Did ’Outer Banks’ Bring Back JJ? 3 Questions The Final Season Answered
Outer Banks Season 5 is here and we're finally going to find out what happened to JJ. Or more accurately, if Outer Banks ended up bringing back JJ from the dead. Because last we left off, his own father, aka Chandler Groff, had stabbed him and killed him. And our Pogues had decided, with some gentle nudging from Rafe, that the only solution is revenge.
But did Outer Banks bring back JJ? I'm going to break down the simple answer to this question, what happened to the Blue Crown that has caused so much trouble, and the frustrations that came from the hunt for this artifact. And as a special bonus, I want to talk about Groff and what happened to him at the end of this Netflix show. Because if there's anyone that deserved that fate, it's him.
Did ‘Outer Banks’ Bring Back JJ?
No, Outer Banks did not bring back JJ from the dead in Season 5.
Instead, what they did is they had Kiara try and see if the Blue Crown worked during a meteor shower. But despite how many times she recited the words, JJ didn’t come back to life in Outer Banks Season 5. Instead, the show used this as an opportunity to explore Kiara's grief through a series of flashbacks when they were preteens and teens. And a core piece of those flashbacks was preteen JJ saying that when bad things happen, you let it go, and you feed the fish.
When the flashbacks were over, Kiara had seemingly finally accepted JJ's death. And when Mr. Finch, another guy after the Blue Crown, appeared and asked if the crown had worked, she said yes. But Kiara added a caveat that it didn't work how you would expect. One confrontation later with the Pogues, Mr. Finch flees, and Kiara relays what happened with the crown. And thanks to John B's voiceover, we don't know if what Kiara saw was real or just a manifestation of her grief.
What Happened to the Blue Crown?
Like Kiara and her visions of JJ, we don't know what really happened with the Blue Crown in Outer Banks Season 5.
We know that Kiara tried to use the Blue Crown to communicate with JJ and bring him back from the dead in Episode 9. We also know that it didn't work but Kiara thinks it did thanks to those visions. And we also know that Mr. Finch believes in the crown. When the Pogues appear to save Kiara from being shot by Mr. Finch after trying the crown, he gets shot instead. But even while bleeding and fleeing, his priority is snatching up the crown.
And then that's it when it comes to the crown. It’s no longer part of the main story. That makes it so the only one that got to truly work through their grief in an expanded way was Kiara, which feels like a letdown for a layered storyline the show was trying to tell. It also makes it so this season almost seems like an AU of a show that has gone through some crazy stuff around the world but kept the bonds of this friendship group as the point.
So what was the point of the Blue Crown in Outer Banks? The friends we lost along the way.
What Happened to Chandler Groff in Season 5?
Chandler Groff got exactly what he deserved in Outer Banks Season 5. For a second there, the show tried to make it seem like he was feeling some sort of regret for killing JJ. But at the end of the day he continued being a menace to all of our favorite Pogues, but especially Kiara. She was hunting him, but he was torturing her while being a whimpering, weak little man when faced with Mr. Finch.
In the final episode of Outer Banks Season 5, Kiara manages to jump on the ship that Groff is getting away with all of the Royal Merchant gold he stole. She waits for her moment and then tries to kill him. After an intense fight and confrontation where he basically gives a bland excuse for why he killed JJ, Groff gets tied up and lifted high up on the mast of the boat that they’re on. Since they're in a storm, the mast breaks and leaves Groff dangling over the water.
What Kiara does to Groff next is because of what he did to JJ. But it's also what Groff took away from all of them and what he took away from her. So as he starts to beg for her not to cut the rope, what does she do? She cuts the rope and he falls into the water, never to be seen again, and finally dead. Considering what he did to his wife Larissa and how he tried to kill Kiara in a similar manner, he had it coming. He only had himself to blame. If you’d have been there. If you’d have seen it. I betcha you would have done the same!
Oh wait, that's the play Chicago. But you know what I mean.
