‘Outer Banks’ Season 5 Finale: How Things End For Pogues, Kooks & Twinkie As John B & Co Sign Off

• John B Routledge

  

  In Season 5, reeling from the death of his best friend JJ, John B (Stokes) hit rock bottom back in Kildare after the unsuccessful mission to Dubrovnik that resulted in the Pogues’ arrest and deportation. With no money, no home for him and Sarah (Cline) and a baby on the way, John B took a contraband bale of weed he found floating in the ocean and, with Rafe’s (Drew Starkey) help, sold it at a heavy discount to local drug dealer Barry (Nicholas Cirillo). That led to him becoming a target of powerful drug lord Julio Valdez, whose shipment originally included the stray bale.

  John B’s ill-conceived decision to steal the bale was followed by an even dumber one he made out of desperation. With Julio’s people threatening Sarah’s life if he didn’t pay full price for the stolen merchandise, he took Barry’s advice and tried to rob Topper’s house safe, dragging unwitting Pope (Daviss) into a misguided operation that spectacularly imploded. (John B ultimately teamed with Sheriff Shoupe for a sting operation to get Julio arrested.)

  Later, John B came up with the idea to charter a plane to Azerbaijan in pursuit of the Blue Crown and supported Kiara (Bailey) when she decided to test the crown’s supposed magic powers of bringing back the dead in a desperate attempt to see JJ again. He could have pushed her to head back home with the extremely valuable artifact that would’ve made them rich.

  John B saved Kiara twice in the final season, first by diving to get to her after Groff (J. Anthony Crane) threw her overboard the night of the masquerade ball and then, joined by Sarah and Pope, rescuing her after she had killed Groff and their boat had started sinking in the hurricane.

  In the series finale’s happy ending, using some of the Royal Merchant gold, John B bought back the land where he used to live and rebuilt his father’s house. Then, a year later, he made “a good decision,” as Shoupe put it, marrying Sarah in the back yard with their baby present.

  RELATED: Chase Stokes Says ‘Outer Banks’ Cast Is “Ready” For Show’s Conclusion: “We Want The Story To End On The Right Note”

• Sarah Cameron

  

  While chasing the Blue Crown with her friends, Sarah (Madelyn Cline) also went through her pregnancy, delivering a baby boy in the finale, which she and John B (Stokes) named JJ, after their late friend.

  She also patched things up with her brother Rafe (Starkey), reconnected with her younger sister Wheezie (Julia Antonelli) and tracked down her mom to find out that she did not abandon her children ,but was set up by her husband, Sarah, Rafe and Wheezie’s late dad Ward (Charles Esten).

  In a nod to earlier seasons, Sarah wore a version of her iconic Season 1 Midsummers white dress to her wedding to John B in the series finale where the two recited the vows she came up in their impromptu unofficial boat wedding under the stars in Season 2. Her mom was right next to her.

• Kiara Carrera

  

  Kiara (Madison Bailey) had arguably the biggest arc in Season 5 as she struggled to come to grips with the death of her boyfriend, JJ Maybank, before her very eyes — starting to lose herself in her quest for revenge. Facing JJ’s killer dad Chandler Groff (Crane) in Dubrovnik, she hesitated to kill, him but on her second try in the finale, she did not.

  It was the second time Kiara and Groff came face to face on a boat this season. The first time, he threw her overboard in an attempt to kill her. Kiara was seconds from dying on the bottom of the ocean and had a vision of JJ before being rescued by John B.

  In the depths of despair over JJ’s death, Kiara clung to the ancient belief in the power of the Blue Crown to bring back the dead.

  In one of the season’s most poignant scenes, Kiara tried to summon JJ with the Blue Crown which instead produced a ball of light amid a meteor shower and triggered a highlight reel of all her memories with JJ since they first met on the beach as little kids.

  The vision helped Kiara heel and, in the end of the finale, she used a portion of her Royal Merchant gold money to buy back the Maybank house, rebuild it and plant a garden. A bridesmaid at Sarah and John B’s wedding, she also pursued her dream of becoming a marine biologist.

• Pope Heyward

  

  Like Kiara (Bailey), Pope (Daviss) had a really hard time following the events in Morocco, in his case exasperated by a month-long jail stay upon the gang’s return to the Outer Banks over his attack on a cop to save JJ in Season 4. Not able to cope with murdering the mercenary in the Season 4 finale, even if it was in self-defense, Pope decided to numb the pain with pot.

