A poorly executed demise undercuts an otherwise solid Yellowjackets
“Flight Of The Bumblebee” is bookended by some stunning violence, but one event feels uncharacteristically contemptuous
TV Reviews Yellowjackets
Laura Lee. We barely knew thee. It’s a strange choice in this week’s episode of Yellowjackets to take one of our most intriguing supporting characters, allude to a full episode devoted to her, and instead wave her off with three inglorious scenes. The first flashback sees Laura Lee diving into the shallow end of Christian summer camp, banging her head against the pool floor. She comes to after extensive CPR and first glimpses a golden cross hanging from the lifeguard’s neck. “No, Laura Lee,” he says looking her straight in the eye, “I didn’t save you, He did.”
And so starts the contemptuous tone the episode takes towards Laura Lee and her faith, which is jarring because up until now, Yellowjackets has had a more nuanced approach than that. Sure, we all giggled at her suspecting the plane crash was divine punishment for her just thinking the c-word but she showed real poise leading them in prayer over the graves of the people killed in the plane crash. It was also clearly a wise move on her part to avoid the séance, but she still came to the rescue to physically beat the evil out of Lottie with her bible.
It makes it all the sadder that when she makes a plan to fly the decrepit plane for rescue, it’s shown to come from a place of misguided religious hubris and willing martyrdom. When the episode concludes and the plane catches fire—first burning her teddy bear before exploding above the lake—it’s hard to entirely comprehend the tone. For all that the Yellowjackets themselves collapse devastated on the shore, the explosion hits like a punch line. And Laura Lee’s story, particularly thanks to an excellent performance from Jane Widdop, deserves better.
But before we set off down Laura Lee’s tragic path, the episode starts on as hideous an image as we’ve ever had, one more successfully tinged with humor. Van lies on a lit funeral pyre missing most of her cheek, watched by her sobbing teammates and Taissa still drenched in wolf blood. As her clothes catch fire, she begins to come to, and her friends realize they have set fire to a very much alive person. Watching her teammates patting her down as they acknowledge they’ve added extensive burns to her list of injuries is truly grotesque, which makes Liv Hewson’s delivery of “Really? Fire?” all the more hilarious.
Meanwhile, in the present day, two pairs of relationships are at the fore: Missy butting heads with Nat while Shauna bonds with Taissa. Missy vs. Nat proves the funnier of the two. It’s a grim sight watching Nat drunkenly smear eye makeup over her face (even if Juliette Lewis still somehow makes it look cool) and order a bag of cocaine. And even with a woman tied up in her basement, it’s hard not to find Misty as endearing as she is terrifying. Using her surveillance of Nat, she spots the cocaine delivery and uses herself as a literal human shield, shoveling as much cocaine into her nose as humanly possible. Sadly, as the way things tend to go for Misty, she isn’t met with gratitude. “I have never even tried cocaine before!” she screams at an ungrateful Nat.
Say what you want about Misty—and calling her psychopath who trapped her friends in the wilderness for 19 months to starve and die and abuser of the elderly would be valid—she’s kind of a great friend? As well as taking a large pile of cocaine to stop Nat’s relapse, she has been selflessly investigating Travis’ murder and seems to be a very nurturing owner to that parrot. We should all be so lucky to have such great multitasking skill—and as an audience be eternally grateful that we live in an era where such complicated roles are being written for women. It remains a credit to Christina Ricci’s performance that Misty contains such multitudes and seamlessly pivots between nurturing and murderous.
Both Nat and Misty end up at the end of their tether this episode: Misty almost sacrificing Caligula and Nat hitting what I suspect still isn’t rock bottom, resorting to sniffing cocaine out of the carpet before blackmailing an old sponsor to give her Travis’ bank records. Far more straightforwardly tender is the bond being reignited between Shauna and Taissa. In the past, Shauna shares an non-judgmental intimacy that contrasts with the toxic dynamic she has with Jackie, who announces Shauna’s pregnancy to the group to further incentivize Laura Lee to fly the plane.
Further points are scored in the “Jackie Sucks” column when she informs Travis of Nat’s sexual history, which included one of Travis’ bullies. Call me a sex-positive fourth wave feminist but… so? Travis’s freakout seems entirely unjustified at this news, but Nat being Nat can’t help but stick the knife in during a confrontation. Sophie Thatcher mirrors Juliette Lewis’ venom for Detective Kevin when she hisses at him, “I guess it’s a good thing you couldn’t get it up.”
Even in the midst of such misery, Shauna and Taissa maintain a lovely bond across timelines. In the past and in the present they provide comfort and an open mind to one another. In the present-day storyline, Taissa’s “sleepwalking” has made her afraid to stay around her family so she decides to stay at Shauna’s place and they snuggle up in bed together, confessing their sins and fears to one another is a warm, safe space. Melanie Lynskey and Tawny Cypress have such warm ease together, it’s hard to believe these two characters were ever estranged.
Taissa gives Shauna the strength to fully confront Adam, the world’s most suspicious man. She at first goes to question him about his internet absence and he concedes he didn’t really go to Pratt, but his giant puppy dog eyes and rock-hard abs have Shauna going back to pack her sexy new dress from Jeff (it continues to be extremely funny how nothing is sacred to Shauna) for a weekend away in a cabin. It is only when she spots some incriminating flakes of glitter in Adam’s closet hiding spot that she accepts that the world’s most suspicious man might be… suspicious.
It’s hard to even put into words how much, after all this, the ending lands with a thud. We are all aware they have a year or so left in the wilderness, so Laura Lee is doomed to fail. Her death above the lake provokes a few interesting responses, such as Jackie burrowing her face into Travis’ chest, but it proves a cheap trick all round.
Stray observations
- Now that Laura Lee is gone, our strongest secondary player is definitely Coach Ben. His quiet bond with Nat, talking about his life with the weight of 1996 homophobia was stunning. Steven Krueger’s performance is very understated even as Ben struggles with his disability, the unwanted attention from Misty, and an inability to assert his authority in the wilderness. I can’t help but feel that the show is making us adore this man to make his end all the more devastating—but hopefully not and he and that writer boyfriend have grown old in a townhouse in the city.
- They did a stunning job stitching up Van’s face. Hopefully that means we get future Van with a light scar across her face? If the creators of Yellowjackets are casting season two, there are some excellent suggestions in the comments section.
- The most surprising element to this, aside from Van surviving a wolf mauling and an immolation is that, even if Shauna doesn’t, I really like Callie now. Sarah Desjardins brings a lot of depth to her.
173 Comments
A genuinely great show getting weekly recaps is something I haven’t received from the AV Club in a long, long, loooong time.
yep. amazing how they always manage to cover SNL though
I know, I don’t know why they bother with SNL reviews, since every one is a variation on, “Not even [Insert Celebrity] Can Save a Middling SNL”
because SNL is “talked about” on twitter and the likes. The AV club isnt immune to publishing what will get the most clicks and comments
Is it just me or did it look like the teddy bear catching fire may have had a supernatural element to it? Sure, there may have been something wrong mechanically with the plane or in the cockpit that caused the bear (whose name I can’t remember, but if it isn’t something biblical I’ll eat a soccer player) to go up, but to me the shot seemed to indicate it coming aflame spontaneously.
That was also my initial reaction to the teddy bear combusting, that it seemed magical and intentional. But of course there could be more practical explanationsPoor Laura Lee and her teddy bear. They were not the brightest bulbs and they were wrong about almost everything quite likely but they were fucking heroes. I also loved Laura Lee meeting the incoming survivors of the wolf attack & immediately & decisively telling them to point them in what direction they need to go to rescue Van & Taissa
I think she called the bear Leonard. And after watching the plane sequence twice, it really does play as if the fire started with the bear. My horrible gut reaction was that Misty had somehow sabotaged rescue again. But she no longer seems happy to stay. And then I went the vague supernatural route, as if some presence was mocking Laura Lee’s faith. But even if this scene was meant as simple mechanical failure, the approach was very frustrating to me. It made the writing feel like the opposite of a deus ex machina: “What will keep our dear Yellowjackets stranded this week? A flaming teddy bear!”
