Never Been Tamed Themes
by Corinne Michaels
Underneath the fake dating setup, Never Been Tamed is really about people hiding from pain. Ares and Harper perform a relationship for gossip, patients, and cover, but real feeling keeps slipping through. Guilt, grief, family duty, and fear of vulnerability shape their choices. Home, belonging, betrayal, and forgiveness also pull at them.
On this page you'll find theme breakdowns with concrete moments: staged dates, Harper's no-sex rules, Paw's death and clinic, Clyde's care, Cynthia's bridesmaid request, and Ares's Chicago plans. You'll also see symbols like Infinity Ridge, the cabin, Paw's clinic, model airplanes, the half-finished plane, and the bridesmaid dress.
Major Themes in Never Been Tamed
Fake relationship and performance versus real feeling
Ares and Harper begin dating as a staged arrangement to control small-town gossip, cover Harper's lie, and help Ares attract patients. Their public performances and private rules increasingly give way to real desire, jealousy, and love, until both admit the relationship no longer feels fake.
- Ares proposes that he and Harper date to improve his standing in town and cover her lie; they set rules including no sex and public dates.
- Ares tells Harper the arrangement is fake in some ways but not in others and admits he wants to kiss her even when no one is watching.
- At the resort, Ares says what started as fake doesn't feel so fake anymore; Harper admits she failed to stop her feelings.
- Clyde overhears the fake-dating secret; Ares and Harper admit the relationship started fake but is now real.
Guilt, grief, and trauma
Ares carries guilt over his grandfather Paw's death and the death of a patient during a pacemaker procedure, while Harper carries the wound of Branson and Cynthia's betrayal. Their intimacy and honesty force them to confront loss, and Ares ultimately returns to medicine and to Infinity Ridge with a changed sense of purpose.
- Ares confesses 'I should've been here' about his grandfather and blames himself for the patient's death even though an investigation found no true negligence.
- Ares tells Harper he killed someone during a pacemaker procedure after learning his grandfather died; Harper takes his hand and says she is sorry.
- Ares shows Harper his grandfather's model airplanes and the half-done plane he has been finishing, then wonders what his grandfather and the patients he lost didn't get to say.
- Fallon says Knox has Carrick's eyes, so 'a piece of him lives on.'
Fear of vulnerability and self-protection versus letting yourself feel
Harper's betrayal makes her afraid to date and leads her to set no-sex and control rules, while Ares avoids serious relationships because someone always gets hurt. Their connection pushes both to risk being hurt, and other characters repeatedly challenge their guardedness.
- Harper refuses sex because she will not fool herself into believing a lie again after Branson; Ares says he avoids serious relationships and friendships because someone always gets hurt.
- Veronica tells Harper, 'Control isn't freedom, Harper. It's a prison,' after Harper insists her rules with Ares 'are there for a reason.'
- Harper tells Daisy, 'I've been afraid to let myself be hurt again,' recalling how she was pitied and blamed after Branson cheated.
- Harper asks Ares to let her be the one who decides what they do and how; Ares agrees, saying she has it.
Family duty, caregiving, and interference
Harper manages Clyde's health and ranch obligations, while Ares wants to set Nana up financially and sell Paw's practice. The Stone family meddles, protects, and manipulates, including Clyde faking a heart attack and Daddy later revealing he orchestrated events to push Harper and Ares together.
- Ares plans to sell his grandfather's practice to set Nana up for the rest of her life; Harper searches for her father Clyde and finds him working on an old car.
- Clyde fakes a heart attack and calls 911 because Cynthia came to the house, later admitting he faked it.
- Fallon upgrades Harper and Ares to the honeymoon suite, leaves a note calling them newlyweds, and books them a host of excursions.
- Daddy reveals he knew Harper and Ares were faking their relationship, arranged the mountain trip, and faked medical episodes to keep them seeing each other.
Home and belonging versus career and ambition
Ares arrives planning to sell the clinic and return to Chicago cardiology, while Infinity Ridge and Harper gradually become a possible home. A board hearing forces him to choose, and he ultimately walks away from Chicago, buys the old Neiz farm, and stays.
- Ares tells Harper he must return to Chicago the day before Branson and Cynthia's wedding or lose his job; later he faces a hospital peer review.
- Ares thinks he is happy in the small town and does not want to leave, but knows his life is in Chicago and that he misses cardiology; Cressida's call then complicates his return.
- Ares walks out of his hearing and quits his job, tells Harper 'You matter,' and says this is where he belongs.
- Ares chooses to remain in Infinity Ridge, buys the old Neiz farm, and tells Harper, 'I want to be here.'
Betrayal, forgiveness, and self-worth
Harper's history with Branson and Cynthia leaves her humiliated and self-doubting, and Cynthia later asks for forgiveness and a bridesmaid role. Harper gradually refuses to keep sacrificing herself, steps down from the wedding, and finds self-worth and love on her own terms.
- Harper remembers finding out six months after her engagement that Branson was also dating her then-best friend Cynthia; she tells Ares she doesn't date losers.
- Cynthia, who got together with Harper's ex-fiancé, asks Harper to be a bridesmaid; Harper pastes on a smile and lies that she is 'completely over it.'
- Harper tells Cynthia she cannot stand as a bridesmaid, citing the hurt caused by Cynthia and Branson, but suggests they might find a new footing.
- Harper tells Ares she wishes for once she was enough to make someone stay, and Lark later tells her she can still choose herself.
Symbols and Motifs
Infinity Ridge and the cabin
A private sanctuary where Harper and Ares can drop their public performance and speak honestly; it later becomes a symbol of their chosen future and home together.
- Harper takes Ares horseback riding to the secluded Infinity Ridge, her brother and Lark's old spot, so they can talk privately.
- They agree to keep fake dating and establish rules: no sex, public dates, and learning about each other at the ridge.
- Tristan built the cabin at the ridge as a birthday surprise for Lark; Ares and Harper use his cabin and wood stash.
- Ares tells Harper they should build their own cabin at the ridge.
Paw's clinic
The legacy of Ares's grandfather and the town's medical trust; Ares initially sees it as an asset to sell, but it becomes the place where he earns acceptance, rediscovers his vocation, and chooses to stay.
- Ares plans to sell his late grandfather's practice to set Nana up financially, and return to cardiology in Chicago.
- Nana suggests he reopen Paw's clinic and says he is meant to help people.
- Monica tells Ares no one in town knows him and she has treated them for three years.
- Ares says he owns a small-town medical clinic in Colorado and came back because she matters.
Model airplanes and the half-finished plane
Unfinished grief and inherited legacy; Ares completing his grandfather's plane mirrors his effort to complete his relationship with Paw's memory and the conversations left unsaid.
- Ares shows Harper his grandfather's collection of model airplanes, including the half-finished plane he has been trying to complete.
- Ares wonders what his grandfather and the patients he lost didn't get to say.
- Ares's grandfather shared model airplanes with him and is finishing his half-done plane.
The bridesmaid dress
Harper's obligation and self-sacrifice to Cynthia and Branson's wedding, and eventually her boundary and self-worth when she refuses to wear it.
- Harper goes to Cynthia's door with the bridesmaid dress she will not wear.
- Harper tells Cynthia she cannot stand as a bridesmaid, citing the hurt caused by Cynthia and Branson, but suggests they might find a new footing.
- Cynthia apologizes, accepts, and invites Harper to attend the wedding.