Outer Banks tells the story of two distinct groups in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the working-class Pogues and the upper-class Kooks. When John B’s (Chase Stokes) father goes missing, he enlists his Pogue friends Pope (Jonathan Daviss), JJ (Rudy Pankow) and Kiara (Madison Bailey) to help him finish the treasure hunt that his father started. This quest leads to many clashes with the Kooks on the island, including Sarah Cameron (Madelyn Cline), her father Ward (Charles Esten) and her brother Rafe (Drew Starkey), who are also seeking the golden treasure.

Rafe Cameron (Drew Starkey) is the eldest child in one of the most respected and wealthy families in the Outer Banks, but is never able to live up to his potential in his father’s eyes. Rafe’s desire to be respected by his father compels him to take extreme measures to find the treasure that his father seeks and to accumulate wealth of his own, regardless of who he has to hurt or what he has to do. In a cast of characters willing to do anything to get what they want, Rafe stands out as the one who will always go the extra mile.

He Melts the Cross of Santo Domingo Down

Season 3, Episode 5

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While John B and his father are looking for a clue to find the city of gold in Charleston, the rest of the Pogues are looking for a way to Wilmington, where a train with the Cross of Santo Domingo is leaving that night. With the help of Sarah’s ex, Topper (Austin North), and his truck, Cleo (Carlacia Grant), Pope, JJ, Kiara and Sarah manage to stop the train long enough to extract the Cross from one of the cars. Despite their best efforts, they attract the attention of the police and a chase ensues. During the chase, the crate containing the Cross falls out of the truck, and they discover that they never had the Cross in the first place. Barry (Nicholas Cirillo) and Rafe planted a decoy.

The Pogues are looking for the Cross because it belongs to Pope’s family, and not only is it a family heirloom, but it also holds monetary value for those of the Pogues who don’t have unlimited capital from their wealthy families. Rafe, who comes from the wealthy Cameron family, doesn’t need more money, but he’s greedy for both money and power, so he steals the Cross to melt it down. This action, that even his friend Barry can’t believe he’s going through with, proves that Rafe does not care about the historical or sentimental value of the items he’s hunting for, he just cares about money, making his theft of the Cross that much more upsetting.

He Leaves Cecilia Tanny’s Grave Ransacked

Season 2, Episode 8

The Pogues are walking through the forest and swamp looking for where Denmark Tanny has buried the Cross of Santo Domingo when they hear trucks and people heading in the same direction. They’ve been beaten to the site by Rafe, Renfield (Jesse C. Boyd) and Carla Limbrey (Elizabeth Mitchell), who have brought a bulldozer to tear up the ground. What they discover, though, is not the Cross, but the grave site of Cecilia Tanny, Denmark’s wife. After they realize the casket they’ve dug up contains the remnants of Cecilia rather than the Cross, they leave the site completely ransacked to continue the search for the Cross.

The Pogues can do nothing but stand and watch as the Limbreys and Rafe decimate Cecilia Tanny’s final resting place. When Pope walks out to his ancestors’ grave, him and his friends take a moment to acknowledge where they are, and that the treasure that Denmark was referring to in his clue was his wife, not the Cross. It’s this history and sentimental value that Rafe and his accomplices are completely missing in their quest for the Cross. They are so greedy in their hunt for more wealth, that they are willing to disturb someone’s grave, and then leave it destroyed when they don’t find what they want.

5He Admits He Doesn’t Feel Bad for Shooting Sarah

Season 2, Episode 3

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When Rafe and Ward find John B and Sarah in the Bahamas while securing the gold that they stole from the Pogues, Rafe fires at them, aiming at John B. His bullet ends up hitting Sarah, but his father doesn’t believe that it was even Sarah that they saw. Rafe and Ward go to the Bahamian authorities to tell them that Sarah is missing and has been brainwashed by John B, who has stolen their gold from their property. Rafe admits to his father that it was Sarah that they saw, and that he shot her.

Ward, as he still favors Sarah, is deeply concerned that Sarah is hurt, and is now equally concerned that Rafe shot his own sister and does not seem to feel any remorse about it. Rafe says that he doesn’t care that he shot Sarah because she is against their family. She has sided with the Pogues, stolen from her own family, and he thinks that she will be the end of them. Rafe, in his quest for his father’s attention and love, has decided that all the Pogues, Sarah now included, are the enemy, and he is no longer interested in pretending to be a good person if it means he loses.

