'Outer Banks' Season 4, Part 1 Ending, Explained: JJ's True Identity

John B balances on a rooftop in a white T-shirt and Converse, drinking a can of beer while staring out at the water.

In "Outer Banks," the first shot of the pilot and the opening scene to Season 4 feature that image — a full circle moment that encapsulates the latest season's tagline: "Bring it on home."

Unlike Seasons 2 and 3, which followed the Pogues around the world, this season brings "Outer Banks" back to the sandy shores of North Carolina.

"I think the first five are really a beautiful way of bringing us back into the world of Outer Banks and back home for these kids,” Chase Stokes, who plays John B, tells TODAY.com.

However, this season sees a different character step into the spotlight. While previous seasons primarily followed John B, this season sees best friend JJ (Rudy Pankow) get a fleshed out, complex, and, of course, dramatic backstory.

Season 4's premiere on Oct. 10 also marks just over five years since filming for Season 1 started in 2019 — five years in which the core cast, including Stokes, now 32, and Pankow, 26, have played teenagers.

Jonathan Daviss, who stars in the show as the "brains of the operation" Pope, was 19 when the show began. “I definitely related pretty well to what was going on at the time in my life and what was going on with Pope,” he says.

Now 24, Daviss says he strives to remember "what it means to be that age" for the sake of his character.

“I think it’s just more so, trying to figure out how these characters evolve through what’s happening, and all the things that are affecting them,” he says. “And just remembering that they’re young and they’re inexperienced and they’re making crazy decisions, based off of emotion and hormones and all that, and just trying to make sure we just stay true to what it means to be that age.”

The Pogues are back for Season 4: (From left) Chase Stokes as John B, Madelyn Cline as Sarah Cameron, Madison Bailey as Kiara, Carlacia Grant as Cleo, Jonathan Daviss as Pope, Rudy Pankow as JJ.JACKSON LEE DAVIS / NETFLIX

Stokes, who has one of the largest gaps between his age and his 19-year-old character's, says he sometimes struggles with John B's decisions.

“There’s some choices that I think are very justifiable at that age. But at 32 you look at it, you’re like, ‘What the hell are you doing?’” he says.

But that's the fun of it.

“It’s so far away from where I am at this point in my life," he says.

“These are extreme circumstances that are either forcing them to respond in fight or flight," he adds. "When you’re playing within a fictional world like that, it’s fun to kind of have circumstances and experiences that don’t necessarily mirror your own."

Season 4 is no exception. Some of those "extreme circumstances" involve trying to manage more than $1 million, dealing with a dead body, and, oh, finding one of Blackbeard's lost treasures.

Below, the stars unpack all the twists and turns for their characters, and what people can expect from Part 2.

????????Warning: Spoilers for the ending of Season 4, Part 1 of “Outer Banks” ahead.

JJ's heritage, explained

To outsiders, JJ, John B's hot-headed and fiercely loyal best friend, seems like he lives a care-free lifestyle. But over the past three seasons, viewers have seen the complex dynamic JJ has with his abusive father, Luke (Gary Weeks).

But the ending of Season 4, Part 1, reveals that JJ is not Luke's biological son.

Earlier in the season, the Pogues embarked on a new quest to find Blackbeard's wife Elizabeth's amulet at the behest of a rich old man named Wes Genrette (David Jensen).

Genrette believes his entire family has been haunted to death by the ghost of Elizabeth. The Pogues find the amulet, but before they can collect their reward, Genrette suspiciously dies.

One of the people questioned in his death is his son-in-law, Chandler Groff (J. Anthony Crane). During the interrogation with Deputy Shoupe (Cullen Moss), Chandler tearfully reveals that his wife, Larissa, his baby and now his father-in-law have all died, leaving the Genrette property to go to the state.

But not so fast.

In Episode 5, JJ gets a letter from Mr. Genrette, written before his death, addressed to "Master JJ Maybank."

After reading the letter, JJ immediately takes off alone to find Luke, who is a wanted man now, to confront him about the letter. Its contents instruct JJ to ask his father about the Albatross (no, not the Taylor Swift song).

Luke eventually tells JJ that the Albatross is the boat Larissa died on.

As the tension builds, Luke tells JJ he’s not his “blood father,” and the person JJ thought was his mother was Luke's girlfriend at the time.

Finally, Luke reveals that Larissa was JJ’s mother. JJ demands to know who his real father is, to which Luke only replies, “Isn’t it obvious?”

