A Much-Needed Explainer On How All The OBX Treasures Are Connected
It's... a lot.
Each season of Outer Banks, the Pogues’ treasure hunt gets more and more complicated, and Season 3 added a ton of confusing new layers to the show’s fictional history. At this point, between the Royal Merchant’s gold, the Cross of Santo Domingo, and the lost city of El Dorado, it’s hard to keep all these extravagant prizes straight. If you’re in need to a quick explainer, look no further — here’s how all the Outer Banks treasures are related, and where they’re currently located by the end of Season 3.
There are three main treasures in Outer Banks so far, and they’re all connected by one person: Denmark Tanny. Tanny survived the crash of the ship he was on, the Royal Merchant, and used the wealth of gold that was on board to buy the freedom of all the enslaved people on Kildare Island. But Tanny still had plenty of gold left over after that, so he buried the rest of his wheat-imprinted gold bars on the island, and hid the jewel-encrusted Cross of Santo Domingo that he also saved from the shipwreck in his nearby church.
Unfortunately, at the end of Season 2, Ward and Rafe Cameron had stolen both the gold and the cross from the Pogues, who initially found them.
Spoiler alert: The rest of this post contains spoilers from throughout Outer Banks Season 3. The third season added a new layer to Tanny’s history, and the most sought-after treasure of all. As it turned out, the gold and the cross were just the tip of the iceberg — they were originally from the mythical lost city of gold El Dorado. John B’s dad was actually searching for El Dorado all along, not just the bit of gold Tanny buried.
The treasure hunter explained that another passenger was close with Tanny aboard the Royal Merchant, a priest from a far-off land. It was this priest who told Tanny about El Dorado, revealing that the gold on the ship was taken from the golden city. So basically, all of the gold the Pogues have been after this whole time was from El Dorado.
At the end of Season 3, John B and Sarah got to see El Dorado for themselves, but were only able to extract a couple chunks of gold before the tunnel leading to the city exploded, closing it off forever. But at least the Pogues got one win. Although Rafe is still in possession of Tanny’s gold and the melted-down Cross of Santo Domingo at the end of Season 3, the Pogues finally have some gold of their own, which they got straight from the source.
