John B. Routledge grew up in the Cut, the poorest area of the south side of the Outer Banks, so he’s a Pogue — the local name for the people from the south side of the island — to his core. When his father, Big John (Charles Halford), goes missing while trying to find a famous shipwreck, the Royal Merchant, John B decides to enlist his best friends to help him search for the gold. Fellow Pogues JJ, Pope, and Kiara are more than happy to go on an adventure. But when Sarah Cameron gets involved, everything changes. The two quickly fall in love, Ward Cameron (Charles Esten) frames his daughter’s new beau for the sheriff's murder, and the pair escapes to the Bahamas.

In Season 2, they’re still on the run, but decide to go back to North Carolina to try to clear his name. They hit a rocky patch when Ward fakes his murder and John B doesn’t understand why Sarah is sad. However, they soon discover that Ward is in fact alive, and he tries to kill Sarah, which helps bring the two back together. Isn’t it romantic?

In Season 3, he reunites with his long-lost father, but his dad’s obsession with gold distances him from the Pogues. P4L is real though, so of course, by the end of Season 3, the gang is back together to try to save Big John. After the deaths of their dads and solving the riddles of El Dorado together, Sarah and John B are closer than ever. While on a hunt for the Blue Crown with the other Pogues in Season 4, the young couple discovers they are expecting their first child.

Uglies, Dr. Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets, Tell Me Your Secrets, Daytime Divas

Sarah Cameron grew up in Figure 8 — the wealthiest part of the north side of the Outer Banks. That means she was born a Kook but eventually chooses the path of the Pogues. At the start of Season 1, she lives on Tannyhill Plantation with her dad, Ward, her brother, Rafe (Drew Starkey), her sister, Wheezie (Julia Antonelli) and her stepmother, Rose (Caroline Arapoglou). When we first meet Sarah, she’s dating a fellow Kook Topper (Austin North). But when she gets swept up in a mystery alongside John B and the other Pogues, she turns away from her privileged life. When John B is framed for murder by Sarah’s father and brother, Sarah escapes with him to the Bahamas.

In Season 2, the recently married duo (yes, seriously) make their way back to the US, but Sarah and John B’s love soon hits the rocks. When Ward fakes his death, Sarah feels John B isn’t sympathetic enough. But don’t worry, these two crazy kids patch things up after Sarah is kidnapped by her stepmom and learns that her father is indeed alive. She narrowly escapes death at the hand of her own father, and heads to the Caribbean once again — this time with all the Pogues in tow.

Season 3 sees Sarah follow her heart, and choose P4L once and for all. Sure, she and Top rekindle their romance a little when John B goes rogue with his dad, but her heart always leads her back to John B, and the home they found on Poguelandia with their friends. Ward sacrificing himself to save her in the finale causes waves for Sarah, who now has practically no family of origin left, besides Rafe. But, in Season 4, she starts to build a family of her own with John B — though their pregnancy does come as a surprise. Sarah also begins to mend her relationship with Rafe, who agrees to help the Pogues get the Blue Crown before Groff can.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Stranger Things, The Originals, Boy Erased

She’s a Pogue — but an adopted one. Kiara “Kie” Carrera lives with her parents in Figure 8, where her mom was born and raised. Her dad was born into a less privileged background, but owns a very successful restaurant now. By all accounts, Kie should be a Kook — however, as a self-proclaimed socialist, she hates the wealth and attitude that comes with her dad’s capitalist lifestyle. 

Kie is best friends with John B, JJ, and Pope, who accept her as a fellow Pogue. Kie and Sarah were best friends in ninth grade before they had a falling-out — but they reconcile in Season 1, shortly after Sarah and John B begin dating. 

Season 3 sees her and JJ realize just how kindred they are. They actually admit they love each other by the end of the season, after he saves her from a therapeutic camp her parents have sent her off to. In Season 4, Kie and JJ’s relationship strengthens, as she supports him through exposed family secrets and they search the globe for the Blue Crown. With Kiara’s life on the line in the finale, JJ gives up the crown to Groff, who then stabs him. After he dies in her arms, she’s left devastated by the loss and ready for revenge.

