DISCLAIMER: This recap of Outer Range Season 2 Episode 2, “Traces to Somewhere” contains spoilers. Read at your risk.
Trespassers Now and Then
Outer Range’s Season 2, Episode 2, “Traces of Somewhere”, starts with Cecilia (Lili Taylor) and Royal (Josh Brolin) on horseback dealing with the realization that Royal is a time traveler and that many strange things continue to be afoot in Wabang. But if hardnosed Cecilia seemed to have absorbed some of this in Outer Range’s first episode of Season 2, “One Night in Wabang”, there’s not much trace of it now.
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This rigid lady is still hell-bent on getting her reality back to normal, no matter what disturbing facts get in the way. Most of all she wants to find Amy. As she rides off, Royal notices three holes in the ground at his feet. And what appears to be a tent pole marked as property of the University of Wyoming. Have there been more strangers in his pasture?
In the 1980s Perry Abbott (Tom Pelphrey) aka “Ben Younger” finds young Royal Abbott in a bar eating what looks like a meal of silver dollar pancakes. He’s washing them down with a beer. Royal, hard as ever, tries to give Ben the brush off again. Even when he shows Royal a picture of his missing wife. But if there is some idea that Perry was going to extend this ruse for long, it is quickly dismissed. He flat out tells Royal who he is, that he’s his son and that he arrived in this timeline through the same hole Royal used to escape 1886.
In the present, Cecilia and Autumn (Imogen Poots) take in a sermon at the local church. The Pastor (Johnny Sneed) tells the congregation that life is not a random set of events. There’s order to it, even if it’s apparent. For Cecilia, who after Amy’s disappearance at last night’s rodeo shouted for all to hear that “God has left!”, it’s hard to tell if this message is a comfort or a kick in the ribs. But she’s a Godfearing woman and she asks the congregation for help in finding Amy.
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Unfortunately for her, Autumn isn’t so devout. And when she overhears some congregants gossiping about how not one, but two Abbotts have disappeared, she chastises them for being hypocritical. After hustling the still limping Autumn outside, Cecilia warns her to stay in her lane and keep her theological notions to herself.
At the hospital, Wayne (Will Patton) continues to serenade the still-comatose Billy (Noah Reid), while Luke (Shaun Sipos) continues to deal with the lingering effects of the black liquid (which is mostly taking the form of flickering light fixtures). Neither of them is happy when Patricia (Deirdre O’Connell) noisily arrives at the hospital to see her unconscious baby boy. Between Billy’s coma, Wayne’s singing, Luke’s unraveling, and Patricia’s huge sunglasses and chonky jewelry, the Tillersons are a hot mess.
Fellow Travelers
A worried Martha (Morningstar Angeline) implores Deputy Matt (Matthew Maher) to keep looking for Joy (Tamara Podemski) who remains missing. He invites her to join the search party which is being organized at Joy’s last known location.
As the volunteers fan out over the land, the scene returns to the 19th century where Joy remains among the Shoshone. If she’s shocked to discover that she’s traveled back to 1882, she’s even more shocked when he meets a Shoshone woman named Falling Star (Kimberly Guerro) who speaks perfect, modern English and sports a Led Zeppelin tattoo. Turns out she’s a time traveler too!
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At the motel with all the cats, Rhett (Lewis Pullman) and Maria’s (Isabel Olivares) romantic escape continues as they agree to start their new life in Whitefish, Montana. Even though it means they might have to drive back through Wabang to get there.
In Cecilia’s truck, Autumn shares she takes medication for anxiety because she was adopted. She has no idea about where she is from.
At the University of Wyoming Royal confronts Dr. Bintu (Yrsa Daley-Ward), the scientist he talked to about the mineral in Season 1, about the stake he found in his pasture. She admits she was there, but only because the black mineral is mysterious. It’s filled with curious elements and disrupts all her testing equipment. In a spectacular leap, she suggests that the mineral flowing beneath Royal’s land is “time itself”.
She goes on to say that none of this will make any sense until someone explains it and, honestly, it feels like she’s talking directly to the viewers of Outer Range. Bring it on Bintu, we’re ready! But Royal isn’t, which he makes very clear by leaving her a bullet and telling her he hopes to never see her again.
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Back in the 80s, Royal and Perry have a very stoic cowboy chat. Perry brings Royal up to speed about Rebecca’s disappearance, the hole, and why Perry jumped in it. Perry asks his father if he’ll ever be able to return to his own time, but Royal doesn’t know. And he doesn’t seem to want to.
