Chase Waves not Stories

Outer Banks Season 4 Part 1 Review

Episodes 1-5 of Season 4 of Outer Banks came out on October 10. The show follows the Pogues, a group of 4 treasure hunters: John B, JJ, Kiara (Kie), and Pope on a barrier island Kildare in Outer Banks, North Carolina. Over time this group grew by two, adding Sarah and Cleo. During the first 3 seasons, it started in Outer Banks, where most of season 1 took place, but over the course of seasons 2 and 3, it moved to various other countries, especially in South America and the Caribbean. However, after they return home, the show skips 18 months to show the Pogues celebrated as heroes for finding the lost city of gold in South America. There, the final scene shows them talking with a man who asks them about finding a new treasure: Blackbeard’s.

Starting season 4, John B recounts the previous 18 months between getting back from South America and when the meeting from the end of season 3 takes place. This flashback gives us season building block number 1: Poguelandia. We see from the start of when they figure out the amount of money they have and decide to back JJ’s dad’s property to turn it into their own house and business with multiple ventures, naming it Poguelandia after their deserted island where they get stranded in season 2. Also, here we watch another key trope of this season: JJ’s incompetence. He both overpays for the house and wastes the remaining money they do have betting on a race, which he loses. After he does this, we get to the celebration. Here we hear the explanation of the brand new treasure. The man they talk to, Wes Genrette, mentions why he wants them to start looking for the treasure, a curse. He believes the ghost of Blackbeard’s wife has killed many of his family members and will do the same to him if these people don’t return her amulet. Finding this amulet, the struggles they go through to get it, and the consequences of doing so form the other building blocks of this season. Overall, these building blocks set a beautiful story arc that really pushes through the entirety of the season. This block results in other storylines, the hunt for the blue crown - which the amulet leads to - and the escape from the opposing blue crown hunters. These blocks come together to build a compelling story that continues to keep you engaged throughout, wondering what comes next. They also set up an environment where you worry for the Pogues because they keep getting into dangerous situations which increase the stakes even more.

I also love how Season 4 Part 1 relates to the previous seasons. Season 1 of Outer Banks rates the highest of all 3 previous seasons, followed by 2 then 3. So inherently, critics and audiences alike loved the feel of season 1. Most of that love comes from focusing on Kildare Island with its dynamics, relationships, and look. The vibe of the island and why it’s so fun to watch lies a lot with the rich (Kooks) vs poor (Pogues) dynamics that Kildare breeds. When the Pogues go surfing in episode 4, the kooks come and post up in their spot, resulting in a feud between the two when JJ steals a wave from a Kook. The feud continues as two of the Kooks go and do donuts and around and through the Pogues’ spot, almost running them over and killing a turtle from a hatch in the process. In response, Kiara and JJ confront them with the turtle, which ends in JJ getting caught on camera threatening to kill all them if they went near the Pogues again. Also on the island, we witness Sarah’s relationship with her brother Rafe and her ex-boyfriend Topper. Rafe at different points both locked up and shot Sarah because she fought against him and their father with the Pogues. Topper manipulated Sarah and caused Sarah to cheat on John B with him. Also, Topper and Rafe colluded to take JJ out in the race that lost them the money. These dynamics and relationships continue to build the tension outside of the main story of the treasure and overall make everything harder for the Pogues. In addition, even the look of the Kildare serves the show’s overall playful quality. The slight dungy look to the Pogue’s side of the island and its contrast on the Kooks’s side, the marshes, forests, and beaches all add to the “backyard feel the show has to offer” as Emily Fallas-Chacon puts it in her article. This depicts where the show greatly improves on seasons 2 and 3, because it seemed like they were taking away the essence of the show by moving away from Kildare and all it entails. Truly, this area seems like home to the characters and fans of Outer Banks and the writers really listened to fans’ want for that in taking this season back to the island.

