Jason Bateman Unpacks Ozark’s “Happy Ending”

As far as Jason Bateman is concerned, Ozark went out on a good note.

All four of the Byrde family members—Marty (Bateman), Wendy (Laura Linney), Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) and Jonah (Skylar Gaertner)—made it out alive in Ozark‘s season four finale, an ending that truly nobody saw coming. After all, the Byrdes had been tangled up in cartel fights, undercover operations and drug deals gone awry. 

Nonetheless, in an interview with Variety, Bateman described it as a “happy ending,” albeit one with a “smudge on it.”

“There’s something sticky about it,” he explained. “Because once we fade to black, we see that they got away with it but at what cost?”

By the end, Jonah and Charlotte have become accomplices to their parents’ crimes, a fate that no one would wish on their kids. Yes, there’s the hope that this killing will allow the family to pursue a more altruistic lifestyle, but no guarantee that will ever happen. As Bateman said, they are leaving viewers with the Byrdes “trusting the ends will justify the means, but we’re not sticking around for the ends; we are leaving right at the means.”