It did, as did Van waking up. Maybe Van did die and was coming back to life? And maybe we will see Laura Lee again? Though she exploded so that seems unlikely.
I’m a few weeks late to the show (and haven’t watched past this episode so don’t know if this is answered in the final two), but I thought the pool scene was setting up Laura Lee jumping out of the plane once she realised it was on fire. She didn’t have that much height and was flying over a body of water, so at the very least I expected her to try jumping into the lake even if she didn’t survive the attempt. It’s what I would have done rather than facing certain death in the flaming airplane.
Both Lottie and van had near death experiences and they have both converetd to beliveing they are not alone in the woods.
I think we’re to believe it was supernatural or it was mechanical. I don’t think there will be a clear cut answer, but you can see why the girls might start believing there are spirits trying to keep them from leaving, just the same as us audience asking those questions.
Agreed. I don’t think the ending was bad, and I think it’s the event that pushes the girls to believe that supernatural forces are at work.
exactly and why they start to believe lotties vision that they wont be allowed to leave till they spill blood
I think the fire might have been in Laura’s mind. That was my interpretation.
I think like so many things in this show, it is meant to appear supernatural, but can have rational explanations. The fire could’ve very easily started beneath the passenger compartment (my hunch is a lot of old debris like leaves, birdsnests, etc) burnin it’s way up before igniting the fuel tank. Really the biggest stretch was you wouldn’t see a catastrophic explosion like that, not without oxygenated fuel vapor as a catalyst (like with Flight 800). More realistically, you’d have had a valujet scenario where the fire would’ve worsened until the flight controls were severed, causing a spiral.But an explosion is more cinematic and final, so I can understand why they took this bit of artistic license.
No, that’s not the biggest stretch at all. The biggest stretch is that an airplane (or anything with an ICE) would actually start after 15-20 years of sitting in the forest and that the plane would actually move. Battery would long be dead. Engine wouldn’t fire. Tires would most likely be flat and rotten. But it’s a fictional TV show…so I wouldn’t get too upset about the lack of oxygenated fuel vapor.
Oh yes, I have tried to not even think about the airplane business, because of all the reasons you state, plus airplane fuel when left to sit will start to separate and congeal after 6 months to a year, so yeah, there is no way that plane would be flyable.
I did not know that fuel has such a short shelf life until The Last Man On Earth made it a plot point (that the writers proceeded to completely ignore)
I’ve said it before, that if you wanted to be really smart about long term survival in a post-apocalyptic situation, you’d be wise to stock up on fishing gear, crossbow and arrows, bicycle tires and pumps. Because bikes will be the best, only way to get around quickly, and fishing and bow hunting the only sustainable means of hunting once the ammo runs out.
Eh, if you’re going to survive the apocalypse you should focus on team building and communication skills, because humans are not self sufficient creatures and developing a social structure will be the only opportunity for survival.
same with Lottie’s vision, it seems the river was oxidized making it red, and maybe she had already subconsciously noted this with the smell. She might be more sensitive to her environment than most of us. But also you can understand why the girls might start looking to her for guidance.
That is definitely my biggest question about that scene. It looks like just the bear caught on fire at first. With Laura Lee gone, I’m betting that will be part of the catalyst that makes Lottie the leader that we see in the first scene of the series.
It will turn out that Wednesday Adams somehow rigged it. Because she is a malevolent crazy person the show needs to create artificial ongoing drama. Along with all the other malevolent crazy characters that somehow all ended up a crashed plane together.
I am rather baffled by the denial people on here seem to have that this is a supernatual show. I get that people sometimes “want” their “head cannon” of what they thought the show was to be true, but every episode at this point is pretty clear, so much that it is getting a tad irrational. From the séance, to Natalie shooting a deer filled with maggots that was alive just few minutes before, to the wolves attacking them when Taissa correctly said they would not attack humans (especially with a fire going), to her waking up in a tree, to the river of blood, to frankly no one seemingly being able to find them (this is set in 1996, and um, all airplanes had transponders and flight plans in that old timey year, they should have seen numerous rescue plans by now) to now the teddy bear bursting into flame..it is like 100% supernatural.It does not lessen to me the story at all and I do not get why it does for others. Practically every horror story has this stuff. This is not a retelling of lord of the flies.
I’d bet 5$ one of them rigged a Bic lighter in the teddy bear or something silly and we’re gonna see that in scene down the road.
thats the whole point. Lottie convinces them that there is something supernatural going on nd they wont be allowed to leave till they spill blood. They’re not completely crazy for believing it, there is a lot of weird shit going on. However, i feel like its going to remain ambiguous and even though its a lot of coincidences, its still all explainable by a bunch of girls with their traums manifesting. the girls who dont believe in it are going to be the ones sacrificied and eaten
I was totally surprised to be taking Callie’s side in her argument with her mom & Melanie Lynskey nicely sold how confusing that was for Shauna tooJackie at this point seems to be waking up and choosing violence I appreciate the review’s assessment of Misty as a friend, I had been trying to organize my thoughts about that but this does a better job. Also Christina Ricci has never been funnier than trying to bluff out her bird being held hostage, then freaking out, and then trying to apologize to the bird & assure him she didn’t mean the things she said.
Ricci is soooo good in this role. All of them are. I want to see her interact more with Taissa and Shauna.
I mean, this show SO deserves all the ensemble cast awards, but if we’re handing out individual acting awards, I’d go with Ricci for supporting and Lynsky for lead.
Juliette Lewis is killing it too. Her freakouts in the hotel room reminded me of her 1994 “Come to My Window” music video for Melissa Etheridge, where she was also flailing about and chasing demons while stuck in a small room.
Ricci and Lynskey are both leads or supporting (they have similar screentime and screentime does matter when you submit considerations).
I like how Jackie is regressing into mean high school tactics to get control of her girl gang again, and it seems to be working.
Yeah, petty high school drama and interpersonal conflict is the element in which Jackie thrives. Ella Purnell in an interview said she has a hard time in the wilderness without having that social heirarchy, so I think she’s starting to try to reimpose it to regain some control. I think it’s really interesting that the team usually only listens to her when everyone else is arguing with each other, like in the first episode at the party or when she proposes the seance. I think that’s why she’s trying to stir shit between everyone, so she can regain some control and be the one everyone looks to
They’re definitely making a strong case for Jackie being the one who everyone has a reason to hate, and thus dies in the first episode’s animal ceremony.
My personal favorite was when she covered Nat’s mouth and said “No, don’t breathe” when the coke went flying.
Apart from anything else with this show, I am really happy for Christina Ricci. She seems to be having so much fun playing Misty
It’s so different from the other roles I’ve seen her in, but it feels like such a natural fit. Like, why hasn’t Christina Ricci been cast as more bubbly, homicidal nerds?
It reminds me a bit of Christina Ricci’s role as Lizzie Borden in her Lifetime series but this might be even more over the top and fun
I think I caught a few episodes of that, but it was generally something of a last resort when it was on.
Wedneaday Adams show
And almost all of that was without her face showing, she was up on the stairs!Such a good actress.
i’m sorry but the show missed out on a legendary episode of showing us a whole hour of a super coked out misty…
of not showing us*
I didn’t feel like the send-off was quite as bad as that. I got a real sinking feeling watching that poor girl get into the plane. You know that somehow, it fails, but you really don’t doubt her motives. The flaming teddy bear did feel a bit over the top, but I think that, if the writers were actually trying to dump on her, they would’ve blown the plane midway through the sentence, “We’re really going to save the-”Her take-down of the coach may have been the most important moment of the episode, plotting-wise. They had differed to the coach for all the normal reasons – experience, title, mansomeness – but she put paid to the idea that any of those things matter in their situation. She single-handedly blew up any moderating influence that he might have on the teens’ behavior.Also, yes, Misty is a truly dear friend. I had a bet with myself over whether or not she would decide to get rid of the “reporter” the old-fashioned way.