Black Lightning, Time Cut, Council of Dads, American Horror Stories

A Pogue through and through, Pope Heyward would do anything for his best friends John B, JJ, and Kiara. He’s the most cautious member of the group — and also the most studious. It’s clear from the start of the series that he has a crush on Kie, and they have a fling. 

The treasure hunt of Season 2 revolves around Denmark Tanny, whom Pope learns is his ancestor. Denmark Tanny was the only survivor aboard the Royal Merchant. In Season 2, Pope must uncover his family’s history and relics before someone else does. At the end of the season, Pope finds himself marooned on Poguelandia with his friends.

Season 3 sees Pope reckon with heartache, after his romance with Kie ends and Rafe burns his family’s cross. But Cleo (Carlacia Grant) arrives just in time to help Pope pick up the pieces. Throughout the season, they grow closer and eventually officially get together. The couple face new challenges in Season 4, when Cleo is kidnapped by the mercenary Lightner (Rigo Sanchez), whom Pope shoots in the finale.

Do Revenge, Shattered Memories, Age of Summer, Edge of the World

Cleo is first introduced in Season 2 when she meets Sarah and John B aboard a cargo ship bound for her home — Nassau, Bahamas. As a member of the crew, she plans to help turn the two over, but Sarah offers her family’s gold instead. The trouble is, it’s at the Camerons’ Nassau estate and Sarah is supposed to be dead, so they have to steal it. The heist ultimately fails, but Cleo helps them escape Nassau nonetheless.

The group runs into Cleo again when she’s working aboard the ship that the Camerons are escaping on — which is also where they’ve stowed a kidnapped Sarah. She helps Sarah escape and lands on Poguelandia with the others. 

We really get to know Cleo in Season 3. She’s gone it alone most of her life, but she and Pope soon forge a bond. They strike a deal to form the “No Love Club” — that is, until they start to fall for each other. In Season 4, Cleo is kidnapped by Lightner, who tragically kills Terrance (Terence Rosemore), the only father figure she’s ever known. Pope saves Cleo from Lightner and ultimately shoots the mercenary in the Season 4 finale.

Greenleaf, Roots, The Resident, Game of Silence

JJ Maybank has been best friends with John B since the third grade — and he’d do just about anything for him. Always down for an adventure (and a way to get away from home and his alcoholic father, Luke (Gary Weeks), JJ doesn’t need much convincing to go looking for the Royal Merchant in Season 1. He sometimes makes the situation worse with his hot temper, but he’s fiercely loyal to his friends. 

During Season 2, he helps his father escape Kildare County to avoid prison — making the Pogues the only people he has left. At the end of Season 2, he’s marooned with his friends on the island they call Poguelandia.

Poguelandia is paradise for JJ, and Season 3 sees this wildcard put it all on the line for something he never expected and, thanks to his upbringing, didn’t think he deserved: love, with Kiara. They have a will-they, won’t-they dynamic all season, but when her parents ship her off to a wilderness camp, he knows it’s time to act in order to keep the family together. And boy does he, sealing her rescue with a kiss (finally!).

In Season 4, JJ discovers that Luke is not his father. His actual dad is Chandler Groff, who is after the Blue Crown and willing to do whatever it takes to get his hands on it — including killing his son. After a season spent struggling with the truth about his family and trying to work with Groff, JJ is murdered in Morocco, leaving the Pogues completely devastated.

Uncharted, The Crusades, Accidental Texan, 5lbs of Pressure

While his sister Sarah eschews her family’s wealth and the sneaky ways they obtained it, Rafe Cameron fully embraces it. He parties a little too hard — in fact, he gets kicked out of the family estate after he steals from his dad to pay his drug dealer. Toward the end of Season 1, he tries to earn his father’s approval back by shooting the sheriff. Oddly, it works, and Ward lets him move back in. Throughout Season 2, he continues to do just about anything — allegedly in the name of his father — even at one point trying to strangle Sarah because she sides with John B over their family.

