History Characters / Ozark

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Ben is an exceptionally charming, good-natured and genuinely likable person who is very fun to be around but he is capable of some truly frightening displays of anger, especially when off his medication.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Has a notable one at the beginning of the third season. While trying to teach math as a substitute teacher, he stumbles upon a cyberbullying incident, throws all of his students' phones into a wood chipper, and then brawls with the owner of the wood chipper. All of Ben's virtues and flaws are revealed in one scene.

* PracticallyDifferentGenerations: Their exact ages aren't specified but Ben is considerably younger than Wendy (their actors are eighteen years apart)

->'''Portrayed By:''' Adam Rothenberg

->'''Portrayed By:''' Damian Young

->'''Portrayed By:''' Sofia Hublitz

->'''Portrayed By:''' Lisa Emery

->'''Portrayed By:''' Felix Solis

* HairTriggerTemper: Ben has major anger problems. Wendy claims it's a mental illness, but how true that is, is up to debate.

* AmbiguouslyEvil: Whether he really doesn't care about his grandchildren. While he said he only took the kids to spite Wendy, he only said that after Ruth got him drunk and forced his hand.

* AbhorrentAdmirer: Personality-based version; he's very handsome, but happens to be a psychotic dickhead working for the Cartel. At dinner with the Byrdes, he seems to put the moves on the technically underaged Charlotte as he feeds her oysters, to her discomfort and Marty and Wendy's concealed rage.

->'''Portrayed By:''' Marylouise Burke

* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: She grows into this throughout the seasons. While Marty's actions are based on survival and quick thinking, Wendy [[VillainProtagonist who's more calculating and ruthless,]] became [[TheChessmaster a more proactive schemer]] using her ProperLady appeareance and political background to deceive anyone at her advantage which leads to destructive effects.

* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: She grows into this throughout the seasons. While Marty's actions are based on survival and quick thinking, Wendy [[VilainProtagonist who's more calculating and ruthless,]] became [[TheChessmaster a more proactive schemer]] using her ProperLady appeareance and political background to deceive anyone at her advantage which leads to destructive effects.

* AntiVillain: He launders money to a drug cartel, and then has to do plenty of other questionable things to keep his operation running, but it's clear he just wants his family to be safe and to get out of there.

* HiddenBadass: After spending most of the show as a more of an ActionSurvivor GuileHero than anything else, he gives a disrespectful motorist one ''hell'' of a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown when he mouths off at Wendy.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Occationaly does it throughout the series: like when he beats a disrespectful motorist or tortures an arrogant cartel member (though he didn't enjoy it).

* ParentalSubstitute: Becomes a father figure towards Ruth.

* TheScrooge: In a flashback, Marty's partner Bruce points out that they both make lots of money as financial advisors, but Marty lives far less lavishly than him. As Marty himself explains in his "What is money?" speech, he's not interested in making money because he wants to spend it on anything, but rather as a goal in of itself, to prove his worth as a man and father.

** She is ''appalled'' by Schafer's scheme to fraud the elections. While she is not above influencing the political system for her own ends, the prospect of literally falsify votes is too much even for her.

* {{Expy}}: To [[Series/BreakingBad Walter White]]. While not without flaws, both started out as relatively decent people who has a field of expertise (politics for Wendy; chemistry for Walter), but for various reasons could't practise their skills and fulfill their biggest potential, so they start doing so in the criminal world. As respective show progresses they become increasingly eviler and cross various lines, making them [[VillainProtagonist villain protagonists]] whose FatalFlaw is their {{Pride}} and [[{{Greed}} hunger for power]].
* FreudianExcuse: Season 4B reveals that she has one. Her father Nathan doesn't exactly seem to be the ideal dad around her, being verbally abusive towards her and an alcoholic. Accourding to Wendy, he was both physically and emotionally abusive towards his entire family when Wendy was a kid. It would certainly explain why she is the way she is.

** She also tries to take Erin, Helen's daughter under her wing and tries to shield her from the truth of their families doings.

* IJustWantToBeNormal: She longs to go back to their regular lives with no threat of one of the biggest drug cartel's over their heads. It's pretty understandable.

* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: She loses her virginity with an older guy she just met, and she tries to run away back to Chicago. She also starts to smoke weed and drink when stressed.

* TeenGenius: At 14, he's a talented money lauderer, which also requires some serious tech savviness, all basically self-taught. Several characters comment how impressive it is.

* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Jonah Byrde has an unhealthy fixation with death and violence, becoming obsessed with killing and guns. He managed to get a gun, watched videos of gruesome cartel shootings, ''and'' brought dead animals home so he could watch vultures eat them. His abnormal behavior continues into the second season, when he volunteers to go hunting with Buddy and the Snells. After seemingly getting over it, the third season sees him continue to have an unhealthy relationship with firearms: he insists on accepting a challenge to shoot bottles during a party (showing a degree of accuracy with a powerful handgun that suggests he's been practising) and later threatens someone with a shotgun. Later still, he vents frustration by shooting out a window. Then in Season 4, [[spoiler:he starts his own money laundering business for Ruth and Darlene, to Wendy's frustration.]]

* BullyHunter: He gets fired from his substitute teacher job when he notices a student being cyber bullied and forces all the other kids to hand over their phones which he then tries to destroy in a wood chipper.

* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: [[spoiler: His naïvety in dealing with Helen is what causes his demise. After roaring at her and telling her daughter the truth about her business, he seriously thinks he can make amends with someone like [[TheSociopath Helen]], but doesn't know that those kinds people aren't so forgiving after such incidents]].
* HairTriggerTemper: Ben has major anger problems. Wendy claims its a mental illness, but how true that is, is up to debate.

* BaitTheDog: At first he seems to genuinely care about his son Ben's disappearance and wants to take his Grandchildren away from Marty and Wendy because of their odd behavior, him noticing that Wendy hasn't changed from being the ManipulativeBastard she was as a child, and later suspects she had something to do with Ben's death which are all correct. But during the Series Finale, he reveals himself to be a alcoholic, sexist, pig who possibly hates women and admits to Ruth his main reason for wanting to take the grandchilden is to cause Wendy more pain out of resentment and spite. This brings in to question, despite Wendy being a ConsummateLiar, if her claims about her father being abusive when she was a child were true.

* SouthernGentleman: Deconstructed to horrifying affect, he has the accent but isn't a gentleman when it comes to his relationship with Wendy, very much a man of his time.

* BigSisterInstinct: She has this for Wyatt and Three, going so far to become their legal guardian. She also has this for Charlotte and Jonah too, as even at their most vitriolic, Marty can still trust her to protect them. And while she pressures Wendy's father to give up custody of Charlotte and Jonah this out of being threatened, she becomes more determined when she finds out just how spiteful and abusive the man is and how he is trying to take the kids simply to hurt Wendy.

* DefiantToTheEnd: [[spoiler:When Camila confronts her, Ruth refuses to apologise for killing Javi and yells at Camila to shoot her.]]

* {{Expy}}: To [[Series/BreakingBad Jesse Pinkman]]. Both started off as petty crooks who partners up with the protagonists (Walter for Jessie; Marty for Ruth) in a criminal operation (meth manufacturing for Jesse; money laundering for Ruth) and would show a sympathetic side to them as the series goes on.

* RagsToRiches: She's from a family of small time crooks who were being arrested for petty crimes and living in trailers for at least five generations. By associating with Marty and Darlene she earns a good amount of money (enough to buy the Lazy-O inn) and after [[spoiler: inheriting the whole Snell estate through Wyatt]], she's positively ''loaded''.

* IWasQuiteALooker: Though he's still good looking in a ruggedly masculine way, he a straightforward hunk in his youth.

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: InUniverse atleast. When she and Wyatt are murdered by Javi, while Wyatt is properly mourned and remembered fondly by several people, no one really misses Darlene.]]

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: She has a very strong set of morals which no one, not even her husband, can fully understand. They consist in amplifying slights and [[DisproportionateRetribution paying them with violence]], prioritizing her pride over [[spoiler: her husband's life]] and, ocasionally, defending weaker people for a sense of justice.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: She loves Jacob dearly, [[spoiler: making it clear she still does even when she kills him in self defense.]] She also comes to love [[spoiler: her adopted baby Zeke and her new partner and eventual husband Wyatt.]]

* KickedUpstairs: [[spoiler: Maya goes behind the FBI's back and arrest Navarro after learning the agency wants to work with him not bring down his empire. Instead of the FBI outright firing her for defying their orders, they promote her to an office job where she can no longer do field operation as firing her after making such a huge bust for them wouldn't look good. It's implied she will be stuck at that job for the rest of her career.]]
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: [[spoiler: After finding out FBI's plan for Navarro didn't include taking down his criminal empire, and instead were expecting to work with him, Maya goes behind the Bureau's back and arrests Navarro, putting an end to the deal.]]

