Outer Range season 1 episodes 3 and 4 recaps & review

Prime Video’s Outer Range is a mystery thriller set in Wyoming, USA, where a rancher and his family face supernatural occurrences when they discover a mysterious portal on the western part of their land.

Episode 3 recap: “The Time”

The third episode of Outer Range opens with another one of Royal’s monologues about the creation of the world and the death that consumes it. The scene switches to the Abbott’s kitchen late at night where Royal and his granddaughter Amy sit and have ice cream.

The latter asks about the wound on Royal’s leg who passes it off as an injury from one of the fences. He thinks he’s evaded the topic successfully but Amy exclaims that she doesn’t believe the story.

Elsewhere, Joy brings an “Elect Joe Hawk for Sheriff” poster to be put up in the local gas station when she realises that a man with a gun is trying to rob the place. She apprehends him and believes the deed will help her vote bank.

The robber starts blabbering and talks about other missing people in town as Joy drives him to the station. He mentions that his cousin disappeared for six seconds but Joy ignores him, thinking it’s the methamphetamine talking.

Back at the Tillerson’s place, Wayne offers Royal $1 million for the west pasture despite knowing that he’s legally going to win the landau the hearing next month. His son Luke reminds him of that but Wayne sticks with his offer, much to Luke’s dismay who thinks his father cares more about the land than his mission son Trevor.

The focus then switches to Autumn who runs into a bison with two arrows lodged in it and pulls one of them out. She then hitchhikes into town to pickup a prescription of Lamotrigine — a medication to control seizures. While there, she runs into Perry at a bar and the two end up conversion about his missing wife, Rebecca.

We then see Amy getting off of her school bus and walking home when she is offered a lift by Billy Tillerson. She obliges and Billy tries to get some info on Trevor from her but to no avail. Back at the market, Cecelia thinks she saw her daughter-in-law driving a truck but thinks she’s probably hallucinated.

Royal and Rhett fix the fences and end up having an argument about moving the cattle and Perry. Once home, Cecelia admits to Royal that she tried praying for Rhett’s bull riding competition later that night and couldn’t do it.

She’s shocked to see her faith in God dwindle but Royal isn’t able to give her the emotional support she needs owing to his stern nature. Meanwhile Rhett gets ready for the competition but he is confronted by Joy who reveals that the blood found on Trevor’s belt buckle matches his.

He evades the topic and Joy doesn’t push but he manages to inform his dad about the buckle situation. Later, after he scores high points on the competition, Rhett goes on a date with an old crush of his, Maria (Isabel Arraiza). However, he gets arrested for pissing on a cop car because of being drunk and this gives Joy the perfect opportunity to question him about Trevor.

Rhett mentions that he got into a scuffle with the missing Tillerson brother but goes on to lie and says that nobody can confirm or deny his involvement in the disappearance as no one saw them fight. Luckily, Royal shows up to bail his son out and steals the buckle while waiting. He then disposes it off inside the void.

Moving on, Joy has a curious encounter with a member of commerce as she sees him to secure votes. He talks to her about the possible existence of extinct mastodons in Wyoming which confuses the Deputy Sheriff.

Royal then has a chat with Autumn and tries to understand why she pushed him into the hole. She reveals that it was instinctive but is glad that he returned. The old rancher warns her to not mention this to anyone until they understand what the mysterious void is.

However, as Autumn pushes him for more information, he reveals to her that he thinks he travelled through time to a place that looked like Wyoming but wasn’t quite it. She asks him if he saw in her in that new place but Royal keeps quiet.

He tells her if she keeps quiet about what she’s seen, he’ll divulge more information and they shake hands. Suddenly, Royal notices Autumn’s necklace that sports similar black spots that appeared on his body when he fell into the void.

The spots move and a part of the mountain behind Autumn vanishes. Royal notices this but doesn’t react. Elsewhere, Joy also sees this while driving and smashes the brake to take in the scene.

However, as soon as Royal lets go of Autumn’s hand, the structure reappears. Joy rushes back to the station and is informed that a lot of people have called in to report the disappearance of a mountain.

Still in shock, Joy is confronted by Luke who wants answers about his brother’s disappearance. Back at the ranch, Amy runs into a corpse that turns out to be Trevor’s. She runs back home and informs the family which sees Royal call Joy and inform her about the development.

Episode 4 recap: “The Loss”

Episode 4 opens with a flashback that is set nine months before the current events. We see Wayne in his study when he one of his workers brings him a rock with the same moving black spots. Wayne exclaims that he’s sees something like this as a child and orders the man to leave the rock.

Back in the present, Joy alongside Deputy Matt (Matthew Maher) travel to the Abbott ranch to answer the call for Trevor’s body. Joy asks Matt about the missing belt buckle and the two discuss that they suspect Royal as he was unsupervised at the station.

