What is the scytale in Outer Banks season 5? Here's why the Pogues need it

There's another new season of Outer Banks, and that means there's another artifact the Pogues need to find. In Outer Banks season 5, it's all about the Blue Crown, which allegedly has powers that can resurrect the dead.

In order for the Blue Crown's powers to work, the Pogues, Chandler Groff, and Anton Finch need another artifact, the scytale. It's pronounced SKIT-uh-lee.

You'll hear it over and over again in Outer Banks season 5, and I want to make sure you know exactly what it is and why it's important.

There are spoilers ahead for Outer Banks season 5.

The scytale is the key to revealing the location and incantation to use the Blue Crown

So, a scytale is an object or cylinder that was used by the Romans as a way to communicate secretly. Basically, there's a message that's written, and then it's wrapped around the scytale in order to read the message.

If you have the message without the scytale, you can't read the message properly. If you have the scytale without the message wrapped around it, it's useless, so it's a way to hide instructions or something like that.

In Outer Banks season 5, the scytale was paired with the Blue Crown at one point in time, but it ended up on Tannyhill with a number of other precious artifacts. When Ward (Charles Esten) and Ellie Cameron (Natalie Brown) bought Tannyhill, there were artifacts, as we know, located on the property, including the scytale.

Ward sold diagrams from Tannyhill to the highest bidder, but Ellie, when she left, took the real scytale when she disappeared. It's the reason that it's not at Sarah's mom's house when John B (Chase Stokes) and Sarah (Madelyn Cline) show up to look for it.

Why do the Pogues need the scytale?

There are a few reasons the scytale is important in Outer Banks season 5. First of all, without it, the Blue Crown is essentially like any other artifact. It's a very expensive piece of jewelry. Of course, it has historical value, but it's not useful to the cause.

In this specific instance, the scytale also includes the location, time, and incantation that must be used to bring someone back from the dead. Without the scytale, you wouldn't know where to go, when to go, or what to say to bring someone back from the dead.

What happens with the scytale?

In Outer Banks season 5, Finch has the Blue Crown, and he sends his minions to New Orleans to steal the scytale from Ellie, Sarah's mom, and then he knows where to go (Lake Yas'm Be) and when to go (during the Perseids) and what to say (the incantation) when he gets there.

The Pogues build their own scytale, and they use the message, which is the diagram that the rich Wincloss guy had pictures of from Tannyhill, to wrap it around the cylinder. Pope (Jonathan Daviss), then, translates the message, so they know to go to Azerbaijan to stop Finch (Jason Alan Carvell) before he uses the Blue Crown.

I don't know how realistic it is that they built their own, but it works, and they figure out when and where to go just in time to stop Finch, steal the Blue Crown, and see if it really works. Without the scytale, none of that is possible.

Personally, I never want to think about or hear about the scytale for the rest of my life. I don't like the way the word sounds, and the Pogues sure had to say it a lot this season.

With that said, I'm always down for a big treasure hunt. This one wasn't quite as cool as the other treasure hunts we've seen in Outer Banks so far, but it was a mere piece to the larger puzzle. It's definitely not as valuable as the Blue Crown, the Royal Merchant gold, or the Cross of Santo Domingo, but it's definitely worth something.

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