Sci-fi Western Outer Range released its second season on Prime Video this week, bringing more time-travel shenanigans for the people of Wabang, Wyoming—especially the families of Royal Abbott (Josh Brolin) and Wayne Tillerson (Will Patton). The show’s giant hole still contains more secrets than answers, and just like last season we have lingering questions about what it all means.
What happened to Autumn’s adoptive family?
Autumn (Imogen Poots) was adopted at nine and has no memory of her earlier childhood. Season two of Outer Range shows us why: when Autumn shoves Amy (Olive Abercrombie), the younger version of herself, into the hole, the girl awakens in a strange place and can’t remember who she is.
According to Autumn, she was taken in by a rich family and was in a cult before coming to Wabang. In season one, we see her calling her mother and demanding money. But when she needs to tap into her trust fund in season two, she realizes both her mother and sister have disconnected their phones. Did Autumn’s adoptive family cut her off because she’d had one too many screaming breakdowns—or is something more cosmic and/or sinister behind their sudden disappearance?
What will happen to Luke?
Presumably, Luke Tillerson (Shaun Sipos) survived being knocked out by Sheriff Joy Hawk (Tamara Podemski) when she was trying to prevent Luke and Autumn from tossing Amy into oblivion. But he’ll have a lot to deal with when he comes around: guilt and possibly legal trouble over accidentally killing his brother, Billy (Noah Reid); the sudden absence of his father, Wayne, who’d all but disowned him; and the fact that Wayne burned down their prairie mansion as part of his fuck-you farewell.
Where (or really, when) will Wayne end up?
Frankly we were surprised it took so long for Wayne to jump in the hole, given his obsession with it. But by the end of season two, he’s in a deep despair, having lost his two favorite sons and realizing he’s not going to be able to own the pasture that contains the hole. So where will his time trip take him? Back to being a churlish young man in the 1980s? As a child in the late 1960s, watching a young Royal emerge from the hole? Or perhaps sometime in the distant past or the far future?
How will the story change in Perry’s new timeline?
After a jaunt to the past, Perry (Tom Pelphrey) returns to his correct timeline. But there’s a slight rewind that puts him at a crucial moment: just before the drunken fight in which he beat Trevor Tillerson (Matt Lauria) to death, as seen early in season one. In a surreal do-over, Perry watches the fight go the opposite way—and witnesses a version of himself die in that parking lot instead. As Trevor flees in terror after seeing double Perrys, “our” Perry scoops up his lookalike corpse and tosses it in the hole, which is exactly what Royal did with Trevor’s corpse in season one.
So, we have to wonder: will Perry’s dead body suddenly reappear on the Abbott ranch, like Trevor’s did? How will Trevor being alive change the course of things? How will Perry approach the events of his life that he’s already lived through, which is basically all of Outer Range season one? He’s now wiser in certain ways, but he’s still in the dark about his missing wife; her true colors aren’t revealed until later in season two. And he also jumped into the hole before Royal realized at the end of season one that Autumn is the grown-up version of Perry’s daughter Amy.
Is Maria and Rhett’s sudden hunger for money part of their plan to flee Wabang?
Rhett (Lewis Pullman) and Maria (Isabel Arraiza) have a plan to flee Wabang and start a new life together, but it keeps getting sidelined by Abbott family drama. We never see them have a conversation about needing money, but we do see Maria steal money from the bank where she works—and we also see Rhett tell geologist Dr. Nia Bintu (Yrsa Dailey-Ward) she’ll need to fork over at least $US30,000 if she wants his help convincing Royal that the hole needs to be scientifically studied.
It seems entirely possible that the lovebirds are building up a stash of cash to finance their longed-for move to Montana. A couple problems, though: Maria becoming a thief suggests her moral compass is wavering—and won’t Rhett need to stay in Wabang if he wants to keep raking in cash as Dr. Bintu’s inside man?
What’s Dr. Nia Bintu’s next move?
In season one, a curious Royal brings dirt from the hole to Dr. Bintu’s lab at a nearby university—but grabs his sample and leaves when he realizes she has ties to a mysterious mining company. In season two, after finding evidence she’s been poking around his pastures, he threatens her to stay away or else.
That’s what leads her to sidle up to Rhett at the local diner and ask him for his assistance. Dr. Bintu doesn’t seem like a villain, but she’s persistent in a way that suggests the people she’s working for are highly motivated, with deep pockets to help them get what they want.
Will Joy be OK?
After spending four years in the 1880s—time which, thankfully, translated to only a few days’ absence—Joy makes it home, but she’s been physically and mentally mangled by her experiences. Though Royal advises her to be honest with her loved ones, and she does try to explain everything to her confused wife, Martha (Morningstar Angeline), Joy is haunted in a way that makes it seem like her recovery will be arduous at best.
Then, of course, Royal and Cecilia (Lili Taylor) add one more layer to her trauma, asking her to do anything necessary to prevent Autumn from tossing Amy into the hole. When she fails, she seems even more shell-shocked than she did before.
What do Royal’s visions mean?
I can’t be the only Outer Range fan who waited all of season two to get more clarity on Royal’s season-one glimpse of the future—obtained after Autumn pushes him into the hole in the first episode—and was left wanting.
If you’ll recall, Royal emerged to see that Dr. Bintu’s mining cronies have a ton of equipment set up around the hole, which is encircled by a well-lit perimeter fence. Autumn is there, and is apparently a leader of some sort. Royal also spots Cecilia in the crowd, and she tells him he died two years ago—after which he jumps back in the hole and returns to a point in time almost immediately after he left.
Season two never does get there. It doesn’t advance two years in the future. And while it seems like Royal might perish in the season finale, he revives—but not before having one of those “everyone I’ve ever known” visions that dying people tend to have in movies and TV, in which his family past and present stares at him while chanting “time is a river, Royal; this is your destiny.” What that destiny is, exactly, is left rather open for interpretation.
Will Royal be able to change the future?
“The future’s coming, Joy, you’ve got to help me stop it,” Royal mutters as he staggers out of his hospital room, having just had a vision reminding him of his destiny. “Nothing can stop the future, Royal,” is Joy’s response—and when Royal next speaks, to tell Cecilia “Everything’s gonna be fine,” you can see the dread in his face. Can Royal stop the future? Clearly, even he has doubts.
Will Outer Range get a third season?
The last lines of season two come from a blissful-looking Autumn, speaking in Royal’s hospital vision: “This is just the beginning.” Is that merely a nod to Outer Range’s repeated message that time just keeps on flowing and flowing and flowing? Or is Autumn’s remark a wink at Outer Range fans hoping for more?
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