Outer Banks fans believe they’ve hunted down a treasure chest of drama.
Rumors of a feud between Rudy Pankow (who plays Jackson “JJ” Maybank on the Netflix series) and Madison Bailey (Kiara Carrera) began circulating after season four viewers pointed out that it appeared the costars—who are romantic partners onscreen—used body doubles to film a PDA-filled scene in the finale.
During the episode 10 moment, Kiara rested her head on JJ’s shoulder while they sat around the campfire with the rest of the Pogues, including Madelyn Cline‘s Sarah Cameron, Chase Stoke‘s John B Routledge, Jonathan Daviss‘ Pope Heyward and Carlacia Grant‘s Cleo Anderson. However, each time the camera cut to the couple, only one of their faces could be seen in the frame.
Following the release of the finale, some viewers speculated that the edited shots were a sign there might have been some bad blood between Rudy and Madison on set, though sources have told multiple outlets that there is no feud.
“This is just insane,” one user wrote on X Nov. 7. “The fact that Rudy and Madison refused to record it together and they had to use stunt double just shows their unprofessionalism to their work. And they weren’t even supposed to be doing anything huge in that scene, just hugging a bit.”