DISCLAIMER: This recap of Outer Range Season 2 Episode 1, “One Night in Wabang” contains spoilers. Read at your risk.
Last Season on Outer Range
Season 1 of Outer Range had a lot of story threads hanging off it like tentacles on a jellyfish. The hole, the black mineral, the black liquid, a murder investigation, a mother’s disappearance, a land dispute, a creepy ex-cult member in love with a creepy singing cowboy and that might not be all. Not all of those threads were tied up at the end of Season 1, but we did get clarity on some issues.
For instance, Royal Abbott (Josh Brolin) is originally from 1886 where, as a child, he killed his father and escaped through the hole to 1968. And, his missing daughter-in-law, Rebecca came back to claim Amy and flee. We also now understand that the black mineral seems to be related to time travel because Sheriff Joy (Tamara Podemski) followed a trail of it through the woods and ended up back in time where she witnessed Native Americans hunting a herd of bison.
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And oh yeah, THOSE BISON. Once Luke Tillerson (Shaun Sipos) delved deeply enough on his land he found the black liquid his father Wayne (Will Patton) had been searching for and instantly created another hole through which that herd of bison came stampeding into our time causing all manner of mayhem. Including a car wreck from which Royal saved a wounded Autumn (Imogen Poots) and, after seeing the identical scar Amy (Olive Abercrombie) had on Autumn’s head, determined that she IS Amy as an adult. But how?!
I would say the Season 2 premiere is going to answer that question and all the others that are still outstanding, but this is Outer Range, y’all. I reckon things are gonna get cloudier before the dust clears. So let’s get into “One Night In Wabang” and see what’s what.
One Night in Wabang – Totally 80s
The episode begins with a voiceover from Royal telling the story of throwing himself into the hole as a boy in 1886. And then resolves into a flashback to a young Royal and Cecilia (Lili Taylor) on the ranch sometime in the 1980s. The couple stumble upon a newborn calf and its mother who has been mortally injured during childbirth. Royal hesitates to put the animal down and Cecilia tells him to do the right thing and put the animal out of its misery. As they ride off with the calf, a gurgle of the black liquid seems to surface through a hole in the ground made by Royal’s bullet.
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Right Where We Left Off
Back in the present… in fact, the very same night we left off at the end of Season 1… Cecilia is distraught about Amy having been taken at the rodeo. Royal, who has brought Autumn home after the bison stampede in the Season 1 finale, tries to tell his wife that Amy isn’t gone. At least not exactly. She finds a wounded Autumn lying in Amy’s bed. Ever the stickler for normality, Cecilia doesn’t buy it and, echoing the flashback scene, tells him that the girl is in pain and she should do the right thing and take care of her.
Mercifully “taking care of her” doesn’t involve a bullet this time and Royal instead drives Autumn into town to get her help. Autumn may have answers to the questions Royal has about the mineral, the hole, and everything else, but the revelation that she may be Amy from the future seems to shock her.
As they travel he explains to her his reason for believing she’s Amy. Chiefly the fact that Autumn has an identical scar in the place Amy received one during the family fight last season. She seems to be a bit more convinced when he reminds her that she once told him she couldn’t remember anything before she was 9 years old. Well, Amy is just about to turn 9. As they pass by Billy’s (Noah Reid) wrecked truck, the one Royal shot him in, they do not see that Billy is still alive.
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Rhett (Lewis Pullman) and Maria (Isabel Olivares) who had decided to flee the county at the end of last season, but ended up in the middle of the stampede of time-bison, are still in their truck smashed against the strangest billboard imaginable. Rhett cranks the engine and eventually gets it started. He’s about to continue down the road when Maria suggests that after the madness of the evening maybe they should find a place to sleep for the night.
Cecilia heads to the Sheriff’s Station to talk to Sheriff Joy but finds she’s missing and the whole place is mobbed with people reacting to the sudden bison stampede. With Joy out of pocket, Deputy Matt (Matthew Maher) tells a worried Cecilia that they’re doing all they can to find Amy, including an Amber Alert. When steps away to deal with the growing chaos, Cecilia is approached by a townsperson who claims she saw Rebecca, Amy’s mom, at the rodeo. This is news to Cecilia and, from the looks of it, not good news.
Royal and Autumn roll into town where they see the chaos outside the station and pull over. A wounded Autumn continues to be salty with Royal and, given the stress of the previous few hours, Royal gets angry and raises his voice. But seeing how this has scared Autumn (or is it Amy) he quickly cools off and apologizes to her, taking her arm gently to prove he won’t hurt her.
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That physical contact seems to cause some kind of anomaly in the sky (or space/time?) and suddenly the stars begin to streak across the sky as if the whole planet suddenly went into slow motion. Autumn wants to know what just happened, but Royal takes this as further evidence that she is his granddaughter.
Cool It, Luke
Luke Tillerson seems a little confused too as he wakes up in the field we left him in at the end of Season 1, moments after seemingly being trampled by the Time-Bison. He’s overjoyed to be alive. But even more overjoyed that he accomplished what his father Wayne could not, by discovering the black liquid on their land. He’s so stoked in fact that he does a full celebration dance by himself which, to be honest, features a few shades of “Footloose” in his improvised choreography. But the celebration is cut short as Luke seems to experience painful flashes of his attempted murder of his father and of Autumn. This experience leaves him woozy and stumbling for this truck.
Rhett and Maria pull their sputtering truck into a shady motel where the manager has way too many cats and instantly misjudges them as a hook-up looking for an hourly rate. Then one of the many cats in the room hisses at Rhett and the manager half-jokingly implies to Maria that she heed the animal’s warning about Rhett because “cats know”.
