Warning: Contains spoilers for Ozark season 3.
In Ozark's season 4 trailer, Mexican drug kingpin Omar Navarro (Felix Solis) speaks of threats coming from the inside, thus hinting at three major storylines yet to be developed. The Netflix original series' final season will see Marty (Jason Bateman) and Wendy Byrde (Laura Linney) finally drop the charade and embrace their role as the true villains as they are welcomed into the cartel by Navarro himself. In the Ozark season 3 finale, Navarro shocks the Byrdes by ordering the death of his consiglieri Helen Pierce (Janet McTeer), promising them even higher stakes than before. The Byrdes will thus have to look for other, less obvious threats in season 4.
Throughout Ozark's first three seasons, Marty and Wendy keep switching roles as the one who wants to get away and the one who wants to stay and make even more money. In the third season, as the FBI starts investigating their new casino boat, the Byrdes are hoping to escape from under the cartel's thumb when Navarro flies them to Mexico, kills the controlling Helen Pierce, and baptizes them into the Navarro family with Helen's blood. By season 4, Ozark has set up the Byrdes as the show's main villains, and it remains to be seen how the family gets rid of Navarro, the Snells, and maybe even the Langmores as threats to their position of power.
Related: Ozark Theory: Why [SPOILER] Chose The Byrdes Over Helen
In the Ozark season 4 trailer, Navarro is heard telling Marty, "Your greatest threat will always come from the inside." It's most likely no coincidence that this line is juxtaposed over Jonah's (Skylar Gaertner) face. Threats coming from the inside might just become a major recurrent theme in season 4, as Jonah is seen laundering money for Ruth (Julia Garner), Ruth has just partnered up with Darlene (Lisa Emery), and the Byrdes are now inside the Navarro viper nest, planning their final exit. Ozark's final season promises serious betrayals - here are all three major storylines predicted by Navarro's key line.
Jonah Launders Money For The Enemy
In Ozark season 3, Jonah develops a close relationship with Ben Davis (Tom Pelphrey), who eventually proves a liability to the Byrdes. When Ben finds out about Wendy and Marty’s cartel ties, he confronts Helen, which eventually leads to her ordering his death in season 3 episode 9, “Fire Pink." This affects his sister Wendy, his lover Ruth, and his friend Jonah. Ruth is deeply upset and feels betrayed by the Byrdes, even joining Darlene Snell in retaliation. It's only a matter of time until Jonah will find a way to betray his family in season 4. After all, he just pointed a gun at Helen and she convinced him it was really his mother who made the final call that killed his uncle.
Ozark's trailer shows Ruth asking Jonah to launder money for her, then Marty unable to conceal his pride for his 14-year-old son who is already laundering money. While this announces Marty raising his son to be a criminal mastermind like himself, it also predicts the consequences of Marty and Wendy's actions, in this case, Jonah's betrayal - one of the three threats coming from the inside that Navarro might be referring to. Once again, the Byrde family will have to learn to stick together rather than fight each other, if they want to stay alive.
Ruth Kills Darlene
Ruth joining Darlene Snell at the end of Ozark season 3 can have a myriad of meanings, and not all of these end with Darlene in control. In the Ozark season 3 finale, Darlene adopts the Langmores and makes an unlikely alliance with Kansas City mob boss Frank Cosgrove (John Bedford Lloyd), consolidating her power in the area. Meanwhile, Wyatt Langmore (Charlie Tahan) has become Darlene’s lover (with Darlene even wanting him to meet her mother). Darlene wants to revitalize the Snell heroin empire, but there's a theory that Ruth will kill Darlene before that happens.
When Ruth joins Darlene, she does so out of hatred for the Byrdes, who she holds responsible for Ben's death. Before long, Ruth will see Darlene as the even more ruthless murderer she is. Moreover, Darlene has taken Wyatt away from Ruth, after the two had formed a close relationship. Ruth feels responsible for protecting Wyatt, and surely it won't go down well for Darlene if Ruth senses she is a danger to her cousin. Lastly, Darlene promises the appearance of her mother in Ozark's final season, who might be even more hot-temperate and violent than Darlene. If Darlene's mother is the big bad in the Snell family, Ruth might prove the Snells' biggest threat (again, coming from the inside), making a parallel to how Ruth killed her uncles Russ (Marc Menchaca) and Boyd Langmore (Christopher James Baker) in season 1.
Marty And Wendy Destroy Navarro From The Inside
When Ben outs Helen's real job to her daughter Erin in season 3, she ends all collaboration with the Byrdes and decides to cut them out of their business. She gets a Missouri state gaming license to take the casino away from Marty and Wendy and lies to the FBI that Marty wants to turn state's evidence against Navarro. Before long, the Byrdes realize Helen is now their enemy, so they need to make themselves more valuable to Navarro to make him choose them over Helen. In Ozark season 3, Marty's contact with the FBI and the drone video Jonah had of the rival cartel performing a hit on American soil gets the U.S. Government to remove Navarro's enemy, ending his drug war and saving his children's lives. Marty and Wendy thus climb to the top of Navarro's empire, but it's likely they won't be too comfortable there.
Ozark's season 4 trailer shows Navarro seeking safety in the U.S. FBI Agent Maya Miller (Jessica Frances Dukes) says Navarro cutting a deal with them would take "more than he's willing to give." Amidst all this, Navarro gives the Byrdes one last task: "Do this and you are free of your obligation to me," but whatever it is, the Ozarks are not a friendly place to Marty and Wendy anymore. The Snells and the Langmores have teamed up with the Kansas City mob against the Navarro cartel and the Byrdes, the FBI is now out to get them because they believed Marty reneged on a deal to testify against Navarro and go into witness protection, and Jonah will want to know why Wendy sent her own brother to his execution.
The only way out for the Byrdes is to end their business with Navarro as well as end any other threats to their position in the Ozarks. Ending a relationship with the cartel is famously difficult (and at most times, very bloody), so it's very likely that the Byrdes will use their newly-acquired position in Navarro's drug empire to dissolve it from the inside and earn their long-sought freedom. Ozark season 4: Part 1 will comprise 7 episodes and will air January 21, 2022, while Part 2, also comprising 7 episodes, will come out sometime in late 2022. And this is more than enough time to see which the biggest threats coming from the inside are, and how the Byrdes will handle them.