spoilers for episodes 6-10 of obx4, as well as part 1 (but you've had time to watch that!)

please do not let me be the one to spoil this for you...

i am in so much shock.

SO much shock.

honestly i was planning on this being silly and goofy but so much shit has gone down so like i'm gonna have a serious yap. 

the last five episodes had so much packed into them it was whiplash and i'm honestly sorry if i miss something. truly the entire last episode i was an anxious mess and barley processed anything. 

finale excused this season is probably my third favorite? it was SO much better than s3 (tho the blue night light effect was not much better than the ugly yellow one they had on overload in s3) and i did enjoy how much the pogues were together in the first half at least. it was so good to see them acting as a real family again, which s3 failed to showcase.

nothing will ever compare to the s1-s2 prime tho.  

while better than s3 imo, the writing was still really iffy. it's like the pates forgot how to write their own characters and just improved it out for some seasons and added so much dialogue and shit that would NEVER ever happen. genuinely, if you showed the s1 pogues some of these clips they'd actually ask what you were on and if you could have a hit. character writing just felt so off and i know they're grown up so it's not right of me to compare the s4 pogues to the s1 pogues but you're actually telling me pope would kill?? my little pope who stuck on a gate and ripped his pants??? (i'll go further into this in a second...)

it's honestly like they forgot the reason why people love OBX in the first place. it was just friends being friends and that's what everyone loved. starting in s3 it really lacked that. i know they're adults now and drama needs to happen for a show to really continue but nothing will ever stop me from complaining about how good the chemistry used to be in this show and how it's just fallen off.

everything about obx has fallen off and i will get all into this cast drama bs later.

with this mid writing, the acting in some scenes also felt so so iffy, too. now, i know that the cast didn't find out about rudy leaving until episode 10, and so—given they filmed, 1-5, 10, 6-9—it was harder and what not, but still. everything felt so stiff i'm not even gonna lie. 

HOWEVER i just want to give a big round of applause to chase stokes for carrying this season. dude is john b till the mf end and made me laugh so many times this season (yes i'm looking at his horrible attempt at a molotov cocktail my GOD how can you actually sell so hard and just come back with "i miss calculated") as well as making me cry? his face when sarah went overboard actually broke my heart this man gets so much more hate than he deserves. 

 i'm not saying i hated the second half. i didn't. but there is just so much surrounding it that i can yap about it makes it hard for me to sound like i liked it.

okay, so now i'm gonna go into characters!!

i think we need to start with jj.

god it's like they forgot who he was and decided to make up for with some half-assed suicidal/alcoholic arc and then give him a redemption so we'd like him enough for when they killed him off. 

i knew that he wouldn't be okay this season after finding out about his true heritage. i'm not mad at him for destroying the town (the bat scene was hot as hell) because it's expected. we know jj maybank is impulsive and it's not out of character. honestly, i'm not that mad for anything his character did this season because it's not his fault. the writers just forgot who jj maybank was and half-assed his entire character. put him on autopilot and then acted surprised when he got hate. it's not rudy's fault either, the writers are truly behind this horrible rendition of my favorite character. 

the first half was perfect jj content as reckless as he was and i'm not sure how they butchered him as badly as they did in part 2. the things they made him say to john b during their supposed to be sweet godfather talk were foul.  he's said things about jb ending up like his dad before but he would never target him with an insecurity like that. it seriously made me cry. what the hell did they do to my favorite boys. i'm seriously asking for someone to make a "that's such nonsense! i would never say that" with s1 to s4 jj because that's how i feel. 

the half assed arc of him being suicidal/dependent on alcohol on the boat COULD have worked had they actually shown the group giving him an ounce of care. he was not okay and not his friends, brother, nor GIRLFRIEND gave two fucks about it. that's not the pogues, as much as he was "pissing them off" this season. they always care. they're a family and none of that was shown. 

the jj flashback at the beginning of the e6? HELLO? that was literally so foul. i'm so sick to my stomach because he looks so much like larissa (the casting was spot on for chandler and larissa). i'm glad that we got to see how luke ended up as jj's father BUT what do you mean he was a nice guy??? what do you mean jj was so so so close to being loved. 

