Yellowjackets season 2 finale: “It was just us”
The wilderness chooses a sacrifice—and a new leader
TV Reviews Books
In the back half of the second season of Yellowjackets, in a quiet moment amid a primal scream of a day, the survivors sit around the fireplace, and Van tells a story. Quelling eager cries for retellings of The Princess Bride and While You Were Sleeping, Van instead decides to tell a new story, one they have all watched but never told themselves before: the story of the wilderness.
“Once upon a time, there was a place called the wilderness,” Van begins. “It was beautiful, and full of life, but it was also lonely and violent and misunderstood. So one day, the wilderness built a house. It waited.”
A master class in both subverting its own ethos and cultivating the seeds of a new season, Yellowjackets’ season-two finale takes the limited reveals the season has built towards and recontextualizes them once again, reminding the survivors (and in turn, the audience) that the truth of their experience—what was real and what wasn’t out there, and what’s remained real over time—is as malleable as their own moral compasses. What has always been more important, whether in protecting themselves from the police as adults or justifying their own actions as children, is the story they choose to tell, a story of the wilderness they etched out in blood, sweat, tears, and shit.
Saving the best needle drop for last, the episode opens with “Zombies” by The Cranberries, a perfect professional for Nat returning to the cabin, safe from the hunt but not safe from the shame of revealing to Travis that they’re going to eat his brother. Before she can utter more than a tortured “Javi…” however, the rest of the survivors handle the reveal for her, carrying Javi back strung up on a long branch.
Immediately, it’s clear this death is nothing like Jackie’s. There will be no eulogy, or funeral pyre; nobody but Natalie and Javi even seem tortured that he’s gone. Later, when Travis tells a newly-peaceful Van she should be ashamed of herself for what she’s done, she doesn’t falter in shutting him down: “I’m glad I’m alive. Just like you are. And I don’t think that any of us that are still here should feel ashamed of that, ever.” Despite her lack of sympathy for his plight, Travis ultimately resigns to surviving off his brother too: In fact, he’s the first to eat, biting into Javi’s raw heart after placing the wolf Javi carefully carved on the fireplace, their makeshift altar.
But however stalwart Van’s point, Shauna’s decision to cover her eyes, hands trembling, with a scarf when she butchers Javi indicates that not feeling ashamed ever isn’t exactly something these girls should count on. That kind of life—living just to stay alive, in the most gruesome sense of the phrase—isn’t for everybody, and it’s absolutely not for Coach Ben, who finally makes his exodus to Javi’s secret spot to wait out the winter, taking matches and an axe with him after Natalie refuses to join. After Ben opines that she’s not like these other girls, she hits him with, “Actually, I’m worse.” She let Javi die in her place, and now she’s going to eat him too. She’s not proud, exactly; but much like Van, she still feels lucky living, and breathing. In the girls’ resigned sense of pride is perhaps the only inherent truth about their time in the wilderness, one Lottie’s hallucinated antler queen told her a few episodes back: Being alone together out there, for all the violence and the horror it produced, allowed these women a fleeting taste of true freedom.
Fast forward in time, and it’s apparent that the cost of that freedom remains high. In fact, shame might have been one of the only things preventing full on bedlam among the survivors, Lottie specifically. Convinced that the wilderness is once again ready to “choose,” Lottie is gung-ho about her phenobarbital solution (as Nat refers to it, “poison fucking oolong”) and offering up a sacrifice to their cruel god. It’s Shauna who suggests that if they do provide an offering, they do it how they used to: drawing cards, heading out on a hunt, and letting the wilderness select who pays the price. Tai, Van, Misty, and Natalie are all shocked that Shauna is entertaining Lottie, until she explains it only serves to buy them some time: If they schedule a hunt later in the day, they can call a crisis psych team to come and scoop her up before any real frontier “justice” gets underway.
In a darkly ironic twist, it’s actually Lottie who is the most unsettled by Javi’s death, and the new sacrificial tradition that led to it. After hearing Travis screaming over Javi’s body, Lottie wants to know what happens: Misty tells her, plainly, that after Misty passed along Lottie’s message that she didn’t want her body to go to waste, they decided they couldn’t go forward without their high priestess and determined they needed to choose someone else’s body to survive on. When Lottie reacts in pure horror—especially to Misty’s thinly-veiled excitement at the events of “the chase”—Misty sours towards her: “Lottie, you started this. It’s done. And it’s going to save all of our lives. So you better not start making people feel bad about it now.” When Misty returns downstairs, she keeps Lottie’s true feelings about this new way of life clandestine, instead telling the group: “Lottie’s pleased with the wilderness’ choice. She says Javi will save us.” Later on, as Lottie eats resigned in front of Misty, she wonders (for the first time, maybe) if the wilderness actually wants what’s best for us. “Your team needs you,” Misty shuts her down. “Eat.”
