Untamed episode 3 recap: the pressure builds to find the killer (Spoilers)

Untamed is a murder mystery on Netflix set in Yosemite National Park, where a woman's death sets special agent Kyle Turner (Eric Bana) on a harrowing investigation filled with dark secrets, brutal crimes and heartbreaking twists.

While Kyle is partnered up with new park ranger Naya Vasquez, they're both forced to confront their own upsetting truths while on the hunt for a killer. One who knows the park as well as Kyle. And Vasquez quickly realizes she needs to learn how to navigate the wilderness quickly if she's going to help in the investigation. Spoilers to follow.

Here's a recap of everything that happened in Untamed episode 3.

The episode opens on a girl painting rocks with her mom. They’re talking about death and her mom tells her they'll cross over to El-o’-win after life. The mom has a port and tube on her chest. She tells her daughter to come back there if she ever has anything she wants to tell her once she’s passed over. Blood drips from her nose onto the rocks and she says she’s going to walk back to the house. Her daughter says she’ll come back in a minute. But, as she stands there on her own, a man walks up behind her. She turns and waves at him.

Vasquez explains that Lucy Cook went missing from her father’s home inside the park. Kyle says it was his case at the time, but there was no sign of forced entry. There was blood on the rug and they all thought her father killed her. Vasquez notes that her father, Rory, was then killed less than a year after Lucy went missing. Kyle says someone hunted him down and killed him, but that he didn’t kill Lucy. They talk about her mother, Maggie, who worked in the administration office until she got cancer. She died three weeks before Lucy’s disappearance, but was in hospice. So, Lucy lived with her father and stepbrother, James, who now lives in Fresno.

As Kyle leaves, he asks someone on the phone to pull up cell phone activity for Teddy for the last 48 hours. Jill is waiting for him in his truck outside. She hands him her camp bracelet and a list of camp counselors and people involved with the camp when she worked there. She tells him that when he asked her the other day if she’s happy, she said she was, but she’s not.

She can’t stop missing Caleb and thinks about things she did like when he wanted ice cream and she was rushing him. She tells him he can call her anytime he wants. Kyle tells her about the investigator who came to talk to him about Sean Sanderson. She asks if they have anything new, but he doesn’t know. She leaves.

Vasquez gets in the car and Kyle has the results for the bottle of pills. A mix of coke, ketamine, peyote and more. He wants Vasquez to check in with the Mariposa police department to see if they’ve ever come across it. Vasquez tries to apologize about Kyle's son, but he turns the music up.

They go to visit James Cook. Kyle won’t let Vasquez come in. He knocks on the door, but nobody answers. A man comes upstairs and walks straight past him. He looks back at Kyle and when he reaches the end of the hall, he starts running. Kyle chases him, but loses him amongst discarded furniture under the building and pulls out his gun. James jumps up behind him and tries to hit him with a wrench. Vasquez holds her gun up behind James and stops him.

James tells them to tell Hector he can get the money this week. Then, he realises they’re police. They head back to his apartment and Kyle asks him about Lucy. He says he told him back then that she was in her room and then she wasn’t. When they ask if he’s seen her, he says not since 15 years ago. Vasquez shows him the photo of her body. They look around his apartment and find drugs. So, he asks James about the bottle of pills. He doesn’t know anything, so they leave.

Kyle tells Vasquez that both Lucy’s father and half-brother didn’t know she was missing until the next morning. Vasquez wonders if one of them hit her and so she ran away. Kyle says it’s not always that easy. As they drive, Kyle asks about Vasquez’s job in LA. She says she was a beat cop and Kyle tells her he knows her husband was suspended for stealing cash in a drug bust. She says they were never married. She wants to know why Kyle moved away from New York’s FBI field office. He explains how he grew up on a ranch and wanted to be out in the wilderness.

