A Josh Pate, Jonas Pate, and Shannon Burke creation, Netflix’s ‘Outer Banks’ revolves around a group of teenagers searching for gold on and around the eponymous barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina. In the first two seasons, the search has been for the Royal Merchant gold and the Cross of Santo Domingo. In season 3, the attention shifts to the fabled El Dorado. The diary mentioned here is the journal of Denmark Tanny, the sole survivor of the Royal Merchant shipwreck. At the start of season 3, Kiara or Kie (Madison Bailey) encounters Carlos Singh, the primary antagonist of the season, who reveals that the diary holds the key to the search for El Dorado. If you are wondering who has the diary in ‘Outer Banks,’ we got you covered. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Quest for the Diary
When season 3 begins, John B (Chase Stokes) and his friends are stranded on the remote Caribbean island they name “Poguelandia.” After they are seemingly rescued, they begin to realize that something is wrong. The group reaches Barbados, and Kie is separated from the rest. She is taken to Carlos Singh’s property, where she encounters Rafe (Drew Starkey), who has come to Barbados believing that Singh will buy the Cross. It turns out that Singh wants Denmark Tanny’s diary.
Rafe and Kie soon discover that Singh is capable of murdering people to get what he wants after the Caribbean don shoots the pilot that brought Kie and her friends to Barbados. Kie and Rafe realize that if they want to escape, they have to work together. When Singh goes to meet Kie’s friends, she and Rafe take the opportunity and flee. Kie later tricks Rafe, shoves him off his boat, and drives away to save her friends.
While looking for Kie and hiding from Singh’s men, John B hears the church bell and recognizes that it’s ringing in the same tune as his father once used to call him home. After an emotional reunion between the father and son, John B discovers that Big John is as obsessed as he has always been about treasures.
Big John takes his son to meet an old acquaintance of his, Arjun, who hands over one-half of a Mesoamerican statue. Big John refers to it as the Signpost of Orinoco, while his former professor, Dr. Sowell, later calls it the Gnomon of Solana. Even though Singh and his men soon arrive, the father-and-son duo evades capture and returns to OBX.
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Big John explicitly tells his son not to get Sarah and his other friends involved in their treasure hunt and reveals why the diary is important. The gold on the Royal Merchant and the Cross originally came from El Dorado, and the diary might contain the whereabouts of the second half of the stature. John B and his friends had a copy of the original diary, but as Big John finds out, it was left in the Twinkie, the van the group uses, and destroyed because of the rainwater that came in through the open windows. John B and his father subsequently visit John B’s teacher Mr. Sunn as the original diary was left with him. They find him injured and the diary gone.
Realizing that the two mercenaries we have seen in previous seasons have taken it, John B and Big John give chase. They try to reason with the other two men, offering them a hefty cut of the treasure. But when Big John realizes that these people intend to kill his son, he acts first and shoots them both. With the diary in their possession, John B and Big John figure out that the second half of the statue is in the archives of Charleston Museum.
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