If you’re obsessed with Netflix‘s new series Outer Banks, you’re not alone. The beachy teen drama is a perfect mix of Riverdale, Gossip Girl, and The O.C. with a little bit of The Goonies mixed in, so it’s no surprise it’s a hit both with critics and fans alike.
The show centers on John B. Rutledge (Chase Stokes), a 17-year-old who lives in the Outer Banks region of North Carolina and leads a band of not-so-rich misfits named the Pogues: JJ (Rudy Pankow), Kiara (Madison Bailey), and Pope (Jonathan Daviss). After John B.’s father mysteriously disappears and leaves behind hints of where the Pogues can find a $400 million treasure, they set out to find it.
They’re not the only ones hunting for the gold, of course. On the other side of the spectrum, we have the Kooks, the Outer Banks’s rich elite, of which Sarah (Madelyn Cline) is a part of. Her father, Ward (Charles Esten), is also hellbent on finding the treasure, and the other Kooks in town—including Sarah’s boyfriend, Topper (Austin North), and brother, Rafe (Drew Starkey)—love undermining the Pogues whenever they can.
As you can imagine, it doesn’t take long for things to come to a head. By the Outer Banks season finale—spoiler warning—Sarah has dumped Topper and fallen deeply in love with John B. The two flee to the Bahamas, where the treasure is now located, after it’s revealed that Ward is the one responsible for the disappearance (read: murder) of John B.’s father. And there’s a new romance on the horizon, too, for Kiara and Pope.
With so many cliffhangers and no confirmed season two, we chatted with Madelyn Cline to figure out where the Kooks and Pogues go from here. She answered all our questions about the finale and then some. Read on.
Glamour: What were your thoughts when you saw where Sarah was going in the season finale?
Madelyn Cline: We have such great writers, and they’re very, very receptive to our ideas. I remember there was a point when one asked me, “Do you think you, as Sarah Cameron, would choose your family or John B.?” I remember thinking on it and telling her, “I wholeheartedly believe Sarah is 100% absolutely head over heels for John B., and I think she absolutely would get on that boat with him.” There’s one part in the show when John B. tells Sarah, “You’re all I have.” I told the writer that at that point John B. is also all Sarah has. Her world just crumbled around her, so it’s a no-brainer that she would have gotten on that boat with him and risked everything.
So what do you think will happen next? Do you think they’re going to set up shop in the Bahamas or get the treasure and come back?
In my mind, what I see is this Blue Lagoon or Castaway-type scenario where they get to the Bahamas and have the gold bars, and they live in this really romantic, Bonnie and Clyde-type Blue Lagoon world. They’re just in this honeymoon phase of, “We’ve run away from home, we’re in love, we’re in this beautiful place, and there are no problems.” I would really love to see everything they’ve been running from catch up to them. I think they might have to go back to the Outer Banks because of the Pogues and confront all the things they’ve been running from.
How do you think Sarah will process what came out about her father? Could you see them having some kind of relationship? Where do you think that relationship’s going to go?
