There is no rest for the Pogues in Season 3 of the Netflix hit Outer Banksstarring Chase Stokes, Madelyn Cline, Madison Bailey, Rudy Pankow and Jonathan Daviss, a season that had even the cast wondering how to pull through all the action and drama.
“When I got the scripts for the season, just the action sequences, I was like, ‘How are we going to do this? How do we do it?” Drew Starkey, who plays Rafe, Sarah’s (Cline) brother, narrates Yahoo Canada. “But we did it, it’s really crazy.”
“It’s so high octane. It’s like an adrenaline rush all the time. You can feel that when you read the scripts. … We get a new episode, we all call each other and we’re like, ‘Did you manage to finish it? Did you read?’ So hopefully our reading experience is the same for viewers.”
“I think it’s just one of those things where you dive head first and you don’t think, you just do it,” Cline said of taking over the Season 3 storyline Outer Banks Spirit.”
“It’s just, don’t think about it. If you think about it, you’re already seven seconds late.”
what happens inside Outer Banks Season 3?
Season 2 of Outer Banks left us with a chaotic boat heist after Sarah’s father, Ward (Charles Esten), kidnapped them while everyone thought he was dead. The Pogues hid in a shipping container on the boat, but were able to escape (with Sarah) to a remote island that they called “Poguelandia”. But Ward isn’t the only seemingly dead person to return to the story. At the end of Season 2, we also discover that John B. (Stokes)’ long-lost father is actually alive and in Barbados.
Season 3 picks up right where we left off, on Poguelandia, alongside now volunteer Pogue Cleo (Carlacia Grant) after traveling with them off the boat at the end of Season 2.
“It was really exciting to see Cleo coming through the ranks,” said Carlacia Grant. “I was really excited to see this Caribbean villain and her just coming to the States and learning how to manage all of these variables.”
“You can’t walk around with a knife on your chest. There are rules here. … Continuing the friendships with all these lovely Pogues that she’s met is really exciting to see how it all turns out.”
The Pogues do thrive on this island, relaxing and fishing for food, but things change when they manage to catch the attention of a passing seaplane. While they initially believe they will be rescued, things take a turn when the Pogues realize that not only did the pilot stop by accident to save them, there was another motivation. From this point on, the Pogues are again thrown in search of the treasure, but the situation becomes more critical.
“The stakes are certainly higher,” said Austin North, who plays Sarah’s ex-boyfriend Topper. “The action, the adventure, the romance, everything about it, but I also think there are moments of normality.”
“I love that. Sarah comes and hangs out with the Kooks again and they have their campfire and it’s kind of nostalgic for Season 1, which I feel the show always needs because that way people can take a little breather during “They see them and it calms them down is intense. I enjoy it myself to be honest. It’s a good show.”
Aside from the Pogues, Ward is on the mend at his mansion after sustaining his injuries from the boat robbery, and his son Rafe has taken the reins of Ward’s sinister plans, which come with challenges of their own.
“This is a different relationship than Season 1, Rafe has kind of thrown himself into a realm of independence and freedom now from his family,” Starkey said.
“Working with Chip, Charles Esten, … we’ve been talking about it recently, … it would be nice to just have a moment where we have a scene where we just sit down and have breakfast and everything’s fine. Instead we just face each other and just yell at each other. But exploring it with him has been incredible and I’m excited to see where it leads for sure.”
The romance between Kiara and JJ finally takes place
One thing is clear Outer Banks Creators, Shannon Burke, Jonas Pate and Josh Pate listen to their audience. Fans have been supplying Kiara (Madison Bailey) and JJ (Rudy Pankow) for a while, and we finally get to see that form of relationship in Season 3. What’s evident about the development of this relationship is that Kiara and JJ still very much maintain their independence while igniting a romance.
“I think it helps that these two characters are super independent in and of themselves,” Bailey said. “As their relationship continues through more seasons, you’ll really see them breaking up but getting together, and in that way I think the appeal is that he’s not asking a lot of her and vice versa.”
One element that fans really picked up on in Season 2 is how Pankow began to physically depict JJ’s anxiety and stress, showing the free-spirited character clutching his chest on multiple occasions. In Season 3, the actor is truly able to explore those feelings better, even as Kiara’s safety is threatened.
“I think to feel this fear, to feel disoriented, to feel hopeless … the only thing the Pogues need to lose is hope,” Pankow said. “I know the slogan is nothing to lose, but when you lose hope, you ask yourself, where are you going?”
“I think that’s what JJ has been struggling with this season, having hope and being very confused.”
A father’s love
Of course we can’t talk about relationships Outer Banks not to mention Sarah (Madelyn Cline) and John B (Chase Stokes). Despite all the trauma and threats they have faced, nothing can always be perfect. So Season 3 introduces some friction in this relationship while much of John B’s storyline focuses on reconnecting with his father.
“I think it was very interesting to dive into the relationship after John B has been through so much because of his father’s absence,” Stokes said. “I think there’s a bit of animosity, but also a lot of love and a desire to see his father as he has envisioned him since his absence.”
“So it was a challenging arc because I think as a little boy, looking up to your father and having that father figure is such a big component in life. Does it live up to all the hype? And is Big John the person he is somehow perceived to be? … We will see.”
As Cline points out, there’s a general pattern of these characters really coming of age and evolving in Season 3, including their relationships with friends, family, and romantic partners.
“These characters grow and change, and those experiences that they had shaped and shaped them and changed their lives forever,” Cline said. “It was a very special journey.”
“I was really, really excited to be exploring that with Sarah this season and doing some emotional callbacks. At the end of the day she does her best, she just wants to be a good person given her family. To see where she comes from, her past, her life that she has left behind somehow affects her, even in a positive way, was my main goal. To see her grow and become independent.”
Outer Banks Season 4 is on the way
That was announced earlier this week Outer Banks was renewed for Season 4, and ahead of that big reveal, the stars of the show stressed how grateful they are for having more time to really sit with, create and develop their characters.
“I think that’s the beauty of television right now, because you have more time to sit with the characters, and also you have more airtime to really flesh out those arcs and bring them to life in a way that it used to.” may not have been the case,” Stokes said. “So they kind of become a part of you.”
“You start thinking about things differently. You look at things from the character’s perspective and we’re just really grateful to be able to do long stories like this and do it for 30 episodes with people who were once total strangers and now it’s turned into a family .”
“When you do a long show like this, you experience life as you do it,” added Jonathan Daviss, who plays Pope. “So maybe you take a break in a season and then something happens to you where you’re like, ‘Wow, I can’t wait to take advantage of this experience, take advantage of what’s happened to me this month when I go to film. ‘”
“I feel like when you get a chance to look at yourself and look at the show and then take a break from it, it resonates so much with the character, with the story that we’re trying to tell. And then you can really sit down and meditate on those characters when you come back. It’s just a great experience.”
