‘Ozark’ Season 4 Part 2: 1 Sign [Spoiler] Was Going to Die All Along
Ozark fans are still trying to process the events of the show’s final season — specifically, that major character’s death. It was so unexpected because of everything the character had already been through, but if you noticed, there was a sign it would happen from the start of Ozark Season 4 Part 2.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers from Ozark Season 4 Part 2.]
Ruth’s death in ‘Ozark’ Season 4 Part 2 was devastating
Ruth’s death was sealed from the moment she ignored Marty Byrde’s warning and shot and killed Javi Elizonndro. She did so to avenge her cousin Wyatt Langmore, who was murdered in Ozark Season 4 Part 1 alongside Darlene Snell, putting her at high risk of retaliation. Somehow, the Byrdes were able to protect her, until Clare Shaw panicked and came clean to Camila in the final episode of Ozark Season 4 Part 2, fearing she would be killed if Camila ever found out the truth.
Knowing how close the Byrdes were with Ruth, Camila threatened that if they tried to warn her, she’d kill their entire family. Having exhausted all options, they could only watch in horror as she left to find Ruth. When she did, rather than pleading for her life, Ruth boldly told Camila she wasn’t sorry. She then told Camila to shoot her and so she did.
The sign Ruth would die in ‘Ozark’ Season 4 Part 2
Ruth’s death caught some viewers completely off guard, but there was a sign she wouldn’t survive the show. It lies in showrunner Chris Mundy‘s comments about how he constructed the season.
He previously told Entertainment Weekly: “In every season we’ve kind of had a scene or two that lays out what the season is going to be but you don’t know it in retrospect. We almost state it in code and then you see it.”
This happens in the first part of Ozark Season 4 when Javi questioned what to do with Darlene as she continued to sell drugs on cartel land. Viewers almost forgot about it until Javi arrived later and shot and killed her.
“We wanted there to be an inevitability to Darlene’s death, but, like you said, you almost forget about it,” Mundy told the interviewer. “But it was right there from the beginning, he said it, he was going to do it. And so we just wanted to make good on that, and in Javi’s character.”
Similarly, at the start of Ozark Season 4 Part 2, it was made clear that Ruth would likely be killed for attacking Javi, but she decided to do it anyway. It was only a matter of time before the cartel caught up to her after that.
Julia Garner thinks Ruth had already died
When TIME asked Julia Garner about her character’s death, she said she believes Ruth had died long before Camila pulled the trigger.
“I really do think Ruth died when Wyatt died,” she shared. “I think her body was just here. She wasn’t going to voluntarily quit life, but I think she was so dead inside that if given an opportunity to die, she wouldn’t say no. In the end, it’s not her going over to death, it’s death coming over to her. By the end of the season, she didn’t care about living. She did what she needed to do, she killed Javi, and after that mission, she was like a ghost.”
We get it, but it still stings. R.I.P. Ruth. You were great.
