Mood-lifting jokes, hilarious banter, friends turned family, beach shenanigans, and surfing all day long. Netflix’s YA hit series Outer Banks provided all of it and even more, easily becoming one of the streamer’s best series ever. Living on Kildare Island, the Pogues always had a rough standing against the rich Kooks on Figure 8, but at least John B, Pope, JJ, Kiara, Sarah, and Cleo always gave their everything to keep their lives adventurous and fulfilled. Their goals were big, including treasure hunts, building their own Poguelandia and business, and more, but they always stuck together as one.
The Pogues’ journey has arguably never been easy or straightforward, but they definitely always made it fun and wholesome, despite a few bumps in the road. However, for many hardcore fans, Outer Banks has just turned from being their all-time favorite comfort show ever since its first release in 2020 to their ultimate heartbreak show, and it’s all because of the death of the fan-favorite in Outer Banks, the Pogues’ best friend forever.
What Happened in the Outer Banks Season 4 Finale?
- Release Date
- April 15, 2020
- Cast
- Chase Stokes , Madelyn Cline , Madison Bailey , Jonathan Daviss , Rudy Pankow , Drew Starkey , Charles Esten , Austin North , Caroline Arapoglou , Cullen Moss , Marland Burke , Julia Antonelli , E. Roger Mitchell , Samantha Soule , Carlacia Grant , Charles Halford , Deion Smith , Nicholas Cirillo , Elizabeth Mitchell
- Seasons
- 4
The feature-long season finale of Outer Banks brings the Pogues to the beautiful city of Essaouira in Morocco, where they follow their dangerous quest of finding Chandler Groff, aka JJ’s psychotic killer-dad. Tracking down clues to figure out the location of the Blue Crown, the Pogues unexpectedly find Groff stuck at the bottom of a well. Deciding against helping the murderer and worst father of the year (or even in history), JJ simply throws him a bottle of water before the group of friends continues their treasure hunt. Unfortunately, this act of kindness of giving him life-saving water would later come crashing down on them.
After using an ancient map and finding out that the location of the valuable crown is Agapenta, the Pogues head there right away, but upon their arrival, they find Sarah’s brother Rafe held at gunpoint by mercenaries. Helping Rafe, the Pogues are also targeted and a cat-and-mouse chase through the ancient village during a sandstorm commences. While John B, Sarah, Rafe, Pope, and Cleo try to hold off the group of mercenaries, Kiara and JJ make it to the top of the village, where JJ is able to retrieve Blackbeard’s Blue Crown, but the success doesn’t last long.
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What Happened to JJ in Outer Banks?
Have a pack of tissues ready, because this will definitely cause some tears. While the Outer Banks season finale briefly leaves its fans in the illusion that the Pogues FINALLY have a win and JJ is surfing the high of his life (Pogues family, future godfather of John B and Sarah’s baby, awesome girlfriend, success in the G-game, you name it), the last 15 minutes of the series are nothing short of soul-crushing and world-shattering. The ending of Outer Banks Season 4 Part 2 did what no one ever thought possible: It brought the death of a Pogue. And it’s not just any Pogue. It’s JJ. J. JayJ. Papa J. The ultimate defender of P4L. The end of JJ’s quotes has come. Let that sink in.
Just when JJ and Kiara make their way down through the village alleys with the valuable artifact in their possession, they run into Groff. Threatening Kiara’s life, Groff forces JJ to hand over the crown, and being who he is, he doesn’t even hesitate. When he explains to Groff that he doesn’t need the money from the crown, because he already has everything he ever wanted (love, friendship, a family), Groff acts as though he feels bad about treating his son in such a terrible way.
However, just when everyone is caught up in the belief that Groff is actually switching sides and trying to make amends, JJ’s pain-distorted face and spine-chilling grunts bring everyone back to the dark reality. A knife piercing JJ’s stomach, Groff cold-heartedly murdered his own son. Even though, during his last few breaths, JJ tries to reassure Kiara that she will be fine and there is nothing he is missing, JJ dying in Kiara’s arms simply feels wrong and nauseating.
