Aahana Swrup
‘Outer Range,’ a sci-fi show set against a Neo-Western backdrop, continues its mystery-filled narrative with the second season. The time void that appeared at the Abbot Family Ranch and displaced Joy and Perry into different time periods remains a point of contention and intrigue. Meanwhile, in the present, Royal tries to fix his rapidly unraveling family as he and Cecilia attempt to understand Autumn’s place in their lives. However, compelled by her unique past, Autumn remains steady on her own puzzling path.
While season 2 resolves some crucial untied knots from the previous season, the installment’s ending brings a new world of confusion and trouble for the Abbot family and the unconventional hole in their backyard. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Outer Range Season 2 Recap
After Autumn’s near-death experience with the bison stampede, which led Royal to realize the woman might be Amy from the future, the man takes her back to the family home. However, a different problem awaits him at home, where Cecilia informs him that little Amy has gone missing. As a result, his attempts to share his discovery about Autumn fail to go over well, sending the spouses down different paths. While Royal gets Autumn fixed up at the hospital, Cecilia asks around about Amy and discovers that someone last saw the girl with her mother, Rebecca, who has been missing for months.
Meanwhile, the Tillersons regroup, with Wayne and Luke both recovering from their past maladies and waiting on Billy’s injured bedside. After exposure to the time dust, Luke— like his brother— also sees a vision of Autumn, compelling the man to believe his destiny lies with her. Simultaneously, another unwitting victim of the time void, Deputy Sheriff Joy, finds herself in the year 1886, where she finds shelter with the Shoshone Tribe. Surprisingly, after a chance meeting, Joy realizes she may know a local kid, Royal, much better than she would like to believe.
As it would turn out, Joy isn’t the only time-traveler to end up with a younger version of Royal, as Perry, who jumped into the Void after learning of its abilities, finds himself face to face with a 20-something version of his father. Since Perry knows Royal is a time traveler, he uses the knowledge to negotiate a living situation for himself. Back in the present, Perry’s family remains in the dark about Amy’s whereabouts, prompting Royal’s younger son, Rhett, to cancel his plans to leave town. Cecilia knows the girl is with her mother, Rebecca. Even so, since the latter left after Cecilia caught her having an affair, she eludes the Abbots’ attempts at communication.
Eventually, the consequences of Perry’s absence finally take hold. After Perry confessed to Trevor’s murder, Royal bailed him out of jail by putting the Ranch as collateral. Therefore, Perry’s sudden disappearance lands Royal and Cecilia in an ultimatum between a five hundred dollar fine or the Ranch. As such, another rift opens between the couple. On the other hand, Autumn, who’s still unsure about her identity, reunites with a bed-bound Billy after getting involved with the local Church. Consequently, her paths also cross with Luke, and she realizes she can recruit his help due to his exposure to the time dust. Simultaneously, Luke’s ties with his father continue to weaken, pushing him to hate his brother.
As the Tillersons continue to weaken, Royal finally re-discovers the Void. Not only that, he also finds Joy crawling out of the Void— four years older than she left and severely injured. As it would turn out, the woman remained stuck in the 1800s until an aggravated situation intertwined her path with younger Royal. Therefore, she ends up finding the Void again and escaping the past at the same time that Royal falls into the hole as a kid. While Joy recovers from the trauma of getting stuck in the past, Autumn finds a way to learn about her forgotten history after Luke shares some time dust with her, allowing her to connect with her forgotten memories.
Outer Range Ending: Is Autumn Really Amy?
Although the show first pitches the idea of Autumn being a future version of Amy in the season 1 finale, the woman remains unsure of the same as the second season unfolds. Autumn is missing a lot of her memories from when she was a child. For the same reason, she only remembers growing up in a cult with an adopted mother who refused to share any information about the girl’s birth family. Furthermore, Royal’s only proof of evidence— besides a gut feeling— remains a scar that both Autumn and Amy share.
Still, while Autumn remains skeptical of the idea, she isn’t entirely closed off to it. Eventually, after she comes into possession of the time dust, things click into place for her. The time dust works in peculiar ways, allowing the consumer to travel into their consciousness from different points in time. Therefore, as others have seen their future after consuming the dust, Autumn is able to peek into her past.
Consequently, after her childhood memories come rushing back, Autumn realizes that she really is Amy. The experience leaves the woman more than a little disoriented, compelling her to scribble down all her memories— of the Abbot family— with such speed that she ends up writing on the room’s walls and windows, too. Nevertheless, the discovery doesn’t deter her from the original warpath she had set out on when she traveled to the past through the Void. Although the extent of her plan still remains ambiguous, it earns a new game piece: Amy.
