🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐
On planes, trains and automobiles, Outer Banks Season 3 has the Pogues escaping danger using every form of transportation possible. They’re back and more determined than ever to get their hands on the Cross of Santo Domingo. And with higher stakes comes bigger action, which means the stunt team has really upped the ante.
For the cast, filming Season 3 was all about confronting their own fears. In Episode 2, the Pogues are in Barbados looking for Kiara (Madison Bailey), who’s being held captive by Carlos Singh (Andy McQueen). The Caribbean don sends his gun-wielding men after the teens, who are now trapped in an abandoned building and have to jump down an elevator shaft — while being shot at, no less. “Forget this shit!” Cleo (Carlacia Grant) yells, leaping into the abyss first as all the other Pogues argue about an alternate exit route.
“I’m very afraid of heights and we were four levels above the ground. We just had to run and jump,” Grant tells Tudum. “Cleo’s cool, so I had to run and jump and look fearless.” Thankfully, the Pogues make it out of the shaft unscathed thanks to her example.
Bailey also tackled some challenging scenes this season, particularly in the ocean. Season 3 opens up with the Pogues dwelling on their peaceful island of Poguelandia. Unfortunately, paradise doesn’t last long. After they’re rescued by a plane, the teens grow suspicious that the pilot might be one of Ward’s (Charles Esten) puppets. As tensions rise, they hijack the flight and end up crashing the craft straight into the ocean. While everyone swims to shore, Kiara heads back into the wreckage to save the injured pilot.
“They put the plane in the real ocean. We were in the ocean and it wasn’t close to the shore,” Bailey says. “I had to swim with a grown man on my side. I had stunts. We interchanged most of the swimming if they needed more takes, but I had a solid take of me and my friend going to shore.” At least Kiara has some near-drowning expertise to lean on. If she can survive being trapped inside a flooding sewer in Season 2, then a plane crash in the ocean is just another day at the office.
Not only do Season 3’s stunts get bigger, but more characters also join in on the action. Still head over heels for Sarah (Madelyn Cline), Topper (Austin North) is willing to do anything for his ex-girlfriend — even if it means helping out the Pogues. “The train sequence was a lot of moving pieces,” North says of the heist scene in Episode 5 that sees the Pogues and Topper attempting to steal back the seven-foot Cross of Santo Domingo from the Camerons. Rafe (Drew Starkey) has the treasure on a train and the Pogues must devise a plan to snatch the precious cargo.
First, Pope (Jonathan Daviss) and Cleo jump onto the moving train to locate the car with the cross inside. Meanwhile, JJ (Rudy Pankow) and Kiara use jumper cables to bring the engine to a halt as Topper pulls up in his pickup truck to assist with unloading the treasure. “I’m actually driving the truck and we got cameras rigged up on the outside,” says North. “Kiara’s jumping in the truck. There’s a lot of tactical details. That was a little difficult, but we pulled it off, easy peasy.”
Soon the cops are on their tail and a high-speed chase ensues. To distract the police from going after Topper’s truck, JJ leads them over a bypass on his motorbike. With two squad cars accelerating toward him from both ends of the bridge, he drives the bike straight into the side of the bridge as the Pogues watch in horror. The bridge might’ve sustained some major injuries, but as it turned out, that didn’t matter too much.
“The great thing about that scene was that that bridge was actually slated to be torn down,” co-executive producer and co-showrunner Jonas Pate tells Tudum. “We’re sitting there [with the location] scout and the Department of Transportation and we’re like, ‘Can we rip a motorcycle through that concrete railing for real and just destroy it?’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, it’s coming down in a few weeks. Go ahead.’”
At this point, the Pogues have tackled nearly every mode of transportation. Curious to see what other adrenaline-fueled adventures the gang is up to this season? Stream Outer Banks Season 3 now.
Additional reporting by Tara Bitran.
