The Jetty confrontation and crocodile attack is the final confrontation between Ted Conkaffey and Harrison Scully, and a desperate attempt to reach Amanda Pharrell after she falls through the pier. The scene binds Harrison’s murder of his father to the present danger: the pier’s concealed trap and the crocodile Harrison has summoned make the setting itself part of his threat.

Approach to the Pier

Ted reaches a long, elevated pier after pursuing Harrison through the trees toward the muddy river and mangroves. Harrison stands at its far end, holding a stick and tapping it along the boards while rain falls. Ted keeps his gun trained on him and calls for him to turn around. The unusual tapping becomes legible when Harrison makes the distinctive call of a crocodile: he is summoning the animal rather than merely lingering on the pier.

Amanda then emerges from the bush and joins Ted on the wet boards. Harrison continues tapping, and something moves across the water beyond the pier’s end. When he presents the crocodile as his pet, the confrontation shifts from an armed standoff to a threat involving both people and the animal below. Ted pulls Amanda back as the danger becomes visible; Harrison’s control of the setting, however, has not yet been broken.

The Trap and the Reversal

Amanda draws the large revolver Ted has mistaken for a replica and shoots Harrison in the upper body. As she moves toward him, the apparent solid surface of the pier gives way: its boards have been cut through and fitted together over a drop. Ted recognizes the construction as the same trap Harrison used on the night he lured Jake out of bed with fabricated threats, leading his father toward the crocodile. The present confrontation therefore exposes the mechanism of Jake’s death at the moment it imperils Amanda.

Amanda falls through the opening before Ted can reach her, leaving her gun on the boards. Harrison rises and takes aim at Ted with it. Ted throws himself at Harrison after the boy shifts his aim to inspect the weapon, and the two struggle on the pier. Harrison gets hold of the knife Zoe used to wound Ted, but Ted turns it away from himself; in the ensuing fight, the blade strikes Harrison’s throat. Ted presses his shirt to the wound, then leaves Harrison alive on the pier and hurries after Amanda, making her rescue his immediate priority.

Finding Amanda and Recognizing the Past

Ted follows a trail along the sand until it leads to Amanda, who has collapsed near the trees. He gathers her up and carries her toward the road. Although badly shaken and injured, she remains conscious enough to make a wry remark about his lack of a shirt. The exchange briefly restores their familiar banter amid the urgency of getting her help.

Two officers are attending to Harrison at the pier, but no paramedics are on the trail. Ted must carry Amanda uphill toward the ambulance, his own wounded leg numb from the effort. As he supports her, he notices the marks left by the crocodile on her arm. The immediate danger at the pier has become a race to get Amanda medical assistance.

Ted tells Amanda that he understands what happened at Kissing Point and that he will not let Steven Hench and Lou Damford escape accountability. His recognition comes from the six photographs he had examined earlier: the men had removed a photograph of Amanda, apparently expecting him to connect the images with Lauren’s car from the crime-scene photographs in Murder in the Top End. Instead, Ted had recognized Dynah Freeman, who appeared to be about twelve and was visibly distressed. The photographs connect Amanda and Dynah to the abuse surrounding Lauren’s case, and Ted’s promise makes his discovery a commitment to expose the men responsible.

The Emergency Beyond the Pier

The sirens Ted hears are for Stella Scully, not Amanda Pharrell. He hopes that neighbors heard the gunshots and will send officers into the bush; Zoe Miller’s whereabouts also remain uncertain, and he can only hope she is still unconscious. The scene’s danger has spread beyond the pier, with emergency help approaching for one member of the family while Amanda’s fate is still unsettled.

Ted understands the confrontation as the culmination of two children’s separate attacks on their parents: Harrison has killed Jake, while Zoe has attacked Stella. That recognition sharpens his immediate resolve—no one else is to die. He leaves Harrison alive for the officers and keeps searching for Amanda, making rescue, rather than securing the scene or pursuing the suspects, the measure of what matters now.