The Abbott family are haunted by the disappearance of Perry’s wife Rebecca. This painful tragedy has cursed the family for nine agonizing months now, in addition to straining their already fragile mental states and personal relationships. As the plot unravels it becomes evidently clear that Rebecca’s disappearance is inherently linked with the magical hole, but how and why are the two seemingly random events connected?
On the night of Rebecca’s disappearance, she and Perry had a fight. The wife didn’t want to spend her entire life on the ranch, living in such close quarters with the in-laws. Her daughter Amy may have grown up surrounded by this tight family unit, but Rebecca wants out. The argument will plague Perry’s conscience for the following months to come, causing him to blame himself, but there is more to this story than first meets the eye. Poor, heartbroken Perry is just a pawn in a grander scheme.
In a gripping finale it is surmised that Autumn is in fact Amy, Rebecca and Perry’s daughter. How this time travelling paradox occurs I’ll save for another article, yet the act itself goes someway into explaining why Rebecca had to disappear.
Episode eight also shows Rebecca’s subtle, blink and you missed it return. She finds daughter Amy at the rodeo and swiftly exits with the child. Distraught Grandmother Cecilia hunts for Amy, but she knows deep down that her granddaughter is gone for good. I believe Rebecca came to whisk Amy away to continue the time travelling loop that was already in motion. Let me explain…
If science fiction movies have taught us anything it is that two versions of the same person cannot safely cohabit the same timeline. Having two Amy’s (or Autumn’s depending on your persuasion) in the same time period would lead to a dangerous existential crisis, one that could rip apart the very space-time continuum itself or something to that extent.
So the theory is: Rebecca left the ranch to be involved in this secretive mission and returns to take her daughter to another timeline, thus continuing the time loop. It would make sense to use a friendly face to persuade a child into the time travelling act, jumping into a frightening unknown, so they would want to use Rebecca.
Also, Amy can’t grow up in the present timeline, because Autumn already inhabits it. So at some point Amy must be taken from 2022 to live her life in another time period and then be sent back to 2022 as an adult. Still with me?
To conclude, I believe that the military personnel and scientists, witnessed in the future timeline, must repeatedly send Autumn back into the past to continue their time loop to keep stability in the universe. Rebecca is involved in this process to coax young Amy into starting the loop altogether and therefore is wiped from existence in the show’s present.
