Outer Banks season four, part one review

What do you do when you find the lost city of El Dorado? Well, if you're a 19 year old living in OBX, you spend all your money in a beachside motorcycle race, recreate the time you were stranded on a deserted island, and randomly add Blackbeard to the mix.

Netflix dropped season four, part one of ‘Outer Banks’, on October tenth, where we finally saw what happened when the Pouges got home from South America. The end of season three left viewers after an 18 month time jump, where we saw the Pogues celebrated by the town, finally, for discovering the lost city of El Dorado, and solving the mystery of The Royal Merchant. In episode one we saw the group's return to OBX, where they hopefully showered, before selling the gold they had managed to bring back from the cave. The gold amounted to a little over a million dollars, and Pope (Jonathan Daviss) pointed out that although seeming like a lot, they would do better pooling their funds. So together they bought JJ’s (Rudy Pankow) old house and recreated Pougelandia, joint smoking chicken flag and all. The group seemed to be doing okay, starting a business and living a relatively normal life, until JJ bet and lost the last chunk of gold, leaving the group with no choice but to meet with the mysterious Wes Genrette (David Jenson). Wes tells the group he needs them to find an amulet from the wreckage of Blackbeard, in order to break the curse set on his family, and with that, another adventure begins.

In season four we see the return of the original crew John B (Chase Stokes), Pope, JJ, Kiara (Madison Bailey), Sarah (Madelyn Cline) and newly appointed Pogue, Cleo (Carlacia Grant), and although the new addition of money to the group, their lives and relationships feel fairly consistent with where we left them. Surprisingly it is Rafe (Drew Starkey), who we see with the most character development. Rafe has a new girlfriend Sofia (Fiona Palomo) whose addition feels somewhat displaced, because, did Rafe forget he hated all Pogues? Rafe spends most of the season drinking and telling everyone who will listen that he is in charge of Cameron Development. When he isn't shirtless and chugging whiskey, he seems to consider that maybe trying to murder his sister is something they both need to move on from. Although a slow first episode to kick off the season, the action rapidly continues with near drownings, near-death experiences and more dead bodies, leaving you on the edge of your seat.

Although the idea of the Pogues hunting for their third lot of treasure, at just 19 years old, feels less than convincing, the plot twists and surprise betrayals guarantee the need for part two. Part two of ‘Outer Banks’ will be available to stream from November seventh on Netflix.

Edited by: Eleanor Robinson