Untamed Recap ‘Gold Rush’: Turner v. Maguire

In the fourth episode of Netflix's Untamed, Kyle Turner and Shane Maguire got into each other's nerves, and alluded to a shared dark past.

Untamed Episode 4 Recap and Review

Even Paul Souter could not get an answer from Kyle Turner when he asked what was between him and Shane Maguire, but whatever it was, it was serious. We were first introduced to Shane when Kyle showed up at his camp and drank his beer whilst waiting for him. When Jay would take Kyle’s drink without asking, it felt like two good friends who were just very comfortable with each other. When Kyle sat in Shane’s camp and drank his beer, it felt like deliberate disrespect. 

Shane arrived with a sick deer he shot, part of his job in wildlife management. He was not exactly warm toward Kyle, but he also gave no indication of a serious bad blood. He was chill. The anger emanated from Kyle, not Shane. Shane did react when Kyle tried to take his rifle, which suggested distrust, and he took the handgun Kyle offered so they were both armed. 

I returned to that scene in episode two because we had another Kyle-Shane scene here in episode four, and the dynamic was largely the same, except this time, Shane decided to taunt and even threaten Kyle. Kyle arrived at the bar where Shane was drinking and asked him about Abuelo, what his cut was in Abuelo’s illicit business, what his deal was with the supplier. It was all rather accusatory, as though Kyle was certain Shane was involved in the illegal activities happening in the park. Shane claimed he was just a loyal customer. 

Shane asked about the ballistics result, and Kyle lied and claimed they were not sure yet. Shane commented that he was not in the habit of shooting people unless he was getting paid for it. He needled Kyle about their conversation almost like they were working together again. That got to Kyle, and he was vehement in his insistence that they never worked together. He also declared that Shane was part of his case somehow and he would find out. Shane, allowing some anger to slip from behind his mask of cool, asked him what he would do about it.

Now Shane was the aggressor, and Kyle was on the defensive. Shane brought out Esther Avalos’s card, and asked Kyle what he should remember about Sean Sanderson — the first time he saw him, or the last? The tension between the two men grew thicker, broken only by Paul’s arrival. As Paul herded Kyle away, Shane had one final taunt, about saying hi to Jill. Whatever the history was between these two, and Sean Sanderson, had to be important because the show has been alluding to something here since the first episode, when Sanderson’s name was first mentioned.

At the parking lot, Kyle saw that Paul had taken his spark plug. Clearly he could not get away until the two of them had talked, and perhaps he had sobered up a bit, not just from alcohol but from the strong emotions he was processing. Paul told him that what happened to Caleb, Lucy, and Teddy was not his fault. He told Kyle to stop torturing himself, and if that meant leaving the park, so be it. Caleb would be with him wherever he went. This was notably the second time that Paul tried to send Kyle away. At first Kyle refused to hear Paul, but eventually his words got through. Kyle said that perhaps he would leave after he had solved Lucy’s case. He owed her, he wanted to do right by her.

It did look like the park deaths were related to the ongoing pill business. Kyle and Naya Vasquez returned to the cave that was apparently a gold mine from the 1850s. It had an underground tunnel system that was likely being used to run the drug business. As they went further down, Kyle warned Naya that there could be traces of arsenic in the air, which could be why the people using it for business had respirator masks. It was a massive complex, and when they reached an exit, they found a small part of the missing Abuelo, at least, what was left behind by the vultures. Kyle left Naya with Morris to find the rest of Abuelo whilst he led a search of the squatter village with a team of rangers, and the detention of the villagers.

Untamed’s deliberate pacing would not be to everyone’s taste, but to me, this was one of the show’s strengths. The writers knew how to pick which scenes to slow down on, not just to underscore the show’s themes but to expand its emotional core. Glory, Abuelo’s erstwhile girlfriend and a leader in the squatter village, told Kyle at interrogation how she ended up in the park, a story that was laced with anger at a social system that she was part of, worked hard on for decades, but which failed her when she needed it the most. Glory was diagnosed with cancer shortly after she was fired from her job, and therefore had lost her insurance. She went into the wilderness, so averse was she to what she called fake sympathy. That was nine years ago. The pill bottles the rangers found were for when she was in such severe pain. Glory’s story was a gut punch in a show that often lingered on gorgeous nature shots, a land that was so filled with beauty and wonder that was also a refuge to those who felt kicked out by society. 

After finding the rest of what was left of Abuelo, Naya rode toward the squatter village, and found the girl she had been looking for hiding behind a tree. We did not get her name, but she was open enough about talking about Lucy. In contrast to Glory who came to the park after decades of a life well lived, these girls met when they were just 16. Lucy had just ran away from some place. Eventually, she met a guy in the park whom she called Terces (secret spelled backwards), who got her into the drug business. The girl saw Lucy with Abuelo sometimes; they had a place where they would swap out drugs for cash. The girl also said that Abuelo was friends with Pakuna, who just happened to be amongst those detained at the ranger station.  

When the aerial survey Kyle and Naya did yielded no information on where the drug operation was headquartered in (but plenty of gorgeous shots), Kyle told Naya to call Milch and have him release Pakuna with no provisions. The tactic worked. Pakuna headed straight to the nerve centre of the drug operations, deep within the mine. Kyle and Naya simply waited for him at the mouth of the cave.

‘Gold Rush’ was Untamed’s most packed episode yet. What was different about it was that whilst it did have plenty of revelations, what it had more of were tantalising clues. Set at the beginning of the season’s back half, it was a narrative signal that the mysteries were close to being solved. 

Rating: A

Strays

⛰️Lucy’s DNA results somehow ended up with Paul. Rory Cook was not her biological father. Paul asked Kyle why all this still mattered when Lucy’s death seemed to be drug related. Kyle said this information may matter with regard to her disappearance when she was seven years old. 

⛰️A young man named Matt Sturge went to the ranger station to claim some of the reward money for information about Lucy that was put up when she first disappeared. Matt gave Kyle a photo of Lucy in a chapel along with a group that included him. He knew her as Grace McRay, she lived down the street from him with a pastor’s family. Pastor Gibbs said she left with her real family.

⛰️Gael’s father Michael showed up at Naya’s house and insisted on staying there for the night. He wanted Naya to back his story with the department so he could get his job back. Naya smartly got Gael into the bathroom and escaped the man who had previously hit her and against whom she had a restraining order. They stayed  at Kyle’s cabin for the night. The next morning, Kyle called Jill who graciously agreed to look after Gael whilst Kyle and Naya went to work.

⛰️Gael opened one of the many boxes in Kyle’s cabin and found Caleb’s toys. Kyle immediately took them from him and carried the box where the kid could not reach it.

You can access Recap Lab’s full coverage of Netflix’s Untamed via this link.

Episode Title: Gold Rush

Episode Writers: Mark L. Smith and Elle Smith

Episode Director: Nick Murphy

Original Air Date: July 17, 2025

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