Outer Banks – Season 3 Episode 6 “The Dark Forest” Recap & Review

The Dark Forest

Episode 6 of Outer Banks Season 3 starts with John B reflecting on the grand adventures he used to be told by his father as a child. However, he’s now seen the true horrors of what these treasure hunts entail, including bloodshed, betrayals and death. It’s not quite the glamorous ordeal he once thought it was.

John B picks up his father’s cues and tells his friends that their trip to Charleston was a complete bust. Quite why he’s lying to all of his friends is another matter, but Sarah attempts to try and convince John B to speak the truth in private. He refuses though, as contrived angst becomes the dish of the day. Sarah leaves in a huff, while the others go their separate ways too.

John B and Big John head off on the road again, this time intent on finding Kelly Kepler, an old friend from grad school. Unfortunately, she’s been killed. She had just got back from an expedition in South America, along with several other professors, where she’d made a big discovery regarding a ruin in the jungle. There’s no way this is a coincidence and it could well be Singh’s handiwork.

John B isn’t the only one working with betrayals. Rafe betrays his father, pointing out that he’s dead to everyone back home and as such, he’s going to stay and grow the family business. He also shrugs off the missing cross too, and puts his father in his place.

As per the usual teen drama tropes, Sarah heads back to see Topper and after drinking a bit, the pair agree to go to a big party. JJ meanwhile, heads down to the dock and notices Barry and Rafe on their boat discussing the gold. He eavesdrops and realizes what they’re up to. He feeds this back to Pope, who’s down in the dumps after realizing that he’s been dropped to the lower-grade classes thanks to missing a bunch of time at school.

As a result, Pope decides to quite outright. This blow is only made worse when Pope learns the cross has been melted down. “I’m sick of being the good guy,” He says, and heads off.

Meanwhile, Big John shows up to see his old partner, Dr Tommy Sowell. He claims that Big John betrayed him in the past. Tommy’s skittish nature continues when he notices the statue, now in one piece. Tommy is concerned and tells the pair to stay away as this is going to get dangerous. He points out a spot to put the statue but before he can complete the sentence, an assassin shows up and knocks Tommy down with a killer dart. Big John tries to get away but he’s caught by Singh, who shows up and holds him at gunpoint.

Big John gets his leverage though, pointing out that Singh needs a translator in order to find the treasure. He’s the only one alive able to translate this statue, given he just killed the other (Tommy). As a result, Big John is taken away and to the boat with Singh, while John B is left at gunpoint and facing certain death. Thankfully, he manages to throw sand in the goon’s eyes and hurry away.

Meanwhile, Sarah ends up drinking with Topper and under the light of the fire, he apologizes to her and admits he just wants her to be happy. He kisses her on the cheek, so in reply Sarah decides to properly kiss him. When she awakens on the beach, she finds herself in his arms, the realization that she’s cheated on John B haunting her.

When John B drives back home again, JJ is there to confront him. John B admits everything to his friend, including how two people died and the crazy situation he’s found himself in. Understandably, JJ is not happy that John has kept this from everyone.

Speaking of secrets, Ward touches back down, ready to confront his son.

The Episode Review

The “I have crucial information I’m not going to tell anyone so the plot can happen” trope is one of the laziest in cinema. It’s something that’s plagued romcoms for years and even before that, through numerous different movies when a simple conversation would have sufficed to clear everything up. Here, there seems to be no clear reason why John B is lying to his friends, especially Sarah.

Even worse, there’s absolutely no fallout to the train robbery from before, nor does there seem to be any media attention over the fact Big John is back after all these years, with his face plastered all over the Tv screens! The fact that no media personnel has even tried to get an interview with him belies belief.

This lack of consequence seems to spill over to Sarah too, who has now cheated on John B after their first argument. It remains to be seen whether there will be consequences for this or not.

Hopefully this chapter is just a blip but after a pretty good start, the poor writing is just starting to show now.