The Confusing ‘Outer Range’ Finale, Explained
It was only a matter of—excuse the unfortunate pun—time before Outer Range made predicable use of its central phenomena, a hole which appears somewhere in Royal Abbot’s western pasture and—pun now very much intended—almost everywhere in the story’s plot. (And purposefully so.)
The rules governing the hole are unclear. People, animals, and objects pass through time/space, rejoining the world sometimes days, sometimes years, and sometimes decades later. None of these time-jumps are the same.
The first jump we see is Royal’s. Autumn pushes him. He passes through the hole and appears in the same place some years later. When he arrives, Cecilia meets him and tells him he died some time ago. (Autumn is also there.) Royal then jumps back in the hole and reappears in his pasture the next morning after his original jump. (So the hole is not just a one-way portal; a traveler can go both forward and backward in time.)
Other time jumps occur. Trevor’s body, we find out later, was transported several days into the future. (He is found by Amy, and coroners determine that, while he was missing for over a week in present time, his body appears to have been recently deceased.)
And then there’s Royal again. In the final episodes, we learn that Royal first traveled through the hole in 1886, reappearing almost a century later—and on the same piece of land. (He had fled after accidentally killing his father and was later raised by the Abbots, whose ranch he seems to have inherited.) Flashbacks tell us that Royal appeared at the feet of Wayne Tillerson, who was also a boy. Royal climbed out of the hole, scaring Wayne. This moment appears to mark the beginning of some strange rivalry and mistrust between both future ranch owners.
In the final episode, another hole, arising from Luke’s obsessive digging, welcomes a horde of buffalo which appear to trample him on their way out and across the plains. The buffalo then nearly trample Royal, and do trample Autumn, before swarming Rhett and Maria—both of whom are unhurt. This all happens at night.
Sheriff Joy also sees the buffalo from atop a hill—but this occurs in the daytime. (More on this in a bit.)
Finally, the last time jump.
Royal goes over to Autumn’s body and later realizes a scar on her forehead matches the injury Amy sustained while Royal was fighting with Rhett and Perry. The implication: Autumn is a future version of Amy. Although Royal doesn’t know it yet, Amy has gone missing from the rodeo. When he returns to the dinner table, it is only him and Cecilia, suggesting that hole hasn’t just torn through time and space but through the Abbott family.
Wait, So Is Amy Actually Autumn?
In episode 7, Royal attempts to kill Autumn on a four-wheeler. He later burns down her camp, which contained Autumn’s notes and medication. (The medication, lamotrigine, is used to treat epilepsy and bipolar disorder.) Autumn then appears to become more manic, calling her mother and pleading for money. She also insinuates that she has been following her mother’s plan.
The most prominent offscreen mother throughout the series is Rebecca—who has been missing for several months.
In the finale, Rebecca appears at the rodeo and takes Amy.
If Amy is Autumn, then Autumn’s mother on the phone is Rebecca.
We already know the hole can take travelers forward and backward in time. For Amy to age and become Autumn, she will have to experience at least another two decades of time.
The question becomes: in which direction does Rebecca take Amy?
If into the past, Amy will need to go back to the year 2000 (or around then) before she heads to the Abbot ranch and meets Royal years later—just as Autumn did in episode 1. Amy could also travel into the future, spending 20 years there before traveling back to meet Royal as “Autumn.”
It’s also possible that there is an older Rebecca as well. While we see young Rebecca take Amy, we know that at least two decades will pass before Amy becomes Autumn. In that timeframe, Rebecca, too, could have aged concurrently. If we see an older woman in a future Outer Range season, she could be older Rebecca.
This logic also allows for any character to be a future version of any other character. If there’s a second season, it’s about to get very confusing.
Did Autumn Die?
It’s unclear. While we see her injured and trampled, there’s no indication that she died.
We do see Autumn three years into the future when Royal is first pushed into the hole. Royal says he also saw Autumn during a vision of his own death. This does not necessarily mean Autumn survived the buffalo trampling, as she could have traveled to these future moments before her buffalo death.
Where Did Sheriff Joy Go?
While all this Amy/Autumn/Royal stuff is going on, Sheriff Joy investigates a tip from a man in town about mysterious happenings in the hills. When she arrives, she follows a path to a ridge over which she sees buffalo as well as an apparent Native American settlement.
It might be tempting to put this event on the same timeline as the other buffalo appearance—during the night when Autumn is trampled. It’s also possible that Sheriff Joy has found another way of traversing time. Perhaps she has made her way to 1886 when Royal is a kid.
Everything is possible with a hole that has no narrative rules.
Only a second season can clear things up.
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