Well what did we learn last time on Amazon's "Outer Range?"
Wyoming rancher Royal Abbot discovers a giant mysterious hole in the western reaches of his property.
Their neighbors the Tillerson's want the western reaches of the Abbot's lands for reasons unknown.
Royal's son Rhett got in a drunken fight with Trevor, son of the Abbot family's mean rich neighbor Wayne Tillerson, and killed him.
Trevor's two brothers, Billy and Luke, stormed the Abbot property in search of their missing kin.
In a panic, Royal takes Trevor's body on horseback and then hooves it himself--dead man on his shoulders--to his western reaches giant mysterious hole where he throws the dead Trevor in.
Soon afterward a hippy camper staying on the Abbot land, Autumn, catches Royal in the act, promises to tell no one, and then -- pushes him into the mysterious hole.
Royal wakes up the next morning outside the hole but with a mysterious leg wound.
Autumn confronts Royal in his barn about him surviving the hole, asks him what happened, what did he see?
Royal doesn't answer but flashbacks reveal he awoke outside the hole two years in the future surrounded by mining machines and armed soldiers, his wife Cecilia telling him he's been dead for two years, that it isn't his land anymore, and most important of all -- "to run!"
It's not the firs time we've seen the mysterious hole give Royal visions of the future but that time it appeared that he was physically there, evident from his leg wound which is from a stray bullet shot by Luke Tillerson in the future.
Anyway, on to episode 3, "The Time."
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Episode three's "The Time" opens with narration by Royal about the land and sky, how many things happen, large and small skirmishes, visitors and people who think they're staying but are still only visitors themselves, and how the land and sky witness it all without a care in the world. It's an appropriate monologue about time, considering the most recent revelation: the mysterious giant hole can act as a bridge through time, and may in fact be a wormhole sitting on their land.
List of Events:
Royal and his granddaughter eat ice cream. Amanda asks him what happened to his leg to which he replies that he hurt on a fence but she says she knows he's lying.
Sheriff Joy stops a store robbery then talks to her rival in the race for new sheriff of the town.
Wayne Tillerson talks to his sons about the western reaches of the Abbot land that he desperately wants but his eldest Luke is more concerned for their missing brother.
While exploring the Abbot property, Autumn digs up a shiny rock and finds the bison from episode one's The Void, and pulls out the arrows from its back. In episode three's monologue about time, we see a Native American village for an instance which makes me wonder if the arrows are from the distant past.
Autumn picks up medicine from the local pharmacy then meets Royal's son Perry at a local bar and asks about his wife.
Billy Tillerson sees Royal's granddaughter Amanda walking home from school. She agrees to his offer for a ride and listens to him sing a Fleetwood Mac song while also spotting the gun in his glove compartment. Billy remarks that maybe his brother Trevor is somewhere out in the world with Amanda's missing mother.
Sheriff Joy questions Rhett and his bull-riding competition where he later wins and afterward hangs out with Maria before getting arrested for urinating on a cop car.
When Royal goes to pick him up from jail, he takes the chance to steal Trevor's left-behind belt buckle that has Rhett's blood on it.
Royal confronts Autumn, asking her why she pushed him, what she wants. He asks her what the color yellow means to her, due to seeing her in the future with a cult-like crowd all dressed in yellow. She says yellow means "power" to her. He shakes her hand and for an instant the mountain behind her disappears. When it returns, his granddaughter Amanda who's been out hiking, finds Trevor's body on the mountain.
Amanda returns home and tells her family the news: she's found something crazy.
Royal decides to call Sheriff Joy and tell her about "finding" Trevor's body.
What I found most interesting about this episode was the tight-rope performance by Sheriff Joy. She's a gay Native American woman running for Sheriff -- she's the interim sheriff currently. Everyone seems comfortable with her, especially the Abbot family. She doesn't want to suspect them of foul play but the mounting evidence is not painting a pretty picture.
Another interesting development in episode three's "The Time," is that Trevor's body despite being thrown in the mysterious hole in the western reaches has somehow ended up on a mountain--and not just any mountain but one that quickly vanished and reappeared when Royal and Autumn shook hands. It made me wonder if the two of them have supernatural powers they're not aware of, powers that have something to do with the hole. The fact that Trevor's body appeared on a mountain, instead near the hole also tells us something new about that anomaly--things thrown in, don't always appear the next day nearby but days later far away. It means the function of the hole is not precise, or we are just not familiar with related variables that affected the reappearance of Trevor's body.
I like how the real-life drama of small town ranch politics doesn't take a background seat to the supernatural mystery of the hole. All of the characters get a chance to shine, to show their reactions and emotional mulling-over of events, and despite Wayne Tillerson being the obvious "bad rancher," his monologues about art, bats, and just his singing and operatic emotional bursts are very entertaining. Plus, he works great as another driving force toward solving the mystery of the hole -- along with the strange shiny rocks that him and Autumn have.
There are times when I completely forget that "Outer Range" is a supernatural show which is not at all to its discredit but a compliment to its maintenance of realism despite its bizarre elements.
I look forward to what more happens on this show and hope you enjoyed this review.