Who killed Lucy in Untamed? Here's how the twist changes everything in the show

Untamed answers its central question: Lucy Cook dies after a confrontation in which her biological father, Paul Souter shoots her in the leg, prompting her desperate leap from El Capitan, a twist that reframes earlier suspicion that ranger Shane Maguire murdered her and shifts the series from a simple predator hunt to a tragedy about institutional rot and failed protection.

Untamed is a six-episode Netflix limited murder mystery (released July 17, 2025) created by Mark L. Smith and Elle Smith, directed across the run by Thomas Bezucha, Nick Murphy, and Neasa Hardiman, and starring Eric Bana (Kyle Turner), Sam Neill (Paul Souter), Rosemarie DeWitt (Jill Bodwin), Lily Santiago (Naya Vasquez), and Wilson Bethel (Shane Maguire).

The finale revelation alters the perceived killer, the moral weight on Turner’s mentor figure, and the thematic lens through which earlier red herrings (drug corridors, corrupt patrols, vigilante impulses) are interpreted.

How Lucy’s real killer reveal reshapes Untamed’s mystery

Early coverage and in-story misdirection frame Shane Maguire, the off-grid, volatile wildlife officer entangled in illicit activity, is Lucy’s likely murderer, positioning a classic “dirty cop” resolution.

The official narrative instead discloses that Paul Souter’s paternal facade masks a panic response that precipitates Lucy’s fatal choice, converting what looked like a straightforward homicide into layered culpability (the shot causing impairment followed by her jump).

This shift recasts Souter: no longer just Turner’s steady guide but the narrative’s tragic core, whose failure collapses the surrogate family structure emphasized by the creators. As cited in a Netflix Tudum report dated July 17, 2025, creator Mark L. Smith explained

“We were trying to find someone who had a very paternal vibe about them, and you understood how much he cared about family and also how much he cared about Turner,”

A quote that acquires ironic weight once Souter’s role in Lucy’s death is known.

The investigative breadcrumbs and competing versions inside Untamed

Across Untamed, clue placement engineers fair-play ambiguity: Lucy’s phone imagery and transactional traces focus suspicion on Shane. Resource access irregularities hint at broader ranger complicity. And Jill Bodwin’s vigilante Sanderson subplot mirrors the ethical slippage that culminates in Souter’s fatal confrontation.

Mid-cycle explainers began consolidating events, distinguishing between a direct murder scenario (early Shane framing) and the canon hybrid of injury plus coerced flight.

Lucy’s agency in the final moments: she jumps to escape further harm while assigning originating physical responsibility to Souter’s gunshot, resolving the “who killed Lucy” question as shared but primarily paternal culpability rather than the earlier Maguire-centric theory.

The creators’ emphasis on chosen and broken families (the Turner/Souter dynamic; Turner’s grief over his son) underscores how the twist reorients the theme from predator vs. victim toward institutional and relational betrayal.

Why the twist changes everything for Untamed’s characters and themes

Turner’s arc, initially procedural (identify Jane Doe → build suspect pool), becomes a reckoning with misplaced trust in hierarchical mentorship once Souter’s role surfaces, complicating closure and fueling anthology speculation about transferring him to a new landscape.

Naya Vasquez’s competence in digital identification and field crises elevates her from rookie to moral anchor, her correct interpretation of layered evidence contrasting with the audience’s and Turner’s acceptance of the Shane narrative.

Lucy’s death mechanism reframes wilderness danger: the lethal force is not an external natural threat but human secrecy and coercive guardianship within Yosemite’s administrative structure.

Souter’s collapse also ties into the series’ meditation on grief, paralleling Jill’s extra-legal response to the Sanderson case, showing how attempts to control outcomes metastasize into further loss.

Critical reactions note that while some viewers found the pacing predictable, the Yosemite setting and interpersonal pivots lend contemplative weight to an otherwise familiar mystery chassis, and the twist injects tragic moral ambiguity rather than a clean “cop killer” resolution.

In Untamed, Lucy Cook’s death is ultimately attributable to Paul Souter’s injurious act triggering her fatal leap, overturning the Maguire misdirection and recontextualizing every prior clue around themes of compromised protection, institutional erosion and the fragility of surrogate family bonds.

Stay tuned for more updates.