Ozark just finished its explosive third season on Netflix, and it’s pretty much a given that it will be renewed for a fourth. In the drama series, Marty Byrde, a skilled financial advisor, has secretly been using his talents to help a drug cartel. But when he gets too good, the cartel wants more and they force him and his family to comply. That means moving to the Ozarks to continue to help them launder money.
As the series progress, the family falls deeper and deeper into hot water. But what is the worst thing each main character has done?
Marty Byrde: Got His Family Involved With The Cartel
While Marty has done a lot of bad since moving to the Ozarks, the worst deed he has done was start to work for the cartel in the first place and showing them how good he was at his job. He did this without his family’s knowledge and it led to his friend and business partner getting murdered in front of them.
Then he had to upend his family’s life and leave his two teenage children to live a lie, knowing what their parents were and essentially becoming part of the “family business.”
Wendy Byrde: Let Her Brother Get Murdered
Like Marty, Wendy has done a number of despicable things throughout the season. But the most terrible by a mile was letting her brother get murdered. He was severely mentally ill, refused to get help, and posed a serious threat to the family.
In the end, she knew it came down to him or her family, including her children. The decision was clearly really hard on her, but her leading a hitman right to her brother, then abandoning him knowing he would be murdered was a terrible thing to do.
Charlotte Byrde: Tried To Get Emancipated
The eldest Byrde child, Charlotte is at that critical age where she’s trying to figure out her life while dealing with what’s going on with her family. And while we can’t blame her for wanting to get emancipated from her parents once she realized what they were doing, it was still a bad thing to do.
Not only could it have brought harm to the family, but she would not have been able to take care of herself as a teenager and would likely have gotten into more trouble without them, especially because of what she knew. Family has to stick together, bottom line.
Jonah Byrde: Told About The Family Business
Poor Jonah is trying going through puberty and has to deal with adolescence, which is enough in itself. Then add oh yeah, my family helps a Mexican drug cartel launder money to the equation and it’s a lot.
Eventually it became too much and he told Helen Pierce’s daughter what her mother was, or at least confirmed it to her. It was understandable at the moment but could have brought irreparable harm to the family.
Ruth Langmore: Killed Her Uncle
Ruth has had a lifetime of being a petty criminal but behind her redneck upbringing and lifestyle, she is clearly very cunning, calculating, and intelligent. And we saw this when she made the tough decision to work with Marty.
Part of this, however, was allowing her uncles to be electrocuted on the dock of the Blue Cat Lodge instead of Marty, who was supposed to be murdered that night. This move is what prompted her cousin Wyatt to write her out of his life when he discovered the truth.
Wyatt Langmore: Got Involved With a Psychopath
Wyatt seemed like a fish out of the water with his family, preferring to sit quietly on the roof of his trailer and immerse himself in books. Like Ruth, he is surprisingly intelligent and very well-read thanks to his voracious appetite for literature.
However, he is also lost and lonely, especially after he cuts Ruth off. This leads him to end up working for Darlene Snell, another member of the illegal drug trade and a seriously unstable woman. She’s also old enough to be his grandmother and while that shouldn’t matter if they’re happy together, him getting involved with her is definitely going to spell trouble.
Darlene Snell: Killed Her Husband
From one of the wealthy families of the Ozarks, Darlene has made millions from her family’s land and the poppies they grow that are used for making heroin, which she deals with thanks to her network.
But when she is confronted by Marty and Helen and they manage to convince her husband Jacob to go their way, she isn’t having it. And she poisons him.
Helen Pierce: Lied To Her Daughter
Helen, trusted legal counsel for the cartel, pretty much cleans up every mess, which often involves sending Nelson to kill someone if they get in the way. She is ruthless and heartless about everything but her children.
And while we understand why should would want to keep her true occupation from her daughter, it put a major wedge in their relationship because Erin was always suspicious of her.
Nelson: Killed A Lot Of People
Nelson was Helen’s right-hand man and a skilled and ruthless hitman. She pointed one way and he followed and did as she said. He knows how to kill and kill cleanly, making sure there was no trace left of the person or him ever having been there.
It was he who killed Ben, Wendy’s brother, as well as Marty and Wendy’s sweet elderly therapist who got a bit greedy and was being too flashy with the bribe money they had been paying her.
Ben Davis: Refused To Get Help
It’s hard not to feel sad for Ben. He was severely mentally ill, which wasn’t something he could control. And he would refuse to take his medication, believing that he was fine without it. Whenever Marty or Wendy tried to do the right thing and get him committed, he begged and pleaded that he didn’t want to go.
It’s clear the mental institution was not a place where he was happy, but he wouldn’t really hack it in the real world either unless he stayed on his meds. This ultimately led to his death.