The team mentality feels just as prevalent in the adult timeline as the teen timeline this episode, if in a different manner. Nearly every side character we’ve been introduced to thus far (save beloved bozo, Randy Walsh, who hopefully spent the night cuddled up with Tammy on the couch over a movie) converges on Lottie’s commune. There’s Jeff and Callie, who arrive looking for Shauna and contemplating disappearing with fake passports; there’s Saracusa and Kevin Tan, who arrive on Jeff and Callie’s tail certain something’s afoot. Even Walter has returned to rescue Misty with a plan right out of her playbook: poisoning Kevin with phenobarbital hot chocolate. (Side note: how is everyone getting phenobarbital these days? It’s like Ozempic for Wiskayok High School alumni.)
After Walter casually offs Kevin—much to Jeff’s shock, who watched Kevin keel over while he was in the middle of yet another semi-believable false confession to Adam’s murder—he corners Saracusa and, after revealing he’s set Kevin up to take the fall for both Adam and Jessica Roberts, offers Saracusa a choice: be the local hero who uncovered his partners presumed dirty work, or take the fall himself. Saracusa doesn’t answer right off the bat, but knowing his needling personality, Walter asked the right questions to the right guy.
As loose ends are tied up all around the commune, Tai, Van, Lottie, Misty, Shauna, and Nat finally come as close to full circle as they’ve been yet: standing around a fire, drawing cards, and drawing knives. When Shauna asks Misty how long it will take “them” (the crisis team she thinks is coming) to get here, Misty says they should arrive soon–she doesn’t know that Van convinced Tai not to make that call, feeling in part guilty for her own role in worshipping Lottie and making her “like this,” and in part feeling tempted by the idea that maybe she’s right, and maybe appeasing the wilderness will beget safety, perhaps even blessings. Long story short: Before Shauna knows it, the draw has become all too real. They go in a circle, tossing each drawn card on the fire. When one round goes by, and no one has selected the queen, they go again, and again. Ultimately, it’s Shauna who draws the card.
Tearfully, frustratedly, and pleadingly, it’s then that Shauna utters perhaps the most important line of the season so far, and asks the question that ultimately guides the series: “You know there’s no it, right? It was just us.” Over two seasons, Yellowjackets has always blossomed in the liminal spaces between reality and imagination, using wildly unreliable narrators and cleanly split timelines as a canvas for artful confusion. The real meat of the series has always been the emotional and literal uncertainty of the trauma the survivors shared. Were they pushed to the most primal depths of their psyche or did they reach for them? Did the wilderness make decisions, or did they? And as Lottie so aptly points out in response to Shauna: “Is there a difference?”
The negligible difference between the wilderness and its worshippers feels most salient in the episode’s final brutal turn: Natalie Scartuccio’s death. At the end of all things, Natalie doesn’t die by the wilderness’ hands or by her own. She dies to save Lisa from Misty, jumping in between them and taking a stab from Misty’s phenobarbital needle in a cruelly swift moment. Headed towards death, Natalie finds herself on an airplane, surrounded by visions of her past: Javi, herself as a young girl, and finally, a young Lottie, who puts her hand over a terrified Nat’s heart. “It’s not evil, just hungry. Like us. Just let it in.”
Natalie’s death leaves Lottie’s “Is there a difference?” question more confusing than ever. Before Natalie took Misty’s needle, Callie stepped in, shooting Lottie in the arm as she chased Shauna with a knife. Even before that, as the women chased Shauna at a somewhat slow saunter, it still remained unclear whether they would actually kill her or not. Just as with most tragedies on this show, whether in the ’90s timeline or beyond, everything is a game until it’s not, and in the wilderness, the playing field is always changing.
So are the players and the roles they play. As Van tells her story of the wilderness over bowls of Javi stew, Lottie interrupts to reveal that she’s not going to be in charge anymore. By engaging in the hunt as an attempt to save her, Lottie opines, they’ve also shown her she’s not the right conduit for the wilderness anymore and it’s time for a new leader. Although Misty and Shauna both perk up, Lottie is actually talking about Natalie: When they tried to kill her, the wilderness wouldn’t let them. On Lottie’s direction, the girls pledge their allegiance to Natalie, who is overwhelmed but not exactly unhappy about her new role. Shauna, however, is pissed: Scribbling in her diary late that night about feeling invisible, she’s only interrupted when she smells smoke, then sees flames, then sees the doors are locked. Their cabin has been set on fire (ostensibly by Coach Ben) with them inside, and the house the wilderness built is a home for them no more.
