Okay… what???
If you haven’t watched the season yet, don’t read this! Spoilers!
The second half of the fourth season of Outer Banks definitely threw me for a loop in more ways than one. First of all, I feel like as the season progressed we strayed way further from the original plot of the show. Honestly, towards the end of season three I feel like the show was slowly running out of ideas and adding things just to stretch it out. Nonetheless, I love the show and enjoyed this season as well. But there were definitely some things that stuck out to me.
To start off, Sarah’s pregnancy. I kind of had a feeling that their relationship would go further on, but I didn’t expect a pregnancy in the show. She finds out she is pregnant in episode 7, and then Kiara finds out. However, she waits until episode 8 to tell John B. I feel like there were better times between this to tell him she was pregnant. It feels like such a random time in the show to bring this plot twist. The lifestyle that John B and Sarah live is filled with such insanity and instability that maybe in the next season, the two having a baby will force them to slow down and relax a little bit more. Additionally, I feel like JJ’s initial reaction to the news was so out of pocket. He was completely unsupportive and negative about it, saying John B knows nothing about being a father and so on. I didn’t like that, especially since JJ’s friends have always stuck up for him and supported him and his insanity no matter what.
Popes angry outburst also somewhat struck me off guard, but not too bad. In previous seasons, Pope was seen as such an intelligent and goody-two shoes kid. He was incredibly disciplined by his father and had a bright academic future ahead of him. It seems as through the seasons he lost sight of this to some degree, yet not enough to where it would have a massive effect on his future. However, this season he seems to have basically just said “screw it” and went off the rails. Outside of the town hall meeting, when he assaulted a police officer on JJ’s behalf. He was faced with a felony, and made to wear an ankle monitor. Not only did he also run away from his dad and the marines when he was going to enlist, but he eventually cut his ankle monitor off as well. As someone who was known to be the smartest one out of the group, it seems like this season is showing the beginning of his downfall. I understand that the life they are living is insanely chaotic – but despite all the chaos in the past three seasons, it seems like Pope has always kept a good head on his shoulders and tried to be rational. So, for him to show such violence and off the rails behaviors this season was definitely surprising to me.
Finally, the death of JJ Maybank at the hands of Groff. I feel like Groff stabbing JJ and ending his life AFTER JJ willingly gave him what he wanted was so off-putting. Groff’s entire vibe has been off from the second he came into the show and showed up as JJ’s real dad, and putting a spin on the things JJ has known his whole life. There was always something off about Groff’s vibe in the show. It’s like Groff intentionally showed up, initially denying he was JJ’s father, and then turned around and tried to use the fact he was JJ’s real father to take advantage of JJ to get what he wanted. I really think it’s insane – Luke was a horrible father figure to JJ his whole life and then here comes JJ’s real father, who is just as bad, if not worse. It makes me feel pity for JJ. Out of all the main characters, I did expect JJ to come to some tragic ending at some point in the show. However, I figured it would be due to his own recklessness or some other accident. I had never anticipated him dying how or when he did. I’m not going to lie, I shed a few (or many) tears as the episode came to an end.
Overall, I feel like this season had many ups and downs. The adding of characters and random plot twists caught me out of left field more times than one. But for what it’s worth, I think it was an enjoyable and definitely entertaining season. The plot twists of this season have me highly anticipating what insanity and crazy plot twists will follow with the next season.