‘Untamed’ Delivers Its Best Suspense Sequence In Episode 3

This, I think, is more like it. With the identity of the mysterious Jane Doe having been discovered, several new lines of inquiry open up in Episode 3 of Untamed, and a few of them even relate to Yosemite’s topology, politics, and social dynamics, giving “El-o’-win” a better, more specific sense of the place than the previous outings. It also delivers the best suspense sequence in the season thus far, which shouldn’t go unmentioned.

All this does make the act of recapping the episode and speculating on its details a bit more challenging, but I’ll endeavour to keep everything together as best as I can. But this is the typical midpoint of a mystery where there’s a bunch of stuff going on that might subsequently turn out to be red herrings, and there’s a fair amount of information being front-loaded that may later turn out to be inaccurate. So, keep that in mind.

The Lucy Cook Conundrum

“El-o’-win” opens with a flashback to a young Lucy Cook and her mother, who explains that the title of the episode refers to an afterlife in the belief system of the Native people. This is especially relevant since Lucy’s mother is clearly dying – you can tell from the sudden nosebleed and the tone of the conversation. This scene also begins the trend of flashbacks featuring Lucy always including some dude in the background who seems to be a mysterious third party.

In the present day, we get more information about Lucy. Souter and Turner both worked the case of her disappearance, but it was quickly assumed that her father, Rory, had murdered her. To escape the reputation, he moved to Fresno, but the child-killer allegations followed him, and he was eventually beaten to death on account of them. Lucy’s mother, Maggie, died of cancer, as implied by the opening flashback. Following that, Lucy briefly moved in with Rory and her step-brother, James.

James is a strung-out drug addict who owes money to a dealer and is permanently angry about all aspects of his life, including the absence of his step-sister, but he doesn’t seem to know anything. The lead’s a dead end.

Local Connection

Given Lucy’s Native heritage, Turner teams up with his friend, Jay, to look further into the family. This is another thing that adds to Untamed Episode 3, even though it’s only lightly explored. The Native folk are understandably mistrustful of authority and aren’t inclined to talk to Turner without Jay’s endorsement, which helps to flesh out the dynamics of the park. Lawrence, who you’ll recall from Episode 1, is the park superintendent, is even angrier about optics following Teddy’s death, so this is another source of location-specific pressure.

Jay also identifies the symbols Lucy carved into the hunting shack as old Miwok magic designed to keep evil away. It works as a recurring motif marking Lucy’s personal journey because she has clearly suffered throughout her life and used her connection to her homeland as a form of reassurance. It’s a neat way of using a case clue as a means of character and setting development.

Turner also visits Linson, the tattooist who warned Teddy not to ask any questions about the gold tattoos, but he deliberately doesn’t know anything specific. Whatever’s going on with those tattoos is dangerous enough that he knew never to acquire any knowledge of it, so he wouldn’t be compelled to divulge it. If nothing else, Linson has admirable self-preservation instincts.

Untamed. Lily Santiago as Naya Vasquez in episode 103 of Untamed. Cr. Ricardo Hubbs/Netflix © 2025

Cave Diving

At the top, I mentioned that Untamed Episode 3 contains what is easily the best moment of sustained suspense in the season thus far. It involves Vasquez, who is rooting around the forest and follows a figure into the entrance of what turns out to be an old mine. While she does so, Maguire is watching her through a rifle scope, which is suspicious but isn’t explained (for now.)

In the mine, Vasquez falls through a collapsing floor and ends up deep underground. It starts to rain heavily outside, which naturally causes the cave to begin flooding. In a panic, Vasquez attempts to crawl to safety through a tiny fissure and gets stuck midway. The whole thing is filmed head-on with a profound sense of claustrophobia, and Lily Santiago really sells her discomfort and terror.

Naturally, Turner, having returned home to find a horse missing and retraced Vasquez’s steps, arrives in the nick of time to save her by calming her down enough to crawl back out. So, it’s a nice bonding moment too, capping off some earlier dialogue scenes in which the two swapped background stories (she’s from L.A., he used to work for the FBI in New York but missed the open spaces and the animals of the Colorado ranch he grew up on). This is the first time that Yosemite itself, rather than the local people, has really felt dangerous, at least beyond the occasional peril of fake-looking animals.

And Another Thing…

Some additional details about “El-o’-win” that didn’t fit into the recap proper:

• Untamed Episode 3 technically closes with more flashbacks to Lucy’s childhood. In this one, we see her hiding in her bedroom from her abusive father, scratching the familiar Miwok symbols out of fear. Someone opens her bedroom window to take her away.
• At one point, Jill has a conversation with Turner in which she confesses to not being over Caleb’s death at all. Crucially, he mentions the ongoing Sean Sanderson investigation. Whatever happened to Sean, Jill is at least complicit in it.

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• Untamed Episode 4