When a Chicago accountant is forced to flee with his family to a hideout in the Missouri Ozarks, things do not go well. No kidding? What was surprising about Ozark’s predictably precarious plot is that the show is undoubtedly good.
Ozark’s fourth and final season, with a recently released trailer at Netflix’s Tudum event, is slated for sometime in 2022. The extended, 14-episode season will wrap up the Byrde family’s rollercoaster ride with the recently released preview only hinting at more wicked bumps along the way. Warning: Serious spoilers ahead.
Created by Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams, Netflix’s Ozark debuted in 2017 with a 10-episode season that quickly found popularity with its mix of family and organized crime drama. The series stars Jason Bateman (who also directed several episodes) and Laura Linney as Marty and Wendy Byrde, a husband-and-wife money-laundering team who are forced to uproot their family and move to central Missouri to expand operations for a Mexican drug cartel led by Omar Navarro.
The standout cast carries a well-written narrative with plenty of unexpected intrigue and unsurprising suspense that quickly won over critics and fans and netted Ozark two Outstanding Drama Series Emmy nominations.
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The last time fans saw Marty and Wendy Byrde, they were greeted by lawyer Helen Pierce’s blood and brains after a reluctant Mexican sojourn to meet with Navarro, who informs them that his choice was to continue with the Byrdes instead of his former attorney.
The episode one preview, “The Beginning of the End,” finds us just moments after we left the Byrdes in March 2020 — shocked and soiled in red. Contrastingly Navarro is just fine, carrying his just-baptized son and enjoying the subsequent fiesta. Yes, it’s been 18 months since Ozark debuted new footage, but patient fans were given a tense taste of what’s to come. Only a taste, though, as the preview ended with an ominous door opening upon the Byrdes’ attempt to clean themselves.
Ozark’s season four will also reckon with the other traumatic events that ended season three, specifically the death of Wendy’s brother Ben (and her son Jonah’s awareness of Wendy’s role in it) as well as Ruth Langmore’s split from the Byrdes.
Will it end well in season four? Should it end well? That will be up for debate before and after the show airs again, but one thing is sure: Ozark will wrap up the narrative arc. In an interview with IndieWire following the release of season three, Bateman confirmed that he and producer Chris Mundy have already discussed the series’ ultimate ending.
“We had some great conversations about that, and he’s got really good ideas,” Bateman said. “Specifically, what happens at the end of the last episode: I know, and it’s great.”
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