Also, she asked God for a sign, and a little bird gave her the crossword clue for “fly away.”
At least my favorite Yellowjacket didn’t become a cliched Christian villain. RIP Laura Lee.These last three episodes were terrific. I may have been wrong about this show being overrated. If they can keep the quality up, unlike that plane.I had the thought during this episode that Adam could be Van as a trans man, getting a totally new face to cover up disfigurement. But that would be jumping the shark. Maybe he’s a trans Jackie. Nah.So now with the coach’s reveal, does this high school soccer team have a disproportionate number of gay members on it? All for it but maybe not the most realistic, but who cares.Biggest laugh of the series: Misty taking Nat’s coke. Glad the show writes to their buddy comedy potential.
So now with the coach’s reveal, does this high school soccer team have a disproportionate number of gay members on it? All for it but maybe not the most realistic, but who cares.I have some news for you about women’s soccer…
I dunno why people are so averse to Adam being Javi because it’s “too obvious.” Plot twists need to make sense too, and it being obvious means it’s making sense.
I think for me, if Adam is Javi, it would be a tad bit too soap opera-ish. Plus begging the question of how Shauna failed to recognize Javi after all this time. Now, the similarities between Javi and Adam are there I think to explain why Shauna is attracted to Adam. There definitely seems to be *something* between Shauna and Javi, namely they are both more sensitive and prone to journaling and artistic in nature. It remains to be seen where this leads, but I think Adam represents some aspect of Javi that appeals to Shauna. Plus he is also a symbol of her life unlived, that life in Paris dating artists and writing great critical analyses. Honestly I think the biggest twist, and the best, would be to reveal that Adam is more or less who is is, and Shauna still can’t accept it because of her own deep underlying trauma, guilt and self-hatred.
This is also where I’m at. I’ve seen some theories (like Adam being the coach’s extramarital love child) that are absolute stretches and aren’t even very compelling on a dramatic level. I’m not certain on the whole Javi thing, but it answers questions on Adam’s involvement that other theories don’t. Whoever stole Shauna’s journals would presumably have to know that they exist (which would likely only be Jeff, Callie, or a fellow survivor). Why would someone only tangentially related to the plane crash expect that they would be able to get information out of her by coincidentally bumping into her and assuming they would be successful in starting an affair with her?
It only seems “obvious” because Shauna would’ve thought of it before this, or at least before bursting in and asking who he *really* was.
It doesn’t make sense that Shauna wouldn’t recognize the only actual kid, who was one of three males, that she survived a plane crash with and lived in the wilderness with for a period of time. I don’t see how that itself isn’t just terrible writing. Especially since it appears that Shauna and Javi have a bond. I know trauma erases memory sometimes, but unless we’d seen that Shauna has issues with her memory, I still don’t see this as a good twist at ALL.
I don’t think it does make sense, it more just comes out of character conservation—that is, Javi is a male we know, and so is Adam, and so maybe that’s his secret identity. But it makes no sense given that not only do their ages not match up but you’d have to pretend that he doesn’t even look or seem a little bit familiar to someone who knew him well for years. Plus, there’s a whole story about Travis, so why hasn’t Javi been mentioned by anybody if he’s out there somewhere and disappeared?
If they can keep the quality up, unlike that plane.I would have gone with “unlike Travis’ penis”, but the plane works too.
Unlike Travis’ penis.
If anything, an elite high school soccer team at that level would have more than just two gay players.
How are three people a ‘disproportionate number of gay members’?
I should have said LGBT. Counting Shauna, who’s bi. But, sure, push back on me. I have little clue how many high school sports teams back in the 90s had multiple members of that community. They could be more than I thought.
Is Shana bi? I thought that during the first watch, but I recently re-watched the pilot and a lot of Shana’s looks to Jackie seem to be more about the Jeff stuff then being into Jackie.
Yeah I’m not sure I’ve picked up on Shauna being bi. If anything, I feel there is more subtext for Jackie being bi, given the degree to which her life and future plans involve Shauna, and all those looks she gives her.
Huh, I thought it was the pilot where Shauna implied that she was in love with Jackie.
That was never actually the case. She was in love with the boy but a lot of us bit into the unrequited lesbian love trope.
I think these days its easy to confuse fraternal expressions of love with declarations of romantic love. One thing I find frustrating is when it is assumed that any two characters of the same sex who have a deep bond (this seems more common with female characters) must be gay. Maybe it seems weird to modern culture but there is such a thing as deep meaningful friendships.
Its also interesting you tend to see this with women characters. No one questioned in Stand By Me whether River Fenix and Wil Wheaton’s characters were gay though there was clearly a “loving bond” as friends.
There used to be thing, bffs, and that was particularly common among younger women, although as we’ll see Jackie and Shauna’s friendship was not exactly and equal partnership and this show suggests theres ALOT to unpack there.
There were. There were many more LGBTQ people around you growing up than you were aware of. We exist. We’re everywhere. It’s a little bizarre to be trying to understand this by figuring out a percentage.
I was trying for a facetious observation. Should have posted the “Is everybody gay?!” Joan Cusack clip from In & Out. Sexually diversifying the characters can generate plot down the road.
its probably true that nowadays LGBTQ perspectives might be a little overrepresnted in terms of how much everyone seems to be focused on it.
The team having three queer people, a team of about twenty plus some others, doesnt seem like an unusuall high number to me. People here seem to be suggesting that women’s sports have a disproportionate number of queer women. I don’t know if thats true since ive never really been involved in womens sports. But two lesbians on the team and a gay coach doesnt strike me as at all unrealistic.
Nah. It’s a little overrated. There are some great things about it, chiefly the creative cinematography, sound track and some good performances. But it’s really needlessly cynical and predictable. The probability is high, like all these Big Dark Premise cliff hanger shows, resolving every thread will be impossible and the ending will be a big disappointment. Prepare yourself.
Buzz off, TRAVIS.
I’m getting caught up now, and I had to recalibrate my expectations after a few episodes. There’s a scene in Ep 3 or 4 where Natalie and Travis are making out in the blood-soaked fuselage of the plane, apparently in summertime, and there isn’t a drop of sweat or a fly in sight (and then it reveals that Nat is wearing pants with unblemished white stripes). At that point I realized that the show was a few notches sillier than I’d been giving it credit for. It’s still fun, of course. I’m currently on Episode 7, and while the show tells me the characters in 1996 are starving and will eventually resort to cannibalism, they still have boundless energy and look remarkably clean and well-fed. Maybe they’re cannibalizing already? Maybe I missed it in the comments on the series, but for all the Lord of the Flies comparisons the show is fundamentally a riff on the TV adaptation of The Terror.
This takes place somewhere in the Canadian wilderness. I’m not an expert, but if you’re in the Candian Rockies while it may be comfortable during the summer, i dont know that it gets hot, and that scene probably takes place during autumn
Good point. It still doesn’t explain how Nat keeps her roots dyed and her striped pants white, though.
mm based on the first season i wouldnt say thats the case. I mean, to me, its already pretty obvious whats going on.
“Call me a sex-positive fourth wave feminist but… so? Travis’s freakout seems entirely unjustified at this news”Thats not you being a feminist, that’s you being insane. His reaction makes complete sense, especially accounting for their ages and the time period it occurred in. She didn’t fuck his bully 20 years ago and he’s only finding out in the present timeline, it was pretty damn recent and that’s pretty demoralizing news to a victim of bullying.
