For someone whose name we had never heard before Season 4, Chandler Groff has become a big part of Outer Banks, and not in a good way. The treasure-hunting show, which follows John B. (Chase Stokes), Sarah (Madelyn Cline), Kiara (Madison Bailey), JJ (Rudy Pankow), Pope (Jonathan Daviss), and Cleo (Carlacia Grant), or the Pogues, saw Groff kill JJ, even after getting the treasure he’d been seeking.
This big twist, which sets up the fifth and final season of the show, happens at the end of yet another treasure hunt for the Pogues. Despite the fact that the end of Season 3 saw them finally get the gold from El Dorado, settle down, open a business, and attempt to live a normal life, soon reality intruded. With the group needing money to keep their business and house, what else could they do but embark on another treasure hunt?
Wes Genrette first sets the Pogues on this new treasure hunt, but it soon becomes clear the main player in the storyline is Chandler Groff. But who is Chandler Groff on Outer Banks? What do we know about him? And will his storyline continue in Season 5?
Who is Chandler Groff on Outer Banks?
Chandler Groff is Wes Genrette’s son-in-law, and Larissa Genrette’s widowed husband. He is also JJ Maybanks’ father. Season 4 reveals not just this truth, but the fact that Groff abandoned JJ with Luke Maybanks when he was just a baby and paid Luke to pretend JJ was his son. The reasons why are never clarified, though it seems like Groff just didn’t want a son, and after presumably killing Larissa Genrette, a kid was just an inconvenience. Groff was originally part of the Lupine Corsairs before betraying them too, which is why they’re after him.
He is also the man responsible for killing Wes Genrette and is heavily implied to have killed his wife too. And he is the man who, in the final episode of Season 4, stabs JJ and leaves him to die even after JJ gives up the blue crown. The final scene with Groff in Season 4, however, shows him cradling the crown and looking back at his bloodied hands with something that might resemble regret.
Since finding out JJ is his son, Groff goes through a little bit of a rollercoaster. Not only does he kill JJ in the final minutes of the season, but he tries to get him killed a couple of times before. And yet, at times, he also seems to want JJ to want to be on his side. So, the last frame of the episode for him hints at a level of regret for what he did. It’s an interesting development considering Groff now has the blue crown, which is said to grant wishes. Could he wish for JJ to return?
“He kills JJ after he has the crown, it’s completely pointless; it’s banal, almost,” co-creator Jonas Pate told Deadline about the moment. “When we were conceiving the [Chandler] character, we zeroed in on the dark triad personality traits and wanted to create almost a sociopathic character that would have hard enough edges. That’s because the fourth season was a complete reset from the first three seasons, which kind of function as like a trilogy in some way. We needed to re-conjure a formidable villain quickly, so we tried to conjure the worst one we could think of.”
Now, the character will continue on in Season 5, and the Pogues won’t just accept JJ’s death lying down.
