‘Outer Banks’ has opinionated followers. It isn’t the one TV present that has viewers eager to affect what occurs each onscreen and off.

For some Outer Banks followers, the Season 4 finale is one thing they’d favor to overlook.

The primary 5 episodes, launched Oct. 10 on Netflix, culminated in an explosive cliffhanger. When the second half of the season was launched on Nov. 7, it appears nothing might have ready followers for the ending — and the surprising dying of fan favourite JJ Maybank (Rudy Pankow). Within the remaining moments of the almost 90-minute season finale, Maybank is stabbed and killed by his organic father.

The sudden conclusion isn’t sitting properly with some viewers.

Since its debut, Outer Banks has been a streaming hit. The teenager drama, which premiered in April 2020, is ready on a fictional island on North Carolina’s Outer Banks and follows John B (Chase Stokes) and his misfit crew of finest buddies referred to as the Pogues as they hunt for misplaced treasure. Season 4, Half 1 racked up 1.19 billion minutes of viewing within the first three days of its premiere and landed at No. 2 on Nielsen’s streaming Prime 10.

Now Outer Banks fandom is attempting to know why showrunners would kill off one in all its most beloved characters. Some are speculating about whether or not Pankow wished to go away the present.

“When a storyline conflicts with followers’ needs or expectations, particularly relating to a beloved character, they might really feel not solely disenchanted however personally affected — typically leading to vocal expressions of grief and anger,” Paul Sales space, a media and popular culture professor at DePaul College, advised Yahoo Leisure. “In lots of fandoms, these reactions are virtually ritualistic — they type part of fan identification and tradition.”

As probably the most impulsive however loyal Pogue, Maybank instantly drew followers in, which makes processing his dying troublesome.

“For fan cultures, characters are extra than simply narrative gadgets; they typically characterize complicated relationships, mirror real-life analogues or will be sources of consolation,” Sales space defined. “When a central character dies, particularly unexpectedly, it will possibly disrupt followers’ expectations and may really feel like a betrayal, particularly when followers have devoted time and vitality to partaking with the story.”

“Given the suspicions across the resolution to kill off JJ, it additionally speaks to followers feeling unaware,” Effie Sapuridis, a media research PhD candidate at Western College in Ontario, Canada, and committee member of Fan Studies Network North America, advised Yahoo. “There’s a security web that followers typically depend on in terms of their favourite characters, particularly after they’re a part of the principle solid — that they’ll by no means be killed off or majorly damage.”

Some followers consider the plot machine might have one thing to do with an alleged feud between Pankow and his co-star Madison Bailey, who performs his onscreen girlfriend Kiara Carrera. Pankow and Bailey are rumored to be conserving their distance as a result of their real-life companions are uncomfortable with followers “delivery” them offscreen.

Whereas neither Pankow nor Bailey has addressed the hypothesis, Bailey advised Entertainment Tonight in June 2020 that followers ought to “hold the ships on the present” as a result of “Madison and Kiara and Rudy and JJ are two totally different individuals.” Pankow, however, took to social media in 2021 to handle the hate his girlfriend Elaine Siemek had obtained from followers of the present.

Rumors of Pankow and Bailey’s alleged rift hit a fever pitch when the second half of Season 4 dropped, and viewers started to suspect that physique doubles have been used to movie romantic scenes between their characters.

As hypothesis continued to mount, a supply advised Individuals on Nov. 12 that the pair should not feuding.

Netflix didn’t instantly reply to Yahoo Leisure’s request for remark.

Followers are additionally seeking to the present’s writers to solid blame for Maybank’s destiny. Some have taken to X to argue that the choice appears rash and unjustified for a personality who endured “constant trauma” and was the most deserving of a contented ending.

However Maybank’s tragic finish was at all times a part of the plan, based on the collection’ creators. Showrunner Jonas Pate advised the Hollywood Reporter that Maybank’s destiny had been “lurking in his DNA from the start.”

Co-creator, and Jonas’s brother, Josh Pate advised Netflix’s Tudum that they’d deliberate for Maybank to die throughout the course of the collection.

“It was a very laborious resolution as a result of he’s such an ideal piece of the ensemble,” Josh mentioned. “It units the stage for an epic fifth and remaining season. We’re planning a narrative of redemption, and a season that embodies the friendship that JJ had come to characterize. JJ’s dying was a tough however vital piece of the structure for the story, and we plan on honoring that as a lot as we are able to as a result of we love the character as a lot because the followers do.”

Outer Banks isn’t the primary present to expertise the wrath of diehard followers when a plotline doesn’t meet their expectations. Devoted fandoms have a historical past of eager to affect their favourite tv exhibits each on and offscreen.

Amazon Prime’s The Summer time I Turned Fairly is a latest instance.

Whereas most “Bonrad” shippers — followers that need Stomach Conklin (Lola Tung) and Conrad Fisher (Chris Briney) to finish up collectively — are respectful of the truth that Briney is in a critical relationship with girlfriend Isabel Machado, there are some that hope he and Tung take into account courting in actual life. In 2023, Briney received backlash from followers for not posting a photograph of him and Tung on Instagram whereas selling Season 2. Members of the TSITP fandom concern Briney and Tung may drift apart because of fan harassment, as Pankow and Bailey are suspected to have finished.

In some instances, disapproval from followers will be so sturdy that it each tanks scores and influences the course of a storyline.

J.J. Abrams’s Misplaced, which ran from 2004-10, demonstrates how unfavourable reception from followers can result in characters being written out. Diamond-grubbing murderers Nikki (Kiele Sanchez) and Paulo (Rodrigo Santoro), as an example, have been launched within the present’s third season and killed off after 14 episodes because of an overwhelmingly unfavorable response from viewers. Equally, Gossip Lady followers bought their manner in Season 2, when Aaron Rose (John Patrick Amedori), Serena van der Woodsen’s (Blake Full of life) artist boyfriend, boarded a airplane to Argentina and by no means got here again. Though Rose performed a bigger function within the books, creator Josh Schwartz in the end selected to get rid of him as a result of he did not resonate with audiences. Amedori appeared in simply six episodes.

For Pankow, Maybank is a personality he’ll at all times cherish.

“Thanks to this superb solid and to followers for loving him,” Pankow advised Netflix in a Nov. 12 video. “A thanks to JJ. I’ll at all times carry a bit of you for the remainder of my life. At all times keep in mind: Stupid things have good outcomes all the time. JJ Maybank, you’ve got modified my life eternally. I really like you eternally.”