‘Outer Banks’ Season 2 Is Here—And It’s Turned the Volume Way Up

Outer Banks was a smash hit when it premiered on Netflix in spring 2020. The soapy drama  centers on John B. (Chase Stokes), a teenager from North Carolina’s Outer Banks who’s desperate to find a $400 million treasure his father died trying to hunt. He convinces his best friends—Kiara (Madison Bailey), Pope (Jonathan Daviss), and JJ (Rudy Pankow)—to help him, and along the way falls for rich-girl Sarah (Madelyn Cline). Sarah is what the OBX gang calls a Kook, a.k.a. a wealthy person in their town. The opposite of this is a Pogue, a label John B., Kiara, Pope, and JJ wear proudly. The Pogues and Kooks don’t get along—so as you can imagine, John B. and Sarah’s coupling ruffles some feathers. 

That’s just one intriguing thing about this series. There’s also the treasure, love triangles, and rising tensions between John B. and Sarah’s family that leads to a beloved sheriff’s death. 

All this drama spills over to season two. We pick up right where we left off: Sarah and John B. have fled to the Bahamas—both because he’s been framed for murder and because that’s where they think the treasure is. The first six episodes deal with this: tying up loose ends from season one and finally (finally!) locating the gold. After that, the show pivots to a new, more heightened treasure hunt; it has all the elements you loved about the first season and more. 

Below, we talked to Stokes, Cline, Bailey, and Carlacia Grant—who plays a new character, Cleo—about what fans can expect from this next chapter. 

On what fans can expect from season two

Chase Stokes: I think the beautiful underlying story of our show is the journey of friendship. During the pandemic, there was so much desire to rekindle relationships with friends, go on an adventure, put down your cell phone, and get out into the world. Now that the world is reopening, I hope the show sparks that level of joy again and forces people to get out of their comfort zones. Say sorry a little more. Make that phone call to somebody you haven’t talked to in a while, or get out and be involved in nature. 

It’s also just a fun ride. I love the fact that this show is a little bit of escapism. You’re able to separate yourself from the chaos of the world around us. So hopefully we can capture the hearts of people again and allow them to fall back in love with these lovable, dumb, exciting, ridiculous characters that we’ve created over the past two years.