How Ozark Fans Really Feel About This Character's Death

Though it hardly killed off its main players with the same giddy, blood-lusting glee as "Game of Thrones," Netflix's gritty crime drama "Ozark" certainly didn't skimp on that front. In fact, by series end, virtually every single character who partnered with or faced off against Marty and Wendy Byrde (Jason Bateman and Laura Linney) was either dead or wholly ruined on either the personal or professional front.

As it was, simply offing those who stood in their way was the far more frequent approach for the Byrdes, their cartel bosses, and especially the trigger-happy heroin queen Darlene Snell (Lisa Emery). Heck, even foul-mouthed fan-favorite Ruth Langmore (Julia Garner) shed some blood in the names of vengeance (and business) prior to meeting her own unfortunate end. Of course, not every character who caught a bullet or found an early grave deserved one. But it does seem that there was one Season 3 death that some fans felt more than fit the bill. So much so, one fan took to Reddit to host a viewers' poll asking what others really thought of that particular demise, and the results were actually a little surprising.   

Quite a few characters went on to meet their proverbial maker during the 3rd season of "Ozark." While the deaths of Helen Pierce (Janet McTeer) and Ben Davis (Tom Pelphrey) certainly came as a shock, they weren't entirely unexpected in the context of the overarching narrative. That of Marty and Wendy Byrde's deceptively sweet therapist Sue Shelby (Marylouise Burke), on the other hand, was. Sue's end comes at the hands of cartel cleaner Nelson (Nelson Bonilla) after she extorts money from the Byrdes, who surprisingly supply way too much information about their illegal ventures during couples therapy sessions.

Sue's killing is played in equal parts for drama and comedy, leaving many to wonder whether she really earned her watery McLaren grave. Redditor u/jjThomson69 was among them, and posed the question, "Was anyone sad when Nelson killed sue?" before putting it to a vote. A total of 348 "Ozark" fans responded, and a whopping 257 agreed the therapist's ill-advised greed more than merited her series exit.  

That includes u/netritojosesito, who clearly found the humor in Sue's offing, posting in the comments, "Haha she totally had it coming. I mean c'mon, yellow McLaren?" Like many others, u/sixtus_clegane119 agreed, noting Sue's fate was sealed once her infamous yellow McLaren made its appearance. "The second I saw her car I knew she was dead already," they proclaimed. 

There were, however, a few posters who felt Sue got a raw deal, with u/LunaSeedie offering, "I was sad about it. She was sweet," before putting the onus for her demise on Marty and Wendy. But even as the Byrdes played a key role in Sue's death, it's pretty hard to argue her own misguided greed didn't directly engineer it.

Whether Sue Shelby was to blame for her own demise or not, it should hardly come as a surprise that things went the way they did for the therapist. As noted, few who met Marty and Wendy Byrde while they called Missouri home lived to see the credits roll on the series finale. And Sue's downfall is indicative of the chaos and carnage the Byrdes wrought in the Ozark region. So completely did they decimate anyone in their way, it was hard not to see Marty, and particularly Wendy, as the true villains of "Ozark." 

The Byrdes all but cemented that title in the final season. Their self-serving ambitions became particularly clear in the show's breathless waning moments with Wendy's bone-chilling final line hammering home one of the central themes of "Ozark": we're living in a world where money, power, and influence continue to allow bad people (even those with relatively noble intentions) to get away with all manner of malfeasance. As for that harsh bit of social commentary, Laura Linney recently told the LA Times, "Are you kidding? Watch the news ... That [reaction] was not a very big leap, for me."

So, just like everyone who crossed paths with the Byrdes, whether she was an innocent caught in the crosshairs or a fool who brought on her own demise, Sue Shelby was just one of the many pieces of collateral damage left in Marty and Wendy's wake.