Chandler Groff may be Outer Banks’ worst villain to date; here’s why he murdered this character in Season 4.

Season 4 of Netflix’s Outer Banks introduced fans to Chandler Groff, a new villain whose murder of an integral character left fans questioning why.

The fourth season of the hit drama found the Pogues (check out Outer Banks full Season 4, Part 2 cast) caught up in a new treasure hunt with ties to Rudy Pankow’s JJ Maybank, a historic family, and a decades-old Outer Banks murder.

Is Larissa Alive in Outer Banks?

In Part 1 of Outer Banks Season 4, the Pogues were approached by Wes Genrette, the patriarch of an old Kildare Island family, with an offer to find treasure belonging to Blackbeard.

According to Wes, his family was cursed due to the Genrette’s involvement in killing the legendary pirate, a curse he believed caused his daughter, Larissa, and her infant son to drown years prior.

In learning the tale, the Pogues also met Chandler Groff, Wes’ grieving son-in-law. But that’s not all audiences and the Pogues learn about Groff and Larissa.

Season 4’s Part 1 twist was that Larissa Genrette was JJ’s real mom, and he was the baby everyone assumed had drowned. In reality, Larissa had befriended Luke Maybank, who admired her kindness and sympathized with her troubled marriage to Groff. As a favor to her, he agreed to raise JJ as his own.

Since JJ survived, the question heading into Part 2 of Season 4 was whether Larissa survived. And, while her drowning was proved to be staged, JJ discovers his mother is truly dead when he and Groff recover an item from her casket.

How & Why Groff Off’d Larissa

In a Part 2 flashback, audiences saw Groff beat Larissa with a candlestick during an argument, which resulted in her death.

Groff then weaponizes Wes Genrette’s belief in the Blackbeard curse to avoid becoming a suspect in her murder, a superstition he later uses to kill Wes in Part 1.

His motivation in killing the Genrettes and concealing JJ’s survival was to ensure he would be next in line to inherit the family’s ancestral home and the valuable Outer Banks property, Goat Island.

But Groff’s plan changes when Wes’ will reveals Goat Island is to become a nature preserve, leading him with one final play: to pursue Blackbeard’s Blue Crown at all costs.

By the end of Outer Banks Season 4, Groff kills JJ, the only surviving member of the Genrette family and his and Larissa’s son, setting up the Pogues’ Season 5 mission to take back the Blue Crown and avenge their friend.

Seasons 1-4 of Outer Banks are streaming on Netflix.