Untamed Recap ‘A Celestial Event’: Eric Bana stars in national park mystery
- Cherish
- 9 hours ago
- 6 min read
In the first episode of Untamed, currently airing on Netflix, a federal agent on Yosemite National Park investigates the death of a young woman whilst he deals with a deeply personal loss.
Untamed Episode 1 Recap and Review
Untamed began with a climb on the granite face of El Capitan, a vertical rock formation inside the Yosemite National Park that rises about 3000 feet from the base to the summit. There were two men climbing, one seemingly more experienced than the other. After a scare, a fall easily remedied by skill and gear, the guide told the newbie not to rush it. Then, from the top of the rock came the body of a woman. She hit a piece of jutted rock on her way down, then became entangled with the climbers’ ropes. More quick movements, strength, and skill, and the guide was able to stabilise all three of them. But, it was clear the young woman was already dead.
It was a very good way to establish a mystery that was as much about the characters as it was about the breathtaking, dangerous environment they lived and worked in. Eric Bana was Kyle Turner, a National Park Service Investigative Services Branch (ISB) special agent assigned to Yosemite, playing the familiar trope of a gifted investigator his colleagues could not stand, but laced with an unfathomable tragedy. He arrived on the scene on a horse, and with Park Ranger Milch timing him (17 seconds), almost immediately clocked how the crime scene grounds were not well preserved. Despite warnings about lightning, Turner rappelled down to check and help retrieve the body still hanging off the climbers’ ropes. Despite Milch dismissing the incident as a suicide, Turner knew it was not. There was black cottonwood on her palm; there was none on that mountain. She had wounds that were not from the fall. There was a blood trail, and the condition of her feet suggested that she had been running for a while. Turner also thought she looked familiar. Turner and Milch clearly disliked each other whilst newbie Park Ranger Naya Vasquez (Lily Santiago), who joined the team from Los Angeles a mere two weeks ago, watched.
It was to Vasquez that Milch gave the responsibility of working with Turner on the case. The two traced Jane Doe’s path until they found bloody foot prints on an old hunting shack. There, they also found a bloody rope which she may have used in an effort to stem the bleeding on her injured leg, and fresh inscriptions on the wall. There was more blood on the trail, and her shoes, and evidence that she was attacked by two to three coyotes. Then, Turner found a bullet embedded on a tree trunk.
There was a large caliber bullet wound on her left thigh, missed by the coroner on the first pass as it was hidden by her other injuries. The evidence pointed to a sad last few hours for the young woman – shot on the leg, attacked by coyotes, hid in a hunting shack where she continued to bleed out, scratched a message the investigators had yet to decipher on the wall, made her painful way up El Capitan, and eventually, fell to her death. Who was she? And why did Turner think she looked familiar?
The bracelet Jane Doe wore could be a clue. The tile charms looked like they spelled TAKE A HIKE. Turner, who had been assigned to the Park for a long time, recognised the bracelet and told Vasquez they were given away to employees and attendees of a four-week summer program for kids that ran from 2008 to 2011. He wanted Vasquez to pull up the Park files and cross check connections of the kids and counselors with current Park employees. It was a long shot, but they didn’t have much at this time.
Every time Turner was alone, even when he was working the case in his cabin, he was accompanied by a sweet boy named Caleb, his son who passed away years ago. The introduction of Caleb and his tragedy was a brilliant writing and directorial execution; a viewer paying close attention would have noticed it somewhere in the middle of the episode, but even if the viewer did not, by the end of the episode, the reveal was both sorrowful and narratively satisfying.
Turner was introduced with Caleb, investigating what looked to be a case of bear poaching. When Turner decided that the poachers were likely too far gone to be caught, he and Caleb talked about going to the lake and jumping off the wooden dock. Then he got the call about Jane Doe, and he told Caleb they would have to go to the lake another day. The next we saw Turner, he was alone and arriving at the crime scene on a horse.
Why was this first scene important? Because it set up Turner’s mental state, an important part in the story. Caleb was with Turner all the time; his deep love for his son was both a treasure and a tempting doom. Jumping onto the lake on its surface was a fun father-son activity, but in the context of the story, it was the episode telling us that Turner was considering suicide. The Jane Doe call cut through the fog of his grief, and he was forced to go on investigator mode.
Still, his grief continued. He called his ex-wife Jill (Rosemarie DeWitt) to tell her about an upcoming meteor shower, a celestial event they used to watch as a family. Jill was now married to a dentist and stepmother to two girls. Her connection to Turner has not dimmed, however, and after visiting him, she voiced her concern to Paul Souter (Sam Neill), the chief park ranger and Turner’s old friend.
On the night of the meteor shower, Turner spread a blanket on the ground and laid there with his arm spread out, as he would have positioned it when Caleb was still alive and would watch the sky with him and Jill. It was when Raoul, a friend of Turner and a source of insights into indigenous symbols and history, arrived with the fish he promised Turner that Caleb was revealed to be a hallucination. The space next to Turner on the blanket was empty. A couple of beats before this, Souter’s granddaughter Sadie asked about Caleb on a photo she found, and Souter said he was his godson who passed away several years ago.
I saw Untamed described as a police procedural, and whilst there certainly is police procedure here, I would describe it more as a study of family and grief amidst an overarching mystery. I have also seen it described as ‘slow’, and whilst yes, it is, that is by design. The scenes often feel like an echo of a moment rather than the moment itself, an invocation of the power of memory in the present, of a life that is held by past sadness and guilt. It is a character study, the characters just happen to include the majestic Park where the story is set.
Rating: A-
Strays
⛰️ Jane Doe had a gold X tattoo, which was expensive.
⛰️Turner was a heavy drinker. The park superintendent, Lawrence Hamilton, did not like him, and complained about finding out about the Jane Doe case online.
⛰️The Sanderson case was a missing persons case from over five years ago that Turner headed. He has been dodging the calls of a lawyer named Avalos, who was acting on behalf of the Sanderson family in their potential wrongful death suit against the park.
⛰️Vasquez was new to riding a horse. She left Los Angeles with her toddler son Gael. Based on that message she received, it looked like she had a problem with Gael’s father.
⛰️Souter lived with his wife Mary and his granddaughter Sadie. He mentioned that his daughter Kate had a relapse, which was why he and his wife had to look after young Sadie.
⛰️You can read about the spirit Po-Ho-No which Raoul mentioned here.
⛰️During the meteor shower, Jill came out onto the back deck and watched it alone, sharing Turner’s grief. Her husband Scott joined her and comforted her.
Episode Title: A Celestial Event
Episode Writers: Mark L. Smith and Elle Smith
Episode Director: Thomas Bezucha
Original Air Date: July 17, 2025