Outer Banks season 1, episode 10 recap – what happened in “The Phantom”?

This recap of Netflix series Outer Banks season 1, episode 10, “The Phantom” contains significant spoilers.

Look, I know that Outer Banks will not be sold as one of the best series’ of all time, but it may well be claimed as a YA series that emerged as such a dark horse. This finale has so much — the effort is unduly appreciated; high octane escapes, emotions and the tense moments. Well played Netflix, I’m pumped.

So here’s the recap. Don’t forget to breathe:

Outer Banks season 1, episode 10, “The Phantom” opens up with Sarah and John B hiding in a house that’s up for sale. The police are aggressively going house to house looking for him. John B and Sarah lay on the bed and discuss the stars; they plan to go to Mexico and live a new life. Sarah is looking after a shaken John B — who’d have thought they would have ended up like this?

As for Pope, he wants to stay on a mission to help John B escape; he goes off to get gas, but Kiara chases after him and apologizes for hurting his feelings — but he ignores her, revving his bike childishly before riding off. There’s a lot of unspoken words between these two.

But there are worse things on the horizon — the police department has ordered special agents to come to the island to help find John B. S*** is getting serious, like GTA serious.

When John B wakes up, Sarah is not there. She is heading towards the special agents. She tries talking to the agents and explains that John B is not armed. Ward turns up in a timely manner and tries to stop her from talking; Ward becomes frustrated and asks her in front of the cops who killed the sheriff. Sarah shows her loyalty to John B and tells the truth — Rafe killed her. Ward then pulls aside agent Bratcher privately and explains that his daughter has bipolar and has an unhealthy relationship with John B — Agent Bratcher still wants to speak to her but Sarah has kneed another agent in the balls and ran away.

READ: 10 TV Shows like Outer Banks

Outer Banks season 1, episode 10, “The Phantom” confirms how much of a sociopath Ward is — he’ll do anything.

Sarah finds John B in the house and they both swim away on the rafts. Meanwhile, more explosive action; Pope approaches his father for the fuel cans for the boat, but his father tries to get in his way, so Pope fights him and punches his father in the face. Pope then grabs the fuel cans and walks away crying. As for John B and Sarah — John B tells Sarah that she needs to go elsewhere because they are not moving fast enough; it’s too dangerous and they are losing time. He will meet her at the boat.

John B then makes a risky move — as Shoupe is out of his cop car, he gets in and uses the megaphone. He declares that he did not kill the sheriff and then drives off in the police car. Meanwhile, JJ and Kiara get to Phantom at a warehouse. Barry and Rafe show up and start threatening them. Kiara looks at Rafe squarely in the eyes and tells him that she knows he killed the Peterkin. Pope comes in and saves the day, swinging and then starts ruthlessly strangling Rafe for touching Kiara. He won’t stop choking Rafe so Kiara has to get his attention — “LOOK AT ME.” Pope gets out of his trance and stops choking Rafe.

Jesus!

Anyway, the boat Phantom is prepared for John B as he meets up with his crew; he realises Sarah is not there but JJ says he hasn’t got time, he needs to keep going. John B emotionally apologises to his friends for putting them through this before saying goodbye.

And then another breakthrough moment after episodes of “what if”. Pope apologises to Kiara for acting like a dumbass but she stops him and hugs him. She then evidently feels like they aren’t just friends and kisses him. Shoupe and the special agents then capture the Pogue crew and Bratcher reports that John B is setting off in a small boat.

As John B is riding away, feeling the freedom, he sees Sarah shouting from the docks. He picks her up — “You were going to leave without saying goodbye?”. John B may not have the gold, but he has his girl.

But, Outer Banks season 1, episode 10, “The Phantom” presents another problem; a storm is brewing and special agent Bratcher is using his highly advanced binoculars to try and find John B’s boat, but as he nearly sees it, lightning hits to distort his vision and he ends up looking at the wrong area of the sea. And then John B’s luck runs out; the lights turn on for the whole island as electricity returns. Special agent Bratcher can now see John B’s boat as the lighthouse shines on it. More action! The police boats go after John B and the storm.

In order to evade them, John B makes a decision to move towards the storm, the mad b**tard. The finale of Outer Banks shows how desperate our characters are in the face of adversity.

Bratcher has one more roll of the dice to get John B — he gets Ward to radio in to John B. Ward tells John B that if he loves his daughter then he will turn around; he claims he will not survive the storm in that small boat. John B radios back with anger, with the entire police department able to hear, stating that Ward killed his father and covered it up, and then he framed him for a murder that he did not commit — “You took everything from me!” John B warns Ward and states he’s coming for him. John B puts the radio down and Sarah tells him she’d rather die than be without him.

Sarah is in this — it’s all 100 for both these characters.

And the police lost the radio signal; Shoupe tells Ward not to move as they need to talk to him. And then in the storm, the Phantom boat flips over. The next day, in daylight, Shoupe tells Kiara, Pope and JJ that they cannot find John B and Sarah and he implies that they may not have survived the storm. Pope loses control and starts shaking Shoupe. The parents of the 3 Pogue members show up and they all embrace and cry.

So many emotions are crammed into this finale, it’s crazy.

Outer Banks season 1, episode 10, “The Phantom” closes with John waking up in the middle of the sea with a life jacket on and starts shouting for Sarah — they both survived! In the distance, they see a boat and they start screaming for help. Sarah wisely uses an object to reflect light to get their attention. The boat picks them up. The captain states they are going to Nassau next, in the Bahamas. Sarah states that’s where the gold is and John B smiles.

Yes, it’s very unlikely that Sarah knows that her father sent the gold to the Bahamas without him, but let’s just go along with it.

Final thoughts — I would never have thought that Outer Banks would have ended the way it did after how it started. Okay, there’s a lot of nonsense, but it’s good, well pieced together nonsense. John B and Sarah will now be presumed dead but they will be really in the Bahamas sipping cocktails and enjoying gold! Roll on Season 2.

Additional Notes

• Rafe goes to Barry’s house for cocaine but he says he’s all out. Barry tells Rafe that if he’s in trouble, he should fix his situation.
• JJ’s father tells him he loves him and says he’s too hard on him sometimes. They hug. He puts his drunk father back on the sofa and then takes his key.
• Shoupe finds the melted down gold.
• Rose tells Ward to report his daughter missing with a fugitive; use the situation to his advantage.