i don't want to go too far into his death now because i'm gonna yap about the finale later but it was actually saddening to see them waste away his entire character. literally jj was a character who was a show of hope to those who suffer abuse that there is a life for them, that you can live past the things that hurt you, and live good at that. and then they kill him off. kill him off before he can really get a happy ending away from all the treasure. kill him off at the hands of another abusive dad, as if that's not what he's spent the last 3 seasons trying to escape from. so fucking cruel. 

there was a way to kill him off with the plot following him this season but the pates executed it horribly. like be so fr right now a stab wound and he's just dead. no goodbyes. just gone.

like i'm sorry if i'm being dramatic but it was seriously such a horrible fucking plot point, as much as rudy needed to get out of obx. they claim they were going to kill jj from the beginning, but they didn't even accomplish it well. 

i'll never be over it.

now onto the camerons!

sarah is my girl. as much as she pissed me off in s3, she'll always be dear to me.

i was so so so against the idea of her being pregnant, as much as i was on the train that it was gonna happen. her and john b would be great parents but i feel like they just forced this plot onto her and us. there's never been any inkling in sarah's character that she wanted to be a mother. and she literally just had a talk with John b that was like "i'm 19, let's just be us. we have time." 

all she wanted to do was live with her husband and her best friends and breathe for a second. 

i'm just not for pregnancy plots, really. especially in a show like obx when all they're doing is running around and getting hurt. realistically, sarah would probably miscarry the baby with everything that's happening and as accurate as it is, i'm not in the mood to see her sick and shit in s5. it's just not the show for a pregnancy plot line and i don't want sarah or john b sidelined because of it because i really love her.

i loved s4pt1 happy sarah she better not go away. 

now with that, i do hope that maybe at the end of s5 there is a flash forward of types because i do what to see the pogues interact with baby routledge. it's the least they can do. as well as name that child after jj maybank (i will riot if they don't i'm not even kidding). 

now, i'll talk about rafe.

i'm actually not hating his new arc? a lot of people think that sofia is ruining his character and they just don't like how rafe is being downplayed into a nice guy and i get it—he's been a consistent villain for 3 seasons now and this is a boy we don't know like we used to. but i'm actually kind of happy he's changing? 

as horrible as a person he is, he has his traumas, too. he's moving on and growing. sofia is helping him change. i'm not defending his character at all but i'm happy that he is having a whole arc.

his little proposal to sofia was cute too. i hope we get some more of them in s5

his dynamic with the pogues worked really well. it was the right amount of tension because obviously who trusts this kid. it was really interesting to watch and as much as i don't want him to really become a pogue, i'm curious on how he'll fit into the whole revenge plot in s5. will he help kiara?? more bonding with sarah??

now it was interesting to see the cameron's interact. i've been waiting. 

sarah talking to rafe and flinching when he was hitting the table made me so sad i KNEW we were going to get so much more of them. the fact that he went on a shopping spree after acting like he was too broke to buy her food was foul.  literally everything about them was so ugh.

their hug was not what i expected. rafe looked like a broken puppy. the tears??? literally sometimes i forget they're siblings who actually used to like each other when they were kids before ward ruined it. 

however, i do think sarah forgave him a bit too easy. her brother or not, he's still tried to kill her, hurt her, as well as do both to her friends time and time again. he's stolen from her and blamed her for every single problem in his life. he literally killed people. ward's death has changed them but he's still rafe at the end of the day, nice or not.

pope

baby what did they do to you.

pope has honestly had some of the biggest character growth from s1-s4. i watched a slideshow on tiktok and he's really grown. 

now cleo has definitely shifted his character a lot (s1-s2 pope is so different to s3-s4 pope). it was interesting to see him attack the cop for jj and take his spot the way that jj did for him in s1. HOWEVER him killing someone was definitely not something i saw coming.

pope is NOT a murder. i'm sorry, he's not. truly none of the pogues are, but if anyone was going to kill someone, it would be john b or jj. not pope heyward. and like, i get that killing rafe and killing whatever the guys name was because he killed terrance are different situations, but the fact that cleo encouraged it after having to stop him from doing the same thing just wasn't right (it ruined both of them honestly. cleo would have gotten her revenge). "nothing to lose" my ass, pope wouldn't just kill. some people think it was cute that he did it for her but it wasn't honestly. as much as he's changed, it still irked me. 