Also, the actors gave great performances in this season. We can see the Pogue’s initial excitement in receiving the money for the gold, with Pope (Jonathan Daviss) specifically playing the practical one, causing them to start Poguelandia, and how that ebbs and flows in response to their changing circumstances. Madison Bailey (Kiara) performs a growing undying loyalty to JJ (Rudy Pankow). This loyalty comes out in a big way when JJ goes to dive for the amulet and without thought she seems to instantly snap into a new objective of needing to go alongside JJ despite risk and lack of experience. As the main villain of this season, Rigo Sanchez (Lightner) portrays a very scary and convincing killer. This character is a ruthless mercenary and Sanchez really leans into that. We first watch him as he goes to Poguelandia “to buy a knife,” but really to intimidate the Pogues and make his presence known. Later, after sneaking up on JJ and Kiara at the bottom of the ocean and getting his arm stabbed in the process, we see him fight on through this wound and follow the Pogues to hunt down the amulet. After capturing Cleo (Carlacia Grant), his character threatens Pope that he will kill her if he doesn’t give him the amulet. During this scene, he looks genuinely terrifying and you notice his determination to the stakes of what that amulet means to him. Carlacia Grant has many great moments in her performance this season. A favorite moment of mine is how she shows grief after her character’s life-long mentor and friend Terrance dies at the hand of Lightner. She justifies what seems like missing a chance to kill Lightner after this by being so devastated she freezes and can’t think of anything else but Terrance, not noticing the loose gun on the floor near her. Lastly throughout this season, Rudy Pankow gives some of his best performances, especially important because this season revolves mostly around JJ. You can really see him play the attachment JJ has to Poguelandia, which makes sense because the property was his “father’s” house, especially as he severely overpays for the property despite the Pogues’s wishes. We see Pankow’s normal priority of sadness and anger in the beach scene mentioned above. However, we see a new innocence an joy in JJ after they finish remodeling and making Poguelandia and its businesses. In this moment, he starts cheering, yelling, and dancing around like a happy fool because as Kiara puts it, “He just never really had a home. He’s happy.”

Despite all of the good things of this season, it did have a few pretty big flaws. The pacing in these 5 episodes is too fast. This pace comes as a result of Netflix releasing this season in 2 parts, so they want to introduce all the season’s storylines before finishing them in part 2. For example, from when the Pogues decide to try and retrieve the amulet to when they have it in their hands lasts only 20-25 minutes of episode time. This amulet represents one of the major storylines of the show. Also, with that, they spend almost half as much time on a race as they did having the Pogues find the amulet. I think the amount of time makes sense for the race, but when you compare it to the main action and inciting story of the season, they should not be that close in episode time given. These amounts of  time downplay the importance of the amulet and don’t serve the show. Also, this amulet proves to just be the stepping stone to a bigger treasure: the blue crown, however the amulet gets found, stolen, and used in this quest in only 5 episodes. All of these events wouldn’t happen this fast with all of the other things going on in the show if they didn’t feel like they had to cram in the blue crown this early in the season so people knew about it and were connected to that story. This pacing also de-emphasizes those dynamics that I talked about as a big positive for the show. In moving so fast, they do not have time for the Kooks to actually interfere with the Pogues in their treasure hunting, which happened in other seasons, so the villain becomes not the Kooks, who the show leads you to dislike, but some third party treasure hunters that you don’t have a connection with. The building of Poguelandia also appears rushed. We go through them not owning the property to the business fully running in less than 1 episode. This could have lasted over multiple episodes and became a major story in what they will work on or fix next, how that goes wrong, and how they pulled it all together but the writers needed as much screen time as possible to try to fit in everything else, so they relegated it to a small montage and then it was finished.

JJ’s tropes and over-complicated relationships represent another flaw in the show. We see throughout the show that JJ acts angrily, irrationally, and impulsively. While showing a different side through his innocence and happiness after building the house, the show still overplays JJ’s stupidity in the show. First off, the writers have him overpay on the house because he gets impulsive, increasing the bids by higher amounts than the Pogues all agreed on. I believe that this mistake holds enough weight to carry through JJ’s impulsivity, and maybe you could show how they struggle by making the construction throughout the season because they don’t have money. Instead, they also have him bet the remaining 20,000 dollars they have on the race almost immediately after, leaving them with actually 0 dollars. We also watch as JJ goes to find his “father” Luke, and ask him about “the albatross.” Luke is currently hiding from the police, and says he is staying in Mexico, but JJ finds out that he actually hides with his best friend in Outer Banks. After running away from the chasing cops, Luke explains that the albatross refers to the boat where Wes Genrette’s daughter drowned off of with her baby.  JJ is that baby, which means that Luke is not his real father, but Wes Genrette’s son-in-law Chandler Groff, who we met when the Pogues meet the old man about the amulet in episode 1. It appears to me that the writers wrote this fact just before this season. I think this mostly because of who they cast as Luke. Luke and JJ look nearly the same and they probably wrote this in to add a big cliffhanger to this half season, which really takes from the rest of the show.

Despite the flaws, I believe fans of Outer Banks like myself would greatly enjoy this half season. I like the structure of the story even if they should have put it in one part. Overall, I look forward to part 2 of this season and what will come by the end because as Sarah said, “The only way to know what's on the other side is to start swimming.”