Pogues, prepare to ride one last wave when Outer Banks returns for its fifth and final season on Aug. 20.
After years of taking viewers to stunning locations around the world, revealing messy family secrets, and chronicling romances across class divides, the series is officially coming to a close. Season 5 will follow John B (Chase Stokes), Sarah (Madelyn Cline), Kiara (Madison Bailey), Pope (Jonathan Daviss), Cleo (Carlacia Grant), and even Rafe (Drew Starkey) as they attempt to pick up the pieces after JJ’s (Rudy Pankow) tragic death. Will they be able to avenge their best friend, find peace, and finally secure a happily ever after? You’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, we can answer a few burning questions about the show’s first four seasons.
Ahead, we revisit key romances, get reacquainted with the Pogues’ remaining adversaries, and recap what treasure they’re after this time — and why. Plus, we break down Season 4’s heartbreaking ending. Keep reading to get ready for Outer Banks Season 5. P4L.
Let’s start with the longest-running romance of the series: Pogue prince John B and Kook princess Sarah. Though they come from different sides of Kildare Island, they fall for one another in Season 1. Since then, there have been a couple of bumps in the road thanks to a lingering love triangle with Sarah’s ex, Topper (Austin North), but these two are all in on each other and even get symbolically married in Season 2. Now, Sarah and John B are expecting a baby, as they discover in Season 4, Episode 7.
Next up, Pope and Cleo. In Season 3, these two grow closer, with Pope’s family offering Cleo a place to live and Cleo talking Pope out of shooting Rafe in an act of revenge. You know, just the normal bonding experiences. By the end of the season, they share a kiss and officially get together. The couple faces new challenges in Season 4, when Cleo is kidnapped by the mercenary Lightner (Rigo Sanchez), whom Pope later shoots for killing Cleo’s father figure, Terrance (Terence Rosemore).
Then there’s Rafe and Sofia (Fiona Palomo). They become an item in Season 3, but in Season 4, their relationship is complicated by a potential business deal. After overhearing Rafe claim that he would never date a Pogue — reminder: she is one, and they are indeed dating — Sofia convinces him to get involved in the development of Goat Island in exchange for a payout of her own. When he takes the shady deal, she feels guilty but doesn’t confess and instead accepts his marriage proposal. By the end of the season, Rafe finds out about the scheme — which results in him being scammed out of $400k — and breaks up with Sofia.
Last but not least, there’s JJ and Kiara, whose romance is cut short by JJ’s shocking death at the end of Season 4 — keep scrolling for additional details on that. But how did it start? After years of close friendship, their connection heats up in Season 3. They initially worry about potential fallout within their close friend group, argue about their different backgrounds, and have to deal with Kiara’s disapproving parents, but the will they, won’t they relationship comes to fruition when JJ rescues Kiara from a wilderness therapy camp. There, she confesses her love, and they finally share a kiss. Throughout Season 4, Kiara supports JJ as he discovers the truth about his family lineage after meeting Chandler Groff (J. Anthony Crane).
Well, the straightforward answer is that Chandler Groff is JJ’s father … and his murderer. But let’s back up and break that first part down — you can learn more about the murder below.
In Season 4, Episode 2, the Pogues meet with Wes Genrette (David Jensen) and his son-in-law, Groff, and the two enlist the group’s help in tracking down an amulet that once belonged to Blackbeard’s wife, Elizabeth (yes, that Blackbeard — the English pirate whose real name was Edward Teach). Why do they want the amulet? Wes believes it will break a curse that Elizabeth placed on his family 300 years ago. At the end of the episode, Wes dies under mysterious circumstances and leaves behind a letter telling JJ to ask the man he believes to be his father, Luke (Gary Weeks), about “Albatross.” When confronted by JJ, Luke eventually explains that Albatross was the name of the boat on which Wes’ daughter and Groff’s late wife, Larissa Genrette, died. This leads Luke to reveal that she was JJ’s real mom, which means Groff is JJ’s real dad. Drama!