bring back the pope we love 

also i'm sorry but suddenly everyone gets consequences this season? pope is forced into the military? but literally everything that everyone else has done the past 3 seasons just goes without any consequences?

chandler fucking groff.

when i catch this man it is going to be crazy.

honestly, i was curious on how they were gonna add the father/son duo into part 2 but i wish i never was because MY GOD. 

he made ward look like a saint. as much as i hate ward, genuinely he is a good villain. charles esten needs to come back and show everyone how it's done because chandler was just a mess. the genrette plot line was just a horrible horrible way for the writers to get the stakes up so that jj's death was this climatic event.

 giving jj another shitty father figure was just cruel. they used it to have his character make so many questionable decisions (i'm sorry but he wouldn't just go off with his supposed biological dad and leave his friends just because his dad wanted too. jj has never been that trustworthy, and certainly not to a man who abandoned him and lied to him beforehand). getting rid of luke was supposed to be a whole arc in itself for jj, and they didn't do shit with it. they just threw in a new father and had him unrealistically trust him, which ultimately led to his death. 

and he still won in the end. chandler ended up with the crown, which further adds to how they ruined the fact that jj is supposed to represent how it's possible to escape and survive abuse.  

now let's do a little yap about the couples 

jarah was perfect. you guys do not understand how happy i am with chase and madelyn's acting this season compared to s3 because truly the jarah i know is back. i missed them so so much. i'll always be someone who loves sarah and john b.

while i'm not for the pregnancy plot, i know they're gonna be such good parents. the least they can do at the end of this show is show that. 

never will i ship chaselyn, but i'm so so so glad to see healthy jarah back again. if only a certain other couple could take a lesson on professionalism!! 

for cleo and pope, i actually don't have much to say. they were simply there. i'm still not fully for them as a couple and i'm not over the whole pope killing thing but they don't bother me. 

now jiara.

so many people were so excited for this season because of jj and kie finally being cannon. and i'm so sorry for everyone who was majorly disappointed, especially with their content in act two because it was practically non-existent.

in pt1, we did get some cute moments. but it's like they forgot they were dating for a good 2 years in pt2 and acted like fucking strangers. 

i'm not sure where madison saw kiara comforting jj with the whole father situation because there was nothing. everything about them felt so stiff the last 5 episodes, and i know that it is partly because of the episode timeline and when everyone found out rudy was leaving the show. either way, the stiff acting was horrible. 

she was not there for him on the boat when he was clearly struggling. she was barely there for him after. and i know that jj does not open up but there was no attempt. nothing at all. and it's just sad. 

these two did not act like they were a couple for a solid two years. now, i've never been in a relationship before so it's not fair for me to say shit but cleo and pope are better and they've only known  cleo for two years. jj and kie are og pogues. they've been here. 

and to make it worse they're given the death trope. 

four years of obvious chemistry, tension, begging from the fans, pining, for them to finally make them a couple. four years of us all waiting. a whole season worth of them finally getting together. and the 9 episodes of them starving us just for them to kill off jj.

all of this waiting for 9 episodes and a death trope. 

it would be different if we got more of them in s4. there were about 2-ish kisses this season, 3 counting their first at kitty hawk. there was such a lack of affection compared to jarah and it wasn't fair to the hundreds of people who have been waiting for this couple for four years now. especially since the directors weren't even planning on keeping them as endgame. by killing jj, they ruin it further because there really wasn't any emotional jiara moment or even cute scenes to redeem it. 

i'm gonna get into the whole drama situation that's behind this but honestly it's such a shame. such a fucking shame. 

i fear the pates underestimated how many people liked jiara. yearned and waited for it. 

the finale is next...

i'm gonna say that i was spoiled about jj's death before i got a chance to watch it. so, i was not able to get a true moment of shock, which i'm sad to say is the case for so many people? like i don't think i've heard of one person who didn't get a spoiler for his death and that's so sad to me. 

jj's death was rather un-necessary to my opinion and butchered the already butchered character he'd become. he was killed off, which killed the hope that he was supposed to bring for people who suffered similar situations of his past. 

jj maybank is the heart of outer banks. people watch this show for him. killing him off was just shaving off a solid chunk of viewers and angering the remainder of them because 99.5% of everyone who watches obx likes jj. my mom might be the only person who doesn't.