As JJ seems to try to piece everything together, the camera sharply cuts to the outline of Chandler, implying he is JJ’s biological father and making JJ the rightful heir to the Genrette fortune.

In the final scene of Episode 5, as the camera slowly turns, it's revealed Chandler is not alone. Standing by his shoulder is the scheming relator Hollis Robinson (Brianna Brown) who has been trying to get her hands on the Genrette land all season.

Part 1 ends with Hollis cryptically saying, "It's going to be glorious," alluding that the pair may have sinister intentions.

Pankow says when he first took on the role of JJ, he was unaware of the character’s true heritage. “It definitely was a shock this season when I read it initially,” he says.

But he relied on the same methods of preparation he's used in seasons' past to tackle the new character arc.

“Something I always do each season is kind of have a question for JJ that’s answered by the end of the season," he says.

"I’m not sure if I can actually share (the question), exactly,” he adds.

Jonathan Daviss as Pope and Rudy Pankow as JJ in "Outer Banks" Season 4.NETFLIXPope embraces the chase

Daviss has also been given more room to grow his character over recent seasons. In Season 1, Pope was the responsible one, hesitant to embark on risky missions and prioritizing school over all else.

While Pope still serves as the voice of reason, he embraces the adventure in Season 4.

“I think it’s kind of the same for all the Pogues, where it’s like they’re starting to realize why they enjoy doing treasure hunting in the first place, even though they all do get roped in,” Daviss says.

He says Pope’s motivations lie in the problem-solving aspects of treasure hunting.

“For Pope, specifically, it’s solving the puzzle,” he says. “I think he loves the mystery of it and trying to put the clues together and piecing the unfindable together. I think he likes the challenge. So anytime, when it starts to get going, when that ball starts rolling, he just has no choice but to chase it."

By the end of Season 4, Pope may see what happens when pursuing adventure goes too far. After searching for another piece of treasure called the blue crown, some of the Pogues travel to Charleston and explore the catacombs of a church.

In one of the final scenes, Pope and Sarah are stuck underground as a heavy storm strikes and the narrow space fills up with water, leaving their fates up in the air.

John B, meanwhile, stays above ground where he spies rival treasure hunter, Lightner (Rigo Sanchez). But the memory of his father stops him in his tracks, his finger on the gun's trigger, allowing Lightner and his gang to get away with the treasure.

John B process grief

"Outer Banks" Season 1 opened with John B still holding on to hope that his father, who had been lost at sea, would return alive.

Big John famously appeared in the cliffhanger of Season 2 and played a major role in the plot of Season 3 until his death in the finale.

In Season 4, John B has to process the loss of his dad, experiencing flashbacks of Big John in the process.

Stokes says he found exploring grief through his character's storyline relatable.

“I have experienced a large amount of loss in my personal life, and so it unfortunately, was very near and dear to my own heart,” he says.

Stokes adds that Charles Halford, who played Big John, is "a dear friend."

"He’s sort of become like a father figure in that sense, and we got so much time together last year, so it was a combination of, I think, those two things that really sort of crafted the direction for John B this season," Stokes says.

What can fans expect from Part 2?

“I think it’s a perfect cliffhanger,” Pankow tells TODAY.com regarding Part 1's ending. “Something the writers love to do is they know how to write a good cliffhanger, and I think it is a good one for setting up the second part to be a little bit more suspenseful, obviously."

Pankow says the fifth episode ends with each character capable of going "one or two ways very, very easily."

"I think there’s actually a little bit of hope, and there’s a little bit of like, 'OK, this also could go way darker as well,'" he says.

For Daviss' character, he and Sarah are stuck in the catacombs. None of the other Pogues are aware of their peril, and there's no apparent way out.

"I think it only gets more intense from there," Daviss says. "We start in a very intense place at the beginning of 6, and I think it just ramps up continuously until the finale, which is just a culmination of the entire season."

Looking beyond Season 4, Stokes said on TODAY Oct. 3 that any additional seasons for "Outer Banks" are up to Netflix and the viewership to determine.

"I mean, you know, we have loved this show, we love it dearly," he said. "As long as people keep tuning in, I think we'll hopefully get to make this show for as long as we can."

Part 2 of "Outer Banks" Season 4 drops on Netflix Nov. 7.

Georgina DiNardo

Georgina is an editorial intern for TODAY.com, based in New York City.