How Much Fourth dimension Has Passed on Ozark?

Marty and Wendy Byrde, pondering the nature of time. Photo: COURTESY OF NETFLIX

Ozark is a series that raises a lot of questions. Questions like: Will the Byrde family always shake its connection to the Navarro cartel and start a new life? And: Will Marty and Wendy Byrde, played by Jason Bateman and Laura Linney, ever fully confront their responsibility for committing numerous heinous crimes? Also: What does the upper-level loft in the Byrdes' business firm look like, and why don't they ever show it on the bear witness? Yep, people are murdered left and correct on Ozark, simply this inconsequential detail is what keeps me up at night!

Oh, here's some other important question: How much time has actually passed within the framework of this Netflix drama?

That ane sounds like it should be simple to answer, simply and so much happens in each episode of Ozark that it'southward easy to lose track of whether a mean solar day or a week has elapsed. When I threw this question out into the Twitterverse recently, Dan Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter surmised that the Byrde family, who moved to Lake of the Ozarks from Chicago at the offset of season ane, have been there for less than a year. "But Jonah and Three take aged a decade," he added, referring to the Byrdes' son and the cousin of Julia Garner's Ruth, who have indeed gone from roughly age 13 to 20. (Actors get older, what can yous do?) Equally further prove to back up his timeline read, Fienberg pointed out that Infant Zeke, who was born most the end of flavour i, is still a non-walking baby in season four. That's when my mind got blown. Has this show actually transpired inside the bridge of less than 12 months? Considering I could accept sworn the Byrdes had been in the Ozarks for at least two summers.

Pretty speedily, information technology became articulate that this matter required a [portentous music swells] Vulture Investigation. Then I put on my private-investigator hat, gathered my business organisation cards, and started repeatedly knocking on doors to ask almost Helen Pierce'southward whereabouts similar that paperboy in Amend Off Dead who won't get away until he gets his $2.

Merely kidding, I'one thousand no Mel Sattem. What I really did was skim every episode of Ozark in search of markers for how much chronological time has passed. As a mere citizen detective (I meet you lot, Misty Quigley!) and someone who did not take the bandwidth to rewatch every episode in full, it's possible I missed some clues hither and there. If whatsoever of this sounds incorrect, I welcome your feedback. Just based on my analysis, this is the general timeline of the serial Ozark, from season one through flavour iv, part one.

Summer apparel! Photo: Netflix

Timeline: June 2017 to September 2017

Bear witness: Since season one dropped in 2017 and is set up in the present twenty-four hours, I am making the reasonable assumption that it's 2017 when our story begins. This is likewise in line with a Reddit thread that notes Ruth saying in flavour i that she is xix and was born in 1998, making information technology 2017.

As the Byrdes depart Chicago, everyone is dressed in warm-weather wearing apparel, which suggests it is early June, an observation supported past the fact that the Fourth of July is celebrated in episode five, after the Byrdes have seemingly been in the Ozarks a few weeks. In episode seven, the Byrde children, Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) and Jonah (Skylar Gaertner), head to their first day at Lakeside High School, and then it's probably mid-to-late August at that bespeak or, at the very latest, just after Labor 24-hour interval.

Marty also promises to wash $viii million in three months (so more than or less between June and September), and in episode seven, Wendy specifically tells Garcia, a rep for the cartel, that they even so take some fourth dimension to make clean the $8 meg considering the off-flavour doesn't start until September 21. Which tells you that by episode seven, it'due south … a few weeks before September 21.

In episode ix, Marty celebrates that the initial $8 million has been washed by the September deadline. What transpires in episode x, the season-one finale, seems to occur within a matter of days later on that, leading me to conclude that it's still September 2017 when season ane ends.

It's hunting season. Photo: Netflix/Jessica Miglio/Netflix

Timeline: Fall 2017 to spring 2018

Show: One matter that makes it challenging to lay out a specific Ozark timeline is that the testify acknowledges time mostly via micro-deadlines, equally in "Nosotros take to wash this coin in iii months" or "We have 48 hours until the FBI coming together." Time writ large is treated with less clarity.

The passing of seasons is hinted at mostly via the weather, and holidays are only occasionally acknowledged. A portion of season ii must take place over the holiday season, for example, but Christmas or New Twelvemonth's never really enters into things. At that place's one scene at the Blue Cat Social club in episode 4 where white Christmas lights are strung at the bar, simply no other holiday decorations appear in the groundwork. The time of twelvemonth in Ozark is always just a sort of melancholy cobalt, the show's favorite hue.

Season two begins with the cremation of Dell, who was killed by Darlene in the season-one finale — a.m.a. things basically pick up exactly where they left off, which is September 2017-ish. Baby Zeke, who was born in the season-one finale before the Snells got rid of Grace, the wife of Pastor Bricklayer, all the same appears to be tiny.

The side by side notable mark of time comes in episode 3, when Jacob Snell notes it's the starting time twenty-four hours of hunting season, and so insists Marty and Jonah bring together him to shoot some deer. According to the Missouri Section of Conservation'south hunting-season dates for 2017, that sets the engagement for this expedition at November 11.