In Season 3, Rafe melts down the Cross of Santo Domingo that belongs to Pope’s family,  and Ward names him the man of the house before jetting off on a private plane with Sarah and the rest of the Pogues. Ward’s never seen again, so, of course, Rafe blames his sister for the loss of their father. 

Despite that, Rafe shows a softer side in Season 4, when he begins dating Sofia. The two are briefly engaged but are torn apart by a business deal gone bad. Though he’s no longer planning for forever with Sofia, he does manage to mend his relationship with Sarah. After she reveals that Ward gave up his life to save her, Rafe agrees to join forces with the Pogues in their search for the Blue Crown.

Queer, The Other Zoey, The Devil All the Time, Scream

We meet Sofia in Season 3 and see Rafe take a romantic interest in her when he hosts a party at Tannyhill. She doesn’t seem like she’s part of Rafe’s usual Kook crowd, though, as she works catering and bartending jobs. 

In Season 4, Fiona continues to be Rafe’s romantic interest, but after overhearing him claim that he would never date a Pogue, she convinces him to get involved in a shady development deal. When he takes the bait, earning her a payout, Sofia feels guilty but doesn’t confess — and instead accepts his marriage proposal. By the end of the season, Rafe finds out about the scheme and breaks things off with her.

El Roomie, Control Z, Journey to Bethlehem, ¡Qué despadre!, La Negociadora, Gossip Girl: Acapulco

Topper is a Kook — and proud of it. He basks in his wealth and hates the Pogues. At the start of the series, he’s dating Sarah. Even when she breaks up with him to date (and later marry) John B, Topper won’t let her go. He loves her deeply, even going so far as to help her escape with John B in Season 1 and to attack his best friend, Rafe, in Season 2 in order to save her. 

In Season 3, let’s be honest, Topper is still wrapped around Sarah’s finger when she comes back from Poguelandia. She even convinces him to lend the Pogues his truck and leans on him when she and John B go through a rough patch. But after she ditches him for John B (again), Top really lets his rage and jealousy catch fire — literally — to the point where he burns down John B’s house. 

By Season 4, Topper has moved on — kind of — and is now dating Ruthie (Mia Challis).

One Fast Move, Beautiful Wedding, I Didn’t Do It, Kickin’ It,  A.N.T. Farm

Ruthie is a wild child with a toxic streak who develops a close relationship with Topper.

FBI: International, Clickbait

Nine months before the series premiere, Big John goes missing while trying to find the Royal Merchant. His disappearance is what causes his son, John B, to begin his own treasure hunt. 

Over the course of Season 1, we learn that Big John was actually looking for the wrecked ship with Ward Cameron, who injured him and left him for dead — only he didn’t die. At the end of Season 2, we discover that he was rescued and has been recovering in Barbados all this time. 

Big John finally reunites with John B in Season 3, pulling his son away from the Pogues to seek El Dorado together. Big John’s obsession with treasure makes John B question his dad’s priorities, but ultimately Big John chooses his son when it counts, blowing up the entrance to the City of Gold in order to save John B’s life. Big John is shot on the journey, and he succumbs to his wounds in the finale, leaving his son to mourn him … again.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Constantine, Rectify, The Walking Dead, True Detective

Sarah’s father, Ward, may live in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods of the Outer Banks, but he didn’t start out there. In fact, like John B, he grew up in the Cut and went on to become a real estate developer. Although he initially comes off as a friendly, nice guy — even going so far as adopting John B when his father disappears — it doesn’t take long for his manipulative, evil ways to show through.

He knows all about the treasure of the Royal Merchant and is willing to harm anyone who gets in his way of finding it, even his own daughter. At the end of Season 2, Ward is seen recovering from a head wound and promising his son, Rafe, that they will get Sarah back and he’ll find redemption. Ultimately, Ward saves Sarah when she needs him most, taking bullets for her when the hunt for El Dorado comes to a close in the Season 3 finale — and leaving her and Rafe fatherless.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Nashville, Enlightened, The Office, Big Love, Party of Five

Rose is married to Ward and stepmother to Rafe, Sarah, and Wheezie. Apart from that, we don’t know a ton about her — except that she’s willing to scheme and connive just as much as her husband. 