Will it ever sink in? Probably not. Will it ever make sense? There’s no way. The only thing that remains now is tackling the question as to why the showrunners killed off one of the best characters in Outer Banks instead of going for one of the worst Outer Banks characters, and exploring if there is a possibility that JJ aka Rudy Pankow will return for Season 5 of Outer Banks.
Why Did They Kill Off Outer Banks’ JJ?
There are two sides to JJ’s unexpected demise, but neither has any positive aspects to it. Well, there is no argument which could have justified JJ’s death and made anyone happy, really. On the one hand, there was a debate that the stakes in Outer Banks weren’t high enough, which is something a potential Outer Banks spinoff should take into consideration as well.
Looking back at the first three seasons of the Netflix show, it is safe to say that the Pogues have miraculously survived a lot of deadly situations. From almost drowning and being shot at multiple times (or quite literally being shot) to being choked and almost run over. It genuinely is a miracle that John B, Sarah, Pope, Cleo, JJ, and Kiara survived as long as they did, which is also why it’s understandable that Outer Banks fans were getting fed up with the constant feeling that the stakes actually aren’t that high. This clearly didn’t age well, because now JJ was the one who had to go, and the timing simply didn’t feel right. The initial conclusion was that the Outer Banks showrunners wanted to finally show that the stakes are high and not everyone can always survive.
However, fans have a whole different theory, and it’s built on potential bad blood between the cast. For the longest time, in fact, ever since JJ and Kiara were first connected in a potential romantic relationship, the real-life shipping between Rudy Pankow and Madison Bailey seriously got out of hand. Their respective partners were attacked and received substantial online hate since many wanted to see the two actors romantically involved in real life.
Many fans are pointing out online that there is drama between Rudy Pankow and Madison Bailey, leading to an on-screen distance between the two of them, which sometimes even makes it look as though they tried to film scenes separately. Whether there really is bad blood between Pankow and Bailey remains unsolved, but sometimes it’s better to simply let rumors be just that. Remembering the on-screen Pogues and the real-life actors united should be the way to go, because Pogues are 4 Life, no matter what.
Will JJ Return in Season 5 of Outer Banks?
In general, characters suddenly coming back to life is nothing unusual on Netflix, but it wouldn’t be a first on Outer Banks either. Looking back at the culprit in the previous seasons, Ward Cameron, he was also thought to be dead and then suddenly returned. The only major difference, which does leave fans with very little hope, is that Ward’s body was never found and his escape made sense. Whereas in the case of JJ’s death, he literally died in Kiara’s arms and the Pogues even buried him. It’s kind of tough to come back from, well, that. Some hope is still there though, because of a clip circulating on TikTok in which one of the showrunners, Jonas Pate, is interviewed, and here’s what he had to say:
It’s questionable whether he referred to JJ’s death, but fans are tightly clinging to the last bit of hope, which is connected to something else as well. There has been talk about the infamous Blue Crown supposedly possessing the power to fulfill a wish. This has been mentioned throughout Season 4 of Outer Banks, but it’s questionable whether the Pogues’ wish to bring JJ back would actually work. After all, Outer Banks, despite its unhinged moments, is not one of those fantasy series on Netflix. Even when the magical shroud was given to Carla Limbrey, it was made clear that there was no way it would actually work. The fact that Limbrey was healed was obviously tied to the placebo effect, which was even mentioned by Big John.
There is no denying that these theories are far-fetched, but with losing such a major character like JJ, it is simply impossible to accept that he might never come back. Season 5 of Outer Banks is confirmed, and, sadly, it will be the last time fans get to follow the Pogues on their adventure. Unfortunately, until the release of the final season, JJ’s return remains a mystery, but let’s all just hang on to trusting Papa J. Outer Banks is available to stream on Netflix.