By way of good, dangerous, and ugly, with rapt consideration, we tune into Outer Banks and wholly embrace the journey that’s all the time in retailer for us.
And Outer Banks Season 4 was no exception, delivering the collection’ largest and most compact season so far with twists, revelations, celebrations, and tragedy.
Whereas the season had many pleasant elements, we even have loads of gripes and should tackle these.
Whereas we await what the ultimate season has in retailer, let’s unpack among the evident points that pissed off us throughout an epic season.
So listed below are among the causes Outer Banks Season 4 misplaced the plot and subsequently pissed us off within the course of.
So, test it out, after which hit the feedback, not the Kooks, OBX Fanatics.
The Pogues’ Abysmally Low El Dorado Finder’s Charge
On the heart of Outer Banks is that “Life isn’t honest, and when you’re poor, you’re fucked.”
Regardless of that, the mere thought that these teenagers traveled internationally for the umpteenth time, discovered probably the most well-known historic locales in existence, occurred throughout all that rattling gold and didn’t get, like, something, was ridiculous.
These six beloved folks needed to by some means divide a million {dollars} amongst themselves, not together with Uncle Sam taxing it to the excessive heavens.
Are you aware what you are able to do with a million {dollars} on this economic system? Not very a lot.
The Pogues risking life and limb for peanuts that also had them scraping by is as on-brand because it will get, however even for them, that was one hell of a lowball.
JJ’s Recklessly Past Comprehension Blowing By way of the Cash (Twice)
We get it. JJ was probably the most reckless particular person ever to strut the face of this Earth, and we beloved him for that.
We couldn’t have gotten half the adventures if he wasn’t main the cost for residing on the sting.
Nonetheless, JJ being reckless is one factor, however being mind-numbingly thoughtless is completely totally different.
It didn’t ring true that he would guess the vast majority of their cash on his crappy previous home on marshy land proper off the bat and didn’t appear to care within the slightest how the others felt about it.
However JJ betting their final little bit of gold on a motorcycle race with the Kooks, who notoriously don’t play honest, after which dropping all of it is probably the most asinine contrivance since Kie risking their lives and proof to holler “assassin” at Ward.
From Badass to Damsel: Cleo’s Characterization Offers Whiplash
Cleo was top-of-the-line additions to the collection, and she or he seems like she’s been with the Pogues ceaselessly.
As a feisty teen who rolled with pirates and carried a trusty switchblade in every single place, she’s repeatedly confirmed that she’s a certifiable badass in almost each scenario.
She’s a brawler proper up there with JJ, proving that children forged to the streets have to combat to outlive.
Now, I’m all for a girl, particularly certainly one of coloration, attending to be each sturdy and susceptible, however it was as in the event that they sapped all of Cleo’s badassery this season.
No, she couldn’t go toe-to-toe with precise mercenaries and win, however we at the very least anticipated her to combat again a bit bit or give them a run for his or her cash.
Outer Banks too simply slotted her into one other damsel function this season, which was extremely irritating and a disservice to the character. Cheese on bread!
JJ’s Contrived Character “Ruination” and OOC Moments because the Major Plot Machine
We could as effectively get again to JJ since this was unquestionably his season.
There was nothing unsuitable with delving into his character this fashion; it was top-of-the-line elements of the season.
Nevertheless it felt just like the collection needed to rapidly again JJ right into a nook to make him lash out as the complete season plot held on that, and so they didn’t do the best job of executing it.
Inexplicably, effectively earlier than JJ realized life-altering secrets and techniques about his background, he grew to become an asshole to his mates, which isn’t who we knew him to be.
He lashed out on the others, disregarded their emotions and what they needed to say, shut down on his girlfriend, and customarily flew off the deal with.
JJ placing their lives and livelihoods in jeopardy when he’s infamously the one who endangers himself to guard his mates felt extremely off for the character.
It was just like the season desperately wished to make him unbearable to “redeem” him later and make his subsequent dying extra significant and impactful, and it by no means labored.
