The Netflix series Untamed is a mystery drama about a man who has lost his son but needs to figure out how to keep going in life. But it doesn’t forget to show us how hard that has been on his ex-wife, too. Jill and Kyle’s relationship is actually not broken; it was momentarily shattered, not when their kid died, but because of what came after. Before I go any further, here’s your spoiler warning for all 6 episodes of Untamed, so if you want to watch the show, come on back here after you’re done. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, Kyle’s the reason Jill wants to kill herself. Okay, that’s not entirely true. Before we get into why, we need to first understand Jill’s personality and what led to the events after Caleb’s death. Apart from being Kyle’s ex, we don’t really know much about Jill as an individual. We know that she’s lovely just because every character on screen who is similar to her is too. She’s quiet but assertive, and we see this especially when Esther comes to see her about Kyle. This is something important to keep in mind.
In terms of Kyle and Jill’s pairing, it makes sense that they’d be compatible because there’s a kind of calmness the two of them have, which would’ve worked really well together. They’ve also got similar interests, as we realized from the meteor shower (that could’ve been a Caleb thing, but let a girl guess), and they’ve both got their own lives. The difference is that Jill didn’t necessarily assimilate into the park like Kyle did. This could be an occupational hazard, but Kyle is very much about the wild, following trails, enjoying the wilderness, etc. But Jill seems to be the office-worker/city-dweller at least in comparison to Kyle, so after Caleb, she was able to separate the cabin and the woods from her mental state. However, the alternative is that she was so traumatized that she had to run the other way rather than stay back, like Kyle.
Now, Scott seems to be the rebound guy that Jill’s with after Caleb’s death and since Kyle and Jill separated. There’s some subdermal bad blood there, because obviously the separation wasn’t a matter of not loving each other anymore; it was a violation of trust issue. Scott and Kyle are both alike and very different. The big difference is Kyle’s moral compass. I think personality-wise, Scott and Kyle are similarly masculine and caring, but Kyle’s moral compass is much stronger than Scott’s, which is why what Jill did was such a betrayal to him.
When Jill tries to kill herself by overdosing on pills, Scott calls Kyle, not because he thinks he deserves to know or be there, but because he will do anything to hold onto Jill. Scott is crazy about Jill, and this conversation between Kyle and Scott makes it especially clear. Scott could’ve easily given up on Jill as someone with a very heavy past, and the whole thing about losing a child makes you share a special bond with your partner, so Scott has to deal with that, too. But at this point, it’s clear that it’ll take a lot more for him to give up on Jill. On the other hand, Kyle and Jill’s separation has a much deeper and almost less poignant explanation.
In my article about Kyle and his suicidal tendencies, I talk briefly about what made him most mad at Jill. I’ve got two theories. One is that Kyle couldn’t forgive Jill for doing something extrajudicial with the killer of their child. Instead of letting the law take care of it, i.e., Kyle, Jill took matters into her own hands. Now, most of us will think they separated because Kyle almost ruined his career protecting Jill, but my theory is that Kyle was just mad that Jill did what he couldn’t do. So, he had to let go of her, or he’d feel guilty forever. But Jill believes that the reason they’re not together is because she betrayed Kyle by going after Sanderson herself and not telling him about it. But in the final episode of the show, Jill tells Scott what she did, and she thinks he’s going to leave her just like Kyle did, because it paints her as a bad person. However, to Scott, this could read as loyalty and strength. Jill isn’t a bad person for wanting Sanderson dead. I mean, the man killed her only kid, and we don’t even know what else he must’ve done to him, so I think Scott will agree with Jill’s reaction.
When Jill goes to meet Kyle later, after he’s shot, she tells him that she’s going to be fine, and it’s time he tries too. In this moment, it’s clear they still love each other, but the only way they can keep living is by letting each other go, hence leaving Caleb, their son, behind too. While that sounds terribly morbid, when I say leaving him behind, I don’t mean entirely forgetting about him; I just mean they can finally have their closure. For Kyle, it comes from figuring out what happened to Lucy, but for Jill, it comes from having told Scott.
I think when she tells Kyle she’s going to be okay, it implies that Scott’s decided not to give up on them. No, Jill isn’t a monster; she just wanted to avenge her dead son. I suppose Scott has to make a tough decision, trusting that Jill will never do anything morally wrong again, but I don’t think he will leave her. But there is one other thing. While I’m certain of Scott’s feelings for Jill, I’m not so sure about Jill’s. I do know that she trusts him with her soul, because she told him she killed a man without flinching, but does this mean she loves him unconditionally too? I suppose it does, which makes me think, yes, they will end up staying together.
