This is the low point in a show I've quite liked so far. I started seeing red flags when they were relying on time travel as more of a plot device than a mystery box. The show excels at mystery boxes, but as we know from JJ Abrams, they need to eventually be resolved. I was growing concerned by the increasing number of mystery boxes, especially since they involve time travel which adds a level of contrivance to everything.
The second red flag I saw was around Joy's writing, because it felt like some studio execs marched in a team of recent college-grad sensitivity writers for all of her scenes, and I say this because the writing quality suddenly takes a dive- at one point it had to be stated "(Joy has) been here for 4 years" twice within 3 minutes. How stupid do you think we are? That's not how writing works.
It all came to a head with the retcon of Royal's past. You can't do that, show. There's a rule in mystery writing that you have to present the audience with the required pieces to make the connections, and the craft is in how you conceal those pieces. This show just went "Oops, we set up the wrong pieces for the outcome we wanted, so let's retroactively waste everyone's time by making the information from before false". That's not okay.
Easily the worst episode in terms of writing and pandering, and I was already defending this show against accusations of being preachy. I'll finish the season because it's built up enough goodwill until now, but I doubt I'll be itching for Season 3 of 'Outer Range'. 4.5/10.