Outer Range Episode 5 and 6 Review- The Bear, What He Said, And The Bible Explained

Time gets us all. That’s what Outer Range is about, time. Not just in the traveling sense but in the metaphysical sense of what time means to those who have experienced it together. Outer Range Episode 5 and 6 highlight the often-uncomfortable place where reality and expectations meet. For the Abbotts, it means wounds that won’t heal and bonds that cant be broken. For the Tillersons, it means obsessions, insecurities, and long-standing resentment. Autumn, who is as mysterious as she is unhinged, we aren’t entirely sure we want to know what it means.

Trevor’s body was found, and the coroner reported that his body was not days old like it should have been but mere hours. That fly in the ointment for Sherif Joy means she can’t prosecute Perry, who she knows probably killed, Trevor. Blood evidence and witnesses aside, the timeline doesn’t fit. Little does she know that is because time is funny in the void. It also quite possibly reanimated people. We can guess where he was but not when considering he was not present in the future that Royal saw. Royal only spoke to him as they fell to their respective futures. That isn’t Joy’s only problem, though. Campaigning at the local church was uncomfortable. She shouldn’t have put her wife and child in that position.

Whatever is in that void can be captured and contained by hardened amber. After cheating Autumn out of her necklace, Royal took it along with questions to the University of Wyoming. Unfortunately, the only thing he found was more questions. The mining company appears to be fake.

Apples don’t fall far from their trees in Outer Range Episode 5 and 6. Perry is convinced he is more like his father than is healthy, and Billy seems to share a mind-meld with Wayne. But, can the crooner communicate with Wayne because they are cut from the same cloth, or is Billy just as troubled as Autumn? The unexpected team-up of Billy and Autumn at the end of Episode 6 is very problematic.

Autumn is a loose cannon. Not only is she charismatic, wily, and enigmatic, but she is now off of her medication. Since Royal burned all her possessions, she is out of meds, and the town pharmacy only has generic. What effect that will have, we don’t know yet, but her behavior is increasingly unsettling. She obviously has a connection with the void, Royal, and Billy. All three of them have reacted to the hole in strange ways.

Royal has seen the future after touching the sooty substance in Autumn’s necklace and the void. He has seen his future. He has seen himself die. BIlly and Autumn have a psychedelic experience near the edge of the void, and Autumn believes whatever mineral is inside is essential. Wayne also seems to know more than he admitted to. Did he see Royal climb out of the void as a boy? Is that why Wayne is obsessed with the west pasture?

It’s hard to tell what he wants since we only have his bizarre behavior before the stroke and Billy’s frame of reference after. Wayne changed his will to make Billy the sole beneficiary. Likely this is because he believed his strange son and he had more in common than the others. We don’t know whether he really communicated with Billy about vengeance and animals, but it is pointless. Wayne has made his selection and shut the others out. Ironically Luke and his mother don’t realize Billy fell backward into an alliance with the Abbott’s greatest enemy.

Autumn is playing everyone. She knows all the right buttons to push to break Perry down. Autumn is also driving Royal to the breaking point. She is desperate to get her necklace back which makes her reckless. Royal is on edge and nearly killed her. He also burned down her camp. He instinctively knows she is connected but dangerous, and he isn’t willing to risk losing any family members. The irony is his family is fractured. Rhett and Perry don’t trust each other, and Rhett wants nothing more than to shirk the weight of responsibility and forge a new life with Maria. Perry is crippled by guilt and grief and can’t see a way out of his depression.

Autumn also knows what to say to rattle Cecilia. When Cecilia catches her searching their house for her necklace, she plants seeds of doubt. As a result, Cecilia lost her faith in herself, Royal, and her God. At her core, she is a woman of God. However, she loses who she is when she can’t face herself. After Autumn questions Royal’s behavior, it is the last straw. That’s why she can’t take communion and isolates herself with the dead bear cub.

I can’t help but think time is running out. The Abbotts and the Tillersons are headed for something potentially cataclysmic. Will anyone survive? Does Autumn start a cult? Only time will tell, and it’s ticking loudly. Find all our Outer Range coverage here.

The symbolism of the bears in Outer Range Episode 5 and 6

Bears play a significant role in Outer Range Episode 5 and 6. In the prayer group, Cecilia’s circle dissects the story of the bald prophet, forty-two kids, and a bear. The story from 2 Kings 2:23-25 is often used as a cautionary tale to young children. It is about respecting one’s elders less they sic hungry bears on them. That is not the real meaning of the story, though. It takes place in Bethel, which was, at that time, less inclined to follow the commandments set forth by Moses and more inclined to revel in debauchery and false idol worship, specifically Baal.

Many scholars believe this story is not about child-eating bears but the bigger battle of good versus evil. The balding prophet represents light, and the young men who called him bald and mocked him, represent darkness. With this in mind, the two bears who appear to Cecilia and Autumn are very important. Cecilia finds a dead bear cub outside her house, which devastates her because she views herself as a momma bear. She is worried she can’t keep her cubs safe.

The second event involves Autumn and the bear she meets in the woods. The bear scares her but does not hurt her. Instead, Autumn believes she communicates with the bear, saying yellow, to which it replies to her, “Show him.” Whether any of that happened is debatable, but Autumn took that as a sign to show Billy the void. We don’t know why the bear didn’t attack Autumn, but I am less inclined to think she is innocent. We will have to wait and see whether she is mentally ill or in tune with something unexplainable. Despite her appearance, she seems more serpent than lamb.

Stray holes

• Was it just a coincidence that the crooked county surveyor wrecked after seeing the roaming buffalo? It hardly seems plausible that this wasn’t the universe trying to right a cosmic wrong. It appears the Abbotts are on the right side even if they don’t realize it yet.
• Wayne is waking up. How nuts will things get when he and Billy compare notes?
• Who was Autumn talking to on the phone? It wasn’t Billy. Whoever it was bankrolled her adventure and kept her on medication.
• Time is a motherf@#ker. Preach!