That’s how we leave our intrepid survivors, as the season closes to the tune of “The Killing Moon” by Echo & The Bunnymen: huddled outside their burning, crumbling abode only holdin what they could carry, playing a game that won’t stop changing, living on borrowed time on cruel, complex terrain. As the months dragged on and winter set in, it became more and more confusing where this show could possibly head next, and how much deeper the survivors could actually fall into, well, survival mode. But with their home base on fire and their standing with the wilderness wildly unclear, the only thing that feels certain about this series is that there are deeper, darker depths in store.
Stray observations
- When Jeff overhears Walter tell Kevin Tan “My methods aren’t exactly admissible in a court of law” and Kevin respond, “I think you’d get along with my partner.” Please, please let this be foreshadowing of a new, notable, and nightmarish buddy-cop relationship!
- Thank god Jeff was able to say “The American family is crumbling” before this season concluded. Just feels right!
- One loose end that still feels extremely untied: Tai’s alter ego. Season three stands to reckon with that in a much stronger way. There’s so much we still don’t know, and even what we do know feels uncertain.
- Lottie describing Callie as “powerful” makes sense, but also feels primed to set up a larger role for Callie next season, at least as far as her connection to her mother’s past goes. As much of a dickwad as he is, Saracusa might just be right: the apple doesn’t fall far from the fucked up tree.
- Natalie’s words to Coach Ben right before he leaves—“You really don’t belong in this place”—almost directly echo the words Paul said in Ben’s hallucination. Whether it’s correlation, causation, or what, time alone in Javi’s strange wilderness chamber certainly seems like a situation that would lead Ben to have a lot more imagined combinations with Paul in the future.
- Most heart wrenching line of the episode goes to: a resigned Natalie telling Lisa “I appreciate you trying to teach me forgiveness. It’s a nice idea.”
- Lottie’s shocked reaction to Tai’s initial decision to refuse the draw—that they all know what happens after a refusal—indicates there’s still new levels of their hunting process to be revealed in season three. The wilderness took Javi instead of Natalie the first time they hunted, but he didn’t say no to the draw. What happens when someone outright refuses?
- The women’s use of masks as a part of their hunts is such an interesting way to explore how traditions get made and societies get shaped.
161 Comments
As fun as it was to watch Walter get involved, that was a really stupid and far-fetched way to wave away the only real outside danger they faced in the series. So in the span of maybe only a couple days at most he somehow managed pin two murders he only has some knowledge of on a cop? He had no problems happily murdering a cop as well? And the partner’s reaction to all of it makes very little sense.Also, what the hell happens with Lisa after Natalie’s death? She’s still there with a gun, surrounded by people she just heard talking about murder, and she just watched one of them accidentally kill her friend while trying to kill her? It gave Natalie a nice redemptive ending but just seems lazy outside of that.
To add, how did he have any knowledge of Jessica Roberts? Did I miss something?
He and Misty talked plenty offscreen, so he could know that.
After they split up because he accused her of killing Adam? Cause prior to that I don’t see her confessing to any other murders. I don’t really think they spoke at length after that, but maybe I’m wrong.
I figured they were meant to have talked after they met up when both were breaking into Lottie’s office.
I suppose that’s the only thing that makes sense. Though it feels like it should have been a scene and not something glossed over. Something where she explains she didn’t actually kill Adam, but is a killer and then talks about Jessica.
Lisa is going to mirror Natalie – as a result of what happens, she’ll fall into depression and drug/alcohol use after leaving the cult…and probably get some sort of redemption at some point. I’d bet Juliette Lewis makes a cameo or two as a hallucination to speak with her.
Add Walter singing “Send in the Clowns” before the cops show up to the list of needle drops. Yeah, it counts.Surprised that none of the kids told another to eat at some point before cannibalising Javi. Would’ve thought a series involving 90s teams that’s split between 2 time periods would understand the basics of foreshadowing.
*eat a dick*teens
I couldn’t help but read that as “Eat a dick, teens!”You think they ate his dong? Probably not yet. I wonder if arguments broke out over who got what “cut” of Javi.
