Outer Range – Season 2 Episode 1 Recap & Review

One Night in Wabang

Episode 1 of Outer Range season 2 starts with a cowboy heading out with his partner into the wilderness. There, they find a cow that’s suffering after giving birth. This is apparently a bad omen, so while the calf is okay, the mother is put out of her misery with a bullet to the head. As the camera pans down, we see that this exact spot also appears to be the origin of the Western pasture hole, given a black pool of goo starts to ooze out.

We then cut back to Royal and Cecilia at the dinner table. He tries to explain to Cece that Autumn is Amy, and he’s more sure of it than anything else. Cece is having none of it and grabs her stuff, leaving the house. Autumn is in pain upstairs and currently in bed, until she stumbles downstairs, gripping the banister and making her way over to Royal.

Alone, Royal demands to know what she’s not telling him. She quizzes Royal about Amy’s scars, and wonders why he thinks she’s Amy. There’s a missing puzzle piece here that we’re not seeing, given how she’s acting and talking. On the way to the hospital, Royal brings up the tight window they have before Amy turns 9. Now, we know that the timeline seems to show her losing her memories at that age, but we’ll have to wait and see if that materializes.

Cece heads to the police station, determined to try and find Amy. She’s struggling to hold it together and with Joy not responding to any calls, and the big bison stampede, things at the station are chaotic. In fact, when Cece learns that Rebecca is back, she races out and heads off to see someone called Lewis.

The man is quite eccentric, and after scaring off a whole bunch of women from inside his tent, Cece learns that Rebecca left long ago. They talk about vengeance and forgiveness, and Lewis turns and asks whether Amy will forgive her for what she’s said about Rebecca.

Meanwhile, Billy awakens and coughs up blood. He’s still alive after being rammed with those bison in the finale. That’s not the only car crash though, as Rhett has also crashed his car on the way out of town. He manages to get it working again and they show up at a motel that’s absolutely full of cats.

By the side of the road, Royal curses out Autumn. He calls her Amy and bemoans her for coming into his life. However, when he touches her wrist, the sky suddenly turns strange. The stars blur across the night sky like someone running their hand over globs of paint on an easel. When the sky blinks back to normal, Royal points out this is one of the reasons he believes she’s Amy.

Out in the wilderness, and fresh off of absorbing the black goo, Luke awakens and dances about, proclaiming that he’s “done it!” Luke stumbles back home and drinks the water from a flower vase. However, he hears a distorted voice coming from the wall. He’s told that he’s important, and part of this prophetic message comes from bringing people to the Western Pasture. Just like that though, Wayne suddenly shows up, walking like normal. Billy is in the hospital, about to have emergency surgery, so off they go to make sure he’s okay.

Autumn is also in the hospital too, and while she’s checked over, wincing and struggling in pain, Royal stands in the doorway. Apparently she’s got two broken ribs and she almost punctured a lung. She’s also got a concussion (a direct result of Royal). She doesn’t bring up what Royal did to her to the concerned doctor though, or the fight they had, allowing him to breathe a sigh of relief.

After, he rings Cecilia and leaves a heart-warming message, promising he’ll do what he can to find Amy. However, her mailbox is full and Royal is forced to abandon his words. When he turns round, he finds Wayne and Luke, who both show up. He starts busting Royal’s balls about the land, but Royal is exasperated and tells him to focus on his boys. “Time reveals all… Royal,” Wayne says ominously. His eyes are like two black jewels, unblinking and unnerving, as they stare one another down. This conflict is far from over.

Meanwhile, Amy is out on the road with Rebecca. She has a gun stashed down her jeans and she hides it quickly when Amy awakens. Apparently they’re heading for “somewhere special” and will talk about it when they get there.

While this is going on, Matt rings Martha and tells her to stay by her phone. The bison stampede is all over the news and while there are only 4 reported instances in the hospital (two that we know about), she’s also told that Joy is nowhere to be found. In fact, Joy happens to be out in the wilderness. She snaps photos of a Native-American tribe but she finds herself surrounded by warriors as they approach with arrows and chase her off the land. She chokes out one of the men who gets too close but she’s soon surrounded and brought into the tribe.

Back at the Ranch, Cece returns home and Royal talks to her about the current predicament they find themselves in. He promises to find Amy and hands over a photograph to put this crazy story into perspective. Specifically, how he was born in 1878. He even has the birth ledger to prove it too.

We then cut back in time and see flashes in the past at the ranch. Royal and Cecilia are there, working the land, when who should show up? Perry Abbott. He earlier stumbled out the hole in the Western Pasture and appeared to be back in our time but now we see the truth. He announces himself as Ben Younger, and concocts a story about looking for work and passing through. They recommend he head off to see the Tillersons, and off he goes.

The Episode Review

Outer Range is back and all our favourites are here – including the usual singing and the mystery box storyline. It would appear that Autumn and Amy are one and the same but we’re still not 100% sure on that front. Similarly, it’s unclear whether the goo is infecting those who go into the hole or if it’s just a side effect from being exposed to this time-distorting hole.

With all the different characters displaced through time, there’s a definite feel of this turning into Netflix’s Dark, with the timelines slowly starting to converge together and flesh out the full picture.

For now though, everything is left on a precarious knife edge, and we’ll have to wait and see what happens next. One thing’s for sure – this season is going to be a wild ride.