The much-anticipated season 3 of Outerbanks came out on February 23. After the second season, released in July of 2021, ended on a cliffhanger the devoted fans couldn’t wait to get their questions answered. The Pouges were stranded on an island and in the very last scene of the second season John B’s dad, Big John, appeared after he had been “dead” the whole course of the show. In the past two seasons the original five friends have been in search of lost treasure that was in a shipwreck called the “Royal Merchant.” The first season was all about the gold that John B’s dad got lost at sea trying to find. After the gold was found and taken by Ward their hunt for the cross began. By the end of the second season the friends lost the cross to Ward once again. The hunt in the third season is for the lost city of El Dorado.

The opening of season 3 shows the pouges living on the island, until a plane flies by and they wave it down. I wish it showed more of the friends on the island as we don’t get many scenes of them all together in the rest of the season. Officially off the island they think they are free until they find incriminating papers in the bag of the pilot and crash the plane into Barbados where they are met by the cops and one of the six friends, Kie, is kidnapped.

A new character is introduced named Carlos Singh and is the main antagonist for the season. He is in search of the “lost city of gold,” El Dorado. He keeps Kie and Rafe hostage because he believes they have a lost diary that will help him find the lost city.

After an unsuccessful attempt at a rescue by the Pouges, Rafe and Kie find a way to work together to escape, even though they have been in opposition for the whole show, and Kie finds her way back to the Pouges. By this point John B thinks his dad is in Barbados and leaves the recently reunited Pouges to go find him. This leads to him making his journey back to the Outerbanks away from his friends; his father begins to explain El Dorado and his new quest for it.

Big John’s obsessive behavior over finding the gold keeps John B away from his friends because he wants to reconnect with his father. Personally, I think the scenes with only John B and his dad were slow and boring compared to his interactions with his friends. John B makes plans with his friends to meet back at his house but never shows up because he is off with his dad trying to leads to the new treasure. The hunt ends with Big John being kidnapped by Carlos Singh.

While John B and Big John were looking for El Dorado, leaving the rest of the Pouges in the dark they continued to search for the cross. After Sarah finds out the cross is being brought back to them, they form a plan to find it which turns out to be unsuccessful and the sub plot ends with Rafe melting down the cross.

John B joins back with his friends and gets their help to get his dad back. I found this part the most enjoyable to watch because I wasn’t the biggest fan of Big John’s character; he was boring, and I didn’t feel that he cared about John B and changed the characters. I think some of the character building that had been done in the past two seasons had almost moved backward causing and there was a lot of rebuilding of characters we already had.

A smaller plot of the season is the relationships between the friends. The newest member of the group, Cleo, and Pope get together in the last episode, but it doesn’t change or add much to the plot. A fan favorite “ship” is the between Kie and JJ. There weren’t as many scenes between the two as fans

would’ve hoped for but they did end up together. After many threats to be sent away by Kie’s parents, they finally act on it and JJ comes after her. Their reunion leads the confessions on both sides. Leaving Kie and JJ to find a way to South America on their own.

In South America they are met by Ward. In the end Ward saves his daughter but dies in the process. Throughout the whole show Ward tried to manipulate Sarah into loving and I think this was a fitting ending to his character. Big John is also shot but manages to make down the mountain but dies on the journey home. The show has an eighteen-month time jump to the six friends being honored for their discoveries. I wish they would’ve shown more in that time rather than just skipping over it. They allude to what they accomplished in that time, building a new life, but I feel that the show lacked the emphasis on friendship that the previous seasons had.

This season just like the past ended on a cliffhanger with the start of a new treasure hunt, of Blackbeard.