Shockingly, when they see the body, it is revealed that Trevor has been dead for about eight hours and not a week. Joy then heads to the Abbott house to question Amy since she discovered the corpse.

During the interrogation, Amy’s story puts Royal, Perry and Cecelia at home but she admits that Rhett wasn’t around the night Trevor vanished. Sensing this might mean trouble, Perry informs Joy that Rhett was with a girl and they didn’t tell Amy about it, considering she’s just a child.

While exiting the house Joy bluntly asks Royal about the buckle and he acts like he knows nothing of it. He then rushes back inside to call Rhett knowing that the police will try to question him and if the alibis do not match, it is going to cause problems.

Perry calls his brother but he disconnects as he goes to meet Maria. Meanwhile Matt catches up to him and starts interrogating just as the phone rings again. Meanwhile, Maria also joins them.

There is an intense back and forth between the two in the midst of which, Rhett does pick up the phone and Perry informs him of the situation. Rhett sticks to the story that he was with a girl but when Matt asks who the woman was, Maria lies and steps up to say it was her.

Joy finally breaks the news of Trevor’s body being found to Luke, Billy and Wayne and the latter screams out in frustration. Perry later runs into Autumn again in the woods and the two talk about Trevor this time.

While talking, Autumn asks for a picture of Rebecca, much to Perry’s shock. However, she clears the air by saying that she’ll keep an eye out for her using the photo should she ever run into her and Perry obliges.

Perry returns home and has a conversation about the ongoing series of events with his mom. Realising that Perry has been completely in the dark about everything, Celia takes Royal’s case for his secrecy.

Meanwhile, Joy goes to the bank where Maria works and forces her to reveal any information she might have about Trevor Tillerson’s death. The scene then switches to Joy bringing in the Abbott brothers and questions them both separately, revealing that Maria admitted she lied and Rhett was out for two very crucial hours and nobody knew where.

Before the either can say anything that they might regret, Royal bursts into the station with their family lawyer and gets the boys out. However, during her questioning of Rhett she tells him that Perry also said that he didn’t know where Rhett was and this angers him.

The next day, Wayne’s wife Patricia Tillerson (Deirdre O’Connell) comes to town to attend her son’s funeral. She’s furious at Wayne for caring more about the land than their son’s death and vouches to find out who did it. She also informs him that she’ll make sure Luke takes care of the ranch after Wayne loses his mind and dies.

Royal pays a visit to the county assessor Karl Cleaver (Kevin Chamberlain) to postpone the date of the land hearing. Frustrated that Karl is clearly on Tillerson’s payroll and isn’t paying his request any attention, Royal threatens to put him in a “hole” that he wouldn’t like.

The step, however, backfires as Karl later lets Cecilia know that he has moved the hearing date up instead because he isn’t afraid of threats. The focus then shifts back to Patricia who goes to see Trevor’s dead body at the coroner’s office. Joy joins her and Patricia urges her to find who killed her son.

She leaves owing to protocol and the doctor reveals his observations which confirm that Trevor has been dead for roughly 10 hours. We then witness Trevor’s funeral where Patricia lifts the lid of the coffin to let people see her dead son’s face. She also intends to observe the Abbott’s as they witness the body.

As she stares at them, she notices Perry looking away from the corpse and believes that it was him. Post the service, Rhett apologises to Maria about dragging her into this and replies that she likes him but will not be a part of whatever trouble his family is in.

Royal then meets Autumn for a poker game and wagers his west pasture against her necklace. He cheats and wins the necklace. Later that night, Wayne gets a strange signal from the mysterious rock and drives into the night, finally discovering the void.

There, he runs into Royal and the two get into a scuffle which ends with Wayne hitting Royal in the head with his rock and knocking him out. He then drives back, leaving Royal there.

Review

  • These two episodes have been directed by Jennifer Getzinger who does well to keep the consistency, thrill and suspense of the first two.
  • The Tillerson and Abbott feud is an interesting sub plot and that mixed with the murder investigation is quite intriguing to watch. Considering we know that Perry killed Trevor, it is fun to see the Abbott’s tricks to cover their name.
  • Characters like Joy and Patricia have really opened up the plot for multiple possibilities with their inquisitive nature. Meanwhile, the curious relationship between Autumn and the Abbotts is also a source of great mystique.
  • The show does tend to get repetitive in its suspense building which is also quite slow. There is a lot of buildup but half the season has passed and still we have zero information about the void and what it does.
  • These two episodes definitely take a step back compared to their predecessors in terms of story telling but in no way are they boring or flat.

Rating: 3.5/5


Also Read: Outer Range season 1 episodes 1 and 2 recaps & review

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