What did you guys think of the final? Surprised no one died from the Byrde family. Was hoping Wendy would get some sort of punishment. She was the character I despised the most. Really sad that Ruth died. :-(
shareI was sad about Ruth but she sealed her fate when she shot Javi. She didn't have to do that and most likely made things worse for herself. Wendy and Marty are in a prison of their own making. they will live in fear like they have been for the whole show and never get out clean because they keep making powerful enemies.
shareRuth was too cocky and reckless! She brought death upon herself. She expected to kill the nephew (second in command) of a Narco with no consequences. Ruth was untrained and reacted out of emotions. If she wanted to exact revenge, she should’ve done it without ever letting them know she did it. She could’ve easily found out who Javi was by simply surveilling Wendy’s and Marty’s movements. Once she learned it, then she could’ve planned her attack or not. Too many people knew of the murder of Javi. One in particular was a very frightening, uptight citizen!
shareAgree @winslow and @scopeland.
shareThe ending ruined the entire series. Ruth set herself up, so that death was a given, but the fact that Wendy didn't get what was coming to her? And the fade to black screen? Typical writers flaw when you aren't competent enough to write an ending.
shareSo true. At least give the fans some sort of reward by seeing the most despised character get what she deserved.
shareNot necessarily. Sopranos did this and it was rather brilliant. Problem is, in case of The Sopranos, (most) people did just watch that episode, but they didn't see it.
People live to this day not understanding Tony Soprano died, when it is all there...
Anyways, in this case... yeah it was really lame. Them getting away with things was really lame.
You don't fuck with some cartel and get away with it.
I don't think they will get away with it permanently. The rest of their lives they will always have to murder someone or make up some scam to stay alive. Eventually they will run out of luck or there will be someone smarter than them and then the cartel will get them. I think it ended where it did because the show was about (to me) the way your family chains you to a particular way of living. So Jonah murdering the detective means that he is now irreversibly linked to Wendy and Marty's crime life. He will never escape (just as Ruth never really escaped and Ben never escaped). Wendy and Marty ruined their children's lives and Wendy is too evil to see it and Marty was too weak to stop it.
shareThat's a solid analysis, I agree. "Problem" is, we do not get to see it, we have to imagine it.
I would have liked to see the Byrdes really getting their fair share... I guess we all wanted to.
Aside from the kids, obviously.
Wendy was flat out evil, and Marty struck me like a sociopath. He never seemed to *really* love any of them and whenever he showed any compassion throughout the show, it always was so fake.
Yeah I agree, I think to be married to Wendy you have to be a strange person. And he seemed so committed to her no matter what she did. Like really he seemed to love her even more than he loved his own kids. Initially I thought the show was going to end up being Marty vs Wendy, with Marty trying to keep the kids safe and Wendy being willing to ruin life for them because of her ego and her desire to be wealthy and connected at any cost. But then Marty just stuck with whatever Wendy wanted, and you think, huh, he's really "whipped" or somehow in thrall to her.
shareI interpreted it differently.
Their days of worrying are over. Camila will take over the Navarro Cartel and return to Mexico with the blessing of the FBI. She knows she can’t touch the Byrdes. Besides, she doesn’t need to. Ruth’s death satisfied her revenge.
The truth is that the only people getting in the Byrde’s way were the decent people; Ruth, Mel and Maya were the principal antagonists.
The first two are dead and the last one has been sidelined.
The Byrde’s are free now.
Very reasonable interpretation!
share"People live to this day not understanding Tony Soprano died, when it is all there..."
Incredible isn't it?
As for the Ozark ending. I thought it was a cheap out, not good at all.
Lastly and for the record, I was never a Ruth fan. From the beginning she was a thief and a would-be murderer (how Marty kept her around and handed her responsibility in light of this never felt right to me).
While I liked her later, when she "came around", I fully agree it felt odd that Marty would trust her in any way at all considering she was willing to murder him. Fucked up stuff.
shareAs far as endings go I thought it was pragmatic and demoralizing, which was a bold move. I'm sure most viewers wanted Ruth to get out alive and for Wendy in particular to suffer for her decisions and immoral actions (particularly regarding Ben) but the writers weren't interested in a happy ever after story, and their brutal view of reality was best summed up by Wendy's conversation with Mel, when he said "You don't get to win, You don't get to be the Kochs or the Kennedys or whatever fսcking royalty you people think you are. World doesn't work like that" and she replies "Since when?"
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This was evident even in Marty when he was prepared to hang Ruth out to dry if she didn't get the kids back to Wendy. It also pushed the idea that money and power wins out over morals and human decency every time, which is a bleak, pessimistic view of the world but one that isn't wrong, sadly. Both Ruth and Mel tried to do the right thing in the end and paid for it with their lives, with the Byrdes losing nothing. Even Jonah has turned to the dark side in the final scene of the show.
It was a downbeat ending that left me feeling empty, but I think that was the point. And after a few days reflecting on it I think I'm glad they chose this ending, rather than some twee montage of everyone's favourite characters sipping champagne and looking relieved and happy that they escaped the mess they were all in. That wouldn't have been realistic.
I agree and still hate that Ruth died and Wendy ended up "ok".
shareWow, great analysis. I would have liked an ending where Jonah and Charlotte got away, or at least Jonah. I felt the darkest part was Jonah becoming corrupted. And although I feel the show's intention was to show that the whole family chooses to be corrupted, with that scene in the mental hospital where Wendy tells them to choose freely, I don't think it's valid to say that a teenage boy who can't even drive yet, is making a truly free choice. In the moments before the car crash, he looked really unhappy.
I think Ruth thought that keeping Jonah and Charlotte away from Wendy's dad was the right thing, but I'm not sure how Wendy is a better guardian for them than Wendy's dad. They are both awful but at least Wendy's dad isn't a murderer. And I think the dad's girlfriend seemed like a decent person who would have taken care of Jonah and Charlotte once she realized that Wendy's dad was a nut. I think Ruth's perception was distorted by her own experiences with her father, but Ruth failed to notice that Wendy herself is a parallel to Ruth's dad. (i.e. yes, Wendy is to Wendy's dad as Ruth is to Ruth's dad; but also Jonah is to Wendy as Ruth is to Ruth's dad, if you see what I mean).
I also think Ruth could have been a bit of a sociopath herself. The scene where she's talking to her friend about her friend killing the cartel guy, the friend was really shaken up over having killed someone, and Ruth's response was, well he's a bad guy, so what? And also Ruth has done some pretty bad things over the course of the show. But I do think, Ruth actually does love people and is willing to go to bat for them (like Wyatt) and actually DO things for other people (by contrast to Marty who mostly talks about how he loves his kids but his actions are very self-interested).
In my alternate universe ending of the show, Ruth leaves with Jonah and Charlotte and they flee somewhere else and she takes care of them.
My thoughts exactly. This is a cynical show where bad guys are supposed to win. Unfortunately, this happens in real life.
shareThings I would have fixed in the last season...
- Wendy should have gone to Mexico, not Marty
- They should have sided with Omar not Camila
- Which might have spared Ruth
Just for starters.
Marty should have called the human in Chicago to whack camila
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