Review of Ozark Season 4, Part 1: Byrdes in a cage created by themselves

In a pivotal moment of OzarkIn the second season, Marty Byrde sat down with his reluctant crime partner, Jacob Snell. He intends to land a bargain in the absence of Jacob’s wife, Darlene, whose refusal to allow casinos to be built on their land is putting the Byrdes home in a difficult financial position. Jacob soon reveals a flaw that Marty and the audience hadn’t seen in him up until that point. “What do you do, Martin,” he asked, “when the bride who has taken your breath away… becomes the wife that makes you hold your breath in terror?”

Since then, the Byrdes have experienced more trauma and escalating danger than one could imagine surviving. They have weathered adverse attention from local gangs, prosecuted despite their best efforts father separate federal agents, and was constantly subject to the wrath of the Mexican drug cartel. It was as if this family, and Marty in particular, had been triple coated in Teflon. But if By Ozark the fourth and final chapters are any indication, their undoing may come from within. Jacob’s question not too long ago may prove prophetic because the exact motivation he’s talking about is manifesting in Wendy, who embraces her desire for power more emphatically — and seemingly unconcerned. attention to collateral damage.

In an interview with Deadline, executive producer and lead writer Chris Mundy says that Wendy and Marty’s marriage is core around it all. Ozark trajectory. Indeed, their relationship has been in the spotlight since the series’ pilot episode, when Marty learns that Wendy is sleeping with her own lawyer. It is a fundamental tension point throughout the story that, if not for the need to protect their children and maintain the appearance of a functional nuclear family, they would have separated. One could argue that they had.

Image: Courtesy of Netflix.

It is clear that they have distinct goals; While Marty goes to Missouri to save their old lives, Wendy considers it the birthplace of a new one. So some of their intrigues may be motivated by each’s desire for control over the other. (After all, we know they’re no more than a petty one even in therapy.)

In Ozark season 4, their ongoing emotional chess game spills over into their parenting once again. Their son Jonah has taken his sister Charlotte’s previous place as the defiant child, harboring legitimate outrage at the growing body count at the wake of their parents, especially was after the assassination of his uncle Ben. As for that particular sin, Wendy is the one who attracts his most direct resentment. But where his sister’s rebellion was mostly just daytime drinking and soaking with local boys, Jonah’s natural aptitude for finance and technology prompted him to launder money for Darlene, who remains their most enduring rival.

Wendy sees this as not only a personal betrayal but an existential threat to the family business. Her strategy to win him back changes throughout season one of Ozark season 4, goes from icy contemplation, tearful nursing, to total destruction. At each turn, she is criticized by Marty, who believes she is just pushing him further away. On the contrary, she believes Marty is too proud of their son’s display of his ability to view his behavior as dangerous, playing the role of a good cop while her efforts to “keep this family, a family” has become the devil. Of four dynamic seasons, Laura Linney’s performance this time may be her most captivating yet, with some really intense notes that invite a few rewinds just to bask in the talent.

Image: Courtesy of Netflix.

Of course, the Byrdes aren’t the only focus family in the series. Though the Langmore tribe grows thinner with the seasons, Ruth is still a primitive matriarch, carrying her surname as a trademark and swimming with all her might to fend off the seemingly indomitable tragedy that comes with it. it. Played by Julia Garner, Ruth finds herself pulled in more directions than she’s sure she can handle. While she still has some degree of loyalty to Marty herself, mounting events throughout season 3 leaves her feeling little motivated to continue being his business partner. Now, she’s trying to make her own piece in the Ozarks and has allied herself with Darlene, who, despite being the textbook example of a tough old bird, goes through an arc throughout the years. This episode brings her to a much more exposed and tragic place.

Time and again, Ozark demonstrated the ability to take characters you love to hate and put them in context against someone who is even worse. This fourth season introduces a bunch of new players — like intuitive Sheriff Leigh Guerrero, who was called in when Sheriff Nix went missing at the start of the season, and Mel Sattem, a relentless private investigator hired by Helen Pierce’s husband and about something for personal gain.

But while these characters pose an inconvenience, there is no greater physical threat to the Byrdes than Javier Elizondo, their employer’s college-educated grandson. Impatient about their progress and eager to take on a leadership role in the gang, Javi begins to delve deeply into Byrdian affairs while a power struggle between him and his world-weary uncle causes they are in a precarious position. (In one of the series’ best decisions, Felix Solis was upgraded to a series regular to keep taking on jefe.)

Ozark has been talking about relationships since the very beginning, and this season the various connections that make up it are tested more deeply than ever. Jason Bateman teased that the plane would land on this crime chronicle”in a very satisfactory way,And audiences will certainly feel dedicated to the rest of the flight after raving about seven hours of the Emmy-winning drama after returning on Friday, January 21.

Ozark Season 4, Season 1 is available to stream on Netflix.

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