Summary
An action-packed penultimate episode crammed with big moments and some shocking reveals.
It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Outer Range finally delivers on its promise with possibly the best episode—Season 1, episode 7, “The Unknown.” This action-packed melee of revelations and retribution gears us up for one memorable finale. A lot happened in the show’s fifty-minute running time, so we best get down to it.
Episode seven begins with a flashback to Perry’s youth. The angry child is beating up a Tillerson boy in the centre of a roller disco. This opening scene addresses Perry’s history of violence and a questionable mental state. The location is also fittingly returned to in a later scene.
Director Lawrence Trilling, a veteran of the television drama, effortlessly cuts from a scene of young Perry talking with his father about his anger issues in their truck to an older Perry in the Sheriff’s police car. Perry confessed to the murder of Trevor Tillerson and is now facing the consequences.
Whilst imprisoned, Deputy Sheriff Joy questions the angry cowboy about the disappearance of Rebecca, his wife. Now the mysteries are unfolding, Rebecca’s name is brought up on numerous occasions. The obvious link would be that her disappearance has something to do with the magical hole, but that may be too predictable.
Perry denies any wrong doing and is bailed out by his parents for a hefty fee. Perry’s daughter Amy also enquires about her missing mother in a heart-wrenching exchange. Amy’s innocence within all the chaos really does pull at your heartstrings.
Thankfully, “The Unknown” manages to avoid any outright nonsense, which plagued the earlier episodes, but I can’t help but mention Cecilia’s digression with the bear. She seems to be hiding a dead bear cub in a hut on the ranch, keeping this a secret from the other family members.
In a bizarre turn she cuts herself on the bear’s teeth. Anyhow, one of the bear’s parents comes snooping for their child and Cecilia encounters this gigantic beast in a truly tense sequence. Cecilia frantically races for her gun and shoots the predator in the last possible moments. Will this bear themed segue have any relevance to the overall plot though? That remains to be seen.
Whilst Cecilia is off battling bears on one side of the ranch, characters line up to inspect the alien portal on the other. Billy takes his brother to go visit the strange phenomena and later Perry visits the hole with his dad. Nearly all the main cast have seen this magical hole now, on Outer Range all the secrets eventually come pouring out and this penultimate episode delivers on the big reveals.
In one of the show’s stranger subplots, Billy (you know the one that sings all the time) falls madly in love with Autumn and the two share one disgusting embrace, their romance being one messed up vulgar pairing.
Autumn’s descent into madness has been an escalating ticking time bomb, which seems ready to explode by the end of this series. At the motel she’s being carving the Abbott family emblem into her skin and after a racy French kiss with Billy, Autumn moves onto cutting her lover too. It’s painful to watch, yet their crazed performances may hint at the hole’s obsessive powers.
From here on, Outer Range ratchets up the tension, providing a barrage of exhilarating moments and some rather unprecedented twists. The filmmakers behind this western thriller look set to be saving the best for last. I really hope the madness that proceeded this can be eloquently justified in the eagerly anticipated finale.
What did you think of Outer Range Season 1, Episode 7? Comment below.
Read More: Outer Range Season 1, Episode 6 Explained