Even JJ’s naivety and gullibility with Groff felt wildly out of character.
His ties to Luke supported why he would nonetheless need to give who he deemed was his father the good thing about the doubt. However that’s not the case for Groff.
As a notoriously skeptical character who doesn’t simply prolong belief, there have been no actual grounds for why he saved placing belief in Groff repeatedly in any case of Groff’s deception, putting himself in probably the most harmful and finally deadly conditions conceivable.
Outer Banks Squanders Deeper Exploration of Kook/Pogue Division
On one hand, it was thrilling that they might discover the Kook/Pogue divide because the characters we all know and love have grown older.
The characters have been at a important level of their lives the place what shifted from teen bullying, rivalry, and youngster’s play developed to the extra structured types of socioeconomic warfare during which Kooks be taught to weaponize programs that work of their favor to precise life-changing harm to the Pogues they really feel are beneath them.
There have been even some moments when it felt like teenagers on each side of the divide expressed a baser exhaustion to upholding these buildings.
However then, the season by no means takes it a lot additional than that.
Topper and the opposite Kooks merely grow to be one-dimensional, sadistic cartoon villains who kill turtles for enjoyable.
The Pogues had an excessive amount of occurring, together with preventing actual battles with the extra grownup Kooks, to permit any of this to actually breathe or settle in.
It’s no shock that the Pogues are pressured to develop up quicker because the world by no means bends to them, however it will be good to have extra on that comparability.
The second we make actual headway in unpacking that, the collection follows the Pogues in a foreign country, and we by no means correctly unpack how the city is at a boiling level after the Kooks snatched land proper from beneath JJ.
A reckoning could also be on the horizon, primarily after JJ destroys the city (and can doubtless now be immortalized as a city folks hero) throughout that kickass and splendidly shot sequence that offers us a preview of the forms of roles Rudy Pankow can pull off within the close to future.
However we didn’t see sufficient of it onscreen when it counted most.
Particularly as soon as we needed to go away a extra divided than ever Outer Banks, with Pogues of all ages pissed off, Hollis plotting, and Sofia behind.
P4L? Disjointed Pogue Friendship Takes an Alarming Hit
The season delivered on the group dynamic to ascertain how Poguelandia grew to become their house through some montages.
They’d a pleasant factor going for them earlier than the Kooks got here to destroy all of it.
Thankfully, the season didn’t separate important members of the Pogues longer than needed.
However the season was very “couple-focused,” which highlighted the collapse of the friendship much more.
We received some transient mix-and-match dynamics (Sarah and Pope on an adventurous activity collectively was a spotlight just because they by no means share one-on-one time collectively), and the primary half delivered so many of those moments that felt like the primary season once more, however the stability concern was so pronounced within the second half!
Cleo, who initially befriended John B and has extra in widespread with JJ than most, has no shut bonds past Pope, together with the Pogue ladies.
The others didn’t even notice mercenaries kidnapped her till hours later, and so they barely reacted or appeared to care or examine in together with her after the very fact.
Pope went to jail after that riot, and there was little dialog about it or him from the others, which felt completely unrealistic for a gaggle of people that actively plotted to free John B from jail.
Pope went to jail due to JJ, harkening again to how JJ did the identical for him.
The dialog between the 2, which might’ve delved into that extra, merely petered out as a substitute of giving us the deserved second of brotherhood we’d come to anticipate from each characters, who will actually do something for one another!
The Pope and JJ dynamic was startingly off.
The season made it look like John B was JJ’s solely greatest buddy in the long run and downplayed the brotherhood of the JJ/Pope dynamic.
Are we actually to imagine that Pope would hear JJ’s informal suicide ideation and never do or say something about it? Simply no response in any way? Bullshit.
Would JJ actually settle for that Pope needed to keep away and head off to the navy? By no means.
John B. and Sarah getting misplaced in their very own bubble, whereas an outline of the diverging loyalties typically between our friendships or prolonged household, and the one we’re beginning on our personal, felt ill-placed at occasions when a lot was occurring that required them to speak extra and care.
