Every teen drama needs a rich boy you are supposed to hate, and most of them stay hateable. Rafe Cameron did not. He shot a sheriff in the first season of Outer Banks, spent four more trying to be his father’s favorite, and still left the show in August 2026 as the character half the fandom wanted to see get away. (Spoilers for the whole series ahead, including the finale.)
Who Rafe Cameron is
Rafe is the eldest child of Ward Cameron, the developer who runs the money side of Kildare, and the brother of Sarah and Wheezy. Netflix launched the show in April 2020, and from the first season Rafe was written as the Kook with everything except the one thing he wanted: his father’s approval. In the season 1 finale he shot Sheriff Susan Peterkin, and Ward helped pin it on John B. That single scene drives the next five seasons.
The role belongs to Drew Starkey, now 32, who has played Rafe since the beginning. Here is my read on why it worked: Starkey never played Rafe as cool. He played him as a son auditioning for a job he was already born into, and that is a far sadder thing to watch.
Why fans root for a villain
When this page first ran in 2022, it said fans liked Rafe because he seemed sincere and emotional, and that part has aged well. Rafe is cruel, impulsive and frequently wrong, but he is never bored, and he never pretends to be a better man than he is. Viewers can forgive a lot from a character who is visibly falling apart in front of them.
The other reason is plainer: the show kept giving him scenes with nobody to perform for. Rafe alone with Sarah, Rafe alone with Ward, Rafe alone with a decision he knows is bad. Those quiet minutes did more for his fan club than any fight on a dock. My opinion, for what it is worth: the best villains are the ones who want something ordinary, and Rafe wanted a dad.
How the finale treated him
Season 5, the last one, premiered on Netflix on August 20, 2026, with all ten episodes at once. The official synopsis promised an “uneasy alliance” between the Pogues and Rafe, and it delivered. By then Rafe had lost his father; Starkey told NBC Palm Springs that Rafe has “lost a father that he loved more than anything and just wanted love from.” He ends up working with the Pogues, not against them.
The Peterkin killing finally catches up with him and he goes to jail, then breaks out. During the hurricane evacuation he breaks out his girlfriend Sofia (Fiona Palomo), says goodbye to Sarah, and asks Deputy Shoupe to let him go, promising never to come back to the island. Then he leaves by boat. The show never says where they went. At Sarah and John B’s wedding he appears only on a FaceTime call, and Starkey told Swooon that “that FaceTime was a real FaceTime,” answered from his apartment in Charleston. His guess for Rafe and Sofia’s destination: “Barbados.”
I like this ending more than I expected to. A redemption with a cell door would have felt like homework, and an escape with a goodbye feels like Rafe.
The actor who cried for two hours
Starkey has not been shy about what the goodbye cost him. On The Tonight Show on July 30, 2026, he told Jimmy Fallon that he thought he would be fine on the last day, and then the crew called cut on his final shot: “I was just weeping.” He said he cried for a solid two hours, and called the cast “my best friends” after “seven years on that show.” Fallon suggested it was an ugly cry. Starkey did not argue.
What Drew Starkey is doing now
Rafe was the launchpad, not the ceiling. Starkey played Eugene Allerton opposite Daniel Craig in Luca Guadagnino’s Queer (2024), co-starred with Anya Taylor-Joy in Apple TV’s limited series Lucky, which premiered on July 15, 2026, and plays a government cleaner in Adam Wingard’s A24 thriller Onslaught, released in September. Next comes A24’s Deep Cuts, Sean Durkin’s adaptation of Holly Brickley’s novel, opposite Cailee Spaeny.
That film has also produced this month’s gossip. On October 1, E! News reported that Starkey and Spaeny were photographed walking hand in hand in Los Angeles, after fans spotted them together in London in September. Neither has commented. I would count a hand-hold as a strong hint and leave the word “confirmed” to the two people involved.
My take
The show is over, but Netflix is reportedly developing a prequel about Kildare, and a Rafe who sailed off with no destination is exactly the kind of loose end a franchise likes to keep. I hope they leave it loose. The boy who shot a sheriff in 2020 to impress his father finally left the island for someone who loved him back, and for a villain on a teen drama, that is a remarkably happy ending.
Sources
- The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Drew Starkey couldn’t stop ugly crying after filming his final Outer Banks scene (July 2026)
- Netflix: Outer Banks Season 5, official trailer (2026)
- What’s on Netflix: Outer Banks season 5 release date and first look
- Netflix Tudum: Outer Banks season 5, cast and plot
- Swooon / TV Insider: Drew Starkey on Rafe’s FaceTime at the wedding (August 2026)
- NBC Palm Springs: Outer Banks cast on grief, growth and goodbye (August 26, 2026)
- BroadwayWorld: Drew Starkey reveals he couldn’t stop crying after his final Outer Banks scene (July 31, 2026)
- Apple TV press: world premiere of the limited series Lucky (July 2026)
- Wikipedia: Onslaught (2026 film)
- E! News via Yahoo: Drew Starkey and Cailee Spaeny step out hand in hand (October 3, 2026)
- Express Tribune, citing Deadline: Netflix developing an Outer Banks prequel (August 2026)