We learn more of Groff’s background throughout Season 4. He grew up on the Cut and became quite the con man. He’s been wanted by Interpol for counterfeiting, art forgery, and laundering. Groff also has five passports and was married four times under different names, including to Larissa — whom he killed on that boat, by the way. In Episode 7, while under siege by a group of mercenaries, Groff confirms to JJ that he is indeed his father. He also admits that the curse was a lie that he manufactured to throw Wes and the Pogues off the scent of the real treasure, the Blue Crown.
Over the course of the series, the Pogues hunt down plenty of treasure, including the Cross of Santo Domingo, the lost city of El Dorado, and, of course, the original riches, $400 million in gold from the Royal Merchant. In Season 4, they turn their attention toward the fabled Blue Crown.
After the Pogues retrieve the supposedly curse-breaking amulet for Wes, they discover it’s inscribed with directions to find the Blue Crown, which John B knows is the most sought-after artifact in the ancient world. Believed to grant wishes and make its wearer invincible, the Blue Crown is rumored to have last been in Blackbeard’s possession.
The instructions on the amulet take the Pogues to Charleston, where they explore some catacombs that hold the Mogador Scroll, a map to the Blue Crown. The Pogues have to face off with mercenaries to get their hands on the scroll, and once they do, they realize they also need a special lens to read it. That lens is buried with JJ’s mom, Larissa, so JJ and Groff go to her mausoleum to retrieve it. The Mogador Scroll says the Blue Crown is in Morocco, so Groff ditches JJ in the middle of the ocean (terrible parenting), then heads off in pursuit of the treasure. The Pogues rescue JJ and follow Groff across the Atlantic, but it turns out he isn’t alone in this mission.
As we’ve mentioned, a group of cutthroat mercenaries has been intercepting the Pogues at every turn on their journey to find the Blue Crown. Those mercenaries are known as the Lupine Corsairs. At the beginning of Season 4, the Pogues encounter an assassin named Lightner, who’s also on the hunt for the amulet. Thanks to Pope’s eavesdropping, they learn that Lightner is working for a woman named Dalia (Pollyanna McIntosh), the leader of the Lupine Corsairs, and that they are after the amulet because it will guide them to the Blue Crown.
In pursuit of the amulet, which is in the Pogues’ possession, Lightner kidnaps Cleo in Episode 4. Before Pope can hand it over and save her, Lightner kills Terrance and escapes with the amulet. This leads the mercenaries to the Mogador Scroll, which the Pogues eventually steal. Before they get their hands on it, though, we learn that Groff has a connection to the brutal mercenaries.
Groff was once arrested in Morocco but was able to escape with help from the Lupine Corsairs. Dalia may be the crew’s leader, but we eventually find out that the operation is run by a billionaire named Anton Finch. A man with no loyalties, Groff stole Blackbeard’s captain’s log from the Lupine Corsairs, which he then used to recruit the Pogues to help find the amulet. Once Groff has the scroll and the lens and has successfully ditched JJ, Dalia and the Lupine Corsairs catch up with him. They decide to spare his life and go to Morocco to get the crown together.
In Morocco, Groff immediately betrays the Lupine Corsairs, again. So the Pogues, alongside Rafe, Groff, and the mercenaries, race through the maze-like city of Agapenta in pursuit of the Blue Crown for their own gain. During this chase, Lightner catches up with Pope and Cleo, and Pope ends up shooting the assassin dead.
Eventually, the Pogues track down the Blue Crown inside a large statue. JJ bravely climbs to the top and finally retrieves the treasure, but Groff catches up to them. Threatening Kiara, Groff forces JJ to give him the Blue Crown. Groff then kills his son with a pocketknife and absconds with the crown.
As the Pogues grieve JJ’s horrific and shocking death, laying him to rest in Morocco, they begin to devise a plan to avenge their friend. After Rafe reminds them that Groff has a buyer in Lisbon, John B says, “We all know what JJ would do. Get even,” suggesting that the Pogues may soon be following the murderer to Portugal.
To find out where their quest for revenge takes them and what happens next, stream Outer Banks Season 5 on Aug. 20, only on Netflix.
