The Ozark Season 4 Part 1 Scene That Has Fans Scratching Their Heads

Contains spoilers for "Ozark" Season 4, Part 1

Part 1 of the long-awaited and final season of "Ozark" is finally streaming on Netflix. To say that the cliffhanger ends with a bang is an understatement, and the fate of the Byrde family remains up in the air.

So far, Season 4 focuses on Wendy (Laura Linney) and Marty's (Jason Bateman) efforts to extricate themselves from the Navarro Cartel and get out of Missouri alive. However, leaving their life of crime behind is proving difficult thanks to Omar Navarro's wild-card nephew Javi (Alfonso Herrera). Also complicating matters is the fractured relationship between Marty and Wendy and their son Jonah (Skylar Gaetner), who joins forces with Ruth Langmore (Julia Garner) and Darlene Snell (Lisa Emery).

Season 4 remains as dark and twisty as "Ozark's" first three outings, but the stakes are even higher as the Byrdes are poised to return to Chicago free from the death and destruction they're leaving in their wake. However, there's one scene in "Ozark" Season 4 that has fans confused, frustrated, and fearful about what the future holds for its central characters.

In the opening scene of Episode 1, "The Beginning of the End," Marty, Wendy, Jonah, and Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) are in the car discussing their imminent departure. Marty swerves to avoid hitting an oncoming truck, and their van flips multiple times. In the immediate aftermath of the wreck, it's unclear if there are any survivors. The remainder of the episode picks up right where Season 3 leaves off, and fans took to Reddit to voice their confusion about what could be the Byrdes' unfortunate end. "What was up with the car crash at the beginning of S4E1? Was it a dream or something? Was it a dream implying they can't escape their circumstances? Or am I missing something here?" wrote u/Severe-Draw-5979.

The idea of the scene being a dream is a legitimate explanation, especially since the show has used this plot device before. In Season 3 Episode 3, "Kevin Cronin Was Here," Wendy dreams she shoots Marty, harkening back to the Season 2 death of Cade Langmore (Trevor Long). However, many fans appear to be taking the scene at face value. "Foreshadowing. It's a narrative device," stated u/Johoski. "It's definitely a flash forward. Might be [returned to] mid-way on Part 2," stated u/willthroaway_.

Fans debated the head-scratching "Ozark" Season 4 cold open on multiple Reddit threads. Redditor u/Twin2Turbo wrote, "I was wondering if it was a flash forward. But at the same time I was also just wondering if it was just symbolic scene about their situation." Killing off the entire family would be cold-blooded, but it's unlikely everyone will walk away unscathed if the accident harkens what awaits the Byrdes.

Redditor u/allistar34 believes the crash is an obvious red herring. "The writers are way smarter than this. It would be an incredibly pathetic way to end the show and it would cheapen the series as a whole. Think about it – all of this BS just for the family to die in a car crash? And then what, it's supposed to be blamed on karma? That would be peak lazy writing."

However, do Marty and Wendy deserve a happy or tidy ending? They justify their actions because whatever they do, it's for the good of their family, but everyone on "Ozark" has a day of reckoning, and the Byrdes' is coming; that much is certain.