Eric Bana stars in Netflix’s newest crime thriller series Untamed, which investigates a mysterious death in the depths of Yosemite National Park. In the drama created by Mark L. Smith (American Primeval, The Revenant) and his daughter, Elle Smith, Bana plays Agent Kyler Turner, a federal agent brought on to solve the case surrounding a Jane Doe found in the park.
Turner is the typical “difficult to work with, but good at his job” type of cop, making him both an adversary and an ally to his colleagues in the Parks Department. As he gets closer to the truth about Jane Doe, many of his colleagues are called into question.
But Turner’s not completely clean either: The investigator is still coming to terms with the death of his young son Caleb and his subsequent divorce from Jill (Rosemarie DeWitt), and the two are also not letting on what they know about the disappearance of a patron named Sean Sanderson (Mark Rankin). By the end of the six-episode binge-worthy drama, Untamed answers almost all of the questions it puts forward during its run. Ahead, find a breakdown of the ending of Untamed.
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(Image credit: Netflix)
Who was the Jane Doe in ‘Untamed?’
The Netflix miniseries begins with a gripping scene: two climbers on the famed El Capitan peak are suddenly accosted by a falling body that gets tangled in their cables. Once rescued, park personnel find bullets in Jane Doe’s body, realizing that this wasn’t a fall due to a death by suicide, but rather something more sinister.
As they set out to identify the girl, newbie ranger and Turner’s new partner, Naya Vasquez (Lily Santiago), finds an old newspaper story about a missing 7-year-old that looks eerily similar to Jane Doe. Vasquez uses facial recognition software to confirm the identity of Jane Doe as Lucy Cook (Ezra Franky), a young girl who was assumed to be killed by her father, Rory (Scott Vickaryous), following her mom Maggie’s (Sarah Dawn Pledge) death.
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Who murdered Lucy Cook in ‘Untamed?’
As is customary for murder mysteries, Untamed has a few red herrings before landing on the truth. Initially, Turner believes that Lucy’s involvement with an underground drug operation was instrumental in her demise. But despite connecting the pill bottles marked with a gold X found in Lucy’s belongings, the drug dealers are a dead end.
Turner’s next hunch is the park’s wildlife management officer, Shane Maguire (Wilson Bethel), after Turner finds a video of Maguire interacting with Lucy before her death on her phone. Maguire’s lonerism, rough edges, and army background make him a prime suspect—he and Turner even face off in a brutal shootout—but ultimately, Maguire isn’t responsible for murdering Lucy.
In fact, her death is far more personal. Turner requests Lucy’s parental DNA matches, which reveal that Rory is not her real father; Turner’s mentor and chief park ranger Paul Souter (Sam Neill) is. Turner confronts Souter, who fesses up about his affair but begs that Turner not tell his wife. As Souter unravels, he admits that he placed Lucy in a foster home in Nevada (though he claims he didn’t know the family was abusive) and that after she returned to the park, she began blackmailing him for money. In an attempt to scare her (but not kill her), Souter shot Lucy, which resulted in her eventual death.
The confession is painful for both Turner and Souter. Equipped with the truth, Turner leaves the conversation with the intent to turn Souter in. But before he has the chance, Souter pulls out a gun and shoots himself.
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Who is Sean Sanderson in ‘Untamed’ and how did he die?
Aside from the mystery surrounding Lucy’s death, the question of Sean Sanderson’s disappearance in the park hangs over Turner and Jill’s heads. While they’re on Lucy’s case, another officer investigates whether Turner was in the right state of mind after his son Caleb’s death to lead the charge on the Sanderson case. Initially, he is defensive. But after finding out the truth about Lucy’s death, he concedes that he shouldn’t have been in charge of the case.
At the same time, it’s revealed that the Sanderson case is personal for both Turner and his ex-wife Jill: He’s the man who killed their son Caleb. Jill explains that Turner found video footage of the incident via motion cameras that were set up to track migration patterns, and the couple felt that arresting him for the crime wouldn’t have been enough. They didn’t want to live in the limbo of awaiting a trial, so Jill instead paid Maguire to contact, blackmail, and kill Sanderson.
Turner was unaware of this plot, only finding out after Sanderson was reported missing. According to Jill, this betrayal led to the end of their marriage.
(Image credit: Netflix)
What happens with Special Agent Kyle Turner and his ex-wife Jill at the end of ‘Untamed?’
By the end of the miniseries, Turner packs up his truck and drives out of Yosemite, finally putting the ghosts of his past to rest. He leaves his horse in Vasquez’s hands, with a note jokingly reminding her to feed the animal and a box of Caleb’s old toy cars for Vasquez’s son.
After an attempt to die by suicide, Jill also seeks to put an end to her agony by coming clean to her new husband about her involvement in Sanderson’s death. However, the series isn’t definitive about whether he will accept her confession.
