Edward Teach Is Mentioned in 'Outer Banks' Season 3 — Who Is the Mysterious Captain?

In Netflix's Outer Banks, the quest for hidden treasure, for booty, if you will, is undying. The show — which has been deemed a modern-day version of The Goonies — follows teen protagonist John B. (Chase Stokes), who "enlists his three best friends to hunt for a legendary treasure linked to his father's disappearance."

Over the course of three seasons, the Pogue pack have traversed North Carolina's Outer Banks and parts of the Caribbean, searching for hidden treasure. And while Season 3 sees the gang uncover the folkloric city of El Dorado — aka the lost city of gold — the real expedition is just beginning.

At the close of Episode 10, titled "Secret of the Gnomon," an enigmatic stranger approaches the heroic teens, tempting them with new riches, which hide between the pages of a dusty captain’s log from 1718. The captain in question? None other than the legendary Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard. Who is Edward Teach? Keep reading for all the details.

From appearing in the beloved Pirates of the Caribbean franchise to HBO Max's swashbuckling comedy Our Flag Means Death, the menacing Captain Blackbeard is a prominent pop culture figure to this day.

Reportedly born as Edward Teach (his surname is sometimes spelled "Thatch" or "Thack") circa 1680, Captain Blackbeard was a real-life English (or possibly Jamaican) pirate, known for dominating the Virginia and Carolina coasts as well as Caribbean Sea.

After acting as a privateer for the British throughout the War of the Spanish Succession, per Britannica, Blackbeard became a bloodthirsty pirate in 1716.

He was said to have “fierce and wild” eyes, keeping "a brace of three pistols on a holster across his chest and a tall fur cap on his head," as detailed by Smithsonian Magazine.

While based in North Carolina, the pirate "forcibly collected tolls from shipping in Pamlico Sound, and made a prize-sharing agreement with Charles Eden, governor of the North Carolina colony," Britannica wrote.

Following a short-lived career, the legendary buccaneer — who may or may not have killed anyone outside of the bloody battle at Ocracoke — was decapitated during said final 1718 battle. The fight was part of a British naval expedition, which was funded by Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood.

Blackbeard's head was put on a post near Hampton, Va., acting as a violent warning to those looking to break the law.

And though Outer Banks references Edward Teach's legendary buried treasure, Britannica relayed that said riches "probably never existed." However, divers uncovered the wreck of his stolen French ship, called Queen Anne’s Revenge, off the coast of North Carolina in the mid-1990s. Navigational devices, cannons, and a sword hilt were among hundreds of artifacts found in the shipwreck.

The infamous pirate's treasure may be a myth in reality, but that surely won't stop the skilled Pogue pack from unearthing it. Perhaps we'll witness the gang adventure to the Caribbean Islands, Virginia's Chesapeake Bay, or even the Cayman Islands come Season 4.

Season 3 of Outer Banks is currently streaming on Netflix.