‘Ozark’ Star Jason Bateman Reveals the First Scene of Season 4
It’s been over a year since we last saw the Byrdes, a suburban Chicago family who moves to the Missouri Ozarks to help launder money for a Mexican drug cartel. The third season of Ozark raised the stakes even higher and set the tone for what will definitely be a wild series finale. As Ozark Season 4 grows closer, actor Jason Bateman (Marty Byrde) has offered a glimpse at what comes next.
![Sofia Hublitz, Skylar Gaertner, Laura Linney, and Jason Bateman in 'Ozark' scene](https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/OZARK_306_Unit_00594RC2_FNL-2-1.jpg?strip=all&quality=89)
A recap of the ‘Ozark’ Season 3 ending
The season 3 finale of Ozark was nothing but action. Wendy Byrde (Laura Linney) finally returned home from her bender, which stemmed from her guilt over allowing the cartel to murder her brother. But the drama continued as Helen Pierce moved forward with her plans to cut the Byrdes out of the money-laundering operation.
Realizing what was happening, the couple decided they needed to make themselves more valuable to Omar Navarro, so they came up with a plan and gave information to Marty’s FBI contact that helped take down some of Navarro’s rivals.
At the end of the episode Marty, Wendy, and Helen flew to Mexico to meet Navarro, unsure of who Navarro had sided with. Then, in a shocking scene, he shot Helen right in front of Marty and Wendy, splattering blood all over them. “Today is a a new beginning,” he said before embracing the two.
What happens next in ‘Ozark’
Speaking on a panel part of the Deadline Virtual Screening Series, Bateman revealed season 4 will open with Marty and Wendy “looking in the mirror,” still covered in Helen’s blood.
“We actually start the next season, the first episode is Laura [Linney] and I looking in the mirror just after that moment, cleaning Janet [McTeer, who played Helen] out of our hair. It’s a nice kind of 10-minutes-later pick up. A nice transition,” he told Deadline.
The mirror scene could also symbolize the personal reckoning Marty and Wendy will face about themselves. Showrunner Chris Mundy previously told Entertainment Weekly that in season 4 might be about whether “the Byrdes can turn the biggest mistake of their lives into this huge advantage, and how much will karma catch up with them if they do?”
He added during an online session for PaleyFest LA (via Deadline): “You’re going to learn what they want their end game to be, and they’re going to have to reckon with it a little bit … If they’re trying to look to see if there’s an out, they’ve got to figure out if that’s what they want, and if so, what’s the version of it that they want. Then reckoning with that after so much chaos — that’s going to bubbling under the surface.”
When does ‘Ozark’ come back on?
Bateman previously told IndieWire that production on Ozark Season 4 would begin in November 2020. That suggests new episodes could come out as early as late 2021 or the top of 2022. But this, of course, depends on the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which has forced multiple productions to shut down over the months.
Bateman, however, did say that safety precautions are being taken as the pandemic wages on. “We’re very confident in the guidelines and protocols we’re going to be following. We’ve got tons of consultants, [and] we’re learning a lot from other productions,” he explained.
Until those episodes drop, check out more of our Ozark coverage below.