Ozark Season 4: Part 1 | Television Review

There are few shows that can continue to up the stakes four seasons in more than Netflix’s Ozark. The last show to bring this heightened level of anxiety in its viewers with real-world baddies is Breaking Bad, where each episode and season filled us with a plethora of emotions. In Ozark Season 4: Part 1, the stakes are just as real and our blood continues to boil. 

When we left off last season, Marty (Jason Bateman) and Wendy (Laura Linney) witnessed or were part of numerous murders, including the Cartel’s attorney, Helen (Janet McTeer), whose brain was exploded all over our American duos’ faces in the closing seconds. Part 1 picks up right where we left off, with Marty and Wendy picking brain matter out of their hair and rinsing blood out of their mouth. Within minutes, they’re forced to attend a party with Omar Navarro (Felix Solis) whose new request is the most impossible one yet: he wants to walk away from his business, completely free of arrest or assassination, and the ability to move freely to and from the United States. You know, deals the U.S. government are always so excited to make with war/drug lords (insert sarcasm). All without Omar’s head-strong nephew, Javi (Alfonso Herrera), finding out… or else. 

One of my biggest concerns coming into this season was whether returning showrunner and writer, Chris Mundy, could give us a big and bad enough enemy that can hold a candle to Wendy herself. She is a merciless, manipulative, and daunting character that, at times, is more terrifying than the Cartel. Wendy does what she believes is in her best interest without any communication with Marty, Charlotte, Jonah, or even Omar, and oh man, does Laura Linney excel at making us believe in Wendy and despise her all at once. Cataclysmic choices are made at everyone else’s expense and that character trait persists into this season.

But while Wendy’s impulsive and crass decisions make us all nervous for what the impact will be on our favorite characters, she is not always the most intimidating, and we need that. As an audience, we want to feel like at any moment, all of this could be for not, and Wendy could cost Marty, Charlotte, Jonah, and Ruth their lives. And, surprisingly, Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) and Jonah (Skylar Gaertner) are given their own arc this season as they grow into their own. Insert Omar and Javi. Omar is fond of Mrs. Byrd – which may be the only thing that’s kept them alive up to this point – but his patience grows thin in season four as he fights for his own escape. Felix Solis is a tremendous actor with a brooding energy and a raspy voice that can make just about anyone shake in their boots. Without his performance, this entire season (part 1, at least) would falter. 

Yet, Omar’s influence over Javi only goes so far. Javi is the other half of our vicious “big bad”, whose impulsiveness rivals Wendy’s tenfold. He hardly considers the repercussions of any of his actions and no one is safe from Javi. The thing I enjoy so much about Alfonso Herrera is how much fun he is evidently having with this character. Ozark is saturated with such dour circumstances and seriousness that a more lively addition needs to be strategic and still advance the story. That’s why Javi is such an enjoyable asset to this season, but in a murderous, scary kind of way. I mentioned stakes were high in this season and that means the bullet can come for anyone. I would never detail any spoilers, but the danger is very present. Ooh, how exciting!

The Byrd’s just can’t catch a break. While Marty and Wendy are trying to keep their family together, preferably alive, and grant Omar’s request, a private investigator by the name of Mel (Adam Rothenberg) is snooping around trying to find Helen on behalf of her soon-to-be-ex-husband. Whoops. And Ruth (Julia Garner) is on the other side of the fence with the Snell’s. Cut deeply by the loss of her once-lover, Ben, Ruth is delivering on Darlene’s interest to expand her heroin business in the Byrd/Navarro’s backyard, alongside her cousin Wyatt (Charlie Tahan). This season really emphasizes Ruth’s experiences and story in a way that makes her more important to the viewers than anyone else. Her journey of grief, unapologetic nature, and somehow ability to connect to Marty in a way no one else can makes her an absolute badass through-and-through. Despite having given multiple outstanding and award-winning performances Garner gives us an all-time best this season. Truly, I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather watch more in this show than Garner – which is saying a lot with a cast as stacked as this one. 

This season is ultimately about family, dysfunction, and vengeance. What ties bind us, what moral high grounds do we want to stand for and against, what is one willing to do to save themselves, and what they are willing to do to exact revenge. For Marty’s story arc, much of it is fixed on being “the fixer”. Bateman continues to be a driving force of the show as Marty is forced into making numerous life-saving or dooming decisions, much to his chagrin. As those around him attempt to take sides in the Snell-Langmore vs. Byrde-Navarro war, Marty has to make peace with himself about who he is willing to help and at what expense. All amid being the fastidious and strategic leader of the group trying to grant Omar’s wish.

Ozark has always given us a glimpse into the worst of humanity with peaks of love and respect, but as we begin the end, we as an audience have to face the reality that not everyone is who we know them to be, nor does everyone stay the same. Those we love and those we hate are all subject to unknown fates in Ozark. 

Ozark season 4: part 1 premieres on January 21, 2022
Only on Netflix
Starring Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, and Julia Garner

Follow our further discussion on Ozark Season 4: Part 1 via this episode of The Hollywood Outsider podcast: