The Worst Thing Ruth Langmore From Ozark Has Done

This article contains spoilers for Ozark Season 1 

Few of the characters in Netflix's Ozark could be classified as "good" people. The crime drama centers around one family's attempts to meet the demands of their drug cartel bosses by laundering the cartel's money through various business entities in the United States, and as a result, most of the characters in the show frequently end up making morally questionable decisions. Morality has been at the heart of Ozark since its first episode, though, and the Netflix series has mined most of its drama from the internal tug-of-war its characters feel between trying to survive and achieve their goals and the destructive impact those goals have on both themselves and the innocent people around them.

That's certainly been the case with Ruth Langmore (Julia Garner), at least. Introduced early on in Ozark's first season, the Netflix series has taken Ruth on an unpredictable and tense journey across its first three seasons, one that has seen her make decisions that have changed her life forever. Indeed, Ruth has made a lot of difficult choices in Ozark, but there's one thing she did in Ozark's first season that is still, unquestionably, the worst thing she's ever done on the show.

Ruth Langmore spends most of Ozark's first season torn between the growing loyalty she feels towards Jason Bateman's Marty Byrde and the inherent obligation she feels for her family members. Unfortunately, Ruth's struggle only grows in the first season when her uncles come up with a plan to kill Marty, which forces her to choose where her loyalties lie once and for all. As fans of Ozark already know, Ruth's struggle ultimately culminates in Ruth sabotaging the dock near Marty's business so that her uncles are electrocuted to death when they arrive. It's a dark, brutal, and unexpected moment — one that sees Ruth adopting the same killer instincts employed by so many of the other characters in the show.

While Ruth has made a number of questionable choices in Ozark, her decision to not only betray her uncles but also directly set up their deaths remains a major turning point for the character. It's a moment that has gone on to influence so much of Ruth's arc in the second and third seasons of Ozark, and is the thing that resulted in the rift between her and her cousin Wyatt (Charlie Tahan), which has always been her most healthy and important relationship in the show. There's no question that betraying her uncles is still the darkest thing Ruth has ever done on Ozark.