Warning: SPOILERS for Ozark’s season 3 finale.

The shocking end of Ozark season 3 was the series’ best so far, but the cliffhanger evades a huge question: why did Omar Navarro( Felix Solis) choose to have Helen Pierce( Janet McTeer) assassinated instead of the Byrdes? In the final moments of the Ozark season 3 climax, “All In, ” Marty Byrde( Jason Bateman) and his wife Wendy( Laura Linney) reluctantly arrived in Mexico along with Helen to meet with Navarro. But as soon as they went out of the car, one of Navarro’s gunmen immediately blew Helen’s intelligences out, splattering her blood over the Byrdes. Navarro then gript the scandalized Marty and Wendy, cementing them as “his choice” – but why?

The crux of Ozark’s drama has always been Marty’s efforts to protect his family from being slaughtered by the Mexican drug cartel he( once privately) worked for. This entail relocating the Byrdes from Chicago to Osage Beach, Missouri in Ozark season 1 so Marty could set up business fronts in order to launder millions for Navarro. Once Wendy and their minors Charlotte( Sofia Hublitz) and Jonah( Skylar Gaertner ) got involved in the family business, everything got more complicated, especially since Wendy had wildly different ideas from Marty. In Ozark season 2, Navarro’s no-nonsense attorney Helen Pierce was introduced to keep the Byrdes in line, and she soon detected how dysfunctional Marty and Wendy’s marriage is. Still, Helen inclined more towards Wendy, who set up the Missouri Belle casino as Navarro’s brand-new, “legitimate” business, which Marty ran in Ozark season 3 along with his Girl friday, Ruth Langmore( Julia Garner ). Wendy then wanted to expand and absorb a second casino – a strategy Marty actively sabotaged since the Missouri Belle was under close scrutiny by the FBI.

Related: Ozark Season 3 Cast Guide: Where You Recognize The Actors From

In Ozark season 3, as Navarro contended a brutal medication war with a challenger cartel, the working relationship between Helen and the Byrdes irrevocably ruptured. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when Wendy’s dangerously bipolar friend Ben Davis( Tom Pelphrey) set off his meds and told Helen’s teenage daughter Erin( Madison Thompson) the truth about her mother being a criminal. Helen tagged Ben for demise and essentially crack ties with the Byrdes. Wendy tried to save Ben but eventually recognized she couldn’t protect her part genealogy. She made the unthinkable call to have Ben executed by Helen’s hitman but, regardless, Navarro’s attorney designated a propose in motion to steal Byrde Enterprises away from Marty and Wendy. By Ozark’s season 3 climax, it was evident that Helen and the Byrdes could no longer co-exist and Navarro manufactured the( controversial) preference to keep Marty and Wendy.

Obviously, the Byrdes are the main references of Ozark, so they would have to survive, but why did Navarro pop a cover in his solicitor? Helen had helped Navarro well for years and she was highly competent; she even withstood being tortured and never fluctuated in her patriotism. In fact, Navarro had just relied Helen with helping for his children in the U.S. when the Lagunas cartel pogrom everyone at Navarro’s son’s baptism. Meanwhile, Marty and Wendy have proven to be mercurial and endlessly questionable. Navarro even kidnapped Marty and deemed him prisoner for periods merely to glean what exactly Marty wanted.

The key that saved the Byrdes’ surfaces is when Marty leant Wendy’s idea to do them “more valuable” to Navarro into motion by helping their employer win his stimulant conflict. Marty turned over the video taken by Jonah’s drone of a Lagunas massacre of Kansas City mob employees on U.S. clay to his FBI contact, Agent Maya Miller( Jessica Frances Dukes ), which positioned the federal government departments upon the Lagunas cartel. Obviously, Navarro was grateful that the Byrdes eliminated the existential threat to his business. But still, Navarro didn’t have to kill Helen – he could have just transmitted her since she made it clear she didn’t even want to be in the Ozarks. Even if Helen wanted to destroy the Byrdes, she would have likely furnished to Navarro’s chooses if he dictated her to stand down and go back to Chicago.

The case could certainly be made that Helen was the more stable choice to keep alive, but over the course of Ozark season 3, Navarro had developed a private rapport and respect for Wendy. And again, the Byrdes did eliminate the Lagunas as a threat to Navarro’s life and business. At the end of Ozark season 3, Navarro was the one who decided to go “all in” with the Byrdes and he depicted his gratitude by harshly implementing Helen, their primary adversary. But when Marty and Wendy flew to Mexico, the deck in Osage Beach reshuffled: Ruth joined up with Darlene Snell( Lisa Emery ), who reignited her heroin operation and assembled an alliance with the KC Mob. Even Jonah is incensed at his mothers over Ben’s death. In Ozark season 4, Marty and Wendy will unwittingly return to find the Ozarks more unfriendly to them than ever – and Navarro may end up regretting opt Marty and Wendy over Helen.

Next: Ozark Season 3: Ruth And Ben’s Love Story Saved The Show

Read more: screenrant.com