Warning: This article contains spoilers for Outer Ranges Season 2.
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Royal intentionally killed his violent father to protect Joy, but this marked a major change in his upbringing. In season 1, Royal tells Perry that he accidentally shot and killed Perry while hunting. The rules for time travel in Outer His Range remain confusing, leaving unanswered questions about the show's timeline.
The Outer Range season 2 includes a significant retcon that changes the backstory of Josh Brolin's Royal Abbott, but it could all be part of a bigger time travel twist. Amazon Prime Video's sci-fi Western show delved deeper into its time travel aspects in season 2, which followed characters in at least five different time periods, including the present. The ending of The Outer Range season 2 may have featured the biggest twist in the show's history, but episode 4 was also a head-scratcher when it came to the rules of time travel.
None of the characters in Outer Ranges, not even the ones who have traveled through time, can say exactly what the Hole is. It's not even clear if the hole and its powers are science fiction or supernatural. In any case, the Outer Ranges timeline got even more complicated in season 2 after Joy Hawk (Tamara Podemski) and Royal's stories intersected in 1886.
Royal's backstory changes in Outer Ranges Season 2, Episode 4
Royal didn't accidentally shoot his father.
Outer Ranges Season 2 Episode 4 explores Joy's past eras, tracing her journey from 1882 to 1886 before ultimately returning to the present. Gradually giving up on reuniting with his family, Joy spends four years in the late 19th century, hoping to find a way back to the present. Given that 1886 was the year Royal shot her father and fell down the hole, it was easy to predict that Joy's story would somehow intersect with that of young Royal.
Either Joy created a new world where Royal killed her father to save her, or history was rewritten to accommodate the butterfly effect she caused.
However, Outer Ranges Season 2 surprisingly revealed that the circumstances of Royal's father's death were much different than what Josh Brolin's character originally described in Season 1. Royal shoots her father by accident during a hunt, and rather than run away in shame, he shoots her father on purpose. This is to keep him from killing Joy, who is unarmed. In this episode, it was revealed that Royal's father was a mean, violent man who hated his family and wanted to eliminate them. When asked to shoot Joy, Royal shot his father instead. Royal and Joy end up falling into a hole together.
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Is Royal’s backstory in Outer Ranges Season 2 a retcon?
Outer Ranges time travel means this isn't necessarily a recon
At first, it may seem like a massive counterattack for Royal to intentionally kill his father to save Joy. In season 1, there was no indication that Royal's backstory had anything to do with Joy, much less that his father's death was not an accident. However, the changes made to Royal's origin likely have an in-universe explanation, with the fact that Joy went back in time and changed the past. Either Joy created a new world where Royal killed her father to save her, or history was rewritten to accommodate the butterfly effect she caused.
Royal told Perry about her life in Outer Range Season 1, Episode 6.
The rules of time travel in the Outer Ranges are still confusing, and it's hard to tell if things should be closed-loop or not. For example, Joy's daughter finds black and white photos of her mother and others, which were only taken after Joy returned to the past. A similar question applies to whether Perry's saving Trevor in Outer Ranges Season 2 Episode 7 created a new timeline, or whether the show rewrote the same timeline it's always been in. We hope Outer Ranges Season 3 resolves the mysteries of the show's timeline.
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outer range
The Outer Range, produced for Amazon Prime Video, is a science fiction and western television series that began in 2022. The series is created by Brian Watkins and stars Imogen Poots and Josh Brolin. A Wyoming rancher is trying to manage his farm and keep his land safe when a strange space appears in one of his pastures.
Cast: Sean Sipos, Louis Pullman, Isabel Araiza, Imogen Poots, Tom Pelphrey, Noah Reid, Lili Taylor, Tamara Podemsky, Olive Abercrombie, Josh Brolin
Release date: April 15, 2022
