Ozark Season 4 Part 2 Early Review: A satisfyingly dark conclusion driven by outstanding performances
The stakes for the Byrde family's survival get high in the final season. Read Pinkvilla's review of the first episode below.
Ozark Season 4 Part 2
Ozark Season 4 Cast: Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, Julia Garner
Ozark Creators: Bill Dubuque, Mark Williams
Streaming Platform: Netflix
If you have been a fan of Ozark, I assume you will admit that it's been one restless journey towards the final season. From the first time, we met Marty Byrde(Jason Bateman) and Wendy Byrde (Laura Linney) to the point where we meet this couple in the series' final season, there's a lot that has happened and yet, they never fail to leave us surprised by the sheer darkness in them. The whole appeal of Ozark has been that it shows the deepest, darkest levels at which humans can function when need be. Funnily enough, it's a family drama about twisted parents who needed some serious intervention than the other way round that would happen in a regular drama.
Perception is a tricky thing that never lets you truly see yourself for who you are. In the first episode of Season 4 Part 2 when Ruth (Julia Garner) questions Marty and Wendy if they truly believe what they are doing is to "protect their family", you quickly realise how easy it is to get blinded by the lies you tell yourself to satiate your darkest desires and that's all the brief you need to know about the Byrde family and their ways if you haven't yet figured them out. The last seven episodes of the final season kick off from where we left in January.
Julia Garner’s Ruth is full of rage following the death of her cousin Wyatt (Charlie Tahan) and his wife Darlene (Lisa Emery), whom we saw getting killed by Javi (Alfonso Herrera) in part one. After warning Marty (Jason Bateman) and Wendy (Linney) Byrde about how gravely the consequences of Javi's actions are going to cost everyone, the eighth episode of the season focuses on Ruth trying to exact her revenge on Javi. While Marty and Wendy try hard to stop Ruth from being emotionally reactive and creating a situation that would cost them as well as her a huge loss, Ruth seems unstoppable. In the meantime, Wendy and Marty continue their efforts to make strong foundations politically. It's probably been clearer since the beginning of this season but the final episodes certainly once again prove that more than Marty it's still Wendy's game and she's the one pulling the strings and doing the dirty work without so much as a hint of remorse or regret. Marty seems to be on an autopilot mode set by her.
In many ways, the series despite its storyline being about surviving in a high stakes environment, the pace of the episodes has remained the same since the beginning. The makers take their time to establish and relish the situations that these characters are in. Even the element of character deaths hasn't been the kind that creates shock value.
Ozark never lets you think about the dead, it's all about those living and the cost at which they do so. I don't remember discussing character deaths from the show as much as the attention has been paid to the ugly games of survival that these characters play. After Wyatt and Darlene, there are other characters as well who gets killed off early on in the final season. The gory scenes return and I remember thinking, is it even an episode of Ozark if you don't see Marty and Wendy wiping off some blood.
Amid all the ugly mess though, one of the final season's best bits lies in exploring Ruth's emotional state of mind. Driven by rage and grief all at once, it's a devastating phase for her with no one to truly trust and Julia Garner conveys all that and more with her arresting performance. Garner's superpower is how well she can go from being an absolute mess to being a badass gun-totting, vengeful version of the same Ruth. You're left both scared for her as well scared of her.
As for the Byrde's the differences between Marty and Wendy continue to grow and Bateman and Linney make sure you feel that perfectly well. Laura Linney continues to put up a brilliant performance season after season and probably the biggest thing that I'm going to miss about Ozark is her performance. It's been a treat to watch her make Wendy such a layered character event when the script at times let us down. Unfortunately for Bateman, there's little left to explore as Marty's character development has probably been the poorest of among the leads. From being the most impressive character in the first and possibly also the third season, Marty's lost accountant side seems to be a massive disappointment. Nonetheless, Jason Bateman does what he can do best with it.
The good thing about Ozark is also that it has found the perfect time to wrap up. Anything more than the fourth season for this storyline would have been an unnecessary stretch. With the final seven episodes, released in the second part of the fourth season, a full review of the show will be released soon as I discuss the big 72-minute finale in it.