Why Does Autumn Want Amy to go into The Time Void?
After helping Joy out of the Time Void, Royal realizes he can show his family tangible proof of his time-traveling past. The same, paired with the unexpected outside help for the Ranch’s bail case, helps the Abbots find their way back to each other. Therefore, Royal and Cecilia are able to embark on a venture to bring their granddaughter back into their lives. At Cecilia’s previous visit to Lewis, the man Rebecca cheated on Perry with, the woman was able to talk to Amy on the phone for a while.
However, she learns that Rebecca had manipulated the girl into thinking Cecilia drove her mother away from home for no real reason. Nonetheless, where the past visit may have failed, this time, she and Royal decide to extract information directly from Lewis. Meanwhile, after her memories return, Autumn is able to pin down Amy’s exact location and plans to travel there with Luke, who has replaced Billy as her protector. As such, Royal and Autumn both embark on missions to retrieve Amy from her mother’s hold.
Autumn had a head-start, so she arrives at the Women’s Shelter, currently sheltering Rebecca and Amy, and enters the establishment by pretending to be Rebecca’s older daughter. From there, she uses her memories to blackmail Rebecca into handing Amy over to be returned to the Abbot family, knowing the woman only took the girl out of spite. In a fit of her own spitefulness, Autumn forces time dust into Rebecca’s mouth before leaving the shelter to show the woman her cultish role in the future.
Afterward, Autumn and Luke drive away with Amy, who believes she is returning to see her grandparents. Nevertheless, Autumn has other plans. After he and Cecilia arrive at the shelter, Royal realizes the same, only to find that Amy is already gone. The real reason Autumn took Amy is because she wants to throw the kid into the time Void. Since Autumn’s memories are back, the woman now knows how her history is supposed to unfold. For the same reason, she knows Amy must be taken away from her family and grow up with amnesia to actualize into Autumn. Thus, forever dedicated to a higher, unknown cosmic plan, Autumn decides to snatch the girl away from her family, even if it means setting her down a dangerous path.
Even though Royal attempts to prevent Autumn’s plan by recruiting Joy’s help, the sheriff is unable to save Amy. In the end, after Joy intercepts Luke and Autumn in the Void and shoots them both, Amy still slips through her fingers and falls into the Void. Thus, Autumn succeeds in her plan, ensuring she sows the seeds for her own future. After Amy emerges from the other side of the Void, into some unknown time and place, she doesn’t retain her memories and christens herself Autumn. Meanwhile, with young Amy’s heart starting up again in another time, the grown-up Amy/Autumn also comes back to life in the present timeline. Ultimately, Royal is left with Autumn and has lost his granddaughter to the sands of time.
Does Perry Return to The Present? Where is He?
Throughout the season, most characters’ stories remain intertwined in the present timeline. Even after Joy’s four-year adventure in the wild pastures of the 19th century, the woman is able to return to the current timeline. Nevertheless, Perry remains detached from the central storyline for the season’s entirety. Perry jumped into the Void at the end of season 1 to escape from his dire murder conviction predicament. Furthermore, a part of him wonders if his wife, Rebecca, may have accidentally fallen down the Void, leading to her disappearance.
As such, Perry ends up traveling decades into the past. Nevertheless, the man realizes he won’t find his wife in the 80s. Instead, Perry accepts that his wife likely ran away from home, abandoning her husband and daughter. Even so, he’s reluctant at the idea of returning home. In the end, an actual push from younger Royal, after the rediscovery of the Void, sends Perry hurling through time again. However, Perry ends up time-traveling a few weeks before his initial departure. In fact, in a strange turn of events, Perry wakes up on the night of Trevor’s murder, hours before his past self kills the Tillerson heir.
Therefore, Perry is able to rush to the crime scene and distract his past self from committing Trevor’s murder. Instead, Trevor ends up killing the younger Perry after the latter startles and hits his head on the pavement. Consequently, Perry’s presence drastically changes the path. In this new timeline, Perry disposes of his own body in the Void. Similarly, since Trevor Tillerson is alive this time around, Perry doesn’t have to worry about a murder charge. Although numerous characters have time-traveled throughout the show, none have yet created an alternate reality. Nonetheless, Perry’s storyline seems to be heading in the same direction.
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