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Once in their motel room, an awkwardness falls over Rhett who, perhaps taking a cue from the cat, seems worried that Maria might be having second thoughts about fleeing with him. But far from doubting her choices, Maria tells Rhett she thinks he’s wonderful. And, after seemingly sending a call from Cecilia to voicemail, invites him into the shower to prove it.
Cici’s Secrets
Cecilia drives out of Wabang to a mobile home. When she emerges from her truck, she’s armed with a shotgun. After making her way to the back of the property where a sweat lodge has been set up she levels the gun at one of the property’s residents and demands to see someone named Lewis (William Belleau), a Native man who emerges from the sweat lodge, followed by about half a dozen blonde women who flee at that sight of the gun.
Cecilia asks Lewis where Rebecca is, but he says he doesn’t know. However, he does guess correctly that Cecilia is here because Rebecca returned to claim Amy. He goes on to imply that Cecilia needs forgiveness for “what she said to Amy’s mother”. Cecilia returns to her truck where she sits tearfully praying for Amy’s return. Who is Lewis? Does this mean that Cecilia has known where Rebecca is the entire time? And is she the one who drove her off? It’s clear Cecilia has some secrets of her own.
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In yet another truck (there are no other types of vehicles in Wabang) Rebecca drives while Amy slumbers in the passenger seat. Rebecca carries a gun and looks worried that she might need to use it at some point. Amy asks her mother where they’re going, but Rebecca just answers that it’s “somewhere special” and that she’ll explain everything when they arrive. Wherever that is.
Too Many Owls
Back at the Tillerson house, Luke stumbles in to discover that coming in contact with the unknown black substance and a wall full of taxidermied owls is not a great combination. Still hallucinating, he hears a voice that sounds strangely like his own. Disembodied Luke tells Woozy Luke that finding the black liquid is finally going to make him important in the world and his father’s eyes.
Speaking of fathers, it’s at this moment that Wayne shows up dressed all in black. The last we saw of Wayne he was in a coma, but he seems refreshed now. It’s clear Luke is worried that his father might remember his attempt on his life with the pillow and there’s some notion that he might be right. If this is a hallucination then it’s a well-informed one, because Wayne tells Luke that Billy has been shot and is undergoing emergency surgery. So any questions about what Wayne does and does not know will have to wait.
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At the hospital, Autumn is being treated. A doctor informs her that she’s sustained a concussion and broken some ribs that nearly punctured her lung. When he presses her about how she sustained the injuries, she makes eye contact with Royal. And instead of saying it happened during a gunfight where Royal shot Billy, she lies and says it was the stampede. She’s keeping his secret for now.
A relieved Royal tries to call Cecilia, but can’t reach her. Instead, he comes face to face with Wayne and Luke Tillerson who have come to the hospital to see Billy. After some threatening words to Royal, Wayne walks off. Luke starts to follow but then catches a glimpse of Autumn standing there and we now realize that this is the same image he saw when he woke up in the field earlier. Has contact with the black liquid given him flashes of the future too? Now that they both realize that Billy has survived, Autumn demands to see him. But Royal is passive, telling her that any such visit might raise more questions she doesn’t have answers for. He’s probably right.
Back at the motel, things are a little brighter for a post-coital Rhett. They seem pretty happy. However, when Rhett heads to the vending machines to grab snacks, he does see his mother drive by and this sweet bubble he’s in is slightly pierced.

Things are a little brighter for a post-coital Rhett and Amy back at the motel. Rhett heads to the vending machines to grab snacks and sees his mother drive by and this sweet bubble he’s in is slightly pierced.
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No Joy for Joy
Reality isn’t going so well for the Hawk family either. First Sheriff Joy’s partner Martha (Morningstar Angeline) is informed her wife is missing. And then we find out why. Joy is still back in time on a ridge overlooking the Native encampment she saw at the end of last season.
Joy snaps pics on her phone for proof when an arrow flies in, nearly hitting her. As she flees, she realizes things are even worse because she finds herself in the middle of a battle between the Shoshone and the Cheyenne. She tries to find her way back the way she came through the woods last season but finds that the trail is gone. After a desperate struggle with a Shoshone brave in which Joy kills the man, she finds herself trapped by Cheyenne, the tribe from which she is descended. Mercifully, she speaks the language.

As this insane night ends we visit both the Tillersons and Abbotts and it’s time for secret sharing. Sort of. At the hospital, a still-suffering Luke finds his father creepily singing over a comatose Billy and reveals that he knows what’s in the west pasture.
At the hole, Perry Abbott emerges after throwing himself into it last season. Royal’s eldest son looks like his contact with the black liquid has left him in a similar state to Luke and he soon collapses. At the Abbott ranch, Royal brings a recovering Autumn home. She is (maybe) his granddaughter after all. She asks if he’s going to share any of the insanity that has transpired with Cecilia and, in perfect Royal fashion, he emphatically says no. But when Cecilia does rumble back, Royal does share with her a tin-type picture and a birth certificate from 1878, proof of his being born in the 19th century. She might finally have to reckon with the weirdness that’s invaded her life.
The Future in the Past
We end with another flashback to young Cecelia and Royal at their ranch and we see that the saltiness of their relationship has been a feature of their marriage for a long time. As they take the piss out of each other, the young couple discovers a stranger coming over their fence. When they ask his business he says he’s looking for work as a ranch hand. After directing him to the Tillersons, Cecelia asks his name. He tells them it’s Ben… Ben Younger. They can’t see it, cause they haven’t met him yet, but Ben Younger is none other than Perry Abbott. And it’s clear now that when he crawled out of that hole, it wasn’t back into the present.
Outer Range is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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