The only thing with a shorter lifespan than the characters on “Ozark” are the fan theories about those characters.
During a virtual panel at the annual TV festival PaleyFest LA released online Friday, “Ozark” showrunner Chris Mundy addressed a fan theory going around that posits Wendy Byrde’s brother Ben (Tom Pelphrey) didn’t actually die.
In the show, Ben’s supposed death happens off-screen after Wendy (Laura Linney) gives up his location to Helen (Janet McTeer). And, though the character appears to be cremated in the Season 3 finale, Ben’s body is covered ― so that could have been anyone, right?
Wrong.
“I love the fact that people love the character enough to come up with that theory. I wish it were true, but it ain’t true,” Mundy said. Though Linney ― Wendy herself ― reportedly joked, “Isn’t that what they said about Jon Snow?”
If only, Laura. But alas, “Ozark” doesn’t take place in Westeros. And Ben’s flowing locks seem to be the only thing he has in common with the former King in the North.
Speaking previously with IGN, Mundy explained why Ben’s death happened off-screen. “It just felt like if we showed the death on screen, that in some strange way it was going to take away from what we were really telling, which is, look at what Wendy did and had to do,” he said. “We didn’t want to take away from that emotion.”
Mundy teased the Byrde family’s motivations in the fourth and final season during the Paley panel: “You’re going to learn what they want their endgame to be, and they’re going to have to reckon with it a little bit.”
What that actually means? For now, we know nothing, Jon Snow.