* GreaterScopeVillain: As Marty's dangerous employer, he's the source of all the danger his family is in, but he never makes direct contact, working through his subordinates Del Rio and Helen Pierce. He makes his first appearance in season 3 and [[spoiler: after killing Helen, he takes the a central role in the story for the last season.]]
* PsychopathicManchild: Not as much as Javi, but still. As a powerful cartel-leader, Omar is extremely petty, short-tempered, egotistical and ungrateful. He is borderline-impossible to reason with and takes it for granted that the Byrdes will solve his problems as long as he threatens them with death. When [[spoiler:Wendy speaks to him after Javi's death, Omar flies into a rage, curses at her in Spanish and threatens to kill her.]]

* UnseenNoMore: After two seasons working by proxies, he finally makes an appearance at season 3 premiere 'Wartime'.

* CruelMercy: He tells Hanson Sr., when the latter is pleadibg for his sons life, that a father shouldn't have to see his child die, and kills him first, ''then'' his son.

* GoKartingWithBowser: He played golf with Marty and Bruce during their vacation and seemed to enjoy it quite alot.

* SecretTestOfCharacter: Suspecting that Marty's co-workers have been stealing from him, he tells them a story about how one of his father's employees was caught stealing from his father and asks them what his father should do. Noticing that all of the men are sympathising with the employee, but Marty merely responds that he knows Del only tries to intimidate them, Del draws the conclusion that all of them, except Marty, were guilty of stealing from him.

* AintTooProudToBeg: When [[spoiler:Agent Petty drags her into the woods and threatens to shoot her]], she drops her cocky demeanour and begs for her life.

* PositiveFriendInfluence: A much needed one to Ruth late in season 4. Rachel is ultimately the one who helps her to clean her name, abandon her life of crime and put herself together after everything she's been through.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: A measure of happy, at least. At the end of the fourth season, he's become a born-again christian and joined Nathan's church group.

* UnwittingPawn: By the start of the series he is already this to the Snells. When the Byrdes try to make him ''their'' pawn instead, there is conflict of interest, and Mason is caught on the crossfire. Tragedy ensues.

* HeroAntagonist: His search for Helen leads him to stumble on the on the dangerous operations of the Cartel run by the Byrdes, which he then proceeds to uncover.

* WhiteSheep: Deconstructed and subverted. She believes herself to be the most moral of her family by owning the responsability of their company in the raise of opioid addiction, but when she begins to consort with literal drug dealers, her moral standing starts to crumble step by step.

* EveryoneHasStandards: He is disgusted by Schafer's scheme to manufacture rigged voting-machines, stating that even he drew the line at massive electoral fraud.
* GayConservative: Works for a prominent Republican donor and happily married to a man named David. Subverted later when he works for Wendy.

** [[spoiler: After tipping off the Cartel on Ben’s location and having him killed, Wendy spends the next few days living out of her car, doing nothing but drinking vodka.]]

* EvilParentsWantGoodKids: [[spoiler: She is distressed with Jonah’s money laundering, especially after he turns on her and begins working for Ruth and Darlene. This is ultimately subverted in the end when she smiles proudly as Jonah shoots and kills Mel.]]

* FreudianExcuse: Season 4B reveals that she has one. Her father Nathan doesn’t exactly seem to be the ideal dad around her, being verbally abusive towards her and an alcoholic. Accourding to Wendy, he was both physically and emotionally abusive towards his entire family when Wendy was a kid. It would certainly explain why she is the way she is.

** When [[spoiler: she tips the Cartel off on Ben’s location and has him killed. She is plunged into a HeroicBSOD and spends the next few days drinking in her car.]]

* TheUnfavorite: It's clear that Wendy's father Nathan loved her brother Ben more than her.
* VillainProtagonist: Much more so than her husband. While Marty is just trying to get out of a death trap he put himself and his family in, Wendy gladly digs herself deeper in crime for power and influence. Her actions are viler, her manipulations crueler, and her PetTheDog moments become much more scarce as the seasons go on.

* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Marty and Wendy view her as this, despite the fact that she ''does'' make several good points about their life of crime.

* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Oh boy, where do we start? He managed to get a gun, watched videos of gruesome cartel shootings, ''and'' brought dead animals home so he could watch vultures eat them. Charlotte laments that he should just stick to porn. Then in Season 4, [[spoiler:he starts his own money laundering business for Ruth and Darlene, to Wendy's frustration.]]

* MrFanservice: He's good looking and gets some shirtless scenes to add to it.
* NeverMyFault: Ben justifies assaulting a businessman because he was being a dick and is completely confused and hurt when [[spoiler:Wendy has him committed after he assaults Marty at the Byrde Foundation bash. He does eventually become contrite when he realises what deep shit he got himself into.]]