 everyone loves jj maybank because most people can see a part of themselves in him and his personality. he's so human. he's lovable. he's real.

i'll forever be upset at how they killed him off. sick over it, really. but it's the way they just did it so easily and half-assed the entirety of the scene that worsens it. 

for starters, why did jj and kiara just stand there like fools after chandler took the crown. truly, they should have been running away, trying to find the others.  but no, they just stood there. KNOWING he had a knife in his hands.

secondly, i'm sorry but kiara did absolutely nothing. now, i've never seen my best friend/boyfriend die and i understand freezing up in shock, but she just stood there. let the knife puncture his gut. didn't do shit until he started stumbling back, already injured. s2 would have lunged at chandler.

while he was already injured, she also did nothing to even try and stop the bleeding. she didn't even call for the pogues until he'd already died. i would have started screaming for them because maybe then at least there would have been more people to help. not just kiara, who was a mess. genuinely she just sat there and let it happen and while we all knew he was a goner, there's a difference between trying and not trying. 

they literally saved sarah in s2. no one even tried to get him to some medical institute of sorts. the pogues would have. and either way, obx is never realistic with deaths anyway and now you're telling me they're gonna and have jj die in under a minute from a stab wound (yes i know the twist chandler did with it made it worse but never have they been accurate). it is foul that they took him away with only Kiara at his side. i needed a john b and jj goodbye—honestly, i would have rather had jb be there when he went.

the fact that he died from chandler adds. he never escaped the genrette "curse". he died at the same hands that killed his mother. he never had a good dad. he never escaped.

now, the acting this scene wasn't horrible. kie's screams hurt me. but everyone was genuinely too casual like if i was john b, i would have been scream-sobbing at that point. WHY DID WE JUST LET MY MAN GO.

tiktok is not helping me. the pates did not realize the power editors have because my GOD all i do is cry over these sad edits.

at least he went out smiling.

this isn't me saying i wasn't even sad because my god i cried like a baby. i really did. i've been truly sick over the whole thing and it's been hard for me to write my own obx book just knowing that he's never going to get his happy ending. he's going to die at the hands of another shitty father in the middle of nowhere and there's nothing that changes it. 

his burial made me even more upset.

while it's a wide shot so technically there's no definite show of anything, which does give answers, as far as we are left to assume, jj was buried in morocco. in the middle of nowhere, far away from everything he has ever loved in some random spot of sand. not back in the obx, not in poguelandia 2.0. not near his friends, his real family. just in some random place in an unmarked grave where no one will be able to visit or find him. 

his worst fear was to be left alone and now he is internally so. 

i know they were stranded but that was mean. i KNOW jj would have rioted to take the body home if any of the pogues had ended up in his position. 

as you can tell i'm just upset. we'll never get more jiara. no more sibling style jjsarah or jj&cleo. no jjpope. no more john b and jj. 

no more jj maybank. 

with jj's death, i fear i do have to cover the topic of the drama that has been released and majorly discussed since then.

i'm gonna say this now. none of what is happening on the set of obx is us as fan's business. it never has been. yes, i am curious and want to know everything but at the end of the day, we have no right to know. it's personal shit. it's none of our business as random chronically online teenagers. 

that's how i feel because some of you guys act like you know rudy and madison and elaine ETC personally and you don't. we don't know these people and as much as we love them during interviews, we don't know them. we just know the people they appear to be. 

with that, i'll also say i'm not up to date with all the drama, either. i joined the obx fandom in january of 2023 right before s3 dropped so never was i a fan during prime rudison. i did not get to love them like a lot of people did so if you don't want my opinion, given i never saw them during s1-s2, feel free to skip down to my s5 predictions. 

i am a rudy defender. truly, i really think he is getting the short end of the stick over this whole situation. i don't blame rudy for feeling like he had to leave, even if he didn't want too. i don't blame him because honestly i wouldn't want to be a part of this shit either. blame elaine, blame madison, but it is rudy's rightful choice if he wanted to leave the show, or felt like he had to. 

i've thought that before pt2 dropped when jj's death was just a rumor. all of the cast have grown up and it's time they moved on, as much as it's sad. he has the role of romeo booked and his career is just starting. so, i'm not mad at rudy for leaving for personal reasons or issues. it wasn't best for the show, but for him it might be.

