Warning: This story contains major spoilers for season four of Netflix's Outer Banks.
The Pogues made the most of a heartbreaking moment.
Josh Pate and Shannon Burke—who co-created Outer Banks and co-wrote the show's season four finale—revealed that the Netflix series' cast had somewhat positive reactions to their decision to kill off beloved character Jackson "JJ" Maybank at the end of the fourth installment.
In fact, Rudy Pankow, who plays JJ on the show, was actually on board with the idea of his character facing a tragic fate from the start.
"He seemed excited about it," Shannon exclusively told E! News. "Like, just the idea of doing a death, dying scene, in the abstract."
Rudy also had a lot of time to prepare for the big moment, as Josh recalled coming up with the idea to kill off one of the Pogues early on in the teen drama's development and pitching it to the 26-year-old shortly after.
"It was actually an idea that was almost present from the beginning of the series that, at some point, one of the Pogues would die," the screenwriter explained. "By the second season, we realized it would be JJ. And we even talked about it with Rudy far off in the future, like, 'When this character goes, it might be in Kiara’s arms.'”
As for his castmates Madison Bailey (Kiara "Kie" Carrera), Madelyn Cline (Sarah Cameron), Chase Stokes (John B Routledge), Drew Starkey (Rafe Cameron), Austin North (Topper Thornton) and Carlacia Grant (Cleo Anderson)? Jonas Pate—who co-created Outer Banks alongside Josh and Shannon, as well as directed season four's final episode—shared that the stars found out about the shocking ending after it'd been solidified in ink.
"They didn't find out until pretty late," Jonas told E!. "Honestly, not until the draft of the final episode got to them."
But once they were cued into the storyline, Rudy's costars certainly had a mix of feelings.
Joking that their initial thought was probably, "'Thank god it's not me,'" Jonas explained, "They were emotional about it, because they love Rudy. The cast are good friends."
And of course, the actors' top priority was making sure his death received the onscreen treatment that it deserved. As Jonas put it, "Everyone just sort of rallied around the story."
"Everyone really wanted to make it as emotional and as compelling as it could be," he continued. "And they just jumped on board."
Ultimately, "emotional" wound up being an understatement for how JJ's final moments felt for Shannon.
"I can’t watch it without crying," he shared. "The whole story comes together there, and it comes to a really emotional conclusion, and then seeing the flashbacks of the younger Rudy, it’s just really emotional on so many different levels."
Shannon added, "I don’t want to say it's my 'favorite' scene because it’s heart wrenching—it’s like a dagger to the heart—but it’s effective and it’s satisfying in a way that it’s a fitting conclusion to his character."
Part one and part two of Outer Banks season four are now streaming on Netflix. For more shows to add to your watchlist once you've caught up, keep reading.
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