Why Did JJ Quit 'Outer Banks' (& Is He Returning For Season 5)?
Is anyone else still not over the end of Outer Banks (2020) Season 4? Really, the whole season is a whirlwind that culminates with a feature-length season finale. I still can’t believe that it’s nearly 90 minutes long. I also can’t believe that it resulted in the death of one of the characters who has been on the show from the very beginning, JJ Maybank (Rudy Pankow). It helped a tiny bit to hear Pankow express an understanding of this ending for his character.
But it’s such a blow for fans, myself included, who were excited to learn more about JJ. Outer Banks Season 4 revealed that Luke Maybank (Gary Weeks) is not JJ’s biological father. Chandler Groff (J. Anthony Crane) is, and he’s a Kook, which turns everything that JJ believes about himself and his life as a Pogue on its head. What I would give to go back to the theory that JJ and Sarah Cameron (Madelyn Cline) are secretly siblings right about now. Luckily, I have an even wackier theory to hold onto until Outer Banks returns for its fifth and final season on Thursday, August 20, on Netflix.
What Happened To JJ In ‘Outer Banks’ Season 4?
Outer Banks has gradually shifted its focus throughout the Pogues every season. It’s certainly an ensemble show, but the first season follows John B (Chase Stokes) super close. Likewise, the second season does the same with Pope (Jonathan Daviss), while the third season reveals more about Kiara (Madison Bailey). So, it makes total sense that Outer Banks Season 4 would finally turn its spotlight to JJ. I just didn’t expect it to go the way it did.
By the end of the second half of Season 4, the Pogues couldn’t feel further away from what the show or the season started as. They were risking their lives in the most extreme circumstances in Morocco for Blackbeard’s treasure, namely the Blue Crown. Its capabilities appear to be as rich as its worth. After JJ finally gets the Blue Crown, he trades it to Chandler to save Kiara’s life. Unfortunately, Chandler is a murderer with no moral compass, so he kills his son in cold blood. How one stabbing wound kills JJ after the Pogues escaped a wild shootout in the middle of a sandstorm still evades me. But maybe that’s just because I’m still in complete denial.
Nevertheless, JJ dies in Kiara’s arms after saying, “Take care of the others. I love you, Kie.” I’m among the Outer Banks fans who patiently (and impatiently, at times) waited years for the slow-burn, friends-to-lovers romance to develop between JJ and Kiara. It’s disappointing that they only got to be together for such a short period. It just made JJ’s death feel like a reminder of all the untapped potential between them. Not to mention, JJ is the glue of the Pogues, in my opinion, so it’s really hard to imagine the future of the show without him. Then again, that seems to be the whole point, as revealed in the teaser trailer for Outer Banks Season 5.
Will JJ Return For ‘Outer Banks’ Season 5?
Outer Banks co-creator Shannon Burke told Cosmopolitan that the creative team “was pretty sure early on that” JJ would die at some point in the show. While developing the fourth season, it became clear that a season exploring his story so thoroughly would be the right time. Now, Outer Banks has to deal with the fallout of this seismic character’s death in its final season. Thankfully, the trailer teases that Season 5 will do anything but skip over the characters’ grief.
Of course, they are all going to be distraught over the loss of JJ, but the trailer really focuses on the emotional reaction from Kiara and John B. The former feels like a direct continuation from the Season 4 finale. As the Pogues (and Rafe) sat around the fire and decided what their next steps would be, it was Kiara who stood and said, with conviction, “Revenge.” So, Outer Banks Season 5 appears to see them on that hunt, and Blackbeard’s treasure becomes less important.
Now, it’s about finding Chandler and avenging JJ’s death. “It’s the main spine of the rest of the series, basically. It’s going to change them. They began as kids who just wanted to have a good time all the time, and now they’ve gone the full spectrum now, where one of them has died in a terrible way. We’re just hoping to play that out and take them on this long journey and end it in the right way,” Burke told Teen Vogue. Inarguably, the Pogues have been through so much since Outer Banks was a beach-set teen drama with far lower stakes. They don’t get much higher than this.
Without JJ, Outer Banks will never be the same. But I can’t help but be a bit delusional that maybe there is a way to get him back. When asked if there was a chance that we’d see JJ again, co-creator Jonas Pate told Cosmopolitan, “Never say never.” That’s enough for me to cling to, especially when Outer Banks suggests that the Blue Crown may have the ability to grant wishes. Who’s to say that bringing JJ back can’t be one of them? I know it’s an almost entirely unfounded theory. So, heading into this final season, my wish is that Outer Banks can get back to what it is always good at–being a teen drama about a group of friends in OBX, even if they’re missing a core member of that group.