He Lights the Bell Tower on Fire

Season 1, Episode 9

When the whole town is looking for John B after he is accused of murdering Sheriff Peterkin (Adina Porter), Rafe joins in on the manhunt to fuel the fire for John B’s head, and to sell the story that he was not involved. Meanwhile, Sarah finds John B hiding out in the bell tower, a special place for the two of them. Rafe and his friend Kelce (Deion Smith) follow the two to the bell tower, and are looking for a way to get John B down from the second level. Rafe opts to use a lighter to set the place on fire and smoke them out of hiding.

Rafe is so desperate to frame John B for the murder that he committed that he is willing to set a church on fire just to get John B to come out and face the police and angry mob. He doesn’t say that he wants to kill him, but Rafe does say that “this is war,” before he leaves the premises. Rafe is not opposed to injuring anyone when he does this, and even provokes the crowd and the police to rile them up against John B. Rafe showed fans early on that even when he isn’t trying to kill anyone, he shows very little regard for the lives of those he sees as enemies.

He Tries to Drown Kiara in the Sewer

Season 2, Episode 2

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After Pope, Kiara and JJ witness Ward murder Gavin (Adam Vernier), the pilot of the plane that Ward called to take the gold to the Bahamas at the end of season 1, for blackmailing him with the truth about the murder of Sheriff Peterkin, they set out to find the murder weapon, which was washed away in the rain, before Ward does. Finding this gun would mean that the Pogues could prove who shot the sheriff, and save John B. Unfortunately, the gun washes away into the sewer.

Kiara goes into the storm drain to look for the gun, but when Barry and Rafe, who are at another storm drain, hear her talking to JJ and Pope in the sewer, Rafe makes the decision to flush out the sewer. Barry knows that that will kill whoever is in the sewer, but Rafe is determined to not only get rid of the evidence of the murder he committed, but also get rid of anyone who knows that he did it. This is another moment when Rafe doesn’t show any regard for human life, even when someone he trusts is telling him that it’s a step too far.

He Shoots Sheriff Peterkin

Season 1, Episode 8

The heat has finally caught up to Ward Cameron by the end of “The Runway.” John B has discovered all that Ward has done to his family and Pope has discovered where Ward is taking the gold that he stole. John B drives his car in front of Ward’s plane to stop him, and to save Sarah from being taken to the Bahamas with him. Little does John B know that Sheriff Peterkin has been building a case against Ward this whole time, and it looks like justice will finally be served to the Kooks. That is until Rafe, in a last ditch effort to show his father that he’s worthy of his love and attention, shoots the sheriff.

Rafe was always a little bit off throughout the first season of the show. He can never seem to get on his father’s good side, he has disdain for his younger sister Sarah, he harasses the Pogues, and he has done some dealing with illegal substances. But the moment he sees the opportunity to prove himself to his father by saving him from being arrested by Sheriff Peterkin, he takes it to the extreme by shooting her. Not realizing that his rash decision will actually just snowball into more criminal activity and cover-ups by his family, Rafe ignores all his better judgment and shoots the sheriff in cold blood for actually bringing someone to justice, without even batting an eye.

He Tries to Drown Sarah

Season 2, Episode 5

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John B is in prison for the murder of Sheriff Peterkin and his friends are doing their best to get him out. Sarah is reaching out to her younger sister Wheezie (Julia Antonelli) for help, but when Rafe intercepts Wheezie’s phone, he decides to pretend to be her to get Sarah alone. When he surprises Sarah at the docks, he tries to get their stories straight about the murder of Peterkin, but when Sarah refuses to go along with his plan to lie about what happened, he grows angry.

Sarah is committed to doing the right thing, no matter how painful it is to have to expose one’s family, but Rafe’s idea of doing the right thing is sticking with one’s family, no matter what. Rafe’s perspective only allows him to see things as for the cause or against it, and to him, Sarah has been against the cause for far too long and must be stopped. In his fit of rage, he tries to drown Sarah in a tub of water on the dock, and the only reason he doesn’t succeed is that Topper shows up and incapacitates him. Rafe’s black-and-white view of the world as for him or against him gets him into hot water frequently in Outer Banks, but trying to murder his own sister is definitely the worst instance of Rafe going too far.