we shouldn't be threatening him or calling him "un-professional". not when we don't know the full story. 

however with that, i DO think some of what happened on set was unprofessional to the degree that madison and rudy weren't unable to separate their acting from their personal life. especially when they are put next to chase and madelyn, who are extremely civil and have been able to act in love after breaking up—who show a great example of how to be professional on set and separate art from life.

i love rudy. i love madison. but it's really hard to see them not be able to sit next to one another when the cast used to be so tight. the downfall of the obx cast has been a roller coaster to witness. 

i'm not going to get involved in the gf situations. elaine has been problematic in the past and i have no opinion whatsoever on moriah. they're involved. everyone is.

everyone is to blame for the situation. 

the fans are. shipping to co-stars to the point where they can't be sitting is never where rudison should have gone, "jealous gfs" or not. and continuing when they both had respective gfs was worse (this goes for chaselyn currently, too. it's sick that people are still doing this). digging deep into their past shouldn't be happening. rudy and madison can't do ANYTHING without someone in this world getting mad at them, because if they're together people riot and if they aren't people riot, too. it's a lose lose.

from day one the obx fandom has been toxic and overly dramatic. we are so quick to point fingers and blame members of the cast or gfs and it's sickening. 99% of the fandom is never happy with anything, including myself, at times. it's a problem but it's how the fandom has always been. 

the pates are. not having a firm foot in their own show was what really added to the eerily stiff jiara content in pt2. not having madison and rudy together for one promo photo together was wrong, given they are the couple. hiring the supposed stunt doubles for a cuddle was just feeding into everything. they could have put their foot down but they let it get bad. they let the gfs on set, let avoidance occur. 

actors having beef irl but acting in love and civil in movies is not unheard of. the notebook was made just like that. chase and madelyn gave of s3 in the middle of all the news about them and while definitely more tension filled, provided something. in my opinion, the pates should have put a firmer foot down and had them just act. 

"we planned jj's death from the start" is total bs but even if it's true, they didn't even do that well to have been scheming it for 4 years. 

rudy and madison are for obvious reasons.

 there is not one person to blame in this situation, as far back as you want to trace it. everyone is responsible for what has happened.

in the end, it is childish. they're grown adults now. everyone in the cast has let personal shit and drama affect their chemistry and it really had ruined obx. i hate to say it but it has. putting work and their characters first should always be a goal, and i know they know they have let down a ton of fans with what has happened.

but again, it's none of my business. it's not yours. we do not know everyone, we don't know rudy & madison personally. until they officially say something, which they won't, not everything on twitter is true.

if rudy went up to the pates and asked to leave, that's his rightful choice. the pates came up with their best creation of how to let go of jj, what they felt they had to do. the pates went through with the idea and we shouldn't even be mad at them for that because it's probably for the better than rudy left. he loved the show but with everything that is going out, it does not surprise me that this is the outcome. 

it sucks that he left and they had to rewrite a ton of e6-e10 shit (etc the ring grab??) but it's over and done. we can complain and whine but it was filmed forever ago. 

 i'm just a teenage girl so it's really none of my business. nor does it matter.

anywho, on a happier note, my thoughts for s5??

don't expect me to boycott the show because obx IS my comfort show. i will be sobbing my eyes out watching the finale. 

do i think rudy will come back? no. 

as much as i wish he would, this whole thing will look so so stupid if jj is revived. his death was a hole for rudy to leave the show so i do think that was his real exit, especially now with the promo. i think the pates will regret their choice and will try and get him back but i think s5 will be without him.

i'm kinda excited to see the pogues in their crashout/revenge era, especially with rafe. chandler is actually cooked, and i hope they do get the blue crown (i think they will given it's the finale). i'm thinking that shoupe will feel guilty when he realizes that jj died. i think we'll get some rafe and kiara moments. no, i don't think we'll get riara and if we do, it would be foul and that's another yap in itself. 

i hope it ends with jb and sarah telling their kid named jj about the adventures they used to go on. it's what this show deserves. 

this was a lot but thoughts???? opinions?? disagreements?? anything about pt2 you wanna spill about, i'm curious!!!