  He started returning to being himself when Cleo (Grant) came back, prompting him to reclaim his role as the brainiac of the group. He recreated the ancient scytale by drawings and deciphered its messages, masterminded the landslide in Azerbaijan that ambushed their rival Finch and his people, saved his dad from drowning in the hurricane and subsequently calculated the spot in the ocean where the Royal Merchant gold had sunk, giving the Pogues a much needed win – and means for a great life.

  After a botched proposal to Cleo earlier in the season, Pope nailed it the second time and became engaged to her in the finale. The newlyweds moved into Tannyhill, putting the mansion back in the hands of a Tanny, Pope, who also walked Sarah down the isle in her wedding to John B.

• Cleo

  

  Twice extradited to the Bahamas, Cleo (Grant) found a way to come back. The first time was after the Pogues’ Dubrovnik escapades. The second time was after Cleo stayed behind to slow down Shoupe and his man as John B (Stokes), Sarah (Cline), Kiara (Bailey) and Pope (Daviss) were racing to board Rose’s private jet to fly to Azerbaijan.

  Her stalling tactic included blowing up John B’s beloved van Twinkie to block a road. In the end, with the police closing in, she couldn’t get on board fast enough. She was arrested and subsequently deported with no right to ever return to the U.S. Getting a fancy lawyer with money from the Royal Merchant gold helped overturn the ban, with her becoming a U.S. citizen.

  

  In Season 5, Cleo was the recipient of two marriage proposals by Pope. In the first, practical one, Pope talked about how a marriage would get Cleo a green card and allow them to live in family housing while he is in medical school. Needless to say, it did not go well. He amped up the romance in the second try, and she said yes. She moved with Pope into his ancestral home, Tannyhill, and was a bridesmaid at Sarah and John B’s wedding.

• Rafe Cameron

  

  A spoiled Kook who had screwed the Pogues out of their treasure, killed Sheriff Peterkin and tried to kill his own sister Sarah (Cline), Rafe (Drew Starkey) continued his redemption arc which started at the end of Season 4. Now a Pogue himself after losing his money to Groff, he had a shared enemy with John B and Co., but his relationship with them went beyond that. He gave Sarah and John B (Stokes) shelter at his condo before he was evicted himself, helped John B with the ill-conceived plan to sell the stolen bale of weed, and reconciled with Sofia (Fiona Palomo) before proposing to her for a second time.

  Rafe became a wanted man after Groff exposed his Peterkin secret to Sheriff Shoupe, with Sofia standing by him and landing in jail for helping him. During the hurricane finale, Rafe broke her out, saved Shoupe who had been pinned down by a fallen tree, saved John B, Sarah, Pope (Daviss) and Kiara (Bailey) by risking his own life to turn on the beacon of the lighthouse so they don’t crash ashore before taking off with Sofia for South America, getting a nice send-off by the Pogues. It is unclear whether his enemies-turned-friends found a way to sneak some gold to the couple as they left with nothing.

  A year later, Rafe was likely still a fugitive as he was not at his sister’s wedding, with Pope walking her down the aisle instead, but he was seen making a video call into the party in the final credits.

• Twinkie

  

  John B’s beloved van went through a lot in the final season. It was involved in chases and getaways and got its fuel line cut by goons sent to kill John B and Sarah before being set on fire in a spectacular fashion by Cleo (Grant) to block Sheriff Shouple and his deputies from reaching the plane John B and Co. were boarding for Azerbaijan.

  The Twinkie was down, but not out. In a resurrection – no Blue Crown needed – it was first featured as Sarah and John B’s wedding cake before what appeared to be a new and improved version of the van whisked the newlyweds away on their honeymoon.

• Chandler Groff

  Of all villains on Outer Banks through the years, Chandler Groff (J. Anthony Crane) may be the most irredeemable. After killing his son JJ in cold blood, he tried to kill Kiara, Rafe, Rose and Wheezie and to send Rafe to jail among many, many evil things he did in Season 5.

  Sheriff Shoupe arrested Groff for the murders of JJ and Hollis but the prosecutor didn’t have enough to charge him, so he walked.

