The ‘Outer Banks’ big death in the Season 4 finale was always planned

(This contains major spoilers from part two of Outer Banks season four.)

Netflix’s Outer Banks season four began and ended with JJ.

The Pogue-iest of the Pogues, according to showrunners, Rudy Pankow’s erratic-but-lovable JJ Maybank caused and ended the main conflict of the fourth season, where the group of North Carolina teen treasure hunters inherited and lost over a million dollars, took a deep dive. into JJ’s family history and trek across the Atlantic for an epic showdown in Morocco.

The nearly 90-minute finale episode, released Thursday alongside the second half of season four’s 10 episodes, saw the group race through the North African desert in an ultimate battle against the man who turned out to be JJ’s real father. In the final moments of the season — now officially the penultimate of the show, after Tuesday’s fifth and final renewal — JJ is stabbed to death by his newly revealed father.

“It’s been lurking in his DNA from the beginning,” says showrunner Jonas Pate The Hollywood Reporter. “He’s really a lovable but tragic figure… this is something that was always kind of baked in the cake.”

Fate or not, JJ’s end is sure to send shockwaves through the Netflix drama’s ardent online fan base. “What do you think the fans will do – do we need witness protection?” Pate joked on Wednesday, ahead of the season two release.

Below, Jonas Pate joins fellow showrunners Josh Pate and Shannon Burke to reflect on why it always had to be JJ, why it ended up being Morocco, and exactly how the beloved P4L mentality will continue to guide their show going forward.

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What a season for JJ. Was this something you had planned from the beginning?

SHANNON BURKE We knew — we knew at the end of season three that season four was going to be JJ. We didn’t know everything that was going to happen, but we had a lot of the major story points. We also knew what JJ’s ultimate end would be – we weren’t sure if it would be played this year, but we pretty much knew it.

JOSH PATE We’ve kind of focused on different characters, and we were excited to go deeper into his backstory. And then a big piece that we developed this year was the idea of ​​the adoptive father, as the big bad guy. We had to recycle the villains because after the first three seasons it was reset this year.

Why did he have to die?

JONAS PATE It has been somewhat lurking in his DNA from the beginning. He’s really a tragic figure, and the idea of ​​mortality and you only have a limited window — that’s a theme of the show as well. This is something John B has been talking about since the first season. So believe it or not, it’s something that was always baked in the cake, and we just wanted to tell the story as elegantly and interestingly as possible.

This final is quite the beast – almost 90 minutes, all played out in Morocco. From a technical perspective, what’s it like figuring out the pacing of an episode that’s going to be so much longer than your audience is used to?

SHANNON BURKE It just happened organically. We didn’t think we’d make this really long episode. We realized, little by little, that the script was just getting longer and we just wanted to honor the story. At first we had a shorter version, but it didn’t honor what was going to happen. We realized we had to slow it down so it’s more of a gradual thing.

JONAS PATE You also do it post. We knew this one was long but you get posted and then it was much longer than we expected and you save it from there.

Was there any pushback from Netflix?

JONAS PATE I think they knew we had a lot of planes to land, it would probably take a long time. Netflix are exceptional partners in letting the story be the thing that needs to be told. I think they have shown that with many of their shows eg Stranger Things.

Let’s talk about the trip to Morocco. These Pogues have been all over the world at this point, what drew you there this time?

JONAS PATE There is a lot that goes into it. Part of it is driven by the story, part of it is driven by what we think will be cinematic, part of it is driven by some financial concerns. But the story is number one.

JOSH PATE It was almost like it was Pogue hell. It’s a desert! The anti-Pogue environment. When we knew what was going to happen with JJ, it was like, “Wow, this is perfect.” Because that’s literally the last place they want to be. They are so beachy and water based.

True, Poguelandia is not. Did it contribute to your specific scenography or location scouting?

JOSH PATE We definitely knew that the end point would be out in the desert, in the Sahara, a place very different from (what they know and love). (The city) where we shot the finale, (where the Pogues go on several chase scenes through the dusty streets), we basically had to rewrite the whole script when we were in Morocco for the new location because Jonas was so excited on what we could do in that kind of mud town on the hill. So it was all rewired based on the location.

Let’s talk about the rest of the Pogues. This show feels different from other teen adventures as all the main couples tend to stick together. Was that a conscious decision for you?

SHANNON BURKE I think we like these characters so much. We don’t want them to be low-motivated or petty. We don’t like it when they do bad things and we like it when they are good to each other.

JONAS PATE And we wanted to honor P4L. I mean, that’s really what this is all about. We would give them outside problems, but not that many outside problems.

Sarah Cameron is pregnant!

JONAS PATE We didn’t want John B and Sarah to have the usual breakup architecture of a YA couple, but we also needed them to meet (conflict). And there’s always this charge you get when you have an interesting idea and you’re almost afraid of it. The first few times we discussed that idea, it was like, “Oh my God, we can’t do that!” But it’s often the ideas that haunt you. This causes the motor to spin.

Who decided to call it a “poguelet?”

JOSH PATE I think Carlacia (Grant, who plays Cleo) ad-libbed it on set, it was so funny.

It’s fantastic. My last question for you – these characters have grown and developed so much, but they are still so young. Is there a balance to be struck with the adventure of the show and the age of your characters?

JOSH PATE I’ll just say that a lot of their boundaries are (based on) our memories of our teenage years, which come from spending time in the coastal Carolinas. The original concept for the Kooks and the Pogues was based on groups we knew, and I just think about those groups and what their boundaries would be and what kind of thing was happening.

JONAS PATE We had friends in high school who got pregnant. We just felt it was a real thing.

JOSH PATE It would be something that could so easily happen to them. But we want to honor the pickle that it presents them in and stay true to the characters.

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Split one and two off Outer Banks season four is now streaming on Netflix.