Minx, The Resident, The Walking Dead, Stranger Things, Dr. Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets

Groff is first introduced in Season 4 as a grief-stricken widower. After his wife, Larissa (Tommi Rose), dies, he and his father-in-law, Wes Genrette, welcome the Pogues to a new adventure. The two enlist the group’s help in tracking down an amulet that they claim will break the family curse that caused Larissa’s death. But the whole thing turns out to be a ruse. 

In reality, Groff is JJ’s biological father and only wanted help finding the amulet in order to eventually get his hands on an even more valuable treasure: the Blue Crown. 
 

Originally from the Cut, the conman is wanted by Interpol for counterfeiting, art forgery, and laundering. He was once able to escape arrest in Morocco with help from a group of mercenaries known as the Lupine Corsairs, whom he double-crosses over and over throughout Season 4. 

Groff also has five passports and was married four times under different names, including to Larissa — whom he killed, by the way. And that’s not the last loved one he turns on. In the Season 4 finale, Groff heartlessly kills JJ and runs off with the crown.

Dead Ringers, Billions

Luke Maybank is not the most respected father figure on the Cut. A heavy drinker and drug user, he’s physically abusive to his son JJ, and he knows exactly how to pour salt in JJ’s wounds — wounds that Luke himself created. It’s no wonder JJ considers the Pogues his real family.

In Season 2, JJ helps Luke escape jail and, in Season 4, the two are reunited when Luke reveals that he is not JJ’s biological father. The deceased Larissa Genrette is his real mother, and Groff is his dad. 

Sweet Magnolias, Fly Me to the Moon, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Spider-Man: Homecoming, Five Feet Apart

The daughter of Wes Genrette, Larissa was the heiress to Blackstone Manor on Goat Island. She died years ago in a mysterious drowning. Before her death, she was married to Chandler Groff and had a son who, it turns out, is JJ.

Sweet Magnolias, Catch a Killer, Misfit: The Series, L.O.L. Surprise: The Movie, and the Royalteen films (as the voice of Princess Margrethe in the English versions)

Kiara’s mother, Anna, was born and raised as a Kook. She does not approve of her daughter’s relationship with Pogues John B, JJ, and Pope — so she tries to forbid Kiara from seeing them (to little avail). She can’t even keep Kiara away from the Pogues when she and her husband, Mike, send her away to a wilderness camp in Season 3.

The Queen’s Gambit, Godless, City on a Hill, Tales of the City

Mike is married to Anna and father to Kiara. He’s a successful chef and operates a busy restaurant called the Wreck, where Kie sometimes works. Mike will occasionally give her friends free food, but their relationship grows strained the closer she gets to the Pogues — and JJ.

Sweet Magnolias, Criminal Minds, The Company You Keep, Line Sisters

Pope’s father, Bobby Heyward, is known around the island simply as Heyward. He’s a fishmonger who owns the seafood shop that serves Pogues and Kooks alike on the island. 

Like the Carreras, he’s not a fan of Pope hanging out with John B and JJ. He’s a descendant of Denmark Tanny, a key figure in the treasure hunt of Season 2. He is deeply invested in his son and his future, and takes a liking to Cleo — and her jerk shrimp recipe — in Season 3.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, American Made, The Quad, Ambitions, Terror Lake Drive

Introduced as the deputy of the Kildare County Police in Season 1, Shoupe is always on the Pogues’ case for one thing or another. He arrests JJ for sinking Topper’s boat and leads a manhunt for John B, believing that he killed Shoupe’s friend, Sheriff Susan Peterkin. In Season 2, he works out that the Camerons may actually be to blame for Sheriff Peterkin’s death, but his plans to carry out an arrest are thwarted when Ward fakes his own death in front of the deputy. 