Royal surprises Perry by revealing that he and Cecilia aren’t married yet. Does that mean Perry has informed his father of future events? And if so, why is Royal so unbothered by the revelation that he and Cici will marry and have kids? There’s no time to unpack that because Royal is after getting Perry some ranch work. He introduces him to some local cowboys who seem suspicious of this stranger who’s arrived. One of them, Cole (Jasper Keen) puts it bluntly when he says, “Everybody lies, Royal.”
A Young, Old Friend
In 1882, Joy waits with Falling Star and some other Shoshone in a pasture for a meeting to begin. Falling Star describes how she was a nurse who came through the hole in 1972. After adjusting to her circumstances she helped negotiate a treaty for her tribe and has been an important member of the community ever since.
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When the other party to this meeting arrive, Joy discovers that the current Sheriff of Wabang has escorted a disgruntled local rancher named Sumner who is there to pay his rent to the tribe in grain. He’s short on his payment (of course) and not angry about having to give it up at all.
When he sharply yells at his young son who looks terrified of his father, Joy discovers that this is Royal Abbott. Or should we say, Royal Sumner? She asks Falling Star to take her to the hole, wanting to return to her wife and daughter but finds out that the hole has disappeared. As far as we know, it won’t return for another four years when young Royal kills his father and escapes through it to the 1960s.
As Maria and Rhett reminisce about growing up in Wabang on what they think will be their last trip through town before starting over in Whitefish, Rhett spies Perry’s truck and decides to say goodbye to his brother. But after seeing one of Cecilia’s flyers he discovers for the first time that Amy (Olive Abercrombie) has disappeared. He finds his father in the bar and finds out Perry is also gone and that the family’s ranch is in trouble. He’s forced to tell Maria their plans will have to wait.
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Back at home, Autumn continues to try and piece everything together for herself. Cecilia tries to tease more information out of her about her past. All she can mine is Autumn’s adopted family was rich and “odd”.
In the 80s, Perry tells young Royal about his killing of Trevor Tillerson. When Royal hears this we find out that he hates Wayne as much in this time as he does in the present. This sharing seems to have softened Royal. He decides to bring Perry home to the Abbott ranch for supper, telling him he’s got something to show him. That “something”, besides the fact that Perry’s Mom Cecilia has always been salty, is that she is currently dating Wayne Tillerson!
Billy’s Brain
In the hospital, it’s time for a peek inside comatose Billy Tillerson’s mind and it’s… just what you think it would be. In the vision, he’s dressed in a red and white Roy Rogers-style cowboy outfit. He is, of course, sings a love ballad to Autumn who sashays toward him in a matching outfit. To help us really get it, a literal heart appears on the screen with the inscription “Billy + Autumn”.
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His sweet dream is cut short when he suddenly wakes to his family. When they see the Abbott brand that Autumn cut into his chest, they go full Tillerson. Patricia wants to call the cops. Wayne quotes Deuteronomy and vows to go biblical on Royal Abbott for this transgression. To Patricia’s surprise, Luke backs his crazy father. In an aside, he explains to his mother that there’s more at stake than Billy and manages to keep her on his side… for now.
Back with the Shoshone, Joy secretly scrolls through her cell phone looking at pics of Martha and Rose. When the phone’s battery gives out, she weeps. Is this the last time she will ever see them? In the present, Martha returns from an unsuccessful search for her wife and is devastated. But when she happens on a historical black and white photo that seems to show Joy in the distant past, her devastation turns to confusion.
Autumn eats a home-cooked meal with Cecillia and Royal at the Abbot ranch. With some difficulty, Cecilia asks her what she thinks about the nature of the hole. Autumn doesn’t know, but she’s convinced it has something to do with the Abbott clan. That’s probably a good guess.
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When she leaves Cecilia and Royal alone so she can read the bible (what?), Royal downloads Cecilia about Dr. Bintu taking samples from the West Pasture. Cecilia one-ups him. She reveals she’s the reason Rebecca disappeared and then came back to take Amy. After discovering Rebecca was cheating on Perry with Lewis Mays, Cecilia drove her away. She told her she’d never see Amy again. Cecilia kept the secret from Royal, who now knows what it feels like to be kept in the dark.
The episode ends with Autumn studying passages from the bible and thinking back on her interactions with Royal from the first night she saw him and pushed him into the hole to the present. The passages she’s interested in seem concerned with law and fate. Finally, the notion that what we wish others to do to us, we must do to them. It’s clearer than ever that Autumn knows more than she’s revealing. And whatever she knows it’s starting to take on a very Old Testament vibe.
Outer Range is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
RELATED: Read our Outer Range recaps, here.
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