Episode Recap
The Outer Banks Season 3 Episode 7 begins with Sarah reflecting on her time with Topper and how conflicted she is between the pair. As John B heads off on his adventure, he and Topper go to breakfast, but Kie is there and sees them eating. He turns his nose up in disgust and treats both Sarah and Topper with a frosty attitude.
Kie then sits down with Sarah, the latter confessing everything that happened and how conflicted she is. Kie doesn’t hate her and surrounds Sarah, shrugging and claiming that everyone is messed up right now. Wheezie suddenly leaves a message for Sara, claiming to be in OBX and running away. He wants to meet.
Meanwhile, John B and JJ return to the professor’s house, intent on finding out exactly where Singh and the others have gone and hoping for some kind of clue. The dead professor is gone as he is cleaned up by Singh’s men, while John B checks the place, leaving his fingerprints all over the place.
Thankfully, he finds the sketch left by the professor on the floor. Not only that, but he finds a newspaper clipping for an expedition in South America. Before Tommy died, he mentioned one of the men in this newspaper clipping, “Neville Persaud”. More importantly, he was also part of an expedition in South America. He’s still alive and could be their ticket to finding the treasure.
Ward returns home without arousing the suspicions of anyone in town (somehow) and confronts Rafe about the cross. He has already melted it down and made a deal to grow the empire.
Instead, his previous message from Wheezie ends up being Rafe, who is by the docks and meets Sara alone. He admits that everything is his fault and tries to live his life differently. Ward drops the air conditioner key along with some money and admits that he knows he won’t forgive her, but regrets it and leaves.
JJ and John B show up to see Neville, who is staying on a houseboat in Doe Creek. He learns about Tommy and realizes that he is the only one left. John B counters this and shows how he got Solana’s map and Gnomo. John B begs him for help, but Neville refuses. Unfortunately, the guys take Singh’s desperate men to their place to pay him off. Singh manages to stop his thugs, but it’s surely only a matter of time before more appear.
When Mr. Sunn starts classes on Saturday, he gives Papa some solid tips at school about family history and Danish Tanni and encourages him to dig into the archives. Even though he’s beyond doing what he’s probably supposed to do last season, Neville bends over and agrees to help John B and JJ. He draws a map including a place called Tres Rocas. Near the Orinoco River, Neville instructs them to find a guide named Jose. It will take them to El Tesoro, where they will find the site in question.
John B comes to see Sara before leaving, apologizing for everything about El Dorado and how much he messed up. As the pair embrace, Sara opens up and admits she made a mistake and kissed Topper. It’s a tough pill for her to swallow, especially since they’re having a big party together in the process. “We’re done,” John B says and leaves. JJ also can’t get Kie to join him because she’s still upset about him stealing from her people.
Before John B leaves, he sees Sarah and Toper together and marches along the dock to attend. Sara manages to calm him down, until Topper starts to growl. John B eventually clocks him in the face with a hard right hand. John B then proceeds to beat him senseless until Mike arrives and stops them.
John B and JJ leave, and we cut to Papa looking at his family’s gear. There, Denmark finds details about Tanney and, in particular, a letter to her daughter, Clarice Tanney.
Papa and Cleo work together and open the letter. It contains a handwritten letter about the Merchant King, a city of gold and treasure. However, there are also many symbols and a key needed to track the exact location.
Episode Review
The group is all now torn apart by varying degrees of drama and issues between them. Sarah, who broke her vows with John B over an argument, says more about her character than John B, although the latter is very clearly headed down a dark path after what she saw with her father.
The situation with the Pope is probably the weakest part of the entire show, and I struggle to see how the Pope doesn’t go through the archives as thoroughly as he did last season when he was looking for the cross. It feels like a convenient plot point that leads us to where the story ends in South America. Again, we get nothing on the teenagers involved in the train robbery.
Given that police officers were injured and the train robbery was big news, it seems completely contrived that there has been no mention of it since it happened. Probably won’t be mentioned again, to be honest.
Although this season has still been enjoyable, despite these challenges and signs of ending, we have a very dramatic ending in store for us. This is definitely a season where you should turn your brain off and not think, but if you can do that, season 3 delivers some great action.