Who is ruth on ozark

**Spoilers ahead!**

On April 29, Netflix dropped Ozark season 4 part 2 and the ending of the crime drama sent shockwaves across the fandom. After Ruth Langmore (Julia Garner) avenges her cousin Wyatt (Charlie Tahan)’s death by killing his murderer Javi (Alfonso Herrera), the cartel leader’s mother Camila (Veronica Falcón) fatally shoots her as payback. Unsurprisingly, seeing their favorite character die instead of Marty (Jason Bateman) or Wendy (Laura Linney) didn’t sit well with many folks. “Why did they do that to Ruth 😭,” one person wrote on Instagram. “I wish it was Ruth left standing and not Wendy!” another added.

But Julia might disagree. Before getting the script detailing how Ozark would end after nearly five years, the actress already sensed that Ruth had reached the end of her road. While it may have been a little hard to digest, Julia has made peace with it and she hopes fans do too.

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Speaking with Time, the Inventing Anna star shared why she thought her character’s story concluded the way it did. “I really do think Ruth died when Wyatt died,” she told the outlet. “I think her body was just here. She wasn’t going to voluntarily quit life, but I think she was so dead inside that if given an opportunity to die, she wouldn’t say no.”

Julia continued: “In the end, it’s not her going over to death, it’s death coming over to her. By the end of the season, she didn’t care about living. She did what she needed to do, she killed Javi, and after that mission, she was like a ghost.”

As for Marty and Wendy getting away in the nick of time thanks to Jonah (Skylar Gaertner), it didn’t mean that the family got away scot-free. “I don’t view it as the Byrdes winning, even if they think they’re winning. I think they’re lying to themselves,” she explained. “They might have won the battle, but they didn’t win the war. When you get your hands that dirty, they can never be clean.”

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Ozark - The Final Scene | Netflix

So, was Julia okay with Ozark only having four seasons? Yes and no. Her connection to Ruth kept her wanting more — but ultimately, she understood the decision. After all, she’s getting ready to go behind the camera herself as a producer on future projects.

“From an artistic point of view, I feel like ending on a high note like this is probably the smartest move. You don’t ever want to be the last person leaving the party,” she said. “Personally, and selfishly, I could shoot this show until I’m 70 years old.”

But even with the curtains coming down on Ozark, Julia won’t be forgetting about her onscreen family anytime soon. “Ozark is not just a page in my book, it’s chapters of it,” she told the magazine. “It’s not just a job. It’s a part of me.”

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  'Ozark' Star Julia Garner Shares Major Career News

Selena BarrientosAssociate Entertainment & News Editor

Selena is the associate entertainment and news editor for Good Housekeeping, where she covers the latest on TV, movies and celebrities. In addition to writing and editing entertainment news, she also spotlights the Hispanic and Latinx community through her work. She is a graduate of CUNY Hunter College with a B.A. in journalism and creative writing.

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This story contains spoilers for the series finale of Ozark.

Ask 10 Ozark fans who their favorite character on the show is, you'll probably get the same answer: Ruth Langmore. Played by the great Julia Garner, the savvy, wise-cracking entrepreneur may very well be the only redeemable character in the entire series. (We thought Jonah was in that crowd, but... no.)

It almost goes without saying that Ozark's series finale—which feels like forever ago, at this point—was a major tear-jerker for loyal followers of the series. In the final scenes of the show, we see Camila Elizonndro seemingly kill Ruth over the death of her son, Javi, fulfilling the Langmore curse. Last week, Garner spoke with TIME about Ruth's fate, of which she said, "It felt like I was dying. My death was also the last scene of Ozark. I think the last shot we did was me on the ground. I really do think Ruth died when Wyatt died. I think her body was just here." All due respect to Julia, but that doesn't make us feel any better.

If you parse through the interview, there's one particularly fun nugget for longtime fans of Ozark. Want to know how Garner gets into character as Ruth Langmore? She meditates. Then, Ruth shows up, and the two Julia Garners chit-chat. What else did you think? “I know this sounds crazy, but [while meditating] I try to remove myself completely and become Ruth,” she said. “I’m half-asleep, half-awake [while doing this] so it’s this subconscious-type thing and I ask myself, as Ruth, questions.”

Julia, can we please get a written-through interview between you and Ruth Langmore, like the Donald Glover x Donald Glover Interview Magazine cover? If you come through, we promise we'll accept that Ozark is over for good.

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• Julia Garner plays Ruth Langmore on Ozark.
• She's been the best character for all four seasons of the show's run, carrying storylines and giving a character who could have otherwise been flat an exceptional amount of depth.
• She was once again nominated for an Emmy for her work in Season 3, and she once again won.

There are a lot of top-level acting talents in Ozark—Jason Bateman (Marty Byrde) is a bona fide star, Laura Linney (Wendy Byrde) is a powerhouse who's been nominated for an Oscar three times, Tom Pelphrey (Ben Davis) is a new favorite of David Fincher's, and Janet McTeer (Helen Pierce) has herself been nominated for a pair of Oscars. Which is why it's saying a lot when we say that Julia Garner—who plays the scrappy, enterprising Ruth Langmore—is the best character, giving the best performance, on Ozark.