As Kyle and Vasquez arrive at the ranger’s office, Lawrence is holding a press conference about Teddy’s death. Afterwards, Lawrence is angry that people are dying in the park and he’s not being told why. He tells Kyle he’s raised serious concerns with NPS in Washington about his work. He says he’s going to order a formal request to get Kyle out of his park. When Lawrence leaves, Kyle goes to Souter and tells him he thinks both people were murdered and that it’s connected.

Kyle gets a message from forensics telling him that Shane’s bullet is not a match for the one that shot Lucy. He says out loud: “Clears the gun, not the shooter”. Caleb is in the car with him and then he’s gone. That night, Kyle heads out in a storm. He goes to the hotel to see Lana and they make love in one of the rooms.

Afterwards, Lana asks what’s up with Kyle and he says the case he’s on is bothering him. He said he was just about to jump into the lake and disappear with Caleb, but he got a call about a girl who fell off El Capitan. He says he felt like that was a message but, now he feels like he was just scared. If he’d done it, he would’ve died instead of Teddy. Lana tells him to give her a call next time he wants to go to the lake.

Vasquez drops Gael off at daycare. She makes sure she’s the only one who can pick him up. Elsewhere, Kyle pulls up on Stewart and invites him fishing. He gets a call from Vasquez, but ignores it. Kyle asks Stewart about Lucy’s mother, Maggie. He says he knew her back in the day. He reveals that the girl who died was her daughter, Lucy. They go to visit a man called Mr Begay and ask about Maggie. He says that the property he lives in was hers back in the day. Kyle asks if he’s seen a girl around and he says he hasn’t.

When shown the photo of her body, he says he doesn’t recognize her. Stewart hands over some of Maggie’s belongings that she left behind. Stewart also says Mr Begay said he saw a girl on the ridge months ago, but didn’t get close enough. She ran when he tried. Kyle shows Stewart the carvings and he says they’re old Miwok magic to keep evil spirits away, or evil anything.

Meanwhile, Vasquez has taken one of Kyle's horses and she’s looking for the squatter camp. Elsewhere, Esther Avalos goes to see Jill. She wants to ask questions about Sean Sanderson and whether she found anything unusual about the investigation. Esther brings up Jill and Kyle's son dying and Jill asks what he has to do with it. Esther says she’s trying to get a picture of Kyle's state of mind. Jill dismisses her. Vasquez continues to search for the camp, but spots a man wandering through the park on his own. Shane is watching her through the scope in his hunting rifle. Vasquez follows the man and finds a tunnel in the rocks with a footprint outside.

Elsewhere, Kyle goes to visit the tattoo artist that Teddy saw before he died and asks about the message he sent him, telling him to stay away from the gold tattoo. He won’t say why. But, he reveals the gold tattoo was like a brand. He shows him the pills. He says he's heard about them, but makes sure he knows nothing about it. Vasquez follows through the tunnel and finds an old mine shaft. Inside, there’s a gas mask hooked up on the side. As she walks through, the ground breaks beneath her and she falls.

Kyle arrives home and finds Vasquez’s car abandoned. He then realizes one of his horses is gone. Meanwhile, Vasquez wakes up and screams for help. She walks down a tunnel structure looking for a way out. It’s raining and Kyle goes out looking for her. Vasquez finds a tight crawl space with a gap at the end where she can escape. But, as she gets halfway through, she can’t fit under the rock and is trapped. The rain water is pooling under her.

Suddenly, she hears Kyle's voice and he tells her she has to stop fighting and slow her breath so she can get herself out. He can’t reach her, but he tells her to calm down and she’ll be able to get unstuck. He tells her to think about her son. She manages to relax and crawls backwards out of the tunnel. He tells her he followed her tracks and she shows him the gas mask, marked with a gold X.

Vasquez goes to pick her son up from daycare. Jill gets out of bed and searches for Sean Sanderson on the internet. Kyle sits at home looking at a photo of him, Jill and Caleb. He searches through Maggie’s things and finds a photo of Lucy. It cuts to young Lucy hiding from her violent father. She makes carvings on the wall and someone comes in her window. When she turns around, she smiles and waves at them.

All episodes of Untamed are available to stream on Netflix.