Oh, I totally realised that before I hit submit, just didn’t want to riff on it in case I got added to some watchlist.I think once you’ve crossed the threshold into cannibalism, you’re way past being selective about what specifically you eat. They totally joined the Dong-er Party.
Another heart wrenching realization: Misty has now caused the deaths of TWO best friends.
Adult Misty is easily my favorite character and I keep finding myself hoping (against all evidence otherwise) that she’s simply misunderstood. That hope keeps getting further and further out of reach.
There’s something fascinating about thinking that because it comes from a place of almost pity to think Misty who was treated badly and not “really” on the team and just wanted to fit in so badly, but there’s also something to be like “well, maybe it was her bad vibes all along.”
Even though we are clearly shown Misty has little to no empathy for others, she still came out swinging when she saw Natalie was about to relapse. She was working with Walter in order to find Natalie, because Natalie was her “best friend.” She’s protective at weird times and I find her character so interesting. Like, she seems to WANT to be normal but she’s just not built for it. Christina Ricci’s delightful performance probably doesn’t hurt, either. She makes me grin whenever Misty is on screen.
I love adult Misty, and I think the hair and glasses really mesh her with young Misty quite well. The other actors do a great job portraying their time twins, especially vocally, but Misty is so visually consistent.
She may have actually prevented the prompt arrival of help, so there’s that…
Yes, there are definitely preexisting girl-is-not-right issues with Misty. She is on the team, but she isn’t ON the team, you know?I find myself thinking often about the first episode, not just of the shot of her creepily staring from off to the side at the bonfire party, but the one from the morning before they get on the plane, where she is by a manicured pool somewhere (presumably at her home, but we know literally nothing about her circumstances outside of school as of now) watching a rat drown in the blue water, expressionless.I think about that rat every time she is on the screen. Every death post plane crash is a direct result of her destroying the beacon, which she did within the same 24 hour period she watched a rat drown in her pool, after also being only an observer at a high school party.Plus: how many old people has she killed at her job???
We don’t usually get many sympathetic narratives about successful female serial killers, let alone a LOVE STORY, but I low key think that is what this show is really about.
Wait, was she really at that party? I could be wrong, but I always thought she wasn’t invited and Nat was hallucinating because she was on drugs and it was supposed to mean something.
I mean, they threw in that conversation between her and CrystalCaitlyn about liking Jack Kevorkian. Misty has absolutely mercy killed people.
Caligula… you’re next!
No way this series goes 5 seasons. I think Paramount will tell the showrunners to wrap it up in 4. Succession style.
Lottie is confusing in both timelines, particularly the present. She and Shauna staking out contrary views about whether the wilderness spirit is a real external force or not continues to be interesting though. I somehow feel that Shauna is totally right that it isn’t real, and Lottie is also totally right that she is being led by somethingKind of impressed that both timelines end the season in utter chaos worse than I had even conceived of, despite how chaotic everything up until now had been
It’s hard not to see this as a response to Juliette Lewis who was on record saying she didn’t love the direction the show was taking with her character (after season 1). Maybe she was more pleased with Nat’s turn in season 2, or maybe she asked to be knocked off, I don’t know, but I think losing Nat is a real loss for the show. Shauna and Nat fell the most essential, for me anyway.
I also think that Juliette Lewis was the least likely of the actresses to want to be tied down to a series for more than a season or two at the most
I get the real impression that this season was something of a compromise. Lewis wanted to leave and the way they got her back was by closing her storyline, and also apparently her screen time was limited as well, to a single location.
It might be Lewis’s choice, but I also think now that Van is in the mix, it works to thin the number of survivors as well. I’m not sure that the show needed to be more than 2 seasons. I’m going to hope maybe the plan is to wrap it up with Season 3.
5 seasons confirmed by the creators.
https://ew.com/tv/yellowjackets-five-season-plan/
That can absolutely change. Paramount might tell the showrunners to wrap it all up in a 10 to 12 episode Season 3.
i think this show just needs 1 more season.
It feels as though they’re trying to stretch a 3-4 season show into 5 seasons, but I’m not convinced they have the content or writing team to pull it off. There was way too much filler this season.
They don’t by looking at their past credits which are a bunch of mediocre female based horror movies. Jennifer’s Body I liked but all of the other ones I’ve never heard of.
not much filler at all
Even though my favourite clone was Krystal Goderitch from Season 4 onwards, Orphan Black was a textbook example of a 3 season show being stretched to 5.
It is hard for me to imagine them sustaining this for more than another season