From her start as a backwoods scam artist in the first season, we've seen Ruth grow closer to the Byrdes through the years, to the point where she's considered a part of the family for most of Season 3 before breaking off as Season 4 begins; but as Season 4 progresses, of course, she works her way back and forth. Blood is thicker than water, and Ruth is always feeling the back and forth pull between her alliance to Marty and Wendy, and the pull from her roots, with her fellow Langmores, and locals like Darlene Snell. For all the depth in her performance, Garner, 27, has won two Emmys for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama at the Primetime Emmys—and should certainly be nominated again for Season 4.

In a way, Ruth is Ozark's parallel to Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) on Breaking Bad. The difference being, however, that Ruth is a character in significantly more control; while she has been brought into the business by Marty and has an important relationship with him, she's much more of an equal and respected partner. Walter White, on the other hand, emotionally abused and manipulated Jesse at just about every step of their journey together.

In her performance, Garner gets so much to do. Not only does she get to be the most badass character in the show—she's on the ground doing much of the dirty work, while Marty and Wendy are generally operating behind the scenes—but she gets to flex a lot of great character moments, too. She shares a relationship with Wendy's brother, Ben, and also a rivalry with Frank Cosgrove Jr., the gangster from Kansas City. When the show eventually returns for the second half of Season 4, you can be sure that she'll be back for more.

Her acting has stood out elsewhere, too. In 2020, her role in The Assistant, an independent film inspired by the horrible scenarios that Harvey Weinstein put some of his employees through, was one of the most acclaimed movies of the year. That movie is now available to stream on Hulu, and has been an overperformer on iTunes and other platforms.

She also starred in another of Netflix's biggest shows of the year: Inventing Anna, where she play the notable real-life scammer Anna Delvey. That show wasn't great, but Garner's performance was exceptional.

Garner isn't just known for her work on Ozark, either—she's made a big splash in the entertainment industry the last few years.

She's now won two Emmys for playing Ruth Langmore.

Despite being excellent as Ruth from the get-go in Ozark, Garner wasn't even nominated for the first season of the show. She's certainly made up for lost time, though, as she's now won the Best Supporting Actress in a Drama category for Seasons 2 and 3 of the show. She faced staunch competition in the category, including Succession star Sarah Snook and Big Little Lies Oscar winners Laura Dern and Meryl Streep, but her excellent performance managed to win voters over for her second straight contest.

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72nd Emmy Awards: Julia Garner Wins for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series

“You are the reason why I’m acting in the first place,” she said upon receiving her award, praising her fellow nominees. She also made sure to thank her co-stars and frequent scene partners, series leads Jason Bateman and Laura Linney. “Thank you Jason and Laura—Laura, I love you so much—for bringing me under your wings and not only teaching me how to be a better actor but a person.”

She also starred as Anna Delvey in Netflix's Inventing Anna.

Garner was cast in the leading titular role of Inventing Anna, Shonda Rhimes' Netflix series focusing on the story of the so-called SoHo grifter, Anna Delvey. Based on the The Cut story, Garner played Anna Delvey, the real-life scam artist who ended up in prison.

The show was not particularly good, but Garner's performance as the titular character was pitch perfect. Her performance may have seemed a bit animated—but that's just because the real person was exactly the same way. Garner showed her chops in a role that was very clearly a huge change-up from Ruth Langmore.

Julia Garner has been in several other great shows too.

Even aside from her award-winning role on Ozark, Garner has made a splash in the last several years in acclaimed TV series. Back in 2018, she played Emma Stone's sister in Cary Fukunaga's underrated Netflix series Maniac. She also played one of Connie Britton's daughters in the television adaptation of the hit podcast Dirty John, and had her own standalone storyline in a pair of episodes of Modern Love, the anthology show based on the famous New York Times column.

Even before that, Garner had been making waves on television: she had a recurring role in The Americans, FX's hit series about Russian spies in America during the '80s, and also played a part in the Paramount Network's Waco miniseries that focused on the true story of cult leader that got involved in a police stand-off.

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In December 2019, Garner married Mark Foster, a rock star best known as the lead singer for the band Foster the People. The couple were engaged in May of the same year.

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She was in one of 2020's most acclaimed movies.

As we touched upon earlier, Garner received widespread acclaim for her performance in The Assistant, which came out on a limited basis at the end of January and is now available to rent on Amazon, VOD, and iTunes.

The movie is about a young college graduate entering a job in the film production world, and is loosely based on things that were learned in light of the #MeToo movement and the crimes of Harvey Weinstein. The movie currently has a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and co-stars Succession star (and fellow 2020 Emmy nominee!) Matthew Macfayden.

Stream The Assistant Here

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The Assistant Trailer #1 (2020) | Movieclips Trailer

Evan is the culture editor for Men’s Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE. He loves weird movies, watches too much TV, and listens to music more often than he doesn’t.