Why Is The <em>Untamed</em> Finale So Complicated?

Murder mysteries are getting a bit out of hand. The whodunnits nowadays aren’t as simple as "the butler did it," but usually I manage to keep up. I can't say the same for the latest complicated murder mystery to hit Netflix, Untamed.

Created by Mark L. Smith (The Revenant, American Primeval), the dark, grizzly miniseries is right in the vein of the writer’s other brutal and depressing stories about survival; albeit, with a twist. In Untamed, we aren’t just solving the death of one mysterious Jane Doe. The new Netflix drama is out to solve the interconnected web of three separate disappearances in the Yosemite National Park area that all link back to one man: special agent Kyle Turner (played by Eric Bana).

The story begins with Turner investigating an accident at Yosemite, after two mountain climbers catch the dead body of a young woman who falls off the edge of a cliff. Instead of falling thousands of feet to become a splattered mess below, her body is tangled in the climber’s ropes and rescued by the local park rangers. Turner eventually learns that the Jane Doe is Lucy Cook, a young woman who disappeared after a history of foster care and abuse.

Cook is just one of many missing persons files at Yosemite National Park, along with a man named Sean Sanderson. How is Sanderson involved, you might ask? Well, a lawyer constantly badgers Turner about his disappearance—even though he doesn’t seem as motivated to continue Sanderson’s case. He’s hiding something. Looking for clues back home, we learn that Turner had a young son named Caleb who also mysteriously died in the park five years ago. From there on out, Untamed’s murder mystery is as complicated as its title suggests.

Eric Bana belay’s down the side of a mountain to investigate Lucy’s body in Untamed.

Untamed boasts a large cast for such a small park town, including Turner’s mentor Chief Park Ranger Paul Souter (Sam Neill), veteran park ranger Bruce Milch (William Smillie), wildlife management officer Shane Maguire (Wilson Bethel), and rookie ranger Naya Vasquez (Lily Santiago). There’s also Turner's ex-wife Jill Bodwin (Rosemarie DeWitt) and her new husband Scott (John Randall). By the end of Untamed’s tale, almost all the characters above will take a part in either Lucy or Caleb’s disappearances.

First up is Maguire, who somehow runs an illegal drug smuggling ring in Yosemite National Park like he’s the Tulsa King of Mariposa County, California. After Maguire is suspended from the park ranger service, everyone suspects that he killed Lucy because she was wrapped up in his drug trade. There’s just no proof. So, Turner tracks Lucy’s history back to her foster home, where he finds out that she was dropped off by a local police officer.

If I have it right, Lucy’s mother Maggie had an affair with Chief Park Ranger Paul Souter. Though Maggie's husband Rory believed he was Lucy's father, Souter is Lucy's true biological parent. So, after Rory becomes abusive, Paul offered to take Lucy to a foster home. He didn’t hear from her for years after and attempted to keep the affair a secret. Then, Lucy started blackmailing him. To scare her, Paul reveals that he chased Lucy to El Captain and fired a warning shot—which accidentally struck her. While running away in pain, she fell off the side of the cliff to her death.

What happened to Turner’s son, Caleb?

As it turns out, if a character wasn’t involved in solving Lucy’s death, they were involved in Caleb’s. In the finale, Turner’s ex-wife Jill reveals that Caleb was killed by Sean Sanderson, the missing man who apparently preyed on children at Yosemite National Park. Turner hoped to eventually find the man and bring him to justice, but Jill hired Maguire to kill Sanderson in retaliation years before.

Have I lost you yet? Well, prepare yourselves for this next twist. At the end of the series, Turner is for fighting with Maguire—even though he’s kind of right for pursuing him due to Maguire’s drug operation in the park ranger service. In the end, Turner kills Maguire and ends his corruption… for now. While Turner decides to step away from everything at the end of the mini-series, he leaves his horse to rookie ranger Naya Vasquez. If there’s any hope for season 2, I imagine Vasquez will tackle whatever mess Untamed comes up with next.