‘Ozark’ Showrunner Units File Straight on Who Died within the Finale

Almost 10 months after Ozark went out with a literal bang, showrunner Chris Mundy is giving the ultimate phrase on that ultimate (gun) shot.

On the finish of the Netflix crime drama’s collection finale, launched in April 2022, non-public investigator Mel Sattem (Adam Rothenberg) confronts Marty and Wendy Byrde (Jason Bateman and Laura Linney) at their house… solely to search out himself on the enterprise finish of a gun within the fingers of Jonah Byrde (Skylar Gaertner), Marty and Wendy’s son. And after that final episode cuts to black, viewers hear a gunshot, main some to surprise which characters within the scene met their maker.

“Definitively in my thoughts, and anybody’s free to suppose no matter they need, however in my thoughts, he completely shot Mel, and Mel is useless, and that’s that,” Mundy stated at an Ozark Q&A panel in Hollywood on Friday, February 17, per Variety. “I simply didn’t need to see it. It was over. For those who shot him, you then’re within the blood and the center… however the present was over. He did it.”

Mundy additionally stated that for as a lot because the Byrdes thought they had been “constructing a fable,” they had been really “making a curse.” And Bateman added in the course of the panel that though Marty and Wendy “get away with it” on the collection’ finish, they need to face the truth that the household’s prison dealings have turned Jonah right into a assassin.

On the panel, Mundy and Ozark star Julia Garner additionally gave their ideas on the demise of Ruth Langmore, Garner’s character, in that very same episode.

“Ruth was nearly a stronger character in dying than she would have been if she was off residing someplace,” Mundy stated. “That was our hope for the present. As everybody’s favourite character — Jason’s favourite character, my favourite character — you simply needed to do it justice.”

For her half, Garner advised attendees on the Q&A that killing off her character was the “greatest determination Chris may have made.” By the second a part of Season 4, Garner stated, “[Ruth] had already died. Her soul died. She was bodily right here, however within the final 4 episodes, she was already useless.”

Ozark, a large hit for Netflix, is up for 4 awards on the 2023 Display screen Actors Guild Awards, greater than one other different TV present this 12 months. Bateman, Linney, and Garner are all nominated, and the solid is collectively within the working for Excellent Efficiency by an Ensemble in a Drama Collection. The 2023 SAG Awards will stream on Netflix’s YouTube channel on Sunday, February 26, at 8/7c.

Ozark, Streaming Now, Netflix