Outer Banks had its work cut out for itself when trying to wrap up the show — and that came with plenty of onscreen surprises, deaths and twists.
“The whole finale is just such a love letter to everyone who has ridden with us for these past five seasons,” Caroline Arapoglou gushed exclusively to Us. “It’s a show where you just want to see the Pogues get a happy ending — and I think that was the right way to end it.”
Arapoglou, 35, credited the hit Netflix show, whose final season is streaming now, for finding a way to recapture “the season 1 vibes” amid the “bittersweet” experience on set.
“Also from a practical standpoint, it was so much fun to film. It’s so rare that we’re all together on the same day,” she noted. “It was like all of the Pogues and the Kooks. Having us all together was really rare, and so that whole day itself was a bit of a party.”
During the finale, fans got to see Sarah (Madelyn Cline) and John B. (Chase Stokes) tie the knot. This brought out everyone out for the celebration, which came after the fictional couple welcomed their first child. Elsewhere in the show, one final treasure hunt led to the Pogues finally getting their gold — while most of their enemies ended up dead.
Arapoglou’s character, meanwhile, played a pivotal role throughout the final season.
“I’ve always felt that as the actor, I’ve always maintained throughout the entire run of the show that Rose really did love Ward [Charles Esten] and she really does care about the kids,” she explained. “Her methods might — on the surface — be a little bit morally gray, but for me, the heart of her has always been that she really does care about the family. She really is ride or die for the Camerons, and it was nice to see that softer side of her a little bit this year.”
Arapoglou, who has played Rose since season 1, got to push herself more than ever before as her character tried to create a future for herself. In a shocking scene later in the scene, Rose nearly died after Groff (J. Anthony Crane) choked her too hard.
“I was pregnant for the duration of this season, and at the point of filming that, I hadn’t told anybody. It was still kind of early, and then I remember getting that scene and knowing it was going to be quite stunt heavy and thinking, ‘OK, I have to tell them what’s going on,’” she recalled Us. “So my amazing stunt double did a lot of the heavy lifting for me.”
While looking back at Rose’s ending, Arapoglou expressed excitement for what could come next.
“I was really, really grateful that she is to some degree welcomed back into the fold,” she recalled. “It made me happy to know that ultimately Rose did want to be a part of that family, and it seems like to a degree at least she got her wish.”
She continued: “[After this] Rose needs to take a beat. I feel like she needs to take a break maybe and reenter the dating pool in a few years. She was doing so much scheming for the gold, but she actually got to end with some semblance of being a part of the Cameron family. I hope that she keeps that and that she gets to stick around.”
Arapoglou had high hopes for every character still left standing in the series finale. As for a potential continuation down the line?
“Our writers, they’re so good at what they do,” she teased to Us. “They have all kinds of ideas. If they were to come up with some kind of a spinoff, I would definitely take that call.”
Outer Banks is streaming on Netflix now.
