It’s almost been a full calendar week since “Ozark” and the first part of the final season was released on Netflix. The show has smashed all sorts of records in the week that folks have been able to binge-watch those first seven episodes of that final season. If you already binge-watched those first seven episodes, you may have missed something. That something was the goat cookie jar that Ruth Langmore placed Ben Davis’s ashes into.
This was a sad, but important moment in the final season that had a deeper meaning than you might have anticipated. If you recall, before Ben was given up by his sister at the end of Season 3, he told Wendy where he saw himself in five years’ time. It was with Ruth, but it was also with some goats, too. He never talked about the goats with Ruth on-screen, but her demeanor when purchasing that cookie jar indicated they had talked about them, too.
Where Things Stand with The Kids on ‘Ozark’
One of the more fascinating aspects of the final season of “Ozark” is how the choices by the Byrde parents are affecting the children. Both have changed living in the Ozarks. However, they have gone two very different ways.
Showrunner Chris Mundy told THR, “I think because of where we left him at the end of season three shooting out those windows, that was really his first act of defiance. And Skylar, every year, he just gets better as an actor. So it was really feeling like we had to answer to that moment from the end of season three, and we knew Skylar could handle whatever we gave him.”
It was a buildup for Jonah. Season 4 was a long time coming.
Mundy added about him, “I also think it helps that he turned 18 at the end of filming and was 12 or 13 when [the show started]. He obviously changed more than most did — the rest of us just looked the same, but a little older, while he looks like a whole different person. I think that did help make his scenes with Ruth feel more like a partnership.”
Charlotte vs. Jonah
His aging helped and made the partnership with Ruth look like a big deal. With Charlotte, though, the character has gone the other way. She is siding with her parents.
Mundy said, “That was very deliberate on our part. In the first couple seasons, just by nature of her character’s age on the show, she was going to be more rebellious. She had more of a life in Chicago that got ripped away from her. As they settled in and [the money laundering] really has become this family enterprise, for better or worse, we wanted to have her grow up and mature and mirror her mom’s behavior. Charlotte is now mirroring Wendy in a big way — physically, emotionally, intellectually.”
You can watch “Ozark” on Netflix.
