zombie cameo in The Walking Dead comic.
In 2014, Sam went freelance, working directly for film studios including Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox and Disney, as well as covering red carpet events for film marketing company PMA Productions.
Sam is the co-host, producer and editor of the Arrow Video podcast, which has seen year-on-year growth since its creation in 2017, gaining over half a million listens in that time.
His byline has appeared in outlets such as Yahoo, MTV, Dazed, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and Good Housekeeping among others.
In 2012, Sam made it to the final of the Leicester Square Theatre New Comedian of the Year competition, and went on to become a filmmaker himself, directing three features that have all played major festivals, and secured distribution – starring in two of them.
Jim Carrey once mistook Sam for Johnny Cash, and John Carpenter told him to ‘Keep up the good work.’ He promises to try his best.
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.
