Madison Bailey Was “Happy” About Kiara’s Deadly Twist In Outer Banks Finale
“When I first read the scene, I was really excited. It had to happen.”
After five seasons and several treasure hunts around the globe, it’s time to say goodbye to the Pogues. The farewell may be bittersweet for everyone involved, but Madison Bailey says she was “really happy” about Kiara’s final moments in the finale — even if that one scene is pretty dark.
Spoiler alert: This post discusses events from the Outer Banks series finale.
Season 5 of Outer Banks follows the friend group of Kiara, John B (Chase Stokes), Sarah (Madelyn Cline), Pope (Jonathan Daviss), and Cleo (Carlacia Grant) on one last adventure to track down the Blue Crown from Chandler Groff. It picks up right where Season 4 ended, with the crew mourning the loss of their friend JJ (Rudy Pankow).
Since its premiere in 2020, fans shipped Kiara and JJ together, only for their short love story to meet a dramatic end when Groff stabbed him. Instead of properly grieving JJ’s death, Kiara jumps right into revenge mode for Season 5, wanting nothing more than to get Groff back. While also searching for the Blue Crown — which is rumored to bring people back from the dead — Kiara’s mission this time around is justice for JJ.
After some failed attempts, Kiara finally gets her moment of vengeful catharsis in Episode 10, and Bailey could not be more proud.
“When I first read the scene, I was really excited,” Bailey tells Elite Daily. “It had to happen.” Groff meets his demise after the two fight on a boat in the middle of a hurricane, and he ends up getting tangled up in the mast, dangling over the rough waters. Using a knife, the same weapon Groff used against JJ, Kiara cuts the rope, which sends him into the waters with the mast pulling him down.
“I was really excited by the way that it happened, because a lot of the discussion was Kiara not being a cold-blooded killer,” she says. “It’s not aggressive, and it feels powerful. It feels just like he’s getting what he deserves.” At that point, Groff was likely going to fall in the water anyway, so Bailey says Kiara making the final cut was her decision to have it happen. “It feels strong and powerful,” she says. “I was really happy.”
If Kiara didn’t cut that rope, Bailey says, “it wasn’t going to end.” And with Groff out of the picture at last, the Pogues (and the fans) can finally breathe a sigh of relief.
