On October 10, 2024, Netflix released the first five episodes of season four of the hit show, “Outer Banks”.
For context, “Outer Banks” is a Netflix original show that revolves around six teenagers that are on the hunt for lost ancient treasure. These are the “Pogues”, they live in a place called “The Cut”. These are the members of the working class. They are often opposed by a group called the “Kooks”, who are the wealthiest people/elites on the island. These two groups are often at odds with each other over these ancient treasures
Before watching these episodes, I was slightly skeptical on how strong the new storyline would mesh with the ending of season three. At the end of the third season, it seemed like the story was over; the Pogues finally got the gold that they were after, and they completed the mission. This made me question if they would be able to continue the show and keep it interesting.
The answer is: yes, they did indeed keep the show interesting. Somehow the writers found a way to properly connect the end of the last season and the beginning of this season and made it feel very cohesive.
The showmakers used JJ’s known impulsive decision-making to spend all of the gold and create a new goal, get more money to fund “Poguelandia”. This is what they call their home in the Outer Banks and where they work in their own surf shop. This is why they got back into treasure hunting, they needed money to pay for the property tax after JJ lost the last of their gold gambling on a motorbike race. This created a cohesive bond between the end of season three and the episodes in season four.
I will say that the amount of time they spent on the building of Poguelandia was a lot more than it needed to be. It did feel like they added some filler and felt very unnecessary.
We see many new characters this season including Sofia, Rafe Cameron’s girlfriend. Sofia changes Rafe, she turns him from the power-hungry villain towards the Pogues to somebody who wants to help and be kind to the Pogues.
Other new characters like Wes Genrette and his son-in-law Chandler Groff. These two people give the Pogues the task of finding an amulet, in return the Pogues get $55,000, but this is where things went wrong for the Pogues.
This is where the antagonist changed, which I kind of like. Rafe Cameron has been the villain with his father for all three seasons, and I like the switch. Chandler Groff and Hollis are now taking on that role, and I feel like they’re doing a good job.
Hollis, a real estate agent, scams Rafe into giving her funds for a piece of land and Groff kills his father-in-law, so that he can get the amulet.
There are still many mysteries, why does Groff want the amulet, why does Hollis want this land, these will need to be answered in the upcoming episodes.
And finally, at the end of episode five, we learn that the man that we thought was JJ’s dad is not his actual father and that his actual father is Chandler Groff. We also get left on a cliffhanger being introduced to his mother, Larissa Genrette. This leaves the viewers wondering who she is, who else she could be connected to, and what does this mean for the future.
Overall, the start of this season has been very promising with new characters playing a very important role in the show and different personality changes from the dynamic characters in the show. It is a nice change of pace from the first three seasons, but they didn’t veer off too much which I thought was very well done.I am very enthusiastic about the five episodes to come in this season on November 7th.