Royal said that he killed his father in a hunting accident, but the truth comes out in season 2 of Outer Range.
Royal explains that he killed his father by accident while they were out hunting and he didn’t have the strength to drag him to safety.
He wanted to run away and disappear, which is when the hole appeared and he jumped through.
When Joy is sent back to the 1880s, she interacts with a young Royal and his father, Levi Sumner.
Levi was a strict man who was very hard on his son and never showed him any love or affection.
This eventually worked against him in a significant way.
Connected through time
In 1886, Joy is settled in the Shoshone camp and Levi Sumner and his family are just getting by.
Two youngsters from the tribe wander into one of the settlers’ territory and one of them is kidnapped.
Joy goes to find her and frees her after killing two of the settler’s men. He orders Levi to help him since he has good tracking skills, and Levi takes Royal along.
Joy gets wounded and stays behind to delay the settler. She catches him off guard and kills him but the wound on her leg is too much for her.
Levi and Royal split up, and Royal finds Joy. Levi orders his son to kill her but after listening to Joy’s comforting words, he turns and kills his father.
He runs to the hole and falls through, with Joy falling in after him. Back in the present, Joy tells Royal that he saved her, and he feels his memory adjust to what happened.
He says that he told himself it was a hunting accident because he didn’t want to face what he did.
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