JJ wandered off together with his organic father, whom nobody trusted, and nobody checked in with one another the complete day; all of those little moments had the group feeling extremely and wildly disconnected.
On the coronary heart of Outer Banks is the friendship, which appeared to unravel a bit because the season progressed.
Chilly Struggle and Disappearing Chemistry: Jiara’s Love Story By no means Takes Off
I’m not right here so as to add to the speculations about no matter behind-the-scenes drama could or could not have transpired between Madison Bailey and Rudy Pankow or dissect scenes with physique doubles.
It’s not likely my enterprise.
What I can discuss is the product proper in entrance of us, and after an effort to construct up Jiara, whether or not intentional or not, the pairing falls fully quick after they barely even appeared like mates, not to mention a pair.
Outer Banks Season 4 doubled down on the candy romance between Pope and Cleo, and so they’ve all the time given us John B and Sarah in abundance (typically even to the detriment of the opposite Pogues).
This season, regardless of what they promised and beforehand teased, Kiara and JJ had zero affection or chemistry, which was unlucky.
For a pairing that viewers waited to see take off, it fizzled out this season.
Viewers by no means discovered what the 2 seemed like as a pair.
And right here’s the factor: JJ’s navigating a gradual romantic relationship, given his background and characterization, was value deep exploration and demanding to his character improvement.
He doesn’t know the best way to deal with somebody loving him unconditionally, so the second he dedicated to the relationship part, that journey required a bit extra exploration, and but we received nothing.
The viewers wasn’t aware about no matter intimacy could have grown between the 2 as they shifted from mates to lovers.
If we had seen that, it will have made JJ’s closing scene extra devastating and Kiara’s pledge for vengeance more practical.
Sadly, it simply didn’t click on.
Sarah’s Pointless Being pregnant is Cringe
Being pregnant plots are not often entertaining, to start with, and so they’re much more irritating story autos now for apparent causes.
A type of apparent causes is that this plot was irritating in its execution and even its realism.
John B. and Sarah are poor, unhoused, jobless, and chronically in hassle with the regulation, and their solely help system is different younger adults in the identical boat as them, fairly actually.
And by no means as soon as did they even freak out about not with the ability to undergo a being pregnant and lift a toddler collectively feasibly.
You merely can not increase a toddler on needs, hopes, goals, and positivity, and life has alread dealt the Pogues the worst fingers life has to supply recurrently (that they had mercenaries attempting to kill them).
It appears irresponsible for them to not have extra conversations about their sport plan or that, satirically, JJ was the one one with a practical response to this information.
And Rafe’s utter LACK of a response stretched the bounds of credulity altogether. We received NOTHING from him, as he basically sat there posing and looking out nice however not providing any anticipated commentary.
Being pregnant plots are good for older, extra established ships.
There’s nothing idyllic or cutesy about two 20-year-olds residing because the Pogues do, racing round nations, treasure-hunting, and dodging bullets, beginning a household collectively.
It’s a setup for them to get out of the “G-game,” however there have been different methods of permitting them to try this, like transferring out of Outer Banks or going to highschool.
Luke’s Flimsy, Nonsensical Position in JJ’s True Background Story
Outer Banks performed round with softening Luke in a irritating means this season.
Through flashbacks, we see a person who genuinely loves JJ as if he have been his personal youngster, for causes which might be nonetheless unknown since he by no means actively had a romantic relationship with JJ’s mom.
He didn’t need Groff to return again, and that’s fantastic. However presumably, Luke raised a child he in some unspecified time in the future stopped wanting and abused alcohol and JJ, and there was by no means a shakedown for more cash to take care of this child?
At no level did Luke spill the beans for his or JJ’s profit?
It felt like they downplayed how dangerous Luke was as a dad or mum as a result of Groff was infinitely worse, and evil AF, however it additionally didn’t make sense why of all of the issues Groff might’ve finished with younger JJ (together with kill him, since he was an inheritor, and Groff is a psychopath), he gave the kid to a single male groundskeeper.
