Outer Range Season 2 Finale Recap: Amy’s Fate Hangs in the Balance as Royal Prepares to Fight the Future
Listen, don’t feel bad. We didn’t really get any of that either.
Season 2 of Prime Video’s weird af western Outer Range ended with few substantial answers, and lots of added questions and confusion. The finale begins with Royal and Cecilia racing off to the women’s shelter to find Rebecca and Amy, while Wayne Tillerson leaves a threatening voicemail for Luke upon finding Billy’s dead body. (Keep in mind what Imogen Poots once told us: “I guess I have the question of: Can Autumn actually die? Can anyone actually die?” Yep, same.) He then takes a torch and lights all of the owls/his entire home on fire. Sure, why not?
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In the past, Younger Royal throws Perry into the hole and tells him to go home. (How anyone can decide where on the timeline they end up is beyond me. What if he goes all Land of the Lost? Or winds up in 2074 or something? How is this all controlled? Don’t spend too much time trying to figure it all out. The show has absolutely zero desire to clue us in on anything.)
Luke tells Autumn that he saw a vision. She was leading people and he was by her side. She eventually sniffs out that Luke hurt Billy, but since he didn’t mean to, it’s… OK? She does say: “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from all this, it’s that nothing is final. Not even death.”
Perry winds up back home on the night that he killed Trevor. So he races off to the bar to stop the fight, only his intervention causes the other him to smash his head on cement and die. (Does that mean Perry can just… replace himself? HOW DOES THIS WORK?) Perry hoists his own dead body into his truck and does what any reasonable person with a metaphysical hole on their land would do: He throws his own body into it the abyss!
Autumn and Luke find Amy at the women’s shelter, and Autumn reveals her true identity to Rebecca. That’s why Amy’s eyes went black while she was “dreaming.” They’re connected. Rebecca is clearly freaked out and when Autumn rattles off some past history, it gets under her skin even more. She agrees to let Amy go back home and promises that she’ll follow in a few weeks. (Sure.) “Cecilia was right to run you off,” Autumn says as she wipes the black mineral over Rebecca’s face. (What a nice parting gift! Enjoy your trip, Rebecca.) Rebecca hallucinates Autumn leading a cult-like group of people all donning robes the color of — you guessed it — yellow.
A whacked out Wayne approaches the hole and asks it for a sign. Some weird mystical something happens and he says, “That makes all the sense in the world.” Then he swan-dives into the hole. Well, Wayne, we’re glad this makes sense to someone.
Royal and Cecilia arrive to the shelter only to learn they’re too late. Autumn beat them to it. Rebecca’s all drugged out and keeps repeating: “She’s a gift for time.” Cecelia calls Autumn, who confirms that Amy is OK. (I loved this exchange: Autumn asks, “Why would I hurt her?” and Royal says, “Because you’re insane.” That probably wasn’t meant to be that funny, but it was?) Autumn says she never would’ve known she and Amy were the same person if it wasn’t for Royal… and that she wishes they could see what she sees. And Amy is the final piece of the puzzle. “Just like me, she has to serve her purpose.”
Royal calls Joy for help. He tells her that Luke and Autumn are going to throw Amy in the hole and asks her to go and stop them. Joy is there when Autumn and and Luke arrive. Joy knocks Luke out with her rifle, but Autumn takes Amy out of the truck at gunpoint. Amy starts to panic as they inch closer toward the hole. Joy shoots Autumn in the chest and in the scuffle, Amy takes a gnarly fall right into the hole. As that happens, Royal has what looks to be a heart attack, and the hole mysteriously closes up right in front of Joy’s eyes.
Everyone meets at the hospital (convenient!) where Autumn seemingly flatlines on the operating table. Amy wakes up in what looks to be a desert, and when she does, Autumn comes back to life. Amy is found by two hikers, only she can’t remember how she got there or who she is. They ask for her name: “I think it might be Autumn.” (So that’s how “Autumn” came to exist? But if everything is on a loop, of sorts, that raises a whoooole lotta questions for Season 3 to tackle. If “Autumn” only exists because Autumn threw Amy in the hole, does Amy, who will grow up as Autumn, get older and throw another version of Amy into the hole? I sound as insane as Autumn even attempting to pose that question.)
Perry arrives home and in that timeline, Amy comes outside and asks him to read her a bedtime story (even though she looks like she’s 15 years old). In the other/present timeline, Royal lays on a hospital bed with tubes up his nose. He has a dream. He’s exiting his house and standing in front of him is a motley crew of folks from all of the timelines, past and present. His mom from the 1800s. Amy and Cecilia. Young Royal and young Cecilia. They all repeat in unison: “Time is a river, Royal. This is your destiny.”
He wakes up in the hospital and tells Joy: “The future’s coming Joy. You’ve got to help me stop it.” The season’s final scene goes back inside Royal’s dream. Autumn walks up to him and ominously says: “This is just the beginning.”
So did we get enough answers this season? Grade the finale and season below, then fire away in the comments!
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