In Season 5, reeling from the death of his best friend JJ, John B (Stokes) hit rock bottom back in Kildare after the unsuccessful mission to Dubrovnik that resulted in the Pogues’ arrest and deportation. With no money, no home for him and Sarah (Cline) and a baby on the way, John B took a contraband bale of weed he found floating in the ocean and, with Rafe’s (Drew Starkey) help, sold it at a heavy discount to local drug dealer Barry (Nicholas Cirillo). That led to him becoming a target of powerful drug lord Julio Valdez, whose shipment originally included the stray bale.
John B’s ill-conceived decision to steal the bale was followed by an even dumber one he made out of desperation. With Julio’s people threatening Sarah’s life if he didn’t pay full price for the stolen merchandise, he took Barry’s advice and tried to rob Topper’s house safe, dragging unwitting Pope (Daviss) into a misguided operation that spectacularly imploded. (John B ultimately teamed with Sheriff Shoupe for a sting operation to get Julio arrested.)
Later, John B came up with the idea to charter a plane to Azerbaijan in pursuit of the Blue Crown and supported Kiara (Bailey) when she decided to test the crown’s supposed magic powers of bringing back the dead in a desperate attempt to see JJ again. He could have pushed her to head back home with the extremely valuable artifact that would’ve made them rich.
John B saved Kiara twice in the final season, first by diving to get to her after Groff (J. Anthony Crane) threw her overboard the night of the masquerade ball and then, joined by Sarah and Pope, rescuing her after she had killed Groff and their boat had started sinking in the hurricane.
In the series finale’s happy ending, using some of the Royal Merchant gold, John B bought back the land where he used to live and rebuilt his father’s house. Then, a year later, he made “a good decision,” as Shoupe put it, marrying Sarah in the back yard with their baby present.