  There were glimmers of hope: Groff shed tears after he tossed Kiara overboard to die, having drugged her at the masquerade ball. And he showed in the finale that he may be capable of remorse, revealing that he had been chasing the Blue Crown to try and bring back to life his wife (and JJ’s mother) whom he had previously killed.

  But ultimately, Groff, a strong contender for worst TV father, died on a boat in the finale after one last fight with Kiara where she confronted him with the question we all had been baffled by since the Season 4 finale: why did Groff kill his own son after he had already given him the Blue Crown and was of no threat to him?

  His answer: “You have things I’ll never have. That’s what he said. You all do. And I can’t have it.” OK.

  Soon thereafter, Kiara had another chance to kill him after not going through with it in Dubrovnik. This time, she didn’t hesitate, with Groff drowning amid the hurricane in the series finale.

• Barry, Shoupe, Topper, Finch

  Barry (Nicholas Cirillo), everyone’s favorite small-time drug dealer who evolved into an ally of Rafe (and the Pogues), showed his softer side in Season 5. While buying the stolen bale of pot at a steep discount was a business transaction he benefited from, risking his life to stay behind during the hurricane and help Rafe break Sofia out of jail in the finale had no ulterior motives. Staying true to his flashy style, he rocked a patterned shirt at Sarah and John B’s wedding and caught the bouquet.

  Sheriff Shoupe (Cullen Moss) remained a straight arrow after some shady dealings early in the series. He helped the Pogues with information from the Outer Banks when they were oversees and tried to put Groff behind bars.

  He also went after Rafe and Sofia by following the letter of the law before being saved by them when he was trapped under a fallen tree in the hurricane. Shoupe was last seen wiping tears during Sarah and John B’s wedding ceremony before letting loose at the party for some booze-fueled shirtless fun.

  Spoiled Kook Topper (Austin North) spent most of the season scheming with the corrupt real estate developer Dale and being the douchebag we had gotten to know over the first four seasons. After the devastation from the hurricane, he was somehow a Pogue who works as a bartender.

  Wealthy collector Finch let John B live but was ready to kill Kiara at the Azerbaijan lake before Pope intervened. His corsairs were ruthless, murdering a lot of people. Ultimately, Finch was revealed to not have been driven by greed but by grief over his dead little girl, which motivated his hunt for the Blue Crown. We last saw him taking the crown from Kiara and asking her whether it worked resurrecting the dead. She explained that it did, but not the way one would expect.

• Rose & Pogues’ Parents

  Sarah and Rafe’s stepmom Rose (Caroline Arapoglou) resurfaced on Kildare Island after a couple of seasons in exile having made the very bad decision to bring Groff along as her new boyfriend. He repaid the kindness by stealing money, a gun and Ward’s letter with the confession about Rafe killing Peterkin from Rose’s safe — as well as the Royal Merchant gold she had been hiding. He also strangled Rose, leaving her for dead before trying unsuccessfully to kill Wheezie.

  Rose, who survived the attack, showed some parental instincts – she tried to help Rafe and gave him and the Pogues access to her private plane for the trip to Azerbaijan. When her alliance with Groff backfired spectacularly, the Pogues had no sympathy for her and scoffed when she asked them to retrieve the gold for her in exchange for a cut. The gold was theirs and they were going to claim it for themselves – which they did.

  It is unclear whether the gang gave Rose any piece of the treasure but there were clearly no hard feelings as she was at John B and Sarah’s wedding, giving John B a kiss before the ceremony.

  After Seasons 1-4 left a lot to be desired in the parenting department as the Pogues were largely left to their own devices, Kiara and Pope’s parents were a lot more involved in Season 5. Kiara’s mom and dad helped her with therapy, took her to church and gave her other support while she was grieving JJ’s death.

  Pope’s parents supported him through his prison stay and after, with his father ready to sell his property in order to keep his son out of jail when the shady real estate developer Dale blackmailed him with footage of Pope and John B’s botched robbery attempt while Pope was on probation.

  Both sets of parents also tried to get their children safely off the island when the hurricane hit, with Pope and his dad sharing a sweet moment while waiting to be rescued by John B and Sarah. They were all present at Sarah and John B’s wedding.

  They also all were rewarded by their (now-rich) kids with an yacht (Kiara’s parents) and a rebuilt seafood restaurant (Pope’s parents).

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