Entertainment
‘Outer Banks’ Delivers an Action-Packed but Disappointing Final Season After a Major Death
After a rollicking four seasons, Netflix’s most impulsive and poor decision-making teenagers from North Carolina have finally reached the end of their adventure. When Outer Banks first started back in 2020, the series was a weird combination of teen drama, class struggle, and treasure hunting. Some shows might have honed in on one of those dynamics as the seasons progressed, but, for better or worse, Outer Banks has never forgotten its roots.
From hunting for the gold of El Dorado to finding Blackbeard’s treasure, the series has led this gang of kids to all corners of the world, taking on everyone from international mercenaries to long-lost evil dads. In some ways, it’s nice that the final season of Outer Banks sticks to what it knows. It doesn’t try to blindside the audience with any big last-minute twists; it isn’t trying to change the formula now that one of its characters has died. While that makes for a less exciting finale, Season 5 of Outer Banks sticks to its guns, and there’s something admirable about that at least.
‘Outer Banks’ Season 5 Grapples With the Death of J.J.
When Season 4 wrapped up, fans of OBX were stunned to see that the show killed off one of its most beloved characters, J.J. Maybank (Rudy Pankow). Admittedly, if anyone was going to die from the Pogues, J.J. seems like the most logical candidate given that he was by far the most impulsive kid in the group and was facing major upheaval after finding out his father wasn’t Luke (Gary Weeks), the alcoholic and abusive man who raised him, but somehow a worse and more wicked man named Chandler Groff (J. Anthony Crane). After witnessing Groff kill J.J. over the Blue Crown, Kiara (Madison Bailey) is understandably traumatized. Much of Season 5 is spent with Kie dealing with the grief and trauma of losing one of her best friends and her boyfriend.
While there’s been a lot of speculation surrounding why Pankow left the series, it’s hard to deny that J.J.’s death did add a bit of real gravitas. After so many outrageous adventures, it always seemed a little too lucky that everyone kept getting out of every scrape happy and healthy, ready to head back to the fish camp in the OBX. That these characters continued to make the worst decisions only added to both the show’s most frustrating elements and addictive allure. Kie’s grief and her process of overcoming the heartbreak of losing J.J. is one of the best storylines of the season, and the one that makes the most sense. While her friends don’t seem to grasp why she’s so dogged about revenge, it’s understandable why she’s the only one who feels this way.
‘Outer Banks’ Season 5 Throws the Pogues Into Their Most Dire Straits
J.J.’s ghost looms large over the group, but it’s not the only problem that the kids face. Kildare is dealing with development changes by the Kooks, who seem determined to wipe the Pogues off the map; Groff is still bounding around being dastardly with the Corsair pirates now on his tail, and while Kie grieves, her friends are also dealing with their own personal battles. Pope (Jonathan Daviss) is traumatized, living in the aftermath of killing Lightner (Rigo Sanchez), and Cleo (Carlacia Grant) has been separated from the group and shipped back to Nassau. Sarah (Madelyn Cline) and John B. (Chase Stokes) are grappling with Sarah’s pregnancy and the fact that they are quite literally homeless now that they’re back in Kildare.
While the OBX used to be a safe place for the kids, things have changed since their latest trip. Kildare has turned on the Pogues, and everywhere they look, there seems to be another old enemy sprouting up to either take their treasure or their home. Rafe (Drew Starkey), who was once one of the big bads of the show, has been given a semi-decent redemption arc that puts him on the side of the Pogues this season, but lest you think he’s been brought in to replace J.J., that is far from the truth. His own journey of facing the ghosts that he’s had since Season 1 is both the most outrageous part of the finale and, oddly, one of the more cathartic moments.
But while Outer Banks tries to wrap up some of these major storylines, it often feels like the solutions come a little too easily. The series both has too much it wants to say and not enough. From launching the kids back into an international adventure mid-season to tossing in a hurricane that hits the Outer Banks, there’s a lot happening in Season 5, and it muddies the waters regarding which storylines actually matter.
‘Outer Banks’ Introduces an Overwhelming Amount of Villains in Season 5
Alongside Groff, who clearly has it in for the kids, is a slew of villains now chasing the Pogues. From the Corsairs to mercenaries to drug lords to wicked stepmothers to Kooks eager to steal their land, it feels like there is no shortage of people who hate the Pogues. This hits at one of the biggest issues of Season 5. This show has always been a teen drama with elements of class struggle and treasure hunting, but it turns out that when you have so much going on, you’re going to have a lot to wrap up. The final season moves at a frenzied pace, jumping from one conflict into another.
The Pogues aren’t helping themselves, either. Almost immediately upon their return to Kildare, John B. makes one of the most foolish mistakes he’s made in a while, throwing the kids out of the frying pan and into the fire. On the list of egregious and irresponsible things that the Pogues have done, this might just rank at the top. It is so silly that it feels obviously manufactured to throw another obstacle back in the Pogues’ faces — and worst of all, it’s unnecessary.
There’s already a lot for the group to contend with and, rather than diving deeper and becoming more introspective about the actions of the past few years, the added troubles attempt to obfuscate that none of these characters are really getting the well-rounded conclusion they deserve. This is a familiar format for Outer Banks, and old habits die hard, but it’s hard not to feel like the saccharine, fairytale series finale feels a bit hollow when looking back at the show as a whole.
‘Outer Banks’ Fails To Stick the Landing in Its Final Season
Outer Banks is still ridiculously addicting to watch — only soap operas can rival the twists on this show — but after so many years, the finale should have given viewers a bit more to chew on. The fact that some of the worst characters in Kildare seem happy and friendly with the Pogues by the end is just the disappointing cherry on top. With so little introspection, it doesn’t feel like these characters have fundamentally changed in any way since we first met them. They’ve lost one of their closest friends, and yet they barely hesitate to jump on another plane heading to another country halfway around the world to get themselves into another life-threatening situation.
Who’s to say another treasure hunt doesn’t come around five years down the line that will send the Pogues back on a globe-trotting journey? Considering how quickly the Pogues seem to fall into trouble, it seems more like a matter of when and not if. In many ways, the story doesn’t feel complete, or that this particular chapter of their lives is coming to a close. Perhaps that’s just how it is in the OBX, but after all of that grief and trauma, it certainly feels like the kids deserve more than what they got — and we’re not talking about the gold.
Outer Banks‘ final season is now streaming on Netflix.
- Release Date
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2020 – 2026-00-00
- Network
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Netflix
- Showrunner
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Jonas Pate, Shannon Burke, Josh Pate
- Directors
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Jonas Pate
- Writers
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Josh Pate, Shannon Burke, Jonas Pate
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Chase Stokes
John B. Routledge
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Madelyn Cline
Sarah Cameron
- Kiara’s story is by far the most interesting this season as she grapples with J.J.’s death.
- The show is still masterful when it comes to surprising plot twists that keep the viewer hooked.
- Season 5 has far too many villains to contend with and not enough time to actually deal with them.
- The story wraps up a bit too neatly by the end of the series, and it doesn’t feel like the Pogues have actually really changed or grown.
- The ending feels incomplete, with too much character development left unexplored.
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