Untamed Ending Explained: Who Killed Lucy Cook?

Netflix’s ‘Untamed’ begins with a dead body falling from the top of El Capitan in the Yosemite National Park. At first, it seems that the woman, who is yet to be identified, may have fallen off, but when National Parks Service Agent Kyle Turner comes to the scene, he immediately suspects foul play. While he keeps an open mind about the woman’s fall from the top, he prefers to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s, and soon, a series of shocking truths about what is really going on in the park come to light. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Untamed Plot Synopsis

Kyle Turner, joined by rookie park ranger Naya Vasquez, discovers that the victim is a girl named Lucy Cook. What makes her interesting is that she mysteriously disappeared about a decade and a half ago, and Kyle was the one in charge of her case at the time. Back then, it was believed that Lucy was killed by her father, Rory, who was later killed by someone else. Now, it is clear that she was not killed at the time, and more importantly, Rory was not her biological father. On top of this, Kyle discovers that Lucy was embroiled in a secret drug-selling business operating out of the park, which means that her death could be a result of those shady activities.

Meanwhile, Kyle struggles with the grief of losing his son, Caleb, who was killed in the park a few years back. He and his wife, Jill, have split up, and while she seems to have moved on, with a new husband and family, Kyle still hallucinates Caleb and wonders if he should join him. Naya, on the other hand, has a child of her own. She moved to Yosemite with the hopes of starting a fresh chapter of her life, but the threat of her abusive ex hangs over her. Still, she starts to appreciate what the forest has to offer. As she learns Kyle’s ways of investigation and the art of getting to know the park and all it has to offer, she begins to love it more with each passing day, even though the place offers its own set of dangers.

Who is Lucy Cook’s Father?

As the investigation into Lucy’s murder proceeds, several suspects come to light, including her biological father and her secret lover. In the penultimate episode, it is revealed that Lucy’s secret lover is Shane Maguire, and with his history of indulging in shady practices, Kyle becomes convinced that he is the one who killed Lucy. However, the officer doesn’t get the chance to interrogate Shane as he is killed when Naya tries to stop him from killing Kyle. The show’s final episode begins with the assumption that Shane killed Lucy. However, the missing fifteen years of Lucy’s life and the mystery surrounding the identity of her biological father lead Kyle to track down her journey.

His investigation leads him to discover that Lucy’s father is his close friend, Paul Souter. It turns out that Paul had an affair with Maggie and she gave birth to their lovechild, Lucy. For a while, Lucy remained unaware of her father’s identity, but when Maggie had only a few months left to live because of her cancer, she told Lucy that Paul was her father, and she asked Paul to take care of Lucy after she was dead. The reason Maggie wanted Paul to own up to his responsibilities was that her husband, Rory, was abusive, and she knew that her daughter wouldn’t be able to survive alone.

On the night that Lucy disappeared fifteen years ago, she was taken by Paul. He wanted her away from Rory, but she couldn’t take her back home. So, he drove to Nevada, where he’d heard about a pastor who took care of children if paid enough. He thought Lucy would be safe there, but he didn’t know that the pastor didn’t care for the children. He cared for the money that came with them, and often would leave the children locked up in the basement and wouldn’t feed them more than they needed to survive.

For all the years that Lucy lived there, she hoped her father would return one day. She told the other kids, including the pastor’s daughter, that her father was a police officer and that he would arrest the pastor someday. Years later, when the pastor’s daughter relays this information to Kyle, he goes back to Lucy’s blood report and discovers that Paul hid the part of the report where Lucy was found to have a connection with Paul’s daughter, Kate, whose details were in the system due to her drug problems which led to an altercation with the law. When Kyle confronts Paul about it, he admits the truth and tells him everything.

Who Killed Lucy Cook?

Despite being Lucy’s biological father, Paul never accepted her because he was too afraid to lose his own family. He knew that if he told his wife about the affair with Maggie, she would leave him, and he wasn’t ready to risk that. So, he kept a distance from Maggie and Lucy until Maggie asked him to take care of their daughter. When Paul left Lucy at the pastor’s house in Nevada, he thought that his job was done. He never thought to check up on her, which is why, years later, when Lucy decided to run away, she came back to the park and had no illusions about her father. She knew that if Paul wanted to accept her and welcome her into his family, he would have done it a long time ago.

Still, when she returned, she tried to talk to him, but he reiterated the fact that he couldn’t lose his family. He agreed to help her financially, but the rejection made Lucy angry. Over time, she decided that Paul needed to feel the same pain she had for all these years. She started blackmailing him for more money, but things got worse when she took away Paul’s granddaughter, Sadie, one day. This was her way of showing that she could harm his loved ones, and that’s something Paul couldn’t bear. He decided to have a talk with Lucy, but he took a gun with him because he wasn’t sure how she would react. He thought that he would scare her a little and make her listen to him. Maybe that way, she would leave him alone for good.