Shoupe becomes Sheriff of Kildare County in Season 3 and, throughout Season 4, he diligently investigates Wes Genrette’s (David Jensen) death — to which, of course, the Pogues are connected. By the end of the season, however, Sheriff Shoupe understands just how much of a threat Groff poses and allows the Pogues, including Rafe, to pursue him to Morocco.

Your Honor, The Staircase, The Righteous Gemstones

As a drug dealer on Kildare Island, Barry works with — and double-crosses — both Kooks and Pogues. In Season 1, he and Rafe have a sketchy business partnership that leaves Rafe in debt to the dealer. The Pogues also get into hot water with Barry after stealing $25K from his place. 

The murky alliance between Rafe and Barry continues in Season 2. Barry initially helps his Kook frenemy get rid of the gun used to kill Sheriff Peterkin, but sells him out by the end of the season. The two team up once again in Season 3, joining forces to melt  the Cross of Santo Domingo and take down Ward — though Rafe definitely has regrets about the latter.

The 4:30 Movie, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Poker Face

The biggest realtor on the island — who previously worked with Ward in a successful business deal — Hollis now has her eye on Rafe for a new venture.

Dynasty, Eastsiders

Wes Genrette is a mysterious new character introduced in the Season 3 finale. When the Pogues are honored 18 months after finding El Dorado, he approaches them with an offer of a new adventure: locating Blackbeard’s treasure. And what, pray tell, does John B say to that? “Hot damn.” In Season 4, Wes pieces together that his son-in-law, Groff, is JJ’s biological father, then dies under mysterious circumstances.

Queen Sugar, Midnight Special, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Ocean’s Eleven

A member of the Lupine Corsair mercenaries, Lightner is an imposing stranger with a piratical nerve. The dangerous and calculating outdoorsman tests the Pogues as they search for various treasures, including the Blue Crown, in Season 4. He kidnaps Cleo and kills Terrance, but is eventually taken down by Pope in the season finale.

Animal Kingdom, Station 19

Dalia is the leader of the Lupine Corsairs and a worldly baddie on a plunder who intercepts the Pogues on their journey to find the Blue Crown.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, Double Blind

Anton Finch is the billionaire behind the Lupine Corsairs. Dalia may be the mercenaries’ leader, but Finch is running the show and bankrolling the operation. Groff once worked under him but made a dangerous enemy of Finch when he stole Blackbeard’s captain log from the Corsairs so he could go after the Blue Crown for himself in Season 4.

Ruthless, Godfather of Harlem, Dexter: Resurrection, NCIS: New Orleans

A Caribbean don, Carlos first appears in Season 3. Despite being an extremely wealthy man living in Barbados, Carlos isn’t content with the riches he’s already amassed and is on a quest to find the city of gold, El Dorado. He’s pretty ruthless — not to mention dangerous — in his pursuit of the treasure. But his greed proves fatal, and all his scheming blows up — literally — when he’s killed by Big John’s dynamite in the Season 3 finale.

The Handmaid's Tale, Nurses, Station Eleven, Disappearance at Clifton Hill

Carla Limbrey is introduced in Season 2 as a wealthy treasure seeker from Charleston, South Carolina. She has her sights set on Pope and his family, specifically the Denmark Key. She explains to him how an enslaved person named Denmark Tanny survived the Royal Merchant shipwreck and wanted to buy his wife and child’s freedom with what he saved from the ship. Instead, he was killed by Carla’s ancestors. 

Carla has a keen interest in finding this key and what it leads to: the Cross of Santo Domingo. Carla suffers from an unknown illness, and the cross is said to contain a shroud that has healing powers. She’ll stop at nothing to get it — but unfortunately there’s no cure in it for her. At the end of Season 2, we see her approaching (the alive!) Big John to team up in finding the shroud. 

To placate her in Season 3, Big John and John B give her a (fake) shroud. Once it’s in her hands, she starts to walk again. But is the “cure” real or a placebo effect? That’s a mystery for another time.

Lost, The Santa Clauses, First Kill, The Expanse, Once Upon a Time, Revolution