How did Staten's son die in Ransom Canyon?

Here's what actually killed Randall, and who spent nine episodes not admitting it.

The short answer

Randall Kirkland (Hubert Smielecki), Staten's teenage son, storms out of his own birthday party after a row with his father, flips his car on a dark road, and dies of his injuries. Police call it a single-vehicle accident. Staten doesn't buy it — and he's right. Randall was struck by a blue pickup truck whose driver drove off.

Who was driving

Episode 5 reveals it was Margaret Brigman (Sarah Minnich), the sheriff's estranged wife. The finale fills in the rest: she was drunk, driving home from a night with her lover Kit Russell (Casey W. Johnson), and the truck bodywork was buried near the crash site — where Staten eventually digs up a piece of it.

Sheriff Brigman (Philip Winchester) makes the arrest himself.

The wrong turns along the way

• Reid Collins — Staten's nephew and Randall's cousin, placed near the scene with his friend Tim, though neither was driving the truck.
• Davis Collins — Staten's former brother-in-law, pushing the pipeline deal for the Double K land and competing for Quinn O'Grady's attention.
• Sheriff Brigman — running an investigation into a crash caused by his own household.
• Kit Russell — the small-town actor Margaret was with that night.

Randall wasn't Staten's first loss. His wife Amalah died of illness three years before the crash.

Does season 2 keep digging?

No — that thread is closed. Season 2 arrived on 23 July 2026 with eight episodes, picking up six months later, with Staten unseated as trustee of the Double K and Quinn weighing up New York. Blair told the Daily Gazette in 2025 that the writers' room wanted to put the loss to bed and give Staten some lightness, on the grounds that a haunted man was never going to win Quinn back.

Eoin Macken and Andrew Liner, who played Davis and Reid, don't return for season 2, which takes the season 1 love triangle off the table entirely.