Untamed Recap ‘El-o’-win’: Lucy, Teddy, Rory, Sean, Caleb
- Cherish
- Jul 19
- 5 min read
In the third episode of Netflix’s Untamed, Vasquez went into the wilderness alone and stumbled into what could be an important clue.
Untamed Episode 3 Recap and Review
Grief continued to be Untamed’s theme in the third episode, along with making things right. Turner could not make things right with Lucy’s father Rory, an abusive man who was the primary suspect in what investigators at the time believed was her death. Rory moved away after his guilt in the death of the then seven-year-old Lucy could not be proven, but street justice still managed to find him. He was beaten to death outside a bar.
As soon as Turner confirmed Lucy’s identity, he set out to find James, Lucy’s brother. The drive to Fresno gave Turner and Vasquez the opportunity to talk, a little, but James had no helpful information about Lucy. He was as surprised as they were that she lived all this time. Like most people who knew her, James also assumed Lucy died when she disappeared.
Rory’s was just another death connected to the Park, and now, the press was putting Lawrence Hamilton, the park superintendent, through the wringer. He took out his anger on Turner, and told him that he intended to file a formal request for his transfer out of Yosemite National Park. His complaint was not without merit, as Souter told Turner; they were not keeping him in the loop when he did need answers. Privately, Turner told Souter that he believed Lucy Cook and Teddy Redwine were both murdered, and that the killings were connected. However, Turner did not think this was a case of an active serial killer.
The thought that he missed something in the initial investigation into the disappearance of Lucy Cook haunted Turner, as did Teddy Redwine’s death. Once he received Teddy’s cell phone activity, he went to see Linson, the tattoo artist. With all due respect to the seriousness of Untamed, I would like to make a brief detour and point out how hot Eric Bana looked in this brief interrogation scene. ‘This isn’t going to work if we’re both asking questions.’ Hot. Linson insisted that whilst he has heard about the gold tattoos and has seen the x marked pills, he made sure to know nothing about them. That was what he tried to tell Teddy, but his warning came too late.
The paths Turner followed here netted him little information, but Vasquez stumbled into something that could be big. She wanted to talk to the squatter girl again, but Turner told her it was not the time. When he refused to take her call and she did not find him in his cabin, she borrowed his horse and tried to locate the squatter village on her own. She caught glimpse of the girl and tried to follow her, but since Vasquez was not an experienced tracker, it was not really clear if the foot print she saw belonged to the squatter girl or someone else. Eventually, she found what looked to be a large cave system, with old wooden structure built inside it. There was also a respirator mask near the entrance. The wooden floor gave in as Vasquez stepped inside, and she fell down the cave floor.
Having one of the main characters be a city girl completely inexperienced in the ways of the wild was a good decision, because it was through her perspective that we the audience experienced the danger that came with the rugged, often romantic, beauty of the untouched outdoors. Vasquez’s panic at finding herself trapped in the cave as water due the heavy rain outside began to filter in was palpable. She saw a tiny opening that she thought she could squeeze through and found herself stuck, with the water also trickling in, and with her screams finding no one.
Fortunately, Turner came home at the right time. When he saw Vasquez’s vehicle and the missing horse, he put two and two together, and went looking for her as the weather worsened. He found her as she was panicking and stuck in the cave, and calmly talked her out. Turner immediately realised what the respirator could mean.
It was interesting to watch Turner’s calm and clear-headedness save Vasquez’s life, when unknown to her, he was struggling so much that he actually mentioned his almost suicide to his lover Lana, though the two of them agreed that they would leave the outside world when they were together. He said that he was going to jump into the lake with Caleb, that day that he got the call about the Jane Doe. He said it was not a sign, he was just scared; had he not been, he would be the one being pulled out of the water, not Teddy Redwine. Recognising the complexity of grief and guilt that Turner was trying to give voice to, Lana gently told him to give her a call the next time he thought of going to the lake; she would join him.
Jill, too, went to see Turner to let him know that she was not okay, that she continued to struggle as he struggled. Rosemarie DeWitt did brilliant work in that car scene, a mother who continued to grieve and who wanted to reach out to the one person who understood the depth of her pain. What Jill truly wanted to tell Turner was that he could call her any time, that they could still share their grief over their son. Much later, in the middle of the night, it was Jill who was tempted to call Turner. She stopped herself, and instead searched online for news about Sean Sanderson.
That Turner and Jill were hiding something about Sanderson was obvious by now. Turner told Jill that the family investigator came to see him because they were looking into a wrongful death suit against the park. Later, Avalos went to see Jill at her office. What she was particularly interested in was Turner’s state of mind at the time Sanderson went missing, given that they lost their son just a few months before. Jill kept her cool through the short interview, but when Avalos had gone, her hands shook.
El-o’-win, according to this, was the happy spirit world. Turner’s friend Jay mentioned that the last time he saw young Lucy, it was when they sent off her mother Maggie to el-o’-win. For many in this tale, the concept of an el-o’-win might have been a comfort, after moment by moment pain that lingered.
Rating: B+
Strays
⛰️Lucy disappeared three weeks after Maggie died.
⛰️The pills Turner found contained a mixture of some illegal things.
⛰️Vasquez and Turner looked into each other’s backgrounds. Vasquez was a beat cop in LA working toward becoming a detective. She gave up and moved because her son’s father came under investigation for stealing cash in a drug bust. Turner left the FBI field office in New York 25 years ago. He said he grew up in Colorado and preferred most animals to people.
⛰️Ballistics did not match Shane Maguire’s rifle to the bullet that hit Lucy. Turner stubbornly said that cleared the gun, not the shooter.
⛰️Turner showed Jay the inscriptions that Lucy likely left. He identified them as Miwok magic to keep evil spirits away.
⛰️There was a flashback of young Lucy hiding from Rory’s rage in her bedroom. She turned and smiled at the person outside her window. So, whoever took her that night was someone she knew.
⛰️Mr. Begay now lived in Maggie’s old house. He refused to talk to Turner, but he talked to Jay, and gave him Maggie’s old things that he found when he moved in.
Episode Title: El-o’-win
Episode Writers: Mark L. Smith and Elle Smith
Episode Director: Nick Murphy
Original Air Date: July 17, 2025