Treasure Searching Turns into an Unfun, Unexciting Afterthought
It might appear overseas now, however Outer Banks was an escapist present about treasure looking that received us by way of a bleak interval.
The treasure-hunting part was a lot enjoyable, and the group’s enthusiasm for determining what it might imply for his or her circumstances was oddly hopeful.
However since life has routinely beat the shit out of the Pogues at each flip, their method to treasure looking felt extra like a dreadful factor they reluctantly needed to do.
Even then, a lot of the treasure-hunting part felt like an afterthought as motivations blurred, with some leaning extra in the direction of monitoring down Groff and others merely being about them fleeing their hometown.
The newest treasure wasn’t even value mercenaries continuously attempting to kill them.
JJ “realizing” that the treasure didn’t matter so long as he had his framily and Kie didn’t even hit the efficient notes as a result of someplace alongside the best way, nobody appeared to actively care concerning the treasure within the first place, together with JJ.
Shoupe’s Inefficiency and Incompetency Reaches New Lows
Shoupe, as a good-hearted antagonist to the Pogues, stopped being endearing way back, however it reached new lows.
With out Shoupe at the very least pushing again towards the Kooks and among the political agendas, he’s simply this man who aimlessly fixates on this similar group of Pogues particularly for all that ails that city.
Shoupe is aware of all of those children, which means he is aware of what they’re and aren’t able to, but he by no means garners respect or belief sufficient to analyze.
He was so painfully getting led by his nostril throughout his investigations, figuring out that there was extra to all these murders than simply freaking JJ (hell, even Kiara’s dad, who hates JJ knew at this level the authorities had gone too far), and but each different second he was initiating manhunts for youths.
Whereas it labored to propel the plot ahead, Shoupe letting the Pogues flee to Morocco to carry again a killer con artist solely after negotiating with Rafe, of all folks, was so absurd there aren’t sufficient phrases for it.
That Motherfreaking Shade Grading and Enhancing Hellscape
The funds this season was nice, you could possibly inform, particularly as a result of a lot of the Morocco content material was top-tier.
Did the sandstorm, preventing, and fleeing sequences final too lengthy? Positive, however if you’ve paid for Morocco, you milk it for all it’s value.
However the extremely saturated blue filter utilized for many of the night time photographs was so distracting it pulled you out of the story slightly than labored as a cool enhancing trick.
This season’s coloration grading was grating on many ranges, too sharp and saturated and wholly a nightmare.
Rafe’s Poorly Executed and Retconned (although Effectively-Carried out) “Redemption” Arc
The one cause Rafe’s redemption works is that it’s Drew Starkey. Now that they’ve killed off a fan favourite like JJ, it’s on model to broaden one other fan favourite’s function extra.
I received’t even fake I wasn’t all-in on (a extra muted) Rafe collaborating with the Pogues, taking the “it takes a killer to go after killers” method to all of it, and quietly instigating the Groff vengeance tour.
As I stated, Drew Starkey has an exquisite means of constructing something work, even issues that aren’t alleged to. This character has by some means managed to final all these seasons when he objectively ought to’ve been killed off after the primary season.
However the season doesn’t earn Rafe’s redemption regardless that they put a great effort in setting it up through his rising discontent with how juvenile the Kooks have been behaving.
We sailed previous issues like how usually Rafe tried to kill his personal sister; this unstated rigidity on account of his unspeakable actions hanging in between them even confirmed through flashes however was by no means adequately addressed.
Rafe by no means really takes accountability for his actions; he even doubles down on a few of his worst traits all through the season.
Not actively inflicting direct hurt versus passively watching a lot of it unfold doesn’t “redeem” him regardless of one of the best efforts.
And now we have now this quiet understanding and love emanating from the Cameron siblings. We’ll simply transfer on from there and let all that murky, murderous, downright sociopathic water movement underneath the bridge.
Groff’s Villainy Propelling Him Up a 50 ft Effectively Unhurt Defies Logic
Groff is clearly probably the most evil particular person they’ve needed to take care of to this point.
