The second episode of Outer Range season 2 shows just how tricky jumping through time can be for its characters, when the mysterious forces at play don't want them to return to their own time.
In Outer Range season 2 episode 2, called "Traces to Somewhere", we pick back up from episode 1: Amy is still missing, Autumn is helping Cecilia look for her, Royal is facing land incursions, Perry and Maria are trying to run away and Perry and Joy are both stuck in different time periods in the past.
So that's a lot to keep track of, with even more twists and turns introduced in this second episode. Plus some characters from season 1 finally return, and we get a trippy dream sequence too.
Here's our recap of Outer Range season 2 episode 2, and of course spoilers for the hour-long episode will follow.
Trips to the past
Throughout the episode, we follow two characters in time periods in the past; for your ease of reading, and to stop us repeatedly jumping around in time, I'm going to present their events below in one chunk:
First is Sheriff Joy (Tamara Podemski) whom we quickly learn is in 1882. She's told this by a guide (Kimberly Guerrero) who also fell through the hole, and she's told that it's best to keep her time-jumping past under wraps. She's given some period clothing to wear.
Later, this guide talks about her backstory: she was a nurse from 1972, and fell through the hole 14 years prior, with the hole never re-appearing in all that time. She's told this prior to receiving a food shipment from a man who rents some of the reservation in exchange for food — and the man's son is a very young Royal Abbott!
At the end of the day, Joy is looking on her phone at pictures of her family, when the battery finally runs out. She begins to cry, realizing that she's probably trapped in the 1800s, and she tosses her phone into a fire.
The other character in the past is Perry Abbott (Tom Pelphrey). He visits the younger Royal Abbott (Christian James) and reveals that he's not in fact looking for a job, but is searching for his wife... and is Royal's son. He reveals his knowledge of the hole to prove his point.
Throughout the day, as Royal takes Perry to work, the latter reveals more of his past including his wife's disappearance and his killing a man. Royal agrees to let Perry work for him, as long as he keeps quiet on their weird history.
Royal later takes Perry to the family dinner, where a young Cecilia isn't happy to see him. We also meet Cecilia's boyfriend, which isn't Royal as Perry would expect, but is a young Wayne Tillerson! Wayne and Royal already have an antagonistic relationship.
The hunt for the truth
Royal Abbott (Josh Brolin) takes his wife Cecilia (Lili Taylor) to where the hole was in the ranch, evidently having explained the plot of season 1 to her. Since the hole vanished last season, they find nothing, though Royal does find a strange metal implement with the marking 'property of UW'.
Later, Cecilia takes Autumn (Imogen Poots) to church. When the former asks for help looking for Amy, members of the congregation begin to gossip under their breath, which leads Autumn to chastise them for being unholy. Afterwards, Cecilia tells Autumn off for this outburst, and tells her to help them find Amy or leave.
In hospital, Patricia Tillerson (Deirdre O'Connell) visits her son Billy Tillerson (Noah Reid) in the hospital, but he's still out cold. She waits with Luke (Shaun Sipos) and Wayne (Will Patton).
At the same time, search parties begin to make sweeps to find Sheriff Joy, but they have no joy.
After staying in the motel Rhett Abbott (Lewis Pullman) fixes up the damaged car. Maria Olivares (Isabel Arraiza) comes outside as she's decided where they should go first: a town called White Fish. Rhett points out that they'll have to return to Wabang to get there, but Maria doesn't mind.
Royal goes to the University of Wyoming (the UW on the metal device) to speak to Dr. Bintu (Yrsa Daley-Ward), who reveals that she's been takings soil samples from the land which have very weird readings. Royal warns her not to return, threatening her by leaving a bullet.
Rhett's return, Billy's revival
Rhett and Maria drive through Wabang, saying silly goodbyes to the places they used to know. They pass Perry's truck so Rhett, not knowing of the events of season 1's latter half, decides to pop into the bar to say goodbye. Outside, he sees a missing poster for Amy, which concerns him.
Inside, Rhett finds Royal instead of Perry, who states that he had hoped Rhett had already left because with both Amy and Perry missing, he knows he won't be able to leave now. Some time later, Rhett leaves the bar to tell Maria that they can't leave now.
While he's unconscious, Billy has a strange fever dream in which, dressed up in red, he sings an Elvis Presley love song to Autumn. Then he wakes up, surrounded by his family, who demand to know how he got himself into this state. Billy simply responds with the strange symbol carved into his chest.
Wayne wants to take aggressive action against Royal for this and Luke backs him up, against Patricia's wishes. Outside, Luke tells his mother that he's finally taking action to ensure the Tillerson ranch is passed to him in the future. He tells her to go home for now.
Sherriff Joy's wife returns home after the search, and her daughter finds a picture saying "look, it's mom!". Upon further inspection, this appears to be a photograph from the 1880s... showing Joy amongst the other Shoshone people!
Over dinner, Cecilia asks what Autumn knows about the strange hole, and Autumn thinks it's linked to the Abbott family in some way. Later, Abbott tells Cecilia about his trip to the university.
Cecilia reveals to her husband that Rebecca is somehow back, and reveals a secret that she's been keeping: Rebecca was cheating on Perry with Lewis (who we met in the last episode), and when Cecilia found out, she threatened Rebecca. This was just before the woman first disappeared, and it may have prompted her running away.
The last thing we see is Autumn, in bed, reading passages from the Bible. She seems to be focusing on the more 'firebrand' and 'wrath of God' parts of it...