However, Lucy tried to run, which led him to shoot her in the leg. This didn’t stop her, and she ended up at the top of El Capitan. This was the place where she felt at home the most because she had the best memories of her life there in the form of the time she spent there with her mother. By this time, too many things had happened to Lucy. The fact that her own father had shot at her and her mother had gone a long time ago made her feel so alone that she decided to jump from the summit in the hopes of reuniting with her mother. So, technically, Paul didn’t kill Lucy. She killed herself. However, his choices and actions drove her to the edge, and for that, he could never be forgiven.

Is Paul Dead? Why Does He Kill Himself?

The whole drama with Lucy happened because Paul was not ready to give up his family for a fling that he had many years ago, and his feelings about this don’t change even when Lucy is dead. He had never meant to kill, which is why he shot her in the foot, believing that he would slow her down enough to talk to her and explain his situation to him. However, by the time he caught up with her, she had already jumped from the top of El Capitan, and there was nothing he could do about it. So, he let things be, hoping that his secret would be buried forever.

But then, Kyle decides to figure out what really happened to Lucy fifteen years ago. When he reveals that he was going to follow the lead to the pastor’s house in Nevada, Paul tries to dissuade him, but he also knows that any more insistence on letting things be would only draw suspicion towards him. When the truth comes to light about Paul being Lucy’s father, Kyle starts to wonder if he was wrong about Shane. He outright asks Paul if he killed Lucy, to which he says he didn’t, which is technically the truth. But then Kyle says that he is going to have his guns checked for ballistics, because none of Shane’s guns were a match, Paul tries to explain away how one of his guns could have been used to shoot Lucy.

In the end, Paul comes clean about everything, but he remains insistent on not letting his secret go public. When Kyle threatens to tell it himself, Paul threatens to shoot him, but he is not a murderer. He couldn’t kill Lucy, and he certainly cannot kill Kyle, who is one of his best friends. In the end, there is only one option left for him. He shoots himself in the head, and because he is at the edge of the water, he falls into the river. Considering that he shoots himself in the head, it is clear that he is gone for good. It also shows how desperate he was to keep his perfect little family as is.

Paul wasn’t strong enough to bear the weight of his responsibilities and accept the consequences of his actions. He knew that if he came clean about Lucy, he would lose his family, his job, everything that he had worked for his entire life. He also knew that Kyle couldn’t be persuaded otherwise, so he decided to take his life, knowing that it was going to end anyway. This way, even if Kyle told everyone the truth, Paul wouldn’t have to face the brunt of his wife’s anger and hate and the disappointment of his friends and loved ones.

Does Kyle Leave the Park? Why does He Leave the Toy Box for Naya?

Kyle’s life fell apart when his son, Caleb, was killed by Sean Sanderson, and his wife had Shane Maguire kill Sean. Despite what happened with Caleb, Kyle wanted to get justice the right way. He wanted Sean to spend the rest of his life in prison or be executed for murdering a child. However, Jill couldn’t bear going through the process of the trial and taking a chance that Sean wouldn’t be found guilty. Her decision to have Sean killed permanently broke their marriage, and with both his wife and child gone, Kyle had nothing left in the park anymore. The only reason he stayed was because this is where he thought his son’s spirit was, and this way he could be close to his boy.

Kyle also thought that he would die in the park. Throughout the show, he plays with the idea of jumping into the same lake where his son’s body was found. In his mind, Caleb called him so that they could be together again. But the time he spends investigating Lucy’s case opens him up to the world in a way that he hadn’t since Caleb’s death. When he goes to the lake again, he doesn’t feel the urge to jump anymore. He still grieves for his son, but he also knows that it’s not his time to die yet, and since he is going to live, he must move on. This decision is also prompted by Scott’s words, where he pleads with Kyle to let Jill move on on her own and try to survive. As long as they hold on to each other, they will keep dragging each other underwater, and this is no way to live.

Now, with his best friend, Paul, gone, Kyle’s last lifeline to the park is cut off. Moreover, he has already been removed from the job due to the altercation he had with Shane in the hotel lobby. So, he decides to take a chance at life and moves out of the park for good. As a goodbye, he leaves his horse for Naya. He also leaves the box with Caleb’s toys, which is significant because earlier, he hadn’t let Naya’s son, Gael, play with them. The fact that he has chosen to part with the toys means that he has let go of Caleb’s ghost and is finally ready to start a new chapter of his life.