“This show has mastered the cliffhanger. I think the season 1 finale takes the cliffhangers of episodes 1 through 9 and just shoves them in the trash can and says, Ta-da!,” Outer Banks star Chase Stokes said to Refinery29 with a wide smile in the weeks leading up to his Netflix show’s premiere. When you watch the Outer Banks episode Stokes is talking about, finale “The Phantom,” you see the truth in his words — fans will likely be “salivating,” as he said, for Outer Banks season 2.
In “Phantom,” Stokes’ hero John B boats directly into a devastating storm — and somehow finds himself alive and on the perfect road to vengeance. “It is one of those things where you’re like, I’ve got to wait?! Like, why!,” Stokes continued, mock yelling in a West Hollywood hotel. Although Outer Banks has yet to be renewed by Netflix, there is some good news for those fans currently shouting to the heavens for a season 2 like Stokes predicted: the cast seems very hopeful that you just might see the Pogues again for another season of treasure hunting and seaside pining.
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“It’s a big question of Where do they end up next?,” Stokes’ on-screen love interest Madelyn Cline — who plays wealthy teen Sarah Cameron — said of the finale. Sarah is the one left standing next to John B on the precipice of an uncertain future in the last scene of the season-ending episode. “That’s something that we want to leave hanging in people’s minds. Because I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun.”
The Outer Banks crew wouldn’t leave viewers with so many burning questions — like whether the Pogues will be able to steal back the Royal Merchant gold from Sarah’s villainous dad Ward (Charles Esten) — if they weren’t hoping to continue the story with a second season. Even Stokes and Cline suggest they’ve been slipping ideas to showrunner/co-creator Jonas Pate and his co-creators/executive producers Josh Pate and Shannon Burke.
When asked if they’ve shared their season 2 wishes with the writers, Stokes said, “We’re working on it,” while Cline coyly added, “We’re dropping hints.”
Stokes and Cline — along with their fellow core cast members of Madison Bailey, Jonathan Daviss, and Rudy Pankow — have countless avenues they could daydream about for Outer Banks season 2. The heist portion of the series is rife with possibilities now that John B and Sarah are headed for the Bahamas, where the Merchant gold is now housed. Then there countless romances to explore between the John B-Sarah-Topper (Austin North) love triangle — which is improved by Topper's “The Bell Tower” sacrifice for Sarah — and a “Phantom” kiss between Kiara (Bailey) and Pope (Daviss).
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Yet, the cast doesn’t want to bother their bosses too much. “Shannon is one of those guys who sits in his bed 15 hours a day with a laptop like this and just types his life away. He’s a perfectionist,” Stokes said, tapping on an imaginary computer. “So I know that if we try to pester him too much, then it’s taking away from his craft.”
That’s why Stokes and Cline are comfortable waiting to be shocked by any possible scripts that may be coming their way (should Netflix order them). “I want to be surprised too. I obviously have my ideas. But at the same time, our show is written so well, I don’t want to impose too much,” Cline said. “[The writers] are so welcoming of our input. So, hopefully, whenever we do get our season 2 scripts, if there’s anything we feel like we could add to make it more real or more fun, they’re always open to those suggestions.”
More real and more fun? That’s the very definition of Pogue Style.
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