Warning: SPOILERS for Ozark Season 3
The Ozark season 3 finale may have hinted that a new villain is coming in season 4: the mother of Darlene Snell (Lisa Emery). In Ozark season 3, the lives of criminal entrepreneurs Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman) and his wife Wendy (Laura Linney) are thrown into chaos thanks to their marital strife, a drug war their employer Omar Navarro (Felix Solis) is fighting, and the arrival of Wendy's dangerously bipolar brother Ben Davis (Tom Pelphrey), who places the Byrdes' lives in danger. But while all that was going on, Darlene was quietly consolidating her power base and building a new family of her own.
One of Ozark season 3's most controversial plotlines is the relationship between Darlene and Wyatt Langmore (Charlie Tahan). Wyatt turned his back on his cousin Ruth (Julia Garner) after she confessed she killed his father and he was directionless until Darlene latched onto him. After Snell, who is decades older than Langmore, took him in, their relationship soon turned sexual; in Wyatt, Darlene found a younger, more malleable replacement for her husband Jacob (Peter Mullan), who Darlene murdered in Ozark season 2. Darlene had already adopted baby Zeke, the son of the late Pastor Mason Young (Michael Moseley); Wyatt, who has deep ties to Osage Beach as a Langmore, is a "local," who Darlene trusts more than the interlopers like the Byrdes who are muscling in on what has long been Snell territory. However, Ozark hasn't been shy about showing how Darlene seduced the impressionable Wyatt, and their unnerving sex scene was, understandably, a turnoff for many fans.
Still, the unholy alliance that has been forged between the Snells and the Langmores is here to stay, and Ozark season 3's ending seemed to set up the coming of Darlene Snell's mother. In the Ozark season 3 finale episode, "All In," Wyatt visited Ruth at the Langmore trailer park to comfort her about the murder of Ben, whom Ruth had fallen in love with, and to encourage her to question how Ben died and what the Byrdes' involvement actually was. When Ruth changed the subject and asked how Darlene was, Wyatt grew uncomfortable and confessed, "She wants me to meet her mom." This caused the Langmore cousins to erupt in laughter, and it was the only welcome moment of levity in the Ozark season 3 finale. And yet, it could also be a foreboding hint of a bigger problem coming in Ozark season 4.
Darlene is one of Ozark's most fascinating characters and arguably the series' most ruthless villain. Simply put, Darlene is exactly what Ruth called her — "bats--t crazy!" — and this was evident ever since the Snell matriarch was introduced when she gave her enemies visiting her home poisoned lemonade. Darlene's insanity goes all the way back to her youth, when she met young Jacob, who had just returned from the Army, and seduced him into becoming her lover, and later, her husband. Now, Darlene has rebuilt everything she has lost: She has the baby she's always craved to raise as her own, she replaced Jacob with Wyatt, and she won Ruth over to her side by getting the revenge on Frank Cosgrove, Jr. (Joseph Sikora) that the Byrdes denied Ruth. Darlene has also regained her heroin operation and secured an alliance with the Kansas City Mob as distributors, all underneath the Byrdes' noses.
But Darlene's insanity must come from somewhere and the threat of her heretofore unseen mother, who might be even worse, is worth taking seriously, even though it was set up as a funny joke between Ruth and Wyatt. After all, with the death of Helen Pierce (Janet McTeer), Ozark is lacking villains going into season 4, and Darlene's actions all season have set up a scenario that pits the "locals" of Osage Beach, the Wyatts and the Langmores, unified with the Kansas City Mob against the Byrdes and their Mexican boss, Navarro. Darlene Snell's mother could be a new, fearsome Big Bad Ozark season 4 may introduce that shows the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Ozark is available to stream on Netflix.