He’s like Ward 2.0, however due to his particular physique rely, he’s enemy #1 on the collection, and we’ll fortunately await his demise.
However Groff’s villainy was weird in that regardless of serving as a conman, it made little sense that he was capable of pull the wool over the Pogues’ eyes, particularly a notoriously distrustful JJ who is aware of the sport.
Nonetheless, leaving him on the backside of the effectively was a key second they’d all remorse within the finale.
However forgive me if I couldn’t fairly wrap my head round nor droop the idea required after Groff not solely received pushed down a effectively and by some means averted damaged bones or a damaged neck however succeeded at scaling his means out of there and was nonetheless unhurt.
It was the start of the tip in Outer Banks’ irritating execution of JJ’s demise.
JJ’s Tragic Loss of life is Frustratingly Banal and Meaningless
I can argue all day that Outer Banks was alleged to be an escapist tv present and that, in consequence, we’d have fortunately carried by way of its run with out dropping a member of the Pogues, even when it defied logic.
The premise offered us on this, and it was really okay for them to face by that as a substitute of tapping into realism when that has been a selective function at greatest.
As upsetting as it’s, we’re not questioning that JJ dies.
Out of the bunch, it’s sadly becoming that probably the most reckless, risk-taking member of the bunch who “didn’t have a lot going for him” and whom throughout him deemed was “heading nowhere quick” would die.
It’s a tragic actuality for some individuals who reside onerous and quick and die younger and early, and it’s bleak and hopeless in a means that’s saddening.
In spite of everything, typically, it’s good to see the JJs of the world win, significantly when the overall viewers doubtless relates extra to characters like him than the Toppers of the world.
However that’s extra of a cause why if we needed to succumb to the hamster-in-wheel hopelessness of the economically deprived and perpetually fucked Pogues by no means getting wherever, their deaths have to matter and be extra significant.
If the implication is that JJ died figuring out that true happiness was in his discovered household and that’s all he wanted, then the true “fuck you” to the system is to let him reside to have that.
One other useless, poor child who society screwed over isn’t groundbreaking, and the acceptance of being spirited whereas downtrodden teeters on glamorizing and romanticizing poverty, social insecurity, and trauma.
JJ’s a child with no actual house exterior of what he created — and an advesary helped bury him in the midst of the desert in an unmarked grave like a pauper. JJ couldn’t even relaxation in peace.
The issue is {that a} canonically cautious and skeptical JJ, who Groff routinely betrayed, might merely flip away from this man and imagine that he had actually received and that every one was over.
JJ, probably the most loyal and self-sacrificial Pogue to ever Pogue, DIDN’T die defending the supposed love of his short-lived life or his household.
He died senselessly in a second that appeared extra about catering to shock worth than serving as a correct swan music to a beloved character after spending half the season telegraphing and foreshadowing it with the subtlety and restraint of a sledgehammer.
Groff stabbed him, basically gutting him like a fish for caricaturistic evil funsies, and skipped away with the crown as Kie watched on, frozen and barely reacting.
JJ, a toddler of the ocean, drowning within the ocean saving Sarah and her unborn youngster, of whom John B and Sarah will identify after him, would have been a extra significant and apt sendoff.
It will’ve stayed extra trustworthy to his character as a younger man who, towards all odds, had a coronary heart so full of affection and fiercely protected these he beloved.
However the one sacrifice right here was the collection sacrificing JJ’s characterization and heroic dying for the plot, organising a closing season of vengeance.
Given JJ’s background and historical past inside the collection, making his dying mindless reinforces society’s perceptions of him slightly than reinforces what we all know this character to be, which is as upsetting or much more so than his dying within the first place.
Alright, OBX Fanatics. It’s time to listen to from you!
How did you’re feeling concerning the season? Are we pouring one out (or smoking one up) in honor of the Poguest of Pogues, JJ?
What are your theories on all of the gossip and drama?
Woogity, woogity, I’ll see you within the feedback.