Warning: This article contains spoilers for Outer Banks season 4.

Outer Banks season 4 is brimming with shocking twists and turns. Among them is the split-second decision that beloved Pogue Pope Heyward (Jonathan Daviss Jr.) makes to shoot and kill Lightner (Rigo Sanchez). Pope is the most levelheaded member of the Pogues who previously wouldn’t have taken such drastic measures. However, since the show’s inception, the Pogues have found themselves facing off with powerful forces and the local socioeconomic politics of the wealthy Kooks. Pope’s killing of Lightner will likely result in a major change in his future character arc.

Lightner was a violent member of the ruthless Lupine Corsairs, a group after some of the world’s rarest artifacts at the cost of anyone in their way. Earlier in season 4, Lightner kills Captain Terrance (Terence Rosemore), who was like a surrogate father to Pope’s girlfriend Cleo Anderson (Carlacia Grant). Terrance additionally saves John B. Routledge (Chase Stokes) and Sarah Cameron’s (Madelyn Cline) lives in season three when the pair are stranded in the Caribbean. Cleo encourages Pope to shoot Lightner to avenge Terrance’s murder, inverting an earlier scene.

Pope Killing Lightner In Outer Banks Season 4 Tragically Reverses His Decision With Rafe In Season 3

Pope Was Always The Voice Of Reason In Outer Banks

Pope and JJ on the dock in Outer Banks season 4 Jonathan Daviss as Pope in Outer Banks season 4 Carlacia Grant as Cleo in Outer Banks season 4 (1)
Pope and Carla Limbrey, played by actor Jonathan Daviss and actress Elizabeth Mitchell, in Netflix's Outer Banks. Actor Drew Starkey as Rafe fighting Groff in Netflix’s Outer Banks. Pope and JJ on the dock in Outer Banks season 4 Jonathan Daviss as Pope in Outer Banks season 4
Carlacia Grant as Cleo in Outer Banks season 4 (1) Pope and Carla Limbrey, played by actor Jonathan Daviss and actress Elizabeth Mitchell, in Netflix's Outer Banks. Actor Drew Starkey as Rafe fighting Groff in Netflix’s Outer Banks.

Pope’s decision to shoot Lightner directly opposes his character’s earlier logic, when he nearly shoots the violent and morally gray Rafe Cameron (Drew Starkey) in Outer Banks season 3, after he steals his ancestral family heirloom. This actually allows Rafe’s redemption arc in Outer Banks season 4 to happen. Pope starts Outer Banks as a highly motivated student pursuing a scholarship to attend college. He is a history buff and often the voice of reason who brings his lifelong friends back to earth from their treasure-hunting aspirations.

While JJ Maybank (Rudy Pankow) is often rash and lands the group in danger, Pope is measured and methodical. When he has the opportunity to kill the unstable Rafe when he steals the Cross of Domingo, Cleo talks him down, and Pope is unable to kill Rafe due to his strong morals. Pope’s fatal shooting of the ruthless Lightner is going to haunt him in Outer Banks’ fifth and final season due to his typical peaceful nature. It is also not only a reversal of logic but of Cleo’s role in the matter when she argues for him to kill Lightner.

Why Pope Really Decides To Kill Lightner In Outer Banks Season 4 & What It Means For Season 5

Lightner Represents All The Pogues Have Lost

The confrontation between Terrance, Lightner, Pope, and Cleo in Netflix's Outer Banks.

Lightner represents all that the Pogues have struggled against throughout Outer Banks. Not only does he kill Terrance, the only family Cleo had, but he also violently hunts the Blue Crown solely for its wealth, while the Pogues appreciate the artifact’s history. Throughout their lives, the Pogues have lost family members and been subject to poverty and other systemic issues in rural America. Lightner trying to take that away from them after all that they had been through is Pope’s final straw.


Now that JJ has also died, Pope will cope with complex feelings of grief in Outer Banks season 5. Not only was his best friend murdered, but he is now also a murderer. Outer Banks leaves the main group out for revenge against Chandler Groff (J. Anthony Crane) for killing JJ, planning on following him to Portugal. At the same time, Lightner’s crew are likely after the Pogues for revenge as well. Time will only tell which group will take revenge first, and what the consequences will be.