Fans Think JJ And Kiara Are Truly The Main Event Of Outer Banks Season 3

Set alongside the scenic coastline of North Carolina, "Outer Banks" follows in the tradition of teen dramas like "One Tree Hill" and "Dawson's Creek" that came before it. Throw in a treasure hunt and clashing factions of social classes (think "The Goonies" meets "The Outsiders" with, uh, more murder) and you have a recipe for Netflix gold. Now in its third season, "Outer Banks" is the streamer's most popular show, and the current season has, as of this writing, over 150 million hours viewed.

Aside from all the adventure genre trappings of plane crashes, island hopping, and arson, "Outer Banks" borrows from the teen drama playbook when it comes to romance. There is, of course, the show's central love triangle between Sarah (Madelyn Cline), John B (Chase Stokes), and the Pogue-hating Topper (Austin North). However, for some fans, Season 3 of "Outer Banks" has been defined by the slow-burning will-they-won't-they relationship between Pogue buddies JJ (Rudy Pankow) and Kiara (Madison Bailey).

For fans of "Outer Banks," the possibility of a JJ and Kiara romance had been on the backburner for some time. Speculations escalated, however, upon the release of the "Outer Banks" Season 3 trailer, which had fans shipping like they've never shipped before. Jiara finally came to fruition in Season 3, Episode 9. Titled "Welcome to Kitty Hawk," the season's penultimate episode follows Kiara as she's forcibly taken to Kitty Hawk, a wilderness therapy camp for troubled teens. When JJ breaks her out, the pair confess their love for one another and put the kibosh on the "no Pogue-on-Pogue macking" rule.

Fans quickly flocked to social media to heartily endorse the new "Outer Banks" couple. Redditors were especially ecstatic, with u/Butterbeer_and_books writing, "I WANT TO EXPLODE FROM HAPPINESS," and u/T-dubbz similarly employed the caps lock: "JIARA IS OFFICIALLY CANON!!!! TURNNNN UPPPP."

Over on Twitter, fans commended the "Outer Banks" writers for taking the time to establish JJ and Kiara's friendship. "The Jiara journey from season 1 to season 3 is quite beautiful actually," tweeted @fxckoklahoma. "'Outer Banks' having the best slow burn best friends to lovers." For fans, the Jiara reveal was worth the wait. "I'm literally dying," tweeted @cm647282. "I can't believe we all got what we wanted!" The unbridled shipping will surely continue when "Outer Banks" returns for Season 4.