The premiere of Amazon Prime Video's Outer Range introduced audiences to the show's puzzling hole and the mystery surrounding it.
The streaming sci-fi western, starring Josh Brolin and Lewis Pullman, follows a Wyoming rancher as he discovers a bottomless hole known as the void on his range land.
This comes as Brolin's cowpoke is facing intense pressure from rival farmers and might lose his land in the process.
What's Going on With Outer Range's Massive Hole?
While Amazon Prime Video's Outer Range looks from the outside like a fairly basic rancher drama set in America's heartland, it is so much more. It involves allusions to Greek mythology and the mystery of a massive black hole.
No, this is not the black hole one finds at the galaxy's edges. The hole in Outer Range is a massive, light-consuming opening in the ground found on Josh Brolin's character's Wyoming farm.
This hole seemingly defies physics, consuming anything that falls into it and sending it to another time.
During the series' eight episodes, the hole becomes known as the void, a cavity between time and space.
This void mention goes hand-in-hand with the series' propensity to connect to the story of Chronos/Kronos from Ancient Greek mythology.
Outer Range opens with a monologue from Brolin's Royal Abbott, explaining the plight of Kronos, the titan who fathered the pantheon of Greek gods.
Kronos is often mistaken for Chronos, the Greek god of time, and the pair of mythological figures are closely intertwined in the interpretation of their story in Outer Range.
Before the age of the gods, Kronos attacks his father, Uranus, creating a separation in space. This in-between zone would be named the void and the key to the creation of the gods as, in turn, humans.
One can assume the hole (or void) in Outer Range is a clever allusion to the story of Kronos. The Abbott farm is on the brink of destruction (just like the world of the Titans was before Kronos ripped a hole in space and time), and the void will ensure the farm's future stability.
The Abbott hole becomes a key part of Outer Range's plot as characters disappear after falling into it.
Season 1 ended by teasing a potential second season that would involve a lot more time travel (again, tying into Chronos, the Greek god of time).
How Does Outer Range's Hole Factor Into Season 2?
After spending most of the series in the present, the ending of Outer Range Season 1 and all of Season 2 go buck wild with the series' central hole and its time-traveling capabilities.
Season 1 closed by revealing that Josh Brolin's Royal Abbott had played around in the mysterious hole before, entering in 1896 and leaving in 1968.
The second season of the hit streaming drama jumps around time and space, following two stories, one in the present with Brolin's character and another in 1883 with the ill-fated sheriff who fell into the hole in Season 1.
Back in time, Sheriff Joy Hawk used the hole's capabilities to alter events surrounding Brolin's Royal Abbott. Thinking she is changing how things will turn out, it is revealed she is responsible for a young Royal falling into the hole in the first place.
As she escapes with the boy through the hole, he is sent to 1968 (as revealed in Season 1), and she pops back into reality a few short days after she initially falls into the physics-defying orifice in the ground.
While Season 2 does play with the hole and its mystery, how the opening on the Abbott Ranch works still has yet to be explained.
Fans' best explanation is that it defies explanation. It is a terrifying void in time and space that can spit anyone who falls into it out at any point in history or the future.
Perhaps if/when Outer Range receives a third season, the creatives behind the series will explore the inner workings of the hole in even more detail.
Outer Range Seasons 1 and 2 are streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.
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