Netflix's Ozark has completed its wild four-season run on the streaming service. The story arc of a formerly mild-mannered yuppy-esque couple from Chicago and their two teenagers took viewers on a wild ride. When the Byrdes relocate to a small town in the Ozark region of Missouri, their lives changed drastically. From the get-go, the Byrdes found themselves diving into a life of the white-collar crime of money laundering for a Mexican drug cartel. It isn't all the Byrdes' fault, Marty, a former wealth manager, was thrown into his life of crime by his former business partner in Chicago. We're not going to give away any major spoilers from the ending of the popular series, so no need to worry about that.
Ozark was created by Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams. The writers and producers are known for 2016's The Accountant starring Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick and A Family Man starring Gerard Butler and Alison Brie. Dubuque grew up in St. Louis and spent summers at Lake of the Ozarks when he was a teenager, which provided inspiration for Ozark's setting, an interview in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch revealed. He said, “Money fascinates me. How we view money, the power of getting it, the pressure of holding onto it."
In order to write Ozark's money-laundering theme accurately, writers met with representatives from the FBI as well as a hedge fund manager to learn the ins and outs of moving money both legally and illegally, as Drama Quarterly revealed. Ozark's four seasons took viewers on a wild ride, and it will be a long time before we forget the memorable characters the series' creators and actors brought to life.
Marty Byrde
Marty Byrde, played brilliantly by Jason Bateman, is the patriarch of the Byrde family at the center of Ozark. He and his late business partner in a wealth management firm in Chicago were low-key laundering money for a Mexican drug cartel. Marty's partner is murdered by the cartel, but he gets a chance to get off easy, as long as he continues to work for them. Cue his family's departure from Chicago for a lakeside town in Missouri, with bags and bags filled with drug-tainted cash.
Bateman also directs several episodes. In the same Drama Quarterly article, he said,
My agent called me, telling me he just read one of the best scripts he'd ever read [...] I totally agreed with him but told him, 'The only way I'd ever consider doing this is if I could direct them [...] It would break my heart to just be the actor [...] and watch somebody else have all the fun, directing something as chewy as this.
Wendy Byrde
Laura Linney's Wendy Byrde is played pitch perfectly. When the series debuted, Wendy and Marty Byrde were not at a great place in their relationship. She was having an affair. When the sh*t hits the proverbial fan, and they must leave Chicago to save their lives, she becomes her husband's willing partner in crime. The thing about Wendy, however, is that she has a much looser moral code than Marty and will literally do whatever it takes to protect her husband and children. With her background in politics, Wendy has the wily nature to ensure she will get her way at every turn.
Charlotte & Jonah Byrde
Sofia Hublitz and Skylar Gartner were both relative unknowns when they were cast as Charlotte and Jonah, the teenaged children of Marty and Wendy Byrde. Being a teenager is hard enough without your family being on the run from a murderous drug cartel and your parents growing increasingly involved in money laundering and other crimes — add to that the move from the big city to the "Redneck Riviera," and you've got juicy roles for these two young actors to sink their teeth into.
Ruth Langmore
Julia Garner is transcendent as Ruth Langmore, a member of a local crime family in the lakeside southern Missouri town that Ozark is set in. Ruth also has some of the series' most memorable and meme-worthy lines. Ruth is recruited by Marty to work for him — he saw something in her that she didn't even see in herself, and she quickly became one of his top confidantes.
From running Marty's strip club in season one to running the Byrdes' riverboat casino in seasons three and four, Garner's Ruth Langmore is so brilliantly portrayed that viewers cannot look away. Garner has earned two Primetime Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actress for her work on Ozark.
Wyatt Langmore
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Wyatt Langmore was played by Charlie Tahan. He's Ruth's teenaged cousin and becomes very good friends with Charlotte Byrde. He also gets romantically involved with the much older Darlene Snell, a craw that sticks in Ruth's bonnet and eventually gets both him and Darlene killed. Wyatt's most admirable quality is how fiercely he loves his family. Ruth's sensitive side came out when she was with Wyatt.
Darlene Snell
Darlene Snell is the local heroin dealer. She is played to perfection by veteran actress Lisa Emery. Darlene is all sneers and condescension wrapped up in a small town southern accented package. Marty Byrde is hellbent on shutting down Darlene's heroin operation as it is in direct competition with his employers, the Navarro drug cartel. Darlene is defiant and Ruth is, for once, on her side. In the second episode of season four, Ruth helps Darlene re-brand her hillbilly heroin for a larger cut of the dope market. Ruth suggests marketing to the hipsters, saying, "Brand it like it's the f**king Moet of dope." Spoiler Alert: Darlene meets an untimely end when she is murdered by Navarro drug cartel member Javi Elizonndro.
The Navarro Drug Cartel
The Navarro drug cartel is the second-largest drug cartel in Mexico, and they got that way with a little help from Marty and Wendy Byrde. A tip from their chief money launderers allows them to gain ground on their main competitor, the Laguna Cartel. That tip caused law enforcement in the U.S. and Mexico to take down the Laguna drug cartel. Omar Navarro (Felix Solis) is the head of the Navarro drug cartel. Javi Elizonndro (Alfonso Herrera) is Omar's nephew. He is more ruthless than his uncle and doesn't trust the Byrdes' intentions. Camilla Elizonndro (Veronica Falcon) is Omar's sister and Javi's mother. By the end of season four, she's the head of the Navarro drug cartel.