Outer Banks JJ actor Rudy Pankow explains his character’s fate in the Season 4 finale

Even back in Pankow’s first audition, the character breakdown for JJ literally said he was “loyal to a fault.” “Once I found out that JJ was going to risk it all and not make it, I understood,” Pankow said. “And the risks got bigger and bigger and the stakes got higher and higher.” He considers it a “tremendous honor to portray a character so beautiful and selfless.”

Outer Banks creators Josh Pate, Jonas Pate, and Shannon Burke had always planned for JJ to eventually die in the series. “It was a really hard decision because he’s such a big part of the ensemble,” Josh Pate said. “It sets the stage for an epic fifth and final season. We’re planning a story of redemption and a season that embodies the friendship that JJ had come to represent. JJ’s death was a tough but necessary part of the story’s architecture, and we plan to honor it as much as possible because we love the character as much as the fans do. And Rudy is a good friend of ours.”

When they talked about it with Pankow, Jonas Pate says Rudy embraced the “powerful way to end” the character’s journey. The co-creator recalls a great line Chip Esten (who plays Ward Cameron) shared: “You have to end well. Your character has to end well.”

If you look back at the series so far, our dear Captain Maybank could easily be considered the most Pogue-like Pogue of them all. “At JJ’s core, he’s a bit of a heartthrob Outer Banksin my opinion,” said co-star Madelyn Cline, who plays Sarah. Jonathan Daviss, who plays Pope, will go so far as to say that he is “Pogue incarnate.”

For the Daviss, the crux of the show is the underdog Pogues trying to break the shackles of their social status for a chance at a better life – hence their constant need to chase the G game (gold) whenever the opportunity presents itself. “You want to work and do everything to get to the other side, to take your family and friends with you,” he said. “That’s what JJ is trying to do — it’s just that sometimes it takes you to dangerous places.”

JJ has never been in dangerous places, really. Growing up, he was raised by his abusive (and adoptive) father Luke (Gary Weeks) on the Cut side of Kildare Island and became best friends with John B (Chase Stokes) in the third grade. From that friendship he learned how to be “loyal to a fault” (as well as surfing and racing motorcycles), and that loyalty remained his driving force until the end. “He was the hype man, the ride or die,” Pankow said.

That devotion was also evident in Pankow’s approach to his character’s death scene. Burke admires how detail-oriented he was, “immediately starting to plan how he was going to play it.”

But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t difficult to film the final moment in episode 10. “The sound guys were crying,” Jonas Pate said. “It was a tough scene.”

Bailey remembers it as a really hard day. “This character is a huge loss and everyone is going to feel it,” she said. Pankow has a hard time putting into words filming that scene, except, “I knew everyone was on board to bring everything they could, and I felt that from everyone. Bailey and I brought it, and I know that we crushed it. It was emotional, but I think deep down everyone was on the same page… ‘Let’s make an impact.'” And I think we did.

In that fateful scene, Groff doesn’t actually have to kill JJ—who he’s already subjected to the twist of abandoning him his entire life, murdering his mother, and leaving him for dead in the middle of the ocean. In the finale, JJ has already given him the Blue Crown treasure in exchange for Kiara, and Groff just stabs him out of spite. “It just makes it that much more surprising,” Burke tells Tudum. “Every time I see it, I shudder. I’ve seen it a hundred times and you’re like, ‘Oh my God. Why did you do that?!’ The intention is to make us hate Groff. I think we have achieved that.”

The goal is more than realized. Groff is by far the worst father of all bad things Outer Banks fathers. “Yeah, I think he’ll take the crown,” Pankow says, adding, “It’s not a funny pun, though.”

But at least JJ hasn’t inherited his father’s blinding greed and recognizes what’s really important. “I already have everything,” he tells Groff before handing over the crown. “I have everything I ever wanted, things that you will never have.” Josh Pate tells Tudum that moment “gets me, every time. And I’ve seen it a lot.”

Before OBX creators that realization is what the show is about at its core. “It’s about these treasure hunters, but we tried to write a scene where he ultimately wants to give up the treasure because he doesn’t care about it compared to the things that matter to him,” Jonas Pate said. JJ found a real family, built a home with Poguelandia 2.0, fell in love and – despite all evidence telling him he shouldn’t – tried to give both his Pogue and Kook fathers the benefit of the doubt.

Jonas Pate sees the series’ P4L (Pogues for Life) ethos as being about friendship and, in turn, sacrifices for these friendships. “At some point this had to happen to justify P4L,” he said. “There’s definitely a sense of mortality that runs through the show. John B talks about it all the time.” Burke adds that the theme of sacrifice permeates the Pogues, as “they’re willing to give up anything for each other, and this is the ultimate example of that.”

For Pankow, JJ’s death is a reminder that life is precious. “His death really sets the future for OBX with the question, what is it worth? And when someone close to you is gone, how do you navigate that?”

Carlacia Grant, who plays clever klepto Cleo, says JJ is the epitome of choosing friendship. “It’s something his character has always represented,” she said.

Stokes recalls how work on the series began with him and Pankow sharing an apartment together in South Carolina, where they filmed the series. “I am forever grateful for the experience I had with Rudy and for bringing a friendship to life that an entire generation has been able to look at and say, ‘I need someone like that. I have need someone to hold me in my low moments and someone to fight for me in my highs. And when I act like an asshole, I get called out on that too,” Stokes said. “And it goes both ways. They do it to each other.”

Bailey said she knows “this is going to rock my character’s world.” And JJ’s presence in the Pogues’ lives, she said, is a symbol of “never giving up and not letting your circumstances affect how you love.”

With his work on the series complete, Pankow wants to share his gratitude for his time Outer Banks. “I want to leave the cast and crew with the biggest thanks. It’s been a pleasure to come to work,” he said. “This is by far the biggest thing I’ve ever done in (my) experience and to have this as my start is a start to my life. I will miss it. Thank you for so many fun memories I will have for the rest of my life.”

And to you die-hard Pogues: “To all the fans showing so much support and love for JJ, I just want to say thank you,” he said. “Playing him really made an impact on me. It’s been an honor to bring him to life for you guys and it’s been a pleasure to play him. And P4L!”

When fans watch the finale, Pankow hopes they’ll be inspired to make every second count, just like JJ always does. “The spirit of JJ is: Take the risk.”

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Keep an eye out Outer Banks Season 4 Part 2 Trailer