Just to say, I didn’t get the same contemptuous vibe from the ending as the author did. Loving this show though. Has to be the best Showtime show of all time, non-Twin Peaks division, right?
It hasn’t even finished one season yet. I would pump the breaks on that. Removing my hatred for the twin peaks reboot, Dexter and Homeland were juggernauts out the gate with the awards to match its ratings and following. Showtime has had a bunch of the shows come out of the gate hot. They just never know how to let a show end when the writing dictates that it should.
Luckily here at least there is an overall plan and an end game for the series, which is reportedly mapped out for five seasons, which is plenty. So many of the others shows you mention, I don’t think they had an endgame. I can think of Shameless as a prime example, where they didn’t know where the hell it was going, and never really understood what the show was, and then the true heart of the show left, and they were left staggering around on life support for a further two seasons.
Homeland is indeed a cautionary example but I’d argue this show is already ahead of Homeland S1, which was good because the excellent cast managed to elevate some highly questionable material. Then it immediately became terrible after S1. Anyways, fingers crossed Showtime at long last manages to make a good show for more than 1 season. I grant it does sound ridiculous to say that maybe this show is already the best ever on Showtime but that’s mostly due to my extremely low opinion of almost all other Showtime shows.
Is this reviewer claiming religious persecution?
Jackie forcing Shauna to spill her pregnancy was definitely bad. Understandable, though, since she learned the truth about her and Jeff and probably isn’t ever going to forgive Shauna for that.One of the masks someone is wearing in the Antler Queen ritual scene from the pilot ep looks a lot like Van’s bandages from this episode. Maybe I’m reading too much into that, but I’m guessing Van’s going to be the one doing the killing and not getting killed herself.The problem with all of the Adam theories is that since this show has only established one male character in their orbit that’s younger than they are, the only options are “he’s a grown up Javi” or “he’s a completely new character” so I feel like it has to be Javi. Even though I would think she wouldn’t be that fooled by someone she spent 19 months in the wilderness with.
this past summer i saw a friend’s brother who was maybe 8 or 10 last time i saw him. we’re all many decades older and i instantly knew who he was. javi is old enough in the woods it seems really implausible shauna doesn’t recognize him?also he’s an expert safe cracker now?
Yeah I really don’t think Adam is Javi for the very reason you state. I could see a situation where he is a relative. We don’t know, for example, that Travis and Javi are the only siblings in their family. Maybe there was another brother who was deemed too young to go. Or perhaps he’s a cousin.
If I had to pick one character to survive, whose status isn’t yet known, it would be Van. I feel like they’re setting it up for her to re-enter Tai’s life, which could create all kinds of interesting storylines and dynamics, and Tai is forced to confront the life she has with Simone and Sammy, versus the one she had with Van. Plus, I just so want to see whoever they case as Adult Van, stride before the camera, rocking some kind of designer mask, or maybe not and she owns her scar. She’s loud and proud and you see her and know shits about to ramp up.
“…Adult Van, stride before the camera, rocking some kind of designer mask,
or maybe not and she owns her scar. She’s loud and proud and you see
her and know shits about to ramp up…”You have just 100% sold me on something I didn’t know that I was DYING TO SEE.
Yeah if I had to wager on one outcome, it would be that Van survives. It’s too good of a premise, the idea of this person from Tai’s past returning to utterly blow up her post-Obama family unit.
Adam is gong to just be a random crazy cannibal serial killer stalker obsessed with the plane crash and has some secret inside knowledge of the cult of the rune they found. Because as we know according to film and TV 20% of the population are serial killers or cannibals.
Nothing Misty does is selfless, especially not investigating Travis’ murder.If Jackie was the person getting eaten in the opening scene, I kinda get why. She’s the worst. Taissa/Shauna scene was really sweet. I’m loving the gentler, more intimate interactions between the Adult Yellowjackets.So Adam = Javi for sure….but what if he’s still not glitter man? It can still be Jeff. It is his closet. While I’m sad to see Laura Lee go, I don’t think there was anything contemptuous about her death. She was brave and filled with purpose, and when things went south and she knew she was going to die, she was still that(we saw her look ahead and grab her cross) And I think that’s the opposite of contempt for Laura Lee and her religion.
Yes, I didn’t think they were cruel to Laura Lee. I think she’s the catalyst for the girls realizing that they truly are alone and can only rely on their own skills.And yes, I love the Taissa/Shauna scene because it was real life, I would never freak out on a friend telling me about an affair. I would also just ask questions about it. It was sweet and true and an accurate depiction of real friendships.
The show isn’t especially well plotted (the episodes have no structure, and it was a hacky move to start with ritualistic cannibalism and leave that part of the story dormant for most of the season), but the plane was a nice bit of narrative efficiency. It explains why the cabin isn’t attached to a road or any other sign of civilization, and the story gets from “they find a plane” to “someone tries to fly the plane” over the course of a few episodes rather than dragging it out.
So Adam = Javi for sure….but what if he’s still not glitter man? It can still be Jeff. It is his closet.Yeah, I agree. the glitter thing is weird because it seems like either Adam or Jeff would have left glitter other places in the house. But they specifically had her discover the glitter in a place where one stood and the other might have tossed his shirt. I wonder if Adam/Javi sent the post cards, Jeff got it and got the idea to blackmail them with the symbol.
It’s where she literally tossed his shirt, I thought. I thought she grabbed it before he could open the closet, then tossed it on the ground, then shut the door. Like, she JUST slept with the guy that night, if he had glitter on him, wouldn’t it have been all over the place? She only finds it after Jeff gets home.
Misty wants attention and to be in on the gang, but her investigating Travis’ murder is also not malicious. I believe her that she really wants to be Nats friend.
Jeff is gone all of the time. Maybe he is the blackmailer and not just having affairs
Longshot but I think Adam might be an illegitimate son of Coach Martinez. He and Travis did not seem on good terms when they left for nationals (he called him and asshole to Nat) and his wife didn’t want kiss him before he left. At first I thought he and Coach Ben might’ve been sleeping together but the bit about Travis’ bank account being emptied is interesting. And that note about Nat being right.
I don’t think Jackie gets eaten, or attends the reunion. One simple explanation for the weird birthday soirées/tokens for Shauna, plus her parents’ creepy fixation with her: Jackie survived, came home—then killed herself. Which also explains Jackie’s journal. At brunch, I didn’t hear a Mom bragging; I heard her making excuses for her daughter.
I disagree with a lot in these reviews (which are very good), but the stance that Misty is a good friend really stuck in my throat. She’s a charismatic, violent stalker who enjoys other people’s suffering (which is why she does the citizen detective thing). When the other characters are in the car talking about Natalie’s addiction and their frustration/complicated desire to support her, that’s showing friendship to an addict. Likewise, it strikes me as pretty funny that the reviewer considers the gruesome violence on the show a sign of horror cred, but doesn’t feel the same way about the mean spirited death of a lovable supporting character, which is the most horror-story thing ever.
I sort of torn on the Coach Ben reveal, like the conversation “ you must be gay because you don’t look at under age girls’ boobs.” Like maybe he just isn’t being predatory toward teen girls he is responsible for? It seems like somewhat of a cop out instead of him just being a decent person.
It’s also clear to me that the reason the glitter is because of Shauna’s husband and he and Adam are plotting together.
meh I think Nat has seen her fair share of shitty straight men, and so have most of us. It was an easy way for her to clock Ben and I think that’s fine.
Yeah I appreciated how they didn’t make Ben obviously gay, nor did they have to work in a big reveal. Nat just was able to intuit it. It felt very natural, and in a few lines of dialogue, we get this magnificent bond between two characters who really haven’t interacted much before.
exactly, a nice moment for two people who are kind hearted misfits.
I think it’s important to note WHO is saying that, a 17 yr old Nat. The show isn’t saying anything with this line about queer people or about men, just about Nat’s mindset.
