Untamed: Who killed Lucy? Everything to know about the final clue and what it really means

The murder mystery series Untamed debuted on Netflix on July 17, 2025. Mark L. Smith, the screenwriter behind The Revenant and American Primeval, co-created and wrote the series with Elle Smith. Both also served as showrunners. The six-part series is directed by Thomas Bezucha, Nick Murphy, and Neasa Hardiman.

Set in the lush wilderness of Yosemite National Park, the series features Eric Bana as Kyle Turner, a special agent working for the National Park Investigative Services Branch. He and the newly recruited ranger Naya Vasquez (Lily Santiago) investigate the death of a young woman named Lucy Cook in Yosemite.

Their investigation unearths Lucy's involvement in a drug racket operating within the park and ultimately reveals her killer to be the chief park ranger, Paul Souter, played by veteran actor Sam Neill.

The official synopsis of Untamed, as per Rotten Tomatoes, reads:

"In the vast expanse of Yosemite National Park, a woman's death draws a federal agent into lawless terrain, where nature obeys no rules but its own."

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Exploring Paul Souter's role in Lucy's death in Untamed

At the start of Untamed, Lucy falls to her death from a height of 3,000 feet (914 m) by jumping off El Capitan, a massive rock formation inside Yosemite National Park. Turner and Vasquez soon discover that she had gone missing from her home inside Yosemite in 2012 at the age of 11 and was presumed dead after the search reached a dead end.

She was supposedly attacked by an animal before her death, as evidenced by the bite marks on her hands and legs. Her dead body is sent for DNA testing, which reveals that Lucy's biological father is Paul Souter (Sam Neill), the well-respected chief park ranger at Yosemite, and Turner's mentor.

When Turner confronts Souter in the season finale, Souter confesses that Lucy was blackmailing him for money. When things got out of hand, he tried to stop her from exposing his extramarital affair to his family and ruining his career.

Eric Bana plays Kyle Turner in the Netflix series Untamed (Image via Netflix)

During a heated exchange with Lucy in the park, Paul shot her in the leg as a warning. He proceeded to help his daughter, but she ran away, thinking that he wanted to kill her. Lucy hid in the forest for the next few days, during which time she was attacked by a wild animal. In the end, she decided to take her own life by jumping off the cliff, as she had nothing much to live for.

On July 17, 2025, the show's creator, Mark L. Smith, told Tudum by Netflix that Paul had unintentionally caused Lucy's death while trying to save his family.

"He’s not a cruel person. It goes back to what Elle was saying about 'How far you would go to protect your family?'. He was trying to protect his family, but he missed one of them. And then it just got worse and worse, and it became this."

Furthermore, Eric Bana added that the revelation had a huge impact on his character.

"Souter is one of the only characters that he respects and looks up to and actually listens to. So to be let down by him in the end, it’s just so much for him," he said.

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Lucy's troubled childhood contributed to her death in Untamed

Sam Neill plays Paul Souter in Netflix's drama series Untamed (Image via Netflix)

As the investigators dig into Lucy's past in Untamed, it is revealed that she grew up inside Yosemite with her Native American mother, Maggie, who introduced her to the tribe's culture and symbols. However, Lucy's peaceful life was shattered after her mother died of cancer in 2010, leaving her behind with her abusive father, Rory, and stepbrother, James.

Before her death, Maggie revealed to Lucy that her biological father was not Rory, but the park's chief ranger, Paul Souter. Souter, aware of Rory's abusive nature, subsequently took Lucy away, fearing for her safety. As he could not take her back to his family, Paul left her in the care of Lester Gibbs, who ran a foster home in Nevada.

Lucy was given a new identity as Grace McRay to help her start over. However, unbeknownst to Paul, Lester sexually exploited his adopted children and subjected them to severe abuse. After suffering for many years, Lucy escaped the foster home as a teenager and returned to her real home—Yosemite.

She initially survived by living alone in a tent but soon became acquainted with squatters in the park and became involved in their drug trafficking ring. Lucy worked as a drug mule, helping funnel drugs through a network of underground tunnels to nearby towns.

After a while, she made contact with Paul again and began blackmailing him to hide his secret affair from his family. He initially gave in to her demands but stopped paying her after she started demanding more money. In anger, Lucy kidnapped his granddaughter, Sadie, but Paul managed to rescue her.

He pleaded with Lucy to stop the blackmail and, in desperation, fired a warning shot that struck her leg, setting off a series of events that led to Lucy's death.

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Watch all episodes of Untamed exclusively on Netflix.