Warning: This article contains spoilers fromOuter Banksseason 4, episodes 1-5.
JJ’s family tree just got a lot more complicated onOuter Banks.
Things are not looking great for the Pogues by the end of part 1!
Rudy Pankow, ‘Outer Banks’.Netflix
Bring it on home!
JONAS PATE:No, but that’s kind of a new trend with some of their bigger shows.
So that’s when we knew.
Chase Stokes, ‘Outer Banks’.Netflix
Did that change what you originally had planned for episode 5?
JOSH PATE:Not too much.
We had the information in time that we could plan for it.
Madelyn Cline, ‘Outer Banks’.Netflix
Weve never seen anything supernatural before on this show.
Is that ghost real?
JOSH:We can’t tell!
Madelyn Cline, Madison. Bailey, Carlacia Grant, ‘Outer Banks’.Jackson Lee Davis/Netflix
JONAS:I defer to Shannon.
SHANNON BURKE:It gives the impression of real.
And you’ll just have to watch to see what happens.
Jonathan Daviss, Chase Stokes, Rudy Pankow, ‘Outer Banks’.Jackson Lee Davis/Netflix
JONAS:[Laughs] Oh, what a non-answer.
I don’t know if it was specifically inspired by any one thing.
It just seemed like something useful, creatively.
SHANNON:Superstition, curse, threat, it just felt of a piece with the Blackbeard story.
This feels likeOuter Banks,and it became part of the mythology of the legend of the treasure.
Sure, curses go hand-in-hand with buried pirate treasure.
JOSH:[Laughs]It’s a gateway drug.
JONAS:[Laughs] “What is going on over here?
What are those guys doing?”
JOSH:You’ll see, and it becomes clear later on.
Why did you decide to change JJ’s family tree?
And that was one of the first ideas that we had.
That was an idea we had pretty early on in developing the season, and we loved the idea.
But it’s all part of the JJ year.
It was fun to go through how he might react to that, which is complete denial.
“It’s not true.
It can’t be true.”
It was fun to put him through that.
How is he going to be handling this going into part 2?
But JJ, he does not take it well, which will be clear right away.
JOSH:He rejects it utterly.
How is this going to be affecting their relationship going into part 2?
SHANNON:It’s all tied up together.
JOSH:For sure.
Side note: Is it safe for JJ and Kiara to be hooking up in a hyperbaric chamber?
I was kind of worried…
JONAS:[Laughs] Yes.
Every time I’ve ever done it, it worked out fine.
Teenagers, they just do things!
Jackson Lee Davis/Netflix
What are you most excited for fans to see from part 2?
JONAS:Definitely the best episode we’ve ever done is the finale.
We’re very proud of the ending and excited to share it.
SHANNON:The second half of the season is the best half of a season we’ve ever done.
There’s at least one other really big story as well, which…
JOSH:Comes later.
We’re trying to find new challenges for the couples.
How do we keep the romance stories moving forward?
So we focused a lot on that too.
What is going on with Rafe this season?
Is he really invested in this new relationship?
Or is he still going to be the villainous Rafe we know he can be?
SHANNON:The best Rafe is an unpredictable Rafe.
Every once in a while, we’ll find ourselves drifting into Rafe almost being Pogue-adjacent.
But the best Rafe is bad Rafe, so we always have to remind you.
JOSH:There’s some redemptive stuff too.
JONAS:He’s still Rafe.
He has to pay for his crimes.
SHANNON:That’s going to start a series of events that will probably continue even beyond this season.
JOSH:We’re always trying to put pressure on them.
Another cliffhanger is Pope and Sarah’s fates, stuck in the tomb as the water level is rising.
How worried should we be about two main characters making it out alive?
JOSH:I think you should be worried about everybody.
I would say worry.
SHANNON:Expect more emotional high stakes.
JOSH:They’re really in a pickle in the second half.
And the stakes are higher.
The adventure they go on is probably my favorite.
We’ll have the biggest [action scenes] we’ve ever had.
The scope of it is enormous.
SHANNON:It’s almost like a double album.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The first five episodes ofOuter Banksseason 4 is streaming now on Netflix.
The second half of the season drops Nov. 7.