Plus, it’s 1996.
See, I had a fairly different reaction to the story of Laura Lee. I’ll preface by saying I’m not an active, church going Christian, though I have read a fair bit of Christian theology. But I regard it, and apply it here, as an element of culture, not the dogma of a true believer.And given that I thought they actually approached her story with a degree of care and empathy that isn’t often afforded a Christian character. I was waiting for the usual storyline of A) Laura Lee goes mad with religious fervor or B) she loses her faith in a world seemingly devoid of god. Neither of those things happen. She remained true to her particular convictions, but showed strength and character. Yes, she could be silly at times, arrogant and naive, but I think this is as much a product of her being a teenager, as it is her being a Christian.And far from her ending being an act of hubris to be mocked by the show vis a vis her swift demise, I saw it as pretty exemplary of her character. They are in a desperate situation, and there is an aircraft. What would the rest of us do? It’s the choice between a slim hope, and no hope. She chooses hope. She takes a big risk on behalf of her friends. Throughout the early Christian texts, stories of failure and suffering are replete. The emphasis is upon the action and the belief in the goal of the pursuer. Laura Lee’s motives are pure, and she has faith in her goal. Her death was sad, and tragic, but there was also a certain beauty in how, when she realized she was not going to make it, she achieved a certain peace and acceptance of what would take place, and in the end would be spared the worst of what is to come. Overall I thought it was a terrific story arc, and a testament to actor Jane Widdop’s work in the role that they made a character who could’ve been laughable and one dimensional, someone with nuance whose loss will prove, I think, to be the lynch pin for what will come in the remaining two episodes. In other observations:
Christina Ricci continues to be a delight watching her coked out, trying to save Caligula, and then frantically apologizing to him. I DEMAND a Better Call Saul-esque spinoff staring Misty.Speaking of which, I am just loving the idea of Misty and Jessica teaming up somehow. I think there could be real potential here.
For the last several episodes I felt increasingly sure that Lottie would become the Antler Queen, but Jackie’s malevolent turn leaves me wondering if she might be being primed to be either the AQ, or an equally malevolent rival, perhaps the leader of one of the opposing “clans” into which the group will split. And wouldn’t it make for a fair bit of dramatic irony, that the girl who seemed so naive, so seemingly ill-equipped in the wilderness, and eulogized by her parents as so wonderful, winds up being the true villain?
Poor Natalie continues to spiral. Between her severe relapsing, and Juliette Lewis’s own reported antipathy toward the role and how it has been written, I am beginning to have real doubts as to the long term survival of Adult Nat.
After so many near deaths, I feel like Van almost HAS to survive to adulthood. Because how awesome would it be for adult Van to show up at the reunion, rocking an eye patch, and ready to re-enter the lives of the others? It would be a great season 2 subplot for Tai to have to be faced with two possibilities, Simone who represents her post-crash life, and Van, her first love, and symbol of what she left behind in the wilderness. It’s too good to pass up, not to mention the casting. Alicia Witt? Lauren Ambrose? Thora Birch? Personally I think Julia Stiles could be great, though you’d need to dye her hair red of course.
As for who is the blackmailer, I was back and forth, but I really think it’s Callie, who seems to be hiding in plain sight. She keeps having sleepovers at her friend’s house when the major action takes place. Between her desire to enjoy greater freedom, and the threat Shauna made to drain her college fund in the event of a divorce, she certainly has motive for blackmail. And she’s proven she’s a snoop already, and so I wouldn’t put it past her getting those journals. Adam might be involved, but don’t forget Callie has a boyfriend we haven’t seen since the Pilot. That could be important….
What do we think will be revealed by the end of the season? Obviously we can’t expect too much since we’re not even at winter, but I suspect we’ll learn more about what is in Shauna’s journals, and the big dark secret they’ve all kept, one that is worse than murder. I think there were a few survivors they abandoned in the wilderness for dead, and the postcard sender may be one of them out for revenge. I think we WILL meet another survivor at that reunion (as mentioned above, I think Van is the most likely candidate). And/or we could learn precisely how many were known to have survived (which of course might not include anyone who remained in the wild undiscovered).
Quibble: Much has been made of the survival mistakes this group makes in the woods. This week, it was the failure to run that plane through any checkups before trying to fly. Just like a car that hasn’t been started in a long time, the should’ve let it idle for a bit, and checked it out more. Because if I had to guess what caused the disaster, I think debris like leaves or birds nests built up around the engine caught fire, which spread to the passenger compartment, and finally ignited the fuel. Or a simple as a fuel leak likewise catching fire. Either of which could’ve been caught on the ground. Like with last week’s disastrous hike for rescue, the idea itself wasn’t a bad one. It was the execution, done hastily and without preparation.
damn, very well said
Poor Natalie continues to spiral. Between her severe relapsing, and Juliette Lewis’s own reported antipathy toward the role and how it has been written, I am beginning to have real doubts as to the long term survival of Adult Nat.I’m kinda surprised I haven’t seen more chatter about this. Lewis practically walked out of that Vulture group interview. Makes me a bit nervous about where her plotline is headed.
I’d heard/read elsewhere that Lewis was displeased with her character’s overall story arc. It varies from series to series, and sometimes an actor will see ALL the scripts for a season, and other times they won’t. It depends on the project, and also the actors process. Melanie Lynskey, for example, is very particular and likes to know a character’s entire arc so she can fine tune her performance, so she is one of the few who knows basically all the secrets. Lewis, however, did not require this, so she only saw the scripts one at a time, and apparently was dismayed to learn her character would relapse and spiral, which I understand, has been a source of friction for her, because she has had past substance abuse struggles. Also she reportedly has not liked her dialogue, which I think is fair, because Adult Nat is far more visceral and emotional, and her scenes are less replete with dialogue than they are outbursts. I think it works for the character, and Lewis has been magnificent at portraying this profoundly damaged person who has lived 25 hard years since the crash, but I can also understand where Lewis may have gotten involved with the expectation that her character would be more on par with Shauna, Tai or Misty. Which leads me to wonder how long she (or Adult Nat) will be around…
I imagine Juliette Lewis signed a standard 6 year or whatever series contract. Good luck getting out of it because you don’t like your storylines or dialogue, not that I am unsympathetic about those things, but hopefully the creators could work with her on that starting next season
I think no doubt Nat is dead by the end of the season. I can see them killing off their biggest name ala Sean Bean in GoT. Not to mention how it seems all but obvious she’s about to die; SHE’S the Piggie.
I really hope they did not bring in Juliette Lewis & have her create this great double act with Christina Ricci just to kill her character off in s1
Yeah, that was crazy how she just peaced out. Young Misty looks so dumbfounded and shocked by it too. She’s like “Wait..what…why?” Hopefully she can work with the writers on revamping Natalie’s storyline but I imagine if they have it all planned out, that’s going to be a bit tough. Hopefully if she gets nominated for stuff, she’ll shrug it off and be okay with it. She seems to admire the actress who plays her young version..
As someone in recovery for cocaine as well, it does get tiring watching addicts have to hit rock bottom again and again on television, so I’m sure Lewis has her own issues with where Nat’s narrative is taking her and the broader implications that has on audiences assumptions around substance disorders. Recovery is so personal, and it would be very difficult to play a character who might be prescribing to a very different philosophy around substances than your own. Especially in todays world, where there are so many alternatives then going to Anonymous Meetings which we see depicted as the only remedy on television.It would fuck me up, I might storm off stage as well tbh.
Well she is a scientologist (sigh), so she went through their narconon program. Probably not a big fan of AA/NA (nor am I, but don’t get me started) and it’s whole system. Even though she apparently also identifies as Christian.
ughhhhh i hope not.Lewis is killing it on this show, thought if she’s finding it personally upsetting than I can’t blame her.
Oh, Grown-up Van is DEFINITELY Julia Styles.
