The cast unpacks the explosive ending

(This story Contains major spoilers from Outer Banks Season four, part one.)

Outer Banks Its main characters always manage to deliver one shock after another, and the first part of the fourth season was no different.

The final moments of the fifth episode, “Albatross,” delivered blows in one form or another to Rudy Pankow's JJ, Jonathan Davis' Pope, Madelyn Cline's Sarah, Chase Stokes' John B, and the rest of the crew.

Part one began with a look back at what the Pogues faced in the 18 months between their return from their discovery of the city of El Dorado in season three and when Wes Genrette (David Jensen) approaches them with Blackbeard's captain's protocol and potentially them prepared, so they went on a new treasure hunt.

Over the course of the first part's episodes, the Pogues set up a bait shop with a charter business for tourists as well as diving and surfing courses. But the money they got from the gold they brought back from El Dorado only lasted so long – thanks in part to the fact that JJ auctioned off most of it to buy back his family's home.

And this is just the first of many times JJ's impulsiveness has put him and his friends in a precarious position. Another reason was a dirt bike race against the Kooks, which drained them of the last savings from their gold earnings.

“I think he blames himself for a lot of things, which I think is partly true,” says Pankow The Hollywood Reporter why JJ apparently hasn't learned his lesson when it comes to acting without thinking. “There are many things that are his fault. Is he coping well with it now? No, he can't handle it, and he's trying to correct it, and I think he's correcting it too much.”

Despite his sometimes bad decisions, Madison Bailey's Kiara is always on his side as his current girlfriend and best friend.

“She sees him in a way that he might not even realize she sees him. I think he's still a little bit like he's put up walls, and Kiara is just like, 'You don't have any walls for me,'” she says THR. “I just think she has a soft spot for him. I think she understands what he's been through and doesn't blame him because it would be unfair to blame him. I think she just really loves him in the end.”

Meanwhile, John B and Pope try to get to the bottom of another mystery: Blackbeard's mysterious blue crown, one of the British pirate's hidden treasures. But nothing can ever be easy Outer Banks Crew.

They aren't the only ones looking for the treasure – because of course they aren't.

At the beginning of the first part, the Pogues were visited by an ominous figure that fans later came to know as Lightner (Rigo Sanchez), a mercenary who was also looking for Blackbeard's treasure. The friends have several arguments with him, one of which almost killed Kiara and JJ, and later Cleo too.

Then, in episode five, most of the group traveled to Charleston in hopes of finding Blackbeard's treasure. Lightner and his mysterious boss Dalia (Pollyanna McIntosh) get to the map in a crypt under an old church before the Pogues. Lightner and Dalia escape, unknowingly leaving Pope and Sarah to drown in the crypt as it begins to fill up due to the rain.

Before the mercenaries escape, John B shoots Lightner, but is stopped in his tracks when he has a flashback to how Big John (Charles Halford) shot some of Singh's (Andy McQueen) men right in front of his son in season three .

“He saw his father pull the trigger or do the worst-case scenario,” Stokes said THR why his character can't go through with it. “So I think John B has a moment of true humanity and realizes the path he has begun to take. And I think that whole first part is really about him going from being really hesitant to commit to it to being committed and then realizing that maybe he's turning into the person that he told himself he would be. that he would never be what a version of his father is.”

In the crypt, things look bleak for Pope and Sarah, who are trapped underground with seemingly no way out. Davis and Cline remember filming the scene and having similar reactions to it as their characters – Pope was mostly calm, cool and collected, while Sarah freaked out.

“It played exactly how it looked. Maddie was in there. She wasn't happy. The water drips even if you land inside, so it’s freezing,” he said Revenge Actor says. “It was fun because it really felt like I was filming one Indiana Jones (film) or something like that. I thought, 'This is what it's like to be on sets like that.'”

The Glaszwiebel: A knife-out crime thriller The actress, on the other hand, was feeling bad.

“I feel like I've expressed pretty clearly that I get claustrophobic very easily. And then I come to set and I look at what we're going through and I'm like, 'Guys, we've talked about this,'” she says. “It definitely felt like a social experiment. … I didn’t pass with flying colors. I passed with flying colors. It was great filming this with JD. He was the quiet one and I was the not one. And I’m very, very grateful to him.”

Back in Figure Eight, Rafe (Drew Starkey) may be thinking about turning over a new leaf and making amends with his sister Sarah after years of being at each other's throats. But it will be a long road for the Cameron siblings; It's not easy to get over the fact that your brother almost drowned you.

Although Sarah hopes for some sort of reconciliation, they have a long history and most of it, at least recently, has been very dark and traumatic for both of them.

“I definitely think Rafe blames her for her father's death, and I think she knows that,” Cline says. “I think she feels a lot of guilt because I feel like a lot of people blame her for his death. It's all very difficult and far too difficult for just one conversation. It’s something that has to happen over time.”

When it comes to the Kooks' favorite villain, Rafe, fans have probably been waiting for him to do a little better and not be as terrible as he has been in the past. Starkey, who plays the character, explains that this self-improvement must come with time and growth.

“He’s maturing. I also think the loss of his father is a big motivator,” he said Strange Star says THR. “I think he's taking on some responsibility, and I think he's realizing how alone he is, and he wants to repair bridges and reconnect. So yeah, I don’t think he’s ever been able to fully express himself and he still has a hard time expressing it in a certain way.”

While things seemed to be going downhill for The Pogues in the first half of this season (it is a drama series, after all), there was one shining light – love. All six children are in a relationship and one couple in particular stood out: Pope and Cleo.

The two laid the groundwork for a relationship over the last two seasons and finally made things official in the final episode of season three, when Cleo tells Pope that she is leaving the “No-Love Club” she founded at the beginning of the season had.

Davis shares that bringing Pope and Cleo's love story to life in the first film was “amazing,” as was working with Carlacia Grant, who has become a “really, really good friend.”

“The opportunity to empathize more with these characters and explore more moments with each other is something we didn't get a lot from season three, but I feel like we really had a good opportunity to explore the relationships between them this season .” “Capturing these characters and really living them out on screen,” he says. “So it felt like a natural progression from where we left off in season three. It felt like they were in a really good place. It was a pleasure to be able to do that.”

Despite joining Outer Banks In the second season, Grant notes that everyone welcomed and supported her as they helped her develop the best character possible.

“This group was just a really good group because we're all really friends, and I think that's reflected on screen,” she says of the cast's real-life dynamic. “And just the support group of like-minded people that I consider friends made it an amazing experience. And the thrill of the ride is fun, but it’s also fun when you have your friends with you.”

Outer Banks Season four, part one, is now streaming on Netflix. Part two will be released on November 7th.