'Outer Banks' stars tease the end of Season 4, address rumour JJ is going to die
"It just speaks to his impulsiveness and his ability to put himself in dangerous situations quite often," Rudy Pankow said
It's a big week for Outer Banks fans with the show returning for Season 4, Part 2 on Netflix Nov. 7, the same week that it was announced Season 5 will be the final season for the show. Before we say goodbye to our favourite Pogues, played by Chase Stokes, Madelyn Cline, Rudy Pankow, Madison Bailey, Carlacia Grant and Jonathan Daviss, showrunners Josh Pate, Jonas Pate and Shannon Burke aren't holding back for the penultimate season of the series.
As fans have been thinking about for weeks, the first part of Season 4 ended with a massive cliffhanger when Luke (Gary Weeks) tells JJ (Pankow) he's not actually his father. JJ's parents are Larissa Genrette and Chandler Groff (J. Anthony Crane), making JJ a Kook.
"We both were shocked, but we kind of played into the scene of like, let's unpack the history of things," Pankow told Yahoo Canada in Toronto.
"What does this also say about Luke? Yes, JJ has an identity crisis now where it's like, who is he? Where does he come from? What characteristics of JJ now can he hang on to? But then it also was Luke, what was he protecting him from? Why didn't he tell him? What was the scarier, deeper thing that he was trying to keep him from? And that's more elaborated on in Part 2."
While JJ is dealing with the aftermath of that news, Cleo (Grant) is trying to manage her grief with the death of Terrance (Terence Rosemore), the man who essentially raised her, killed by Lightner (Rigo Sanchez).
"She goes through every stage of grief, that's what I really spoke to the writers about, is just making sure we're being inclusive of all the feelings," Grant said. "So we're going to see her in a lot of moments of happiness, rage, just her abandonment and just the guilt. So we're definitely going to go through that journey of how she handles a death of this sort."
In true Pogue fashion, they don't report Terrance's death to the police, but instead decide to hide the body, and we'll wait to see how that works out for the Pogues in Season 4, Part 2.
"I think at this point, Cleo wants to take it into her own hands," Grant said. "I don't think she's thinking about calling cops. ... I feel like Cleo is like, eye for an eye."
'I think we need to move on'
Of course, a core element of Outer Banks is the relationship between John B (Stokes) and Sarah (Cline). They're seemingly in a good place in Season 4, but even after all this time, Sarah's ex-boyfriend Topper, played by Austin North, just can't get over her. Even in Season 4 Topper makes a comment to John B that he was with Sarah first.
"I think it's time to throw in the towel there Topper," North said. "I think we need to move on."
"But whenever he sees her I'm sure brings up past emotions and a lot of time has passed between Season 3 and 4. But yeah, why is he still trying to talk to her? Why is there still this tension between him and John B? I don't think it's going anywhere."
While we all hope Topper can finally move on from Sarah, being around new Kook Ruthie (Mia Challis), who was particularly cruel running over the turtle hatch in the first part of Season 4, doesn't make Topper's future look particularly promising.
"Not the best influence. Loves to stir the pot and I think there's going to be more of that to come," North said.
"I just want to see Topper pursue his own dreams and aspirations. He's kind of had this pressure from his mom, as you saw beginning of Season 1, to live up to a certain standard. ... And now you see ... he's talking about some real estate ventures and getting some property, and I think he's growing into his own, and he's figuring out what he really wants in life."
Does JJ die on 'Outer Banks?'
With Outer Banks being one of the most beloved shows on Netflix, the internet is swirling with fan theories. One in particular is that JJ is going to die and the character is going to be killed off the show. While Pankow didn't provide a definitive yes or no answer, it's a fan theory he's well aware of.
"It's a theory that kind of bounces back and forth, and it just speaks to his impulsiveness and his ability to put himself in dangerous situations quite often," Pankow said. "And I think that's where these theories are mainly coming from. ... It's just his tendency to be the first in front of danger."
"We try to, honestly, just kind of focus on the work as much as we can. So we don't really see all of [the fan theories], but I've heard about that one."
But some things still slip past Outer Banks fans. Grant recently confirmed that all the Pogues have been wearing special orange bracelets as a sign of their friendship throughout the full run of the show.
"Since Season 1, we've always had these bracelets and no one noticed it," Grant said. "This is something that every day, ... someone is losing one, our costume designer has a bunch of them, and it's been this thing."
"We have these bracelets that are a part of our character. ... I was like, wow, that's crazy. I feel like our fans know everything and that was this big clue that was just revealed."