I’m feeling Lauren Ambrose, like I can TOTALLY see that!!
Oh yeah I think the reunion is going to include at least one big surprise attendee, most likely Jackie but it could be Van too.A dark horse would be Lottie, who I could see being played by Winona Ryder
I love the idea of some 90s actress reunions.
The Vulture interview might have just been a bad day for Lewis – she said in her Collider interview that Yellowjackets was “[one] of the best scripts I’d ever read and that I’d ever been given in 10 plus years”. The interview is pretty glowing all around, and it was certainly conducted well after the series had wrapped shooting:
https://collider.com/yellowjackets-juliette-lewis-interview-scorsese-cape-fear/
Yeah I hope Lewis is in a good place with this show and her role with it, because she’s crucial, and she’s doing career best work, which is saying something, considering her resume.
Good call on Lauren Ambrose.
the “secret” is obvious. They murderd and cannibalized other girls not to survive but because shauna told them and they either believed or went along with the idea that to leave theyd have to spill blood, aka sacrficie other girls
I will watch this show to the end thanks to Ms. Lewis. But I will always be conflicted by the decisions the writers and creators make. The show isn’t a dark comedy. It isn’t horror. It isn’t eben 90s nostalgia. It takes place in its own universe.This show jumps the shark intentionally and it telegraphs what’s going to happen in future seasons. Taissa is going to kill at least one survivor in her sleep. Jackie will probably be the last death in the wilderness before rescue. And Nat is probably going to kill Misty. Or someone is going to kill Misty when they finally learn from the Internet that Misty as the one who smashed the flight recorder. It would be funny if that piece of information is already on Reddit an no one bothered to research it. These survivors are not “online.”
Didn’t feel like Laura Lee’s death was played for laughs imo. More like any hope has now gone out the window and things are about to get even darker very quickly.I was very happy about Shauna & Taissa discussing her sleepwalking in medical terms rather than supernatural terms. Of course it could still go either way but i’d really prefer it if the show allows for both interpretations to be plausible.
I couldn’t help but think: how many of the womens’ secrets rests on Shauna’s shoulders? She’s the most low profile of the survivors after Travis’ demise. She lives the most ‘normal’ life for someone supposedly traumatized. She knows what the world somehow doesn’t: she knows what happened to her fetus/baby. She knows how Jackie died. She knows that Taissa killed a survivor in her sleep (that was implied in the episode twice). Sauna is the lynch pin holding this whole show together. If she cracks, all the secrets are unleashed and the story is over.
-God let Laura Lee down-Favorite line: “If this is an anniversary gift, you’re 3 months and my entire personality off.”-Was that fire deliberately caused? By Misty maybe? It seemed weird for that bear to just catch on fire like that.
I’m ignorant because I’’ve never been in a relationship long enough to get gifts, let alone been in a marriage, but is that the sort of thing a husband gets their spouse? It seems to me that buying a dress for someone is such a minefield. Hell, I passed on buying a sweater for my sister for Christmas, because I was too unsure what size to get, and didn’t want to imply anything by getting something too large or too small. Getting a dress for one’s 25th high school reunion seems orders of magnitude more important.
I think it was the style and color of the dress.My sister recently bought me a bunch of sweaters and they were all dark colors because she knew me well enough not to buy anything bright or flashy.
That’s because he’s more interested in how the dress makes him look than how she comes across (and that’s the whole problem). He wants to everyone at the reunion to admire/envy him for having a stereotypically hot wife—he doesn’t really care what sort of image she might want to present to their classmates.
I don’t think God did. I think it’s better to die as a hero flying to get help opposed to cannibalism and get eaten or maybe tortured before. Or starve to death. Laura Lee wouldn’t become a killer so she would be a victim eventually as they lose their voices of reason.
With that Laura Lee intro, I was expecting a Six Feet Under style “Laura Lee 1980-1995″ titlecard to appear.
Some thoughts/questions…1. Shauna is way too smart and savvy to not recognize Javi. And (if Javi is 14ish in 1996, he’d be 39 now) the ages just don’t match up.2. Shauna and the rest of the Yellowjackets have lived the rest of their lives protecting their forest secrets. She got into Brown. She knows that the outside world wants something from them, and she’s recently been reminded of that by the appearance of Jessica. Why on earth should we believe that she’s thrown all of those instincts and intelligence away to hook up with a mystery man 15-20 years her junior? 3. Juliette Lewis has essentially lived that part of Nat’s life, which is why it seems so real.4. There’s no way that airplane starts or runs. Any car/truck/plane etc. that’s been left out in the woods for 20 years would be useless.5. There’s no way Van doesn’t bleed out soon after the wolf attack.6. I can’t believe that that cabin doesn’t have any fishing gear, and I can’t believe that at least some of those girls don’t spend most of their day trying to catch fish. I get that there is only 1 rifle and that it takes some skill to actually hit anything. But fishing is easy. At least trying to fish is easy. It’s better than just sitting there complaining.7. Adam was left in Shauna’s closet for 10 minutes and somehow learned to crack a safe he’s never seen before?8. Tai’s hand looked magically healed in just a few days.
I can answer one of your questions: they are doing some fishing, and you can see nets and traps for fish set up, that Travis is checking when he chats with Jackie. But fishing is easier said than done. It assumes that lake has any fish, and if it does, they may be further from shore and deeper. They really need a raft or boat which so far, they don’t seem to have. Even then, fish would be a short term solution. Anything they catch wouldn’t not go very far to feed the 18 or so survivors, and the lake would quickly be depleted.
I’ve said before, that they needed to come up with a plan to hike south much earlier. It needed to be done while they were strong, and food was plentiful enough that they could cache it. And they needed to prepare for it, not just march out with an hour of prep like Tai did. I’d have scouted the region around the lake, tried to scale a peak to the south and see what I could find, if there is civilzation beyond, or at least, a lake that could sustain a new camp. I have everyone else making portable shelters from whatever they could find, and we’d start moving south like nomads, following the water, and the animal herds as they migrate, and just keep on moving to keep ahead of the winter until we reached some kind of civilization.
also, though its a spoiler- he didnt crack the safe. As was pointed out, they were trying to set fish traps. Are you sure a cessna with a full tank of gas wouldnt run, even for a shirt time? Why wouldnt it?
I appreciate some of these objections, because I’ve had some similar thoughts about realism. Nevermind each individual point—to me there’s a bit of a choppiness in the narrative. I feel like from episode to episode there are so many changes in attitudes or in the status of a particular situation that are just chalked up to “well, it’s different now.”I’m not really calling out realism in some of these, but more pacing—it just feels choppy. As one example, the gals mostly reasonably tell Laura Lee it’s a bad idea to try to fly. (And remember, they’d just been extremely cautious when Taissa wanted to *walk* away from the cabin.) But after she puts her foot down and we cut away to the present timeline, we come back and everyone is suddenly helping her clear the sticks, etc. Saying “well, she said no one could stop her” is being a bit too black and white, I think. I mean, what the writers were doing is basically just not bothering with any more arguing, and I get that, but after coming back from the other timeline, it feels like the story has plum forgotten what the attitudes of the girls had been previously. You’d expect the coach or one or two of the others to be staying back in protest, freaking out about her possibly dying (before it happens) after Van just got mauled nearly to death, etc.They also orphaned the whole idea of hunting—if one deer was sick then I guess that’s the end of deer forever. They shot one bird—are all the birds gone? And what about Lotti speaking in tongues that one time and now she seems fine? (I get that they allude to her being weird and we continue to see her visions, etc.). Finally, could a soccer team possibly talk about…soccer…at some point? If they can talk about some TV show (whatever that was Van was describing when they were on their expedition), about gossip from school, who’s sleeping with whom, they can talk about something they’re SUPPOSED to be interested in. You wouldn’t know they’re on a soccer team after episode 2. May as well be the student council, model U.N., or the dance team, since they like making dance routines. They never recount stories from games, something someone did on the bus after a road game, an opponent, a referee—nothing. The narrative is so uninterested in their being actual soccer players.But I do love it!
