Storyline aside, the strangeness encapsulating Outer Range Season 2 (and the previous season) is mind-bending.
While some questions from the previous season are answered, even more are left on the table, along with a suggestion of trouble surrounding the timeline of events.
Outer Range dives headlong into the concept of time travel, a science fiction genre that often derails movies and shows that embrace it.
While time travel will always be an exciting and intriguing topic to the audience, it also means that a resolute ending point in the season finale is nothing more than a pipe dream.
The Status of the Mysterious Hole
The hinge point from which Outer Range’s bizarrely shaped door swings is the gigantic, dark hole in the middle of the Abbott family’s western pasture.
Though there are indications that the hole is not the catalyst for time travel, at least not by physically throwing someone in it, its presence remains as enigmatic and subtly menacing as ever. It’s a character in and of itself.
Related: Outer Range Review: Broken Time
As the invariable MacGuffin, it makes sense that the season finale returns the black hole to the forefront, as Autumn and Luke race towards it, Amy in tow, with a mind for tossing the child in.
This will essentially preserve Autumn’s existence since Autumn and Amy are one and the same.
Throughout seasons 1 and 2, the dark, mysterious hole on the Abbott ranch is the beginning and the end. Though it disappears occasionally, something reiterated more than once this season, it always returns.
Unfortunately, the exact origin of the hole, the scope of its side effects, and what synthesizes it are conundrums for another season. Season 2 focuses on the mental tenacity of those who encounter it, which is arguably the best play for now.
Where in Time is Perry?
This is where things get loopy (pun intended) regarding time.
Related: Outer Range Review: Time Waits For No One
Earlier in the season, Martha sees a picture of her wife, Joy, in an 1800s photograph. The evidence suggests that time is linear, and Joy is still on the same timeline as Martha despite her traveling back.
Perry’s situation throws that to the wind. After a young Royal shoves Perry into the hole, Perry returns to the future, landing only a week or so before current events.
Realizing this, Perry attempts to stop himself from killing Trevor Tillerson, an act that ends in Perry dying that night instead of Trevor.
This brings up the old time-travel paradox: If you travel back in time and kill yourself, how do you travel back in time to kill yourself if yourself was already dead?
Yet, Perry remains in existence despite carrying his own body out and dumping it in the hole (the chaos ensuing from using the hole is apparently not a deterrent to dumping bodies in it).
Thanks to Perry, it’s obvious we’re no longer dealing with a simple, back-and-forward linear timeline.
Now, alternate realities, the multiverse, and non-linear time are on the plate (it’s a free-for-all!)
What Happens to Amy/Autumn?
While Perry is content to throw his own dead body in the hole, Autumn is hell-bent on throwing her younger self, very much alive, in the hole as well (everyone wants to throw everyone in the hole, it seems).
With the help of Luke Tillerson, Autumn kidnaps Amy from her mother, Rebecca, who is involved in some sort of cultish religious group. This confirms Autumn’s earlier claim that she was raised in a cult.
Related: Epic On-Screen Breakdowns
The sense of urgency in the season finale is palpable as Royal and Cecilia race to recover Amy before Autumn and, having failed, contact Joy to stop Autumn from tossing Amy in the hole (fun stuff).
The scene at the women’s shelter/cult/religion/thingamabob is pretty underwhelming for all of the mystery surrounding Rebecca, her whereabouts, and her motivations.
Rebecca is easily outmaneuvered by Autumn and comes off as a slightly loopy, uninterested character.
Despite Royal and Cecilia’s attempts, and despite Joy being armed and standing between Luke/Autumn/Amy and the hole, Autumn tosses Amy in, taking a bullet in the process.
From here, we know that Autumn has no memory of her past, though we are given a glimpse at the tortured, desert-like wilderness that Amy emerges into.
Do the Tillersons Take the Abbott’s Land?
Though the two families’ past is mired in distrust and anger, their present-day struggle is over ownership of Abbott’s West pasture.
Wayne Tillerson exploits a loophole in the law and engages in some bribery to win the land from the Abbotts.
Unfortunately, at least for Wayne, everything that happens to the Tillersons in the latter half of season 2 is a body blow.
Already down one son, Wayne loses Billy to Luke’s wrath in the act of kin slaying, which isn’t shocking.
It’s not as if Wayne raised a group of level-headed, reasonable boys. Wayne marks his son Billy as Cain and burns his ranch house to the ground.
Related: Outer Range Review: Anachronistic Events
That seemed to be the end of the matter, with the threat of the Tillersons neatly cut off at the knees.
But Wayne is not one to go down in a swirl of heat and flames. He shows up at the hole because, of course, he does. It’s been his singular obsession since the beginning of season 1.
He questions the hole and leaps into the abyss as he receives some ethereal answer only he can understand.
As expected, the audience will walk away from Outer Range Season 2, scratching their heads and asking more questions without answers.
We can speculate, but it isn’t easy when dealing with time.
The knee-jerk reaction is to think the showrunners have it all in hand.
However, we’ve now seen instances of linear and non-linear time, and history consistently proves that tackling the concept of time travel is a dangerous course for any show or movie to take.
Nowadays, it doesn’t take long to tease out a paradox that showrunners have overlooked and spread virally across social media.
As of now, the storyline is deep and complex, with a handful of interesting characters worth exploring.
Hopefully, Outer Range Season 3 will effectively connect the strands, avoiding the fate of so many shows and movies before it.
Catch the season finale of Outer Range on Amazon Prime, come back, and let us know what you think!
Where will Perry’s path take him next? Where did Amy or Wayne end up? Let us know in the comments!
Thomas Godwin is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. You can follow him on X