The Seemingly Useless Ozark Character Fans Can't Help But Hate
Here's the thing: nobody is watching Ozark because the show is full of lovable or relatable characters. In fact, Ozark's cast is made up of the most detestable group of rotten little nasties you'll find this side of Breaking Bad. Whether it's Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman) putting his entire family in grave danger by laundering money for a drug cartel, Wendy (Laura Linney) orchestrating her own brother's assassination, cartel lawyer Helen (Janet McTeer) waterboarding a teenager, or that teenager, Ruth (Julia Garner), killing her own uncles, there really isn't anybody on Ozark who hasn't done something completely amoral over the course of the show.
But who does that leave as the worst of the bunch? In theory, while watching a series like Ozark, the characters you end up hating aren't necessarily the ones doing bad deeds, but rather, the ones who are working in opposition to whichever miscreant you've taken a liking to. That makes it all pretty subjective, and yet, there is one character on the show who seems to be almost universally despised.
While alliances do shift often on Ozark, there's one person who has not only committed truly heinous acts of violence, including against innocent people, but who has also been a wrench in the works for just about everybody from the FBI to the Navarro cartel. Heading into the show's fourth and final season, they even look poised to potentially bring down the Byrde's entire operation.
In a poll on Reddit, fans were asked to vote for which character they hated the most. With over two thousand votes cast, there was one very clear winner, and an important question that emerged: how do you solve a problem like Darlene Snell (Lisa Emery)?
Ozark fans are confused about why nobody has killed Darlene yet
For anyone familiar with Darlene's resume, it's not hard to pinpoint why viewers have an aversion to the Lady Snell. She is, after all, the woman who poisoned her own husband (albeit as a preemptive measure) and murdered a pregnant woman, removed the child, and then raised it as her own. That alone kind of puts everyone else's criminal behavior to shame. However, for some of the fans who picked Darlene in the poll, the issue is less what she's done, and more the fact that she keeps getting away with it.
Darlene isn't just a person who does evil things, she's also the person on the series who has basically screwed over every other character at some point. This had commenters calling out what they see as a plot hole that the character creates for the show â on a series where everyone is expendable, how has nobody not taken out Darlene yet?
For user u/nicythi, the issue is larger than just one character. "The show's starting to feel repetitive to me because of Darlene," they wrote. "Everyone knows she's a problem, why don't you just get her killed?"
Those sentiments were shared by u/the0rthopaedicsurgeo, who laid out how some characters have survived because the others know there would be major consequences if they killed them. But Darlene? Not so much. "Darlene is literally just Darlene," they bemoaned. "What consequences happen if you kill her? None. She might be useful to have sometimes but it would be much simpler to just have her killed."
The "Who do you hate the most?" poll may have officially solidified that Darlene is an issue for many fans, but it's not the only time the problem has been brought up.
Some fans think Darlene's invincibility is a problem for the show
Ozark's Darlene conundrum is one that has been brought up by fans before. In a thread called "The problem with Darlene," user u/FOURLOBO broke down what they see as a big issue with the character: "how the fâ is she still alive?"
According to u/FOURLOBO, the crux of the problem ultimately comes down to the fact that Darlene has crossed people with a penchant for murdering anybody who even seems capable of betrayal. They explained, "She kills Del, disrespects [the cartel], breaks deals, undermines the casino, and then even threatens that there will be consequences if the cartel doesn't handle her H again?" And even after all that: "And... She's.... Still.... Alive!?"
Other users jumped in to lodge their own complaints about the character's seeming invincibility, no matter what she does. User u/hat-TF2 said, "Darlene is way overpowered for what she is." They then pointed to a scene in season 3 where she takes revenge on Frank Jr. (Joseph Sikora) on behalf of Ruth as yet another example of how the character can seemingly get away with anything: "That she can walk up to the son of a mob boss and shoot his groin in broad daylight?"
For u/ctinsley_2308, the issue isn't so much Darlene, but rather, the fact that the series hasn't adequately explained why she can act with impunity. They wrote, "I will agree that the show should give a bit more detail as to the exact man power and turf being held by The Snells, because Darlene is definitely writing some hefty checks with her mouth that might have to be cashed later."
It looks like we now know at least one character that fans are hoping to see not making it to the series finale when Ozark returns for its fourth and final season on Netflix.