I’m in exactly the same boat as I’m catching up on the show. I’m enjoying it, but the narrative is pretty slipshod – episodes kind of bleed into one another without any structure, and you’re absolutely right that there’s no sense of a group dynamic in the flashback (the writers always show the teenagers in the same pairs, so there’s no sense of how Van and Shauna might get along, for example). And the only character in the present day who behaves like an actual person is Taissa’s wife – everyone else is an excellent actor holding together a bundle of trauma/midlife-crisis tropes. Also, the writers made a promise by opening the show with the characters in masks killing and eating someone, and they have not lived up to that promise. It might have been a better move to end the season with the cannibalism, if it wasn’t going to be a recurring theme (the 2021 characters’ references to the terrible things they did would be just as ominous and vague).
uh…. its pretty clear that was towards the end of their time in the wilderness, and how we get to that point is a major part of the show, as well as hiw what happeneed there affected the survivors lives. I’m not really sure what you’d want here… it kind of seemed obvious to me the first season wasnt going to show their entire time in the wilderness because the show is structured with a “current” narrative and flashbacks. The scene in the first episode was the “end” of their stay, presumably just befor their rescued. Presumably thats going to be shown in the last season (or if its 5 season maybe the fourth with the remaining flashbacks showing their rescue and what happened to them immediately after their return to civilization)
This would be like getting upset at Lost because when season one concldes they are still on the island.
It’s been a while since I watched the show, but IIRC they spent two winters in the wilderness. There’s nothing about the opening scene to suggest it was the second winter, and it would have been a good storytelling choice to build the season up to that point. Especially since they spend the whole season introducing more and more threads they don’t resolve. It makes the whole season feel like it’s building to nothing. The comparison to Lost is pretty accurate – I didn’t watch that show, but my understanding is that it has a neat premise and then spun its wheels for years. Yellowjackets is tons of fun, but it’s very silly. I don’t want anything more, but it’s still silly.
a lot of time passes that we dont see and they probably talk about all sorts of mundane things that wouldnt really interest the audience. In terms of pacing, yes, we’re never sure how much times passes between flashbacks, buts its clearly much more then as if they were just back to back as we get in one season from the crash in spring to the start of the first winter or late fall.
They never did give up on hunting, they just had less success as it get colder. Presumably they have killed other animals and eaten them that we havent seen.
I replied to this 4 days ago and it’s still pending approval!
The tone of the final sequence was crystal clear to me: Laura admirably flails against certain doom, carrying the hopes of all the others — and those explode in the plane along with her.
So Laura Lee was never going to be able to land the plane, right? Her plan was basically to sacrifice herself so that the world would figure out the team was still alive somewhere in the direction the plane came from? I’m just surprised they didn’t try to milk some drama from that.
I mean, she figured out how to take off, presumably she had a plan for the landing too. She probably would have done a better job than the pilots of their charter plane
Landing seems like the hard part though. Even if she read in the manual “decrease speed to X to land” it doesn’t seem like she’d know how to do that at the right moment, and keeping the plane level could be hard. Did the plane have a radio? I gather it wasn’t functional so she couldn’t even get talked through it.
Yeah the landing is an issue, but I think she could’ve pulled it off. Her best bet, assuming she managed to find civilization, would be to find a field and try to go down in it. A cessna is a awfully lower powered as far as aircraft go, and if you can kill the engine, and glide in, I think you could make a decent enough landing, particularly if it is a farm field where you’ve got crops that could serve as an effective cushion. United Flight 232’s pilots when they attempted their landing, selected the spot they did because it was adjacent to a corn field, which they reasoned would be a good cushion if they landed rough, or overshot, which they wound up doing.
I thought that she might fly for awhile then crash, but people might find her. She’d be close enough to civilization to be identified. Either way, they would be saved. I thought the team might think she got help, but maybe found the plane later but the show didn’t end up that way.
Given they put so much emphasis on who could have possibly access Travis’s bank accounts, blackmailer / garage hunk tempter is going to end up being… is Travis’s kid brother named Adam? It’s Adam. He’d have no trouble. And if he’s a secret survivor, he’ll want his cut.Look for the knife Shauna lent him at the cabin to become the proverbial Chekhov’s object. Prediction: Adam will take them over the coals for all the horrendous shit they did in the woods, and they’ll kill him to keep their secret.
I’m pretty sure she would recognize him even if it had been years. Also he was only a couple of years younger.
Counterpoint: Laura Lee was treated like a superhero in this episode and has been throughout. Saving Lottie, flying a plane, standing up to and swearing at the Coach…and that is why the satanic force in the woods torched her teddy bear before her eyes before it blew her up. The burning teddy bear was clearly supernatural, as was the plane blowing up…plane fires do not start in the co-pilot’s seat. It was conservation of characters to have her fly alone, though, and they clearly want Van to stick around (I like Lauren Ambrose as the adult choice).I hate Javi as Adam, it’s idiotic, but if you look at the actor who play’s Adam’s IMDB page he is part Mexican and speaks Spanish…which is apparently all you need. My hope is that if they go that way then it turns out that he IS Javi but IS NOT the blackmailer (and that the blackmailer is Jeff and that’s why Shauna didn’t get a postcard [she didn’t get a postcard, right?])…Jeff seems (at least SEEMS) to think Shauna and Taissa haven’t seen each other just the other day.I was sad to hear Juliette Lewis in that Vulture interview talking about how adult Nat sucks, but…adult Nat does suck. Sophie Thatcher was amazing until they made her character all about Travis…this last episode you actually heard her TURN INTO Juliette Lewis’s version…but despite JLew doing a good job (not as amazing as some say) and her fun work with Ricci…the adult character sucks and her dialogue is terrible. Unless they are killing her off I assume they have some kind of arc for Nat where she turns back into the person she was pre-Travis, but I can see why it would be frustrating to play line like her kiss off to Kevin.My vote for who is killed in the first episode is definitely Lottie: she is still resistant to the evil spirits so she’s gotta go. Jackie is clearly going through a big heel turn and is now the top candidate for Grand Poo-Bah…you can’t be much more evil than forcing somebody to reveal a pregnancy and telling somebody’s bf they were always banging it out with a bunch of dudes. Jackie has been totally useless in the cabin, but she can manipulate.
Idk, I don’t think it’s that evil to tell everyone about Shauna’s pregnancy considering she’s already showing, and also it was in the context of “we have to everything possible to try to get rescued bc shit’s about to get real”.Also they both knew Nat had been with other guys before. If anything it was kind of a back-handed way of being like “you shouldn’t worry about not being good enough for Nat because you’re nice and the rest of her boyfriends have been gross”. She didn’t know she was name-dropping someone Travis had beef with.
That is clearly not how she meant it, and the next episode should have cleared that up for you. Just a little life tip: if you are ever planning to reveal anybody’s pregnancy publicly ever, make sure to get their permission first. Also, if you are ever planning on revealing to man that the woman they are dating has slept with a bunch of people, missing practice to bang another one out in the back of a car, maybe don’t—you weirdo. It’s not fair, but it’s reality.People have some weird takes on this show, and the show is pretty straightforward.
Idk, I think it’s pretty weird that you’re holding a traumatized 17-year-old in an increasingly bleak situation to the same standards as you would an adult in normal circumstances. I also would argue that Jackie doesn’t really owe it to Shauna to be on her best, kindest behavior immediately after finding out she’s having Jeff’s baby. And it doesn’t change the fact that they were getting to the point in the pregnancy and also the weather where the rest of the group did kind of need to know what was up.Also talking shit about peers’ sex lives is a very normal teenager thing to do. Not admirable, but “evil” is a real stretch. Especially since the way she did it was pretty straightforward and not over-the top malicious. She also didn’t “reveal” that Nat had slept with other people- Travis already knew, and Jackie knew that he knew. The only thing she revealed was the specific guy, and she didn’t know he and Travis had beef.