All the heavy coats and visible exhalations in the next few episodes ostend we're in the coldest portion of winter. In episode eight, the absolutely useless Sheriff Zip comes to the Byrdes' household to ask if they've seen or heard from Mason, who has been missing. Wendy says they haven't in months, which is a lie. After Mason kidnapped Wendy in the previous episode, Marty killed him and they cremated his remains at their funeral home. However, from a timeline perspective, I think Wendy is being accurate, at least enough to audio apparent from Nix'due south point of view. She last saw him preaching on the street in the 2nd episode of season ii, and then in the September–to–early-October range, which is why I assume that by episode eight, it's at to the lowest degree January 2018.

Time seems to shift into a slightly faster gear at the end of this flavour because, past episode nine, Wyatt gets admitted to Mizzou. Assuming the acceptance letter went out in the full general time frame as about college credence messages, that puts us in March 2018. My best guesstimate is that episode 10, the finale, ends in late March or early April, mainly because of Jonah'south hair. In the beginning of the finale, Darlene kidnaps Jonah and shaves his head. But by the end of that episode, when the Byrdes are belongings their opening ceremony for the Missouri Belle Casino — the quickness with which that business gets up and running completely defies time, by the way — Jonah'southward pilus seems to have started growing back, enough that maybe a couple of weeks accept passed since the shaving.

Zeke at 7 months–ish. Photo: Netflix/Courtesy of Netflix

Timeline: April or May 2018 to August 2018

Evidence:  Things get a petty more vague on the timeline in season 3. As it begins, the Missouri Belle is up and running, with, once more, a remarkable swiftness since information technology appears to be simply late April or early May. I base this on the fact that, in episode one, Wendy is talking to Jonah about getting a summer job, and episode two explicitly unfolds during the runup to Memorial Day.

Too in episode one, while attending a Mommy and Me–type of grade with Zeke, Darlene mentions that her husband has been dead for half-dozen months. This seems like a deliberate lie since (a) Darlene killed Jacob and (b) she killed him in season two when it would take been March-ish by my calculations, thus much more recently. As for Zeke, who was born in September, he should be effectually vii months quondam or so by now, so that function actually tracks with it existence April or May likewise.

The rest of the season clearly takes place over the summer, though after the acquittance of Memorial Day in episode 2, pinpointing exactly when during the summer is a bit of a claiming. In the season finale, following Ben's extremely untimely expiry, Wendy tells Ruth that she (wrongly) thinks she knows Ben better than Wendy does "later on two fucking months." Ruth and Ben didn't become romantically involved until after Memorial Day, so assuming that Wendy's use of 2 months is in the right ballpark, that ways season three ends with the assassination of Helen Pierce in August 2018.

Either Skylar Gaertner grew a lot between seasons or Jonah is a time traveler. Photo: Netflix/STEVE DIETL/NETFLIX

Timeline: Baronial 2018 to August 2018

Leaving bated the cold-open car wreck in episode 1 — which takes identify at an undetermined time in the hereafter — this is the most condensed batch of Ozark episodes and then far.

The action resumes minutes after Omar Navarro (Felix Solis) murders Helen (Janet McTeer) in United mexican states City, which means information technology is still August 2018. Some may say this kickoff half of season iv unspools during late summer or early fall. Personally, I refer to this menstruum every bit Javi season, for reasons that should be obvious to anyone who has watched season iv, office one, of Ozark.

Zeke should be close to a twelvemonth erstwhile at this bespeak, but nosotros have not seen him crawl or effort to walk. As a thing of fact, we don't encounter much of Zeke at all this season; he's either hidden in his auto seat, swaddled in blankets, or in a high chair that'south strategically turned away from the photographic camera then we tin can't determine how big he'south gotten. Using Zeke equally a marker of time: useless.

Iii and Jonah are noticeably older, though this is more of an issue for Jonah considering he plays a major office in season four and, in the span of what is supposed to be a few days, has shot upwardly several feet and matured past two or three years. Compared with what he looked like in flavor i — which, again, started only a petty more than a yr agone in Ozark time, when Jonah was 13 — the only logical determination one can accomplish is that Jonah became a time traveler, jumped forward to 2021, then came back to 2018 with his 2021 trunk still intact. I mean, sure, the existent explanation is that Gaertner grew a lot and COVID delays in production increased how much older he would wait. Merely since no one can outright say that, everyone on the show treats Jonah's inexplicable sudden maturity the aforementioned fashion Wendy treats her office in her brother'southward death: They pretend it didn't happen.

Anyhow, a couple of timeline signifiers practice show helpful. In episode five, Charlotte leaves in the middle of taking her SATs. Bold she was taking them co-ordinate to the 2018 SAT schedule, that would have been on Baronial 25, 2018. In episode six, when Marty talks nearly taking a trip to Chicago with Charlotte so she tin help sentry offices for their intended move dorsum abode, he suggests that perchance they could take hold of a Cubs playoff game "if they brand it." That flavor, the Cubs did make it into the postseason, but later lost a wild-card game to the Colorado Rockies. The Cubs' clinching of the wild card wasn't confirmed until September 26. Because of that, I am taking a reasonable leap and saying information technology is still tardily August or early on September when Marty says this.

Since episode six takes place in a unmarried solar day and episode seven seems to occur during just a couple of days, I must conclude that part 1 of season four — including, possibly, the abandoned vehicle from the beginning scene — begins and ends in Baronial 2018, give or have a few days.

Final conclusion: The events on Ozark accept so far, non counting flashbacks, taken identify over the course of one twelvemonth and three months. The less you think about the details that contradict this timeline, the saner you will be. Trust me.

How Much Time Has Passed on Ozark?