Spoilers forward for Outer Banks seasons 1 and a pair of.
In its first hit season, launched throughout these ugly early months of the pandemic, Outer Banks sailed in on the froth of excellent vibes. Set on the North Carolina coast with a well-cast ensemble of engaging twenty-somethings taking part in teenagers sniffing for treasure, the Netflix hit grew to become an in a single day sensation. And rightly so! With its Winery Vines versus boho lite trend, its oversimplified rich-versus-poor politics, its neon sunsets, and absurd beachside hijinks (together with a number of sunken ships), the collection yawned open the electrical summer season fantasy that COVID had smacked shut. The story was slightly ridiculous, certain, however rattling it—it felt good.
Flash ahead three years, and Outer Banks has launched markedly fewer vibes and lots of extra difficult-to-follow plot machinations. There’s now three completely different caches of treasure, one in all which is a literal gold cross and the opposite a gold metropolis; characters beforehand thought lifeless are actually alive once more; two of the teenagers are married, kind of? Attempting to recollect what, exactly, led the so-called Pogues down the highway to El Dorado—sure, actually, that is the top aim of season 3—is a bit like recalling equations from a math check taken underneath the affect. The numbers are there, maybe, however they’re all a bit fuzzy.
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And in order season Three lands on Netflix, it is helpful to revisit the important thing turning factors of season 2. Not as a result of it is going to assist something make sense. Nevertheless it would possibly ease your nervousness simply sufficient to settle again into the blurry haze of the journey. Let’s dive in.
What occurred in season 2 of Outer Banks?
On the finish of season 1, Pogue (poor) and Kook (wealthy) lovers John B. (Chase Stokes) and Sarah Cameron (Madelyn Cline) motored a stolen boat headfirst right into a storm. (They had been making an attempt to evade police. Do not give it some thought too laborious.) After capsizing, they wound up on a barge headed to the Bahamas, which simply so occurred to be the place Sarah’s father, Ward (Charles Esten), had shuttled away the treasure of the Royal Service provider, as soon as the apple of John B.’s personal father’s eye.
Whereas the younger couple benefit from the island life sans margaritas—and, presumably, showers—their mates again in North Carolina are mourning their presumed loss of life. JJ (Rudy Pankow), Pope (Jonathan Daviss), and Kiara (Madison Bailey) aren’t certain what to do with themselves because the city continues in charge John B. for the loss of life of Sheriff Peterkin in season 1. However after they study John B. and Sarah are, actually, alive—due to a textual content message from JB by way of stolen cellphone—they got down to clear his title. This initiates an elaborate scheme involving the gun that Ward’s son, Rafe (Drew Starkey), used to really kill Peterkin, however the vital half to recollect is that this: Securing the gun makes little preliminary distinction. The Pogues nonetheless want the help of a sick girl named Carla Limbrey (Elizabeth Mitchell) to show Rafe’s the assassin.
In Charleston, this thriller girl guarantees to change proof of Rafe’s crime for Pope’s assist in uncovering a key, one linked to his personal heritage. And here is the place issues get much more tough to comply with! Pope is seemingly a descendant of Denmark Tanney, a former enslaved one who escaped the Royal Service provider shipwreck and, earlier than his eventual loss of life, left behind a message—and a key that will, supposedly, result in the Cross of Santo Domingo. Which was, after all, additionally on the service provider.
Jackson Lee Davis/Netflix
Pray inform, what’s the Cross of Santo Domingo?
Properly, for one factor, it is price some huge cash. Apparently gifted from New Spain to the Spanish king within the 19th century however misplaced in 1829, the big golden cross isn’t solely price thousands and thousands, nevertheless it may additionally have holy powers? After all, that is provided that the artifact really holds the so-called Garment of the Savior, rumored to be able to therapeutic the sick, Jesus-style. You see, then, why Limbrey’s so eager on nabbing it.
At this level, John B. and Sarah are again in Charleston. (Lengthy story, however to summarize the Bahamas mayhem: They met and befriended a Bahamian named Cleo (Carlacia Grant); nearly acquired the Service provider gold again; really helpful to their love after Sarah acquired shot by her personal brother; and escaped on a ship with the police as soon as once more en route.) Upon touchdown again within the Americas, John B. is promptly arrested for Peterkin’s homicide, giving Pope loads of time to go looking his great-grandmother’s home for the Tanney key. Naturally, he finds it with minimal excavation, and he and Kiara slip Limbrey a faux key in order that they get some extra time with the actual one.
Jackson Lee Davis/Netflix
Okay, however who else moreover Sarah nearly died?
Hey dad! After discovering Rafe’s fingerprints on the gun the Pogues secured earlier within the season—took them lengthy sufficient—the police let John B. go. However that places a goal on Rafe’s again, and so Ward takes the blame for the loss of life of each John B.’s dad and Sheriff Peterkin. He does not go to jail, although. That will be too simple! He as a substitute fakes his loss of life in an unlimited boat explosion, and Sarah—dissatisfied along with her boyfriend’s less-than-sympathetic response to her pa’s loss of life—goes again to her ex-boyfriend, Topper (Austin North). It is an entire mess.
Their reunion does not final lengthy, as Sarah cannot stay away from the Pogue life, and thru one other tangle of unessential particulars, the entire crew comes collectively to find the Cross of Santo Domingo within the ceiling of an previous church. A fed-up Carla swoops in to steal the large, cumbersome relic earlier than the Pogues can rejoice their success, however she’s much more PO’d when she realizes the Garment of the Savior is lacking from its core. She’s dying over right here! Quickly after, Rafe steals the cross, additional igniting the lady’s already immense exasperation.
Anyway, deep breaths. We’re nearly completed.
Jackson Lee Davis/Netflix
How does season 2 of Outer Banks finish?
Ward’s much more of a coward than we anticipated, and he makes use of his faked loss of life to flee together with his household—together with a drugged Sarah—to Guadalupe. The Pogues stow away on the boat to avoid wasting Sarah (and, let’s be trustworthy, the cross). In one other stunning incidence of lightning placing the very same spot repeatedly, our previous Bahamian good friend Cleo is now engaged on this boat, and she or he agrees to assist the Pogues steal again Sarah and Santo Domingo.
After all, all of it goes improper, and the Pogues are compelled to flee with Sarah and Cleo however not the cross, which stays within the clutches of the Camerons. Regardless, Sarah and John B. agree Topper’s a factor of the previous, and likewise they’re fake-married. The crew then crash-lands on an apparently abandoned island within the Caribbean, which they joyfully deem “Poguelandia,” given their basic lack of concern over meals, water, shelter and hygiene.
However season 2 has one final shock in retailer: Within the final moments of the finale, the digital camera pans to disclose John B.’s father continues to be alive, and he is in cahoots with Limbrey. It is like a comic book e book! Nobody who dies ever stays lifeless! And so the chapter closes, and we are able to breathe within the salted air simply lengthy sufficient to recollect there’s a lot, way more on the way in which.
Tradition Author
Lauren Puckett-Pope is a workers tradition author at ELLE, the place she primarily covers movie, tv and books. She was beforehand an affiliate editor at ELLE.
