WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Outer Range season 2.
Outer Range season 2’s ending brings Autumn and Amy’s story full circle and rewrites the show’s timeline by having Perry change the past. The Amazon Prime Video original show starring Josh Brolin as Royal Abbott returned for a second season, with all episodes dropping all at once. Outer Range season 2, episode 7 ends with Perry presumably going back to his original time, only to realize he arrived a few days earlier and had the chance to stop himself from killing Trevor. By doing so, he may have created a new timeline entirely.
Whereas Perry was rewriting history, Autumn was making sure that her story was going to play out the way it was supposed to. Autumn, who was shot by Joy, pushed Amy down the Hole. Autumn was rushed to the hospital and declared dead by the surgeons, yet she somehow came back to life and opened her eyes. Outer Range season 2 ends with Amy waking up in the future, where the ranch now seems to be a desert. The finale also included Royal having a vision of all the other Outer Range characters saying that “Time is a river.”
Outer Range season 2’s finale made the show’s time travel rules even more confusing and opened up a lot of interesting possibilities for a potential season 3. Perry, who was in the 1980s during most of season 2, went through the Hole again hoping to return to his original time. However, instead of returning to the exact moment in which he jumped down the Hole the first time, Perry showed up a few days earlier. He realized after going back home and looking out the window that this was the night he had killed Trevor.
Perry went back to his truck and drove to the bar where this timeline’s version of him was about to kill Trevor in a bar fight. Perry managed to change the outcome of the fight and stopped his younger self from killing Trevor. However, Trevor ended up killing Perry instead. The time-traveler Perry stepped out of his truck and scared Trevor, who most likely thought he was hallucinating. This version of Perry had no choice but to take his younger self’s body and throw it into the Hole. “Season 2 Perry” has now replaced “season 1 Perry.”
With “season 2 Perry” replacing “season 1 Perry” at the end of Outer Range season 2, the show has established a different version of time travel and may have even incorporated the concept of alternate realities. In Outer Range season 1, Perry killing Trevor is what set the events of the show in motion. Everything that happened in Outer Range so far only happened because Perry killed Trevor, which is why “season 2 Perry” going back in time and preventing it from happening changes everything. This may explain why Josh Brolin’s Outer Range character was in such pain at the end.
Either Perry is now living in a different universe entirely, or the timeline in Outer Range is changing without the characters even realizing so. Perry going back home that night and telling Amy a bedtime story instead of asking his father to help him disappear with Trevor’s body should have a massive butterfly effect that rewrites the show’s entire timeline. This may be why Autumn, who was clinically dead at the end of season 2, came back to life. The changes set in motion by Perry in the past may have rewritten the present.
Amy was sent to the future at the end of Outer Range season 2, although the exact date is unclear. After kidnapping her younger self, Autumn pushed Amy down the hole right as Joy was about to shoot. Amy time-traveled to the future, which becomes clear by the fact that the area around the Hole was now a desert. Additionally, the two people who found Amy were wearing preset-day-like clothes, meaning she was not in the distant past. For the ranch to have become a desert, Amy must have traveled several years into the future.
The process of falling down the Hole and waking up in the future made it so that Amy lost her memories. The only thing she can remember is the name “Autumn,” which she assumes to be her name. In other words, Amy waking up in the future thinking she is Autumn is the beginning of Autumn’s story, and she does not have any memories from before she was nine years old. Amy’s journey into becoming Autumn is a closed loop, as she only went to the future because Autumn did.
Autumn was initially not sure that she was the future version of Amy, but she eventually concluded that this was the case after all. Autumn knew that, for her story to begin eventually, Amy would have to go to the future. The fact that Amy was about to be nine years old only made Autumn more certain that the girl had to be pushed down the Hole so that she could emerge on the other side and “become Autumn.” Outer Range establishes that “time is a river,” with Amy now set to grow into Autumn.
Royal passed out at the end of Outer Range season 2 and was taken to the hospital. During the time he spent unconscious, Royal had a vision in which the entirety of his family, from his father to his granddaughter, appeared in front of him. They were saying “Time is a river, Royal.” The pain in his head eventually went away and he was able to get out of bed. After running into Joy, Royal said that they would have to fight time. Royal then began to have the same vision.
It’s unclear what caused Royal to pass out in the first place, although it likely had to do with either Perry changing things in the past or Autumn coming in touch with Amy close to the Hole. The expression “time is a river” is used to describe time as something continuous that cannot be stopped. Therefore, Royal’s final scene in Outer Range season 2 can be interpreted as if those tied to him are telling Brolin’s character he cannot stop the natural flow of things. Still, Royal is adamant that things will be okay, meaning he won’t give up fighting.
Outer Range season 2’s ending answered a few questions, but it also introduced a lot of new mysteries. The show’s time travel rules have been quite complicated to decipher, as there have been at least two forms of it so far. Royal and Joy’s bond, which actually traces back to 1886 due to their time travel journeys, is expected to play a major role in a potential Outer Range season 3 based on what Royal said to her. The “Time is a river” concept should also define Royal’s story in season 3.
“Season 2 Perry” replacing the other version of him and saving Trevor’s life means Outer Range season 2 could follow two different universes. One would be the timeline viewers have been following since the first season, whereas the other would be the one created by Perry when he went back in time. Another option is that Perry’s actions in the past did change the timeline but did not create a new one, meaning Outer Range season 3 could explore how this butterfly effect rewrote the story told in seasons 1 and 2.
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