* OutOfCharacterAlert: He notices Wendy's strange behavior, and then uncovers the truth and is horrified. [[spoiler:He also realises that he is in deep trouble when Ruth starts snapping and cursing at him, when she had been nothing but affectionate and loving until this point.]]

* VagueAge: It's not stated how old he is (Tom Pelphrey is eighteen years younger than Laura Linney), but no one questions his [[spoiler: intimate relationship with 19 year-old Ruth. Apart from her cousin Wyatt, who really doesn't have a leg to stand on when it comes to calling out an AgeGapRomance.]]

* AbusiveParents: Refers to his children as embarrassments to the family. Wendy tells Marty her father once hit her so hard she couldn't walk for two days.

* BigSisterInstinct: She has this for Wyatt and Three, going so far to become their legal guardian. She also has this for Charlotte and Jonah too, as even at their most vitriolic, Marty can still trust her to protect them. And while she pressures Wendy’s father to give up custody of Charlotte and Jonah this out of being threatened, she becomes more determined when she finds out just how spiteful and abusive the man is and how he is trying to take the kids simply to hurt Wendy.

* LadySwearsALot: Like a fucking sailor, especially every time she chews out Marty and Wendy for one reason or another.

* SanitySlippage: [[spoiler: Wyatt’s murder sends her over the edge.]]

* OnlySaneMan. Even — especially — after he becomes [[spoiler: Darlene's lover]].

* SatelliteCharacter : Mostly revolves around other members of the Langmore family, and only gets a few scenes.

* ArmoredClosetGay: He can barely handle the thought that he slept with Agent Petty.

* SatelliteCharacter : Doesn't have much personality aside from being as dumb and crooked as his brother.

* DisappearedDad : He's in prison for most of the first season. A more literal example by the end of Season 2, when [[spoiler: Wendy arranges for his murder]].
* PapaWolf: Despite the events mentioned above, after Ruth gets [[spoiler: waterboarded, he's very gentle towards her.]] Aditionally he showed no hesitation in standing up for Ruth when she was confronted by Helen and the cartel.

* AffablyEvil: He's a murderous criminal, no doubt about it. However, Jacob is also well spoken, polite, and reasonable.

* IWasQuiteALooker: Messy and unfashionable looking in her senior years, this wasn't the case in her youth, where she was quite beautiful.

* PsychopathicWomanchild: Darlene can snap at any moment and murder someone at any time without a second thought. She shows no guilt or remorse for any of her actions, has no impulse control, and only thinks for herself.

* GoodIsNotNice: to a point where it borders on EvilIsPetty as Roy abuses power to his liking and will do it if slighted in anyway. He’s also throughly unpleasant to coworkers and civilians alike in general circumstances.

* MeaningfulName: His last name's Petty, and he tends to be, well, petty.

* NiceGuy: A sweet-natured and trusting guy.

* DrJerk: Downplayed. She is not above accepting bribes from Marty and Wendy to take their sides and later blackmails them for her silence on their crimes. Despite this, Sue has shown genuine concern for their well-being and marriage and even provides unwanted counselling to Marty as he confronts her on her new car.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Ben is an exceptionally charming and likable person but he is capable of some truly frightening displays of anger, especially when off his medication.

* TallDarkAndHandsome: He's tall, dark-haired and quite good-looking.

* HeroicBSOD: Suffers from one during Season 2, after [[spoiler:the death of his dad and uncle, then is TurnedUpToEleven once he finds out that Ruth was responsible for it.]]

* {{Expy}}: To [[Series/BreakingBad Walter White]]. While not without flaws, both started out as relatively decent people who has a field of expertise (politics for Wendy; chemistry for Walter), but for various reasons could't practise their skills and fulfill their biggest potential, so they start doing so in the criminal world. As respective show progresses they become increasingly eviler and cross various lines, making them VillainProtagonists whose FatalFlaw is their {{Pride}} and [[{{Greed}} hunger for power]].

* AmoralAttorney: While not entirely without ethics, he still helps The Byrde's woth their Cartel-related operations.

* AffablyEvil / NiceGuy: Depending on how harshly you judge him. Marty may be a criminal and a deeply flawed individual in general, but he is also a remarkably polite, soft-spoken and level-headed man. It really says something when, by the time of season 4B, most people are utterly done with [[SmugSnake Wendy]]'s shit but still manage to talk to him on cordial terms.

%%* OddFriendship: Forms one with Ruth.

* AffablyEvil: Granted, "evil" is a bit of a stretch, but he is an AmoralAttourney helping the Byrdes with political influence for their Cartel-related activities. That said, Jim is also a friendly and likable man.
* AmoralAttourney: While not entirely without ethics, he still helps The Byrde's woth their Cartel-related operations.