The 5 most brutal moments from Netflix’s ‘Ozark’

Ever since its premiere on January 21st, 2022, the first part of the fourth season of Netflix’s Ozark has left fans excited and hungry for the grand and brutal finale that will bid a bittersweet adieu to the Byrde family. 

Since its premiere in 2017, the show has won around 32 Emmy nominations, winning Bateman Best Director Award and Garner two Best Supporting Actress Awards. Starring Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, Julia Garner, Sofia Hublitz, Charlie Tahan, Skylar Gaertner, Felix Solis and Janet McTeer, this seven-episode series also featured Killer Mike as an additional cast member.   

Fans have been impressed by how intricately crafted the entire series is with its moody tone and intense narrative that sees the Byrde family facing a new, daunting obstacle every season. Ozark fans tend to love thrilling crime dramas that abound in drug wars, cartel rivalries, gruesome violence, fast-paced action, with an underlying commentary about the ethics of family, morality and human integrity. 

The fourth season was pretty brutal, keeping up with the overall gory and shocking atmospheric tension within the narrative. The show has had its fair share of violence, torture and madness that has left viewers visibly uncomfortable yet oddly hooked. 

Over the four seasons, here are the five most jaw-dropping moments on Netflix’s Ozark: 

The 5 most brutal and jaw-dropping moments on Netflix’s ‘Ozark’

Wendy’s lover dies

Ozark has always been a pretty violent and gruesome show. The first episode of season one ends with a pretty shocking scene. When Marty Byrde finds out about his wife’s affair with the businessman, Gary Silverberg, he is fuming as he approaches the office building in Chicago, possibly getting ready to confront him about it. However, he suddenly sees a body hit the pavement, with a shoe flying off. 

This gory scene basically sets the mood for the show. While the show could have easily devoted a few minutes to their angry exchange, they simply eliminate a side character in the most unholy and horrifying ways, making the audience quickly move on to the next violent sequence, catching their attention for the narrative to progress. 

Ruth electrocuting her uncles 

Forever Ruth-less, once she finds out how her uncle Russ has become an informant for the FBI after a plan to murder Marty gets botched, in the ninth episode of season one, Ruth Langmore decides to take out her rage in the deadliest way. When Russ and his brother Boyd decided to take their ferry to the Byrde household and loot them, the charged waters around the dock electrocuted them instantly, leading to a painful death. 

Ruth had originally wanted to use the same rig to exterminate Marty. However, the death of the brothers incites a series of chain reactions within the Langmores who blame Marty for their deaths. 

Marty’s toenails get ripped off 

In the tenth episode, Marty goes through unimaginable torture when his toenails are painfully plied off, one by one, by the cartel leader Del Rio and his minions. They do this to exert pain on the man they suspect has something to do with the disappearance of one of their men. 

However, Marty’s resilience and cunning shine through as he continues to endure immense pain while talking about the grand scheme of things, trying to save his other toenails. This episode is not only difficult to sit through but also gives an insight into the character arc of Marty that keeps getting bolder and grimmer with every passing season- almost like a Machiavellian villain. 

Mason Young almost drowning his baby

The tenth episode of the first season probably left a lot of viewers flabbergasted due to the amount of shockingly violent scenes. When the Snell family disrupts the Byrde family’s plan to build a church for Mason Young and subsequently murder his wife, Pastor Young’s dwindling sanity makes him commit one of the most heinous acts on the show. Unable to cope with the pressure of living alone with his newborn child, Zeke, he decides to use the most unconventional way to baptise the baby. 

Looking disillusioned and deranged, he walks into the lake and holds the infant underwater for a long time, making the viewers watch with bated breath, fearing for the life of the child. After Young lifts the baby out of the water, Zeke fortunately, lets out a cry, thus narrowly escaping the clutches of a pretty terrifying death.  The unsettlingly cheerful music adds to the shock value of the whole situation.

Darlene and Wyatt’s bloody end 

Wyatt Langmore and Darlene Snell worked out their issues and began a torrid affair in the third season. Although their union seemed pretty fateful and doomed from the start, nobody expected them to meet their end at the hands of Javi in the first part of the fourth season. 

In the seventh episode, Darlene is shot dead in the chest by Javi who then turns to Wyatt, uttering a remorselessly cold, “Sorry, whoever you are”, before shooting him in the skull. Javi leaves the baby crying in the background, causing the episode to end on a terribly tense cliffhanger. It also sets in motion the events of the upcoming part of the fourth season where Javi will most likely pay for this brutal deed, probably at the hands of Ruth.