'Outer Banks' Kills Off Fan-Favorite Character In Season 4 Finale

????????????Warning: This story has major spoilers for the Season 4 finale of "Outer Banks."

"Outer Banks," a show about treasure-hunting, family mysteries, island survival and more, just aired its biggest plot twist yet.

For the first time, one of the core members of the group, known as the Pogues, died over the course of their high-stakes adventures. And the actor behind the character says they "understood it."

Part 1 of Season 4, which dropped Oct. 10, followed the Pogues as they launched a new treasure hunt — the search for Blackbeard's treasure. It ended with Sarah Cameron (Madelyn Cline) and Pope (Jonathan Daviss) in trouble, JJ (Rudy Pankow) reeling from discovering the truth about his birth parents and ringleader John B (Chase Stokes) seeing apparitions of his dead dad.

In Part 2, the stakes only get higher. Here's what happens in the finale — and why fans wish it were "a lie."

The last episode of Season 4, “The Blue Crown,” which hit Netflix Nov. 7, sees the Pogues in Morocco as they try to track down Chandler Groff (J. Anthony Crane), JJ’s real birth father who has tried to frame the Pogues for murder several times over the season.

At the end of the episode, JJ and Kiara (Madison Bailey) briefly taste victory after retrieving the blue crown, one of Blackbeard's artifacts. Then, she's captured and held at knifepoint by Groff, who threatens to kill Kiara if JJ doesn't give him the crown.

"You could've stuck with me, JJ. Think what you could've had," Groff says.

"I already have everything, and I have everything I've ever wanted. Things that you'll never have," JJ says.

JJ hands over the crown and pulls Kiara back. They share a brief hug — before Groff stabs JJ in the stomach.

As Kiara tries to stop the bleeding, JJ, struggling to breathe, says, "I never told you my wish. I already got it. I already got my wish."

His last words before appearing to die were, "Take care of the others... I love you, Kie."

In an interview with Tudum, Pankow said his character "has to judge every moment in his life, if it's worth it."

"When I first found out JJ was gonna risk it all and not make it, I understood it,” Pankow said. “And the risks got bigger and bigger, and the stakes got higher and higher.”

In the episode's final few minutes, John B narrates a montage of some of JJ’s best moments from the show, as the rest of the Pogues mourn over his body. And in the last scene, gathered around a campfire, the Pogues, plus unlikely new ally Rafe (Drew Starkey), vow revenge.

While the Pogues have moved onto the anger phase of grief, fans seem to be stuck in denial and depression.

"they killed jj maybank throw the whole damn show away," one person said on X.

"what if jj was momentarily unconscious when they buried him and in s5 they’ll reveal that he was actually alive and crawled out of the grave," another wrote. (Another fan suggested going a "supernatural" route to revive the character.)

"im so sorry jj, you deserved so much better, you were and always be my best character on outer banks, you will be so missed, i just wish this is a lie," a third said, accompanied by a dramatic edit set to Billie Eilish's "The Greatest."

"Outer Banks" creators Josh Pate, Jonas Pate and Shannon Burke told Netflix's Tudum that JJ's death was always part of the plan for the show.

"JJ’s death was a hard but necessary piece of the architecture for the story, and we plan on honoring that as much as we can because we love the character as much as the fans do. And Rudy’s a great friend of ours," Josh Pate said.

In the Tudum article, "Outer Banks" star Madelyn Cline described JJ as the "heart of 'Outer Banks,'" a sound bite some fans latched onto.

"Heart of outer banks yeah well AND THEY TOOK HIM FROM US," one person said on X.

On set filming the scene, even "the sound guys were crying," Jonas Pate told Tudum.

It sounds like Pankow is now set to leave the show. The actor expressed gratitude for the show and its fans in the interview with Tudum, saying, "I’m going to miss it."

Pankow told Tudum his character's death "set up the future of 'OBX,'" with two key questions: "What is worth it? And when someone that close to you is gone, how do you navigate that?”

"Outer Banks" will return for one more season, the creators announced Nov. 4, days before Part 2 of Season 4 premiered.

In a letter shared to Instagram, they said they initially envisioned the show as a "five-season journey."

"Now, with a little sadness, but also excitement, we're putting Season 4 behind us, and are turning to Season 5, in which we hope to bring our beloved Pogues home in the way we imagined and planned years," the letter read. "Season 5 will be our last season, and we think it will be our best yet. We hope you'll join us for one more paddle out to the surf break."

Maddie Ellis

Maddie Ellis is a weekend editor at TODAY Digital.