Cindy Mollo (‘Ozark’ editor) on cutting together the show’s tragic series finale [Exclusive Video Interview]
[WARNING: The above interview contains spoilers about Season 4 of “Ozark.” Watch at your own risk.]
For Emmy-nominated editor Cindy Mollo, getting to work on the fourth and final season of “Ozark” — whose two parts debuted January 21 and April 29, respectively — yielded a full-circle moment. The editor of 19 of the Netflix drama’s 44 total episodes, she had the honor of putting together both the show’s pilot and series finale, the latter titled “A Hard Way to Go.” “When I realized I would be doing the finale and that I had done the first two [episodes of the series] — I don’t think of myself as a completist, but it somehow mattered to me,” she recounts in a new webchat with Gold Derby. “It felt really cool that I would get to see the journey through.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
In addition to the series finale, Mollo edited the fourth, fifth, eighth and ninth episodes of “Ozark’s” 14-episode final season. When asked about the conversations she, showrunner Chris Mundy and executive producer, director and star Jason Bateman had about what they wanted to pursue stylistically for the show’s home stretch, the editor highlights the eighth episode, “The Cousin of Death,” as being one that breaks with the show’s usual style. This episode chronicles the aftermath of Darlene’s (Lisa Emery) and Wyatt’s (Charlie Tahan) tragic deaths and follows a grief-stricken, vengeful Ruth (Julia Garner) as she travels to Chicago to hunt down and eventually murders their killer, Javier “Javi” Elizonndro (Alfonso Herrera).
“Chris’ concept for that episode was always that from the moment [Ruth] learns that Javi is in Chicago, she’s going to drive — she’s on a mission, and she’s just going to drive to Chicago. She pops in her favorite CD, and it’s been established since Season 1 that she’s into old-school hip hop and rap, so it’s a CD from the ‘90s by Nas called ‘Illmatic’,” shares Mollo about the eighth episode’s concept. She expands, “The concept was that she listens to it from beginning to end as she drives and that there would be long stretches of her in the car [being] determined, thinking about what she has to do, maybe going through some emotions as she thinks about Wyatt, what she’s about to do and how she’s been betrayed.”
SEE our interview with ‘Ozark’ casting director Alexa Fogel
Of course, Ruth’s vindictive act comes back to bite her after Camila Elizonndro (Veronica Falcón), Javi’s ruthless mother, learns that Ruth killed her son and shoots her to death in the series finale. About honoring Ruth while putting together her swan song, Mollo says, “I think what we all love about Ruth, in addition to her very colorful cursing, is that from the first time we meet her in the first season… she is scary.” The Emmy nominee recalls a scene from the second episode of Season 1 — which she also edited — in which Marty (Bateman) seeks to reclaim the money Ruth stole from his motel room and is accosted by the entire Langmore clan in a public bathroom. “She’s this tiny girl who probably at the time was meant to be 19, and she is the scariest person in that scene,” so the editor, who notes that Ruth remained resilient even as she suffered emotional trauma after emotional trauma over the course of the series. “Chris wanted her to go out the way she came into the series: defiant, tough and, in fact, choosing to take it on her own terms… She just stands up to her full height, squares her shoulders and basically says, ‘Go ahead.’,” she details. “If that isn’t the most kind of heroic way to go! If you have to kill one of your babies, one of your darlings, give her a great final scene.”
In our chat, Mollo also discusses editing the show’s much-talked about final scene, which sees the Byrdes return home from their fundraiser to find that Mel Sattem (Adam Rothenberg) has broken into their house and recovered the cookie jar containing Wendy’s (Laura Linney) late brother’s ashes. After he vows to bring them to justice, Jonah (Skylar Gaertner) comes outside with a shotgun. But instead of showing whom he shoots, the screen cuts to black as a shot is heard. “When we cut to black, I like to think that people will go, ‘Oh, so Jonah just killed someone — that’s not good. That’s not good for the future of him or [that of] the family.’ They get away, as always; it’s a temporary solution to get out of that moment,” explains the editor with respect to the show’s ambiguous ending.
To date, Mollo has earned five Emmy nominations, including two for “Ozark” (2019-20). Her other three citations recognize her work on the telefilms “Dash and Lilly” (1999) and “Deadwood: The Movie” (2019), and drama series “Mad Men” (2009). She’s also also a three-time ACE Eddie Award nominee and one-time champ for “Ozark” (2021).
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