WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Ozark season 1 and 2 that may influence your enjoyment in discovering the plotlines. Read at your own risk.
Is Ruth Langmore (played by Julia Garner) ditching her family in Ozark season 3? Showrunner Chris Mundy has hinted that something might be changing in this character's storyline that will impact the course of the third season.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Mundy said that Ruth would feel like she wants to become a part of the Byrde family in Ozark season 3. Short of saying that Ruth is going to be adopted by Marty (played by Jason Bateman) and Wendy (played by Laura Linney), Mundy also said that it would be a complicated situation. Somewhere along the way, Ruth will realize a few things about the Byrdes and reconsider where she wants to be.
Garner, on the other hand, revealed in an interview with Vulture that her character's original family is "dying out." Ruth has also been going through an identity crisis since Ozark season 2, hence the pull towards the Byrde.
"She's conflicted about whether she's a Byrde or a Langmore," the actress said. "She hasn't processed her father's murder (in Ozark season 2)," she added. "It didn't sink in that she killed her uncle (in Ozark season 1) and that she was living a lie and then it exploded. It's going to be a similar thing in season three, but in a different way."
Meanwhile, it's not just Ruth's addition that will expand the Byrde family. Ozark season 3 has cast Tom Pelphrey as Ben David, the brother of Wendy, who arrives in the Ozarks without informing his sister beforehand.
Ben has been mentioned in Ozark season 1 as an unstable individual due to his mental problems. Mundy confirmed that this character would be a "very destabilizing factor" to the Byrde's marriage in Ozark season 3, while stars Bateman and Linney could only laugh at the description of the character.
Meanwhile, Netflix has not yet announced when the new episodes of Ozark season 3 should drop on the streaming platform. For the last two seasons, the show has been out for the summer, but production was pushed back for the third season due to Bateman's schedule.
At the very least, fans of the drama series about a family surviving amid threat from a drug cartel and a crime mob should be ready for airing by the first half of 2020. Netflix could release the first teaser of Ozark season 3 in the spring.
