An Outer Range Season 2 star confirmed fan theories regarding the sci-fi series' mind-bending ending.
The Amazon Prime Video streaming series returned after a two-year hiatus with its second batch of episodes, continuing its unique brand of storytelling that mixes the Americana of Yellowstone with labyrinthian science-fiction action to Interstellar.
The series stars Josh Brolin as Royal Abbott, a Wyoming rancher who - amid fighting to keep hold of his farm - finds a physics-defying hole on his land that seems to send things to other points in time or (as fans have long speculated) entirely new realities.
[ What Is The Hole in Outer Range? Mystery Explained ]
Outer Range Star Confirms Season 2 Theories
Outer Range star Tom Pelphrey confirmed the hit series is dealing with a multiverse like many fans had suspected.
In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Pelphrey addressed fan theories about whether the twist ending of Season 2 was using the multiverse or a form of time travel.
According to Pelphrey, the series "[has] to be" a multiverse, pointing to the reality where Perry finds himself at the end of Season 2 where he is "happily with his family and not a killer:"
"To me, it’s multiverse. It would have to be. So there’s a strand of reality [at the end of season two] where Perry is happily with his family and not a killer, and that strand of reality exists uninterrupted by anything else that’s happening. And I think there’s another strand of reality where Perry goes into the hole, and that Perry, or any version of Perry, is no longer existing in that original timeline."
He continued, saying that in the series, he sees "infinite potential realities coexisting simultaneously:"
So, for my actor brain anyway, I was believing that we were in a multiverse scenario where there’s infinite potential realities coexisting simultaneously, and at any moment in time, we can diverge into two alternate realities.
Season 2 ended with Pelphrey's Perry Abbott arriving back home after having been sent through the hole to interact with a younger version of his father (Brolin's Royal) hundreds of years earlier.
However, after coming home - on the night he had killed fellow rancher Trevor Tillerson in Season 1 no less - he meddles with the conflict that leads to Trevor's death. This then sees the past version of himself die instead of Trevor, with the new Perry seemingly replacing the old.
While things seem normal, they are anything but, as Perry (and the audience discovers) finds Amy, who fell into the hole from what seemed to be the prime timeline Perry was now occupying.
Perry is welcomed home by Amy looking younger than she has in the series before.
Seeing as Perry has been known as a killer in his home timeline, this warm welcome is super out of character for Amy potentially hinting that Perry, Royal, and the rest of the cast meddling with the hole in the present have been creating new realities instead of just jumping through/affecting time linearly.
What Are Fans Thinking About Outer Range Season 2's Twist Ending?
Tom Pelphrey's comments regarding Outer Range's Season 2 ending come as fans of the series have been pontificating about what sort of physics-defying narrative devices are at play in the sci-fi series.
Many have believed since the show's inception that it was a multiversal story playing out in front of them.
Each time these characters have fallen into the hole, popping up somewhere else on the timeline, their decisions have seemingly been creating branches/alternate realities.
The alternative would be the cast just jumping around and simply affecting time linearity with their actions in the past changing the future (i.e. Back to the Future as opposed to Avengers: Endgame).
Fans have pointed to smaller moments in the series so far that could serve as evidence for this multiversal theory, like seeing two different versions of Royal shooting his father as well as Billy and Luke's opposing visions (via Reddit).
This means the prime timeline may not be able to be changed, simply creating branches off it.
That could prove to be a disappointing realization to people like Pelphrey's Perry, as he was hoping to redeem himself across space and time by stopping his killing of Trevor Tillerson.
Outer Range Season 2 is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.
Read more about Outer Range Season 2:
Who Is Christian James? 4 Things to Know About Outer Range Actor
Full Cast of Outer Range Season 2 - Every Main Character & Actor Who Appears (Photos)