She told him so he would break up with Nat so she could fuck him, and that’s what she did. In order to pull that off she made it sound like a normal not-that-big-a-deal thing. The question is if Jackie’s heel turn results in them all deciding to kill her (instead of because she, as in the most recent episode, is a non-believer and didn’t drink the mushroom-aid).And revealing somebody is pregnant is like revealing they had an abortion, or that they had cancer, or any other intensely personal piece of information. You don’t do it without the other person’s permission to anybody, and especially not to an entire plane-full of people. You really should know that anyway, but coupled with the Nat thing (and followed up by the most recent episode) it really could not be clearer what Jackie’s motivations were. Also, it’s the 90s in the show, if somebody did that to someone today everybody would know how fucked up it is and the whole team would turn on them, it’s a violation of personal and bodily autonomy, particularly if Shauna decided to try another abortion (which might be preferable to the baby back ribs we are likely headed towards)
Again- you’re holding a traumatized teenager facing imminent death to the same standard as you would for a grown adult in normal circumstances. It’s also fucked up to sleep with your best friend’s boyfriend and lie to her about it for literally months. In light of a deeply hurtful and ongoing betrayal by someone she loved and trusted, I’d say it’s understandable that Jackie would lash out. Teenagers act like assholes all the time and are usually way less justified. You have to really go out of your way and read all of Jackie’s actions with the least generous lens possible if the only reason you can see for her actions is “she’s evil”.
You have changed your argument, and I understand why: your argument was wrong. You were not saying she was being a dick and it’s understandable, you were saying she wasn’t being a dick at all. Changing your argument is an admission it was wrong, so thanks for that.
My argument has always been that reading her actions as “evil” is ridiculous and that in the context of their situation, her actions are understandable if not justified. With respect to Shauna, the rest of the group did need to know what was going on with her sooner rather than later and after what happened Jackie doesn’t really owe it to her to be super respectful of her boundaries. And as for Nat, the two of them aren’t really friends and don’t even particularly like each other and again, she didn’t think she was telling Travis anything he didn’t basically already know. Also not sure why a fictional character inspires so much hostility in you.
She clearly knew that Travis didn’t know that, you = weirdo, goodbye.
you = being a dick for no reason. Cheers.
“she didn’t think she was telling Travis anything he didn’t basically already know” –> this is wrong. wrong wrong wrong. You persisting and bothering me over and over and changing your argument and changing it back instead of just admitting you are wrong is what is being a dick, grow up!
I don’t think her actions are bad enough to be described as evil, but her intentions were clearly spiteful and nothing else. She wasn’t being nice by revealing Shauna’s pregnancy to the group and she didn’t tell Travis something that would make him angry at Nat by accident. Far from judging her as an adult, I think she’s getting judged as a 17-year-old girl hurting people because she’s mad–which is pretty much what she is.
You are insane, Shauna got off easy, Jackie did not even tell everyone that she got pregged by fucking Jackie’s boyfriend.
I guess It didn’t want the Hunter to leave yet It fixed the plane so LL would perish? The supernatural part is starting and flying a plane that has been parked for years, but then also the bear. I mean It could not like LL because she threw the Bible at Lottie and she came to. If there was a malevolent spirit in the woods, LL would really be the first to go! I really liked Laura Lee as a character. She was Christian but didn’t fall into all the standard tropes. Glad to see her revive in a dream sequence too!
Please keep Van alive so her adult version can be played by Natasha Lyonne.
This makes so much sense! Natasha Lyonne once again playing gay
As predicted Juliette Lewis is ruining this show. The whole age thing doesn’t add up, first of all. But whatever. It’s that her “acting” is the same in every single appearance: Be the unstable drug addict crazy wild eyed bitch that mumbles or incoherently shouts her lines. I literally had mental bingo card that includes “throws phone and trashes room for no real reason” And “Does coke in a desperate dramatic fit.”
Also she walks like a drunk ostrich and wears fishnets over her shirt. Even for a punk, it’s a weird look. The teen Nat looks and acts more like Emma Stone. The age things bothers me too. I am Juliette’s age and I graduated HS in 1990. She looks a very rough 43! Put her with Kevin, who looks younger than his age and it looks wonky.
Yeaaaah, I went the other way on this one.This ep and its predecessor got so far down in the emotional weeds (without salvaging dialogue) that I promised myself I would stop watching the show unless the plane exploded.
I’ll be back next week!
I am rather baffled by the denial people on here seem to have that this is a supernatual show. I get that people sometimes “want” their “head cannon” of what they thought the show was to be true, but every episode at this point is pretty clear, so much that it is getting a tad irrational. From the séance, to Natalie shooting a deer filled with maggots that was alive just few minutes before, to the wolves attacking them when Taissa correctly said they would not attack humans (especially with a fire going), to her waking up in a tree, to the river of blood, to frankly no one seemingly being able to find them (this is set in 1996, and um, all airplanes had transponders and flight plans in that old timey year, they should have seen numerous rescue plans by now) to now the teddy bear bursting into flame..it is like 100% supernatural.It does not lessen to me the story at all and I do not get why it does for others. Practically every horror story has this stuff. This is not a retelling of lord of the flies. This is starting to remind me of the remade Battlestar Galactica where some fans whined because the last season clearly had some mystical stuff in their “sci fi” show where the writers responded “have you not been watching the whole show up to thaqt point where it was clear?”
I’m not at all averse to it being supernatural and think it could be, but none of those things has to be supernatural. Even the maggoty dear, apparently. It was alive with tha maggots.
I think the show has committed to a supernatural element, but at this point in my catchup viewing, I’m not 100% sure that the writers won’t try to take it back. The teddy bear bursting into flames was a little too weird to rationalize, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try to rationalize it. For what it’s worth, the show provided a rationale for the absence of a rescue part in the first couple of episodes – the pilots changed course to avoid a storm, and Misty destroyed the black box. That said, the real touchstone for the show to me isn’t Lord of the Flies, it’s the AMC adaptation of The Terror from a few years ago, and that show benefited from letting the mundane horror of the situation play out before the supernatural horror really took hold. Also, in the first couple of episodes they explained (quickly) that the plane adjusted its flight plan to avoid a weather pattern, and Misty destroyed the
I figured the unceremonious death of ding dong Laura Lee was more of a message of “there is no God here”.
The author of this article must be similar to Misty in personality because there is no universe in which Misty can be considered a good friend to anyone. Taissa is a good friend. Misty doesn’t even understand friendship. While I do think Misty is a complex character, I will not delude myself into thinking she is a friend to anyone, and certainly she is not Nat’s friend when all she has done is sabotage Nat at every turn.
There were clues that the plane would explode ever since they found the plane. It isn’t coming out of nowhere. I also think Laura Lee knew she would probably die.
Laura isn’t dead. She bailed out into the water when the plane caught fire. Her faith shaken, she turns evil.
Rather than being contemptuous of Laura Lee’s faith, I wonder if the show is leaning into the theme of her Christianity as one of the things keeping the girls from descending into chaos. She showed leadership at the funeral, she was right about the seance and then saves the day by throwing her bible, she was a grounding force for Lottie, she was the first to ask where to go look for Van and Tai, she doesn’t make any comment about Shauna’s pre-marital pregnancy, and shetakes the plane to save the rest of the group. It doesn’t seem coincidental that all of the violent intra-group stuff happens after the death of the show’s lone devout Christian. Laura Lee will be likely remembered as the purest of the initial crash survivors. If anything, Laura Lee and her faith have been enshrined on a pedestal.