Ozark cast sounds off on whether their characters can — or should — be redeemed in show's finale

There are antiheroes, and then there are the characters on Netflix's Ozark.

Over the course of the show's four seasons (which wrap up with seven final episodes releasing April 29), the audience has watched as the Byrde family and their associates further and further devolve into lawlessness with money-laundering schemes and their efforts to get out from under a dangerous Mexican drug cartel.

As the end approaches for Marty (Jason Bateman), Wendy (Laura Linney), their family, and their ruthless one-time business partner Ruth (Julia Garner), it sort of begs the question: Are any of these people redeemable, or are they too far gone? Is there a so-called hero here, and should we be rooting for them?

The answer, as Bateman, Linney, Garner and showrunner Chris Mundy tell EW in our latest Around the Table video series, is as complicated as one of the Byrde family plots.

"I think they make a lot of terrible decisions, obviously. I love them all despite themselves," Mundy says. "I don't know if I would if I was in real life with them, but I find them redeemable. But I doubt they'll actually be redeemed. I don't know if they'll ever get there, but I want to hope for them." As for which character he's rooting for the most down the final stretch? "Ruth's the easiest one to just cheer for because I think everyone cheers for Ruth. Because you love her, and she's trying to elevate [herself], and she's been underestimated her whole life," he says.

This notion of people rooting for her character is interesting to Garner, though, because as she points out, Ruth's hands are hardly clean. "There's that aspect. I know everyone's like, 'Oh, yeah, poor Ruth.' But I'm like, 'Guys, she murdered her uncles,'" Garner says.

Bateman, whose character Marty perhaps struggles the most with all the horrible things he has done in the name of protecting his family, suggests that maybe in a roundabout way, these characters are heroes.

Says Bateman, "If you can somehow put people in a situation that the viewing public would never find themselves in, because it's too dangerous or it's too criminal, maybe they are somewhat heroic in that they are getting through something that maybe you would not be able to, or would not ever risk going through, or would not be stupid enough to go through. Or whatever it is, there's some heroism in accomplishing it or some form of that, I think. We're certainly not doing anything that is typically heroic."

Find out more on what to expect from the final episodes of Ozark, plus more with Linney, Bateman, Mundy, and Garner, in the video above.

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