Photo Courtesy of The NewsHouse
After two action-packed seasons of Netflix’s hit show “Outer Banks,” the Pogue gang is back for yet another adventure. The third season picks up with Sarah, John B, JJ, Kiara, Pope and their new friend Cleo stranded on an island in the Caribbean. To no one’s surprise, the group is still alive and thriving, given their skills and love for the outdoors.
Eventually, the teens are rescued by an unsuspecting enemy and thrust back into the well-known treasure hunt, full of drama, mystery and confusing character development. One of the more exciting additions to the show was a new villain, Carlos Singh, who finally shifted the focus from the merchant’s gold to the classic tale of El Dorado.
While Singh certainly deals his hand in evil throughout the show, his backstory almost teeters on the side of admirable in his pursuit to avenge his family and put an end to the 500-year-old mission he believes to be his destiny.
After Singh kidnaps Kiara and Rafe, forcing them to work together for once, the Pogues free their friend and spend the rest of the show racing Singh to the city of gold. This hunt is fueled by an unlikely ally, John B’s father, who had been presumed dead since the start of the show. The heartfelt father-son reunion begins with Big John tirelessly ringing church bells in the same pattern he used to call young John B home, only to spend the rest of the season treating his own son like an assistant in his obsessive quest to find El Dorado.
The progression of Big John as a character feels much like a missed opportunity, considering Sarah’s similar, yet not-so-similar, situation with her own father Ward, who was also presumed dead – although he is actually the Pogues’ enemy. Instead of highlighting the juxtaposition between the characters’ family reunions, the show depicted Big John as not so different from the villains Ward and Singh, a fact that Singh himself points out.
An even bigger missed opportunity, however, was the insensible roller coaster that was the Cameron family’s redemption arc.
Rafe’s characterization seemed to deteriorate, butting heads with his father in a way that did not align with his rise as a villain in the first season, when all his wrongdoings were “for his family.”
Conversely, Ward tries to become a better person by regaining trust and acceptance from his daughter Sarah. This character development falls apart as Ward goes from helping the Pogues to selling them out to Singh, almost killing Big John and then giving his life to save Sarah without returning the one thing we looked for from Ward Cameron: the merchant’s gold.
Needless to say, Netflix, if you’re going to play hot and cold with the redemption plot, at least make sure it adds to the story!
On a brighter note, the season finally provided some satisfying ends for the Pogues, with JJ helping Kiara escape wilderness camp, Cleo and Pope growing closer, and John B rekindling his relationship with Sarah after some serious bumps in the road. After the merchant’s gold remains in the hands of the Camerons and Pope’s beloved Cross of Santo Domingo is destroyed, a scene that would make anyone want to throw a wrench at the TV, it is nice to see the Pogues find El Dorado and gain their rightful recognition for the discovery.
Netflix has now confirmed a fourth season, so it will be interesting to see how the tale will progress with the Pogues’ latest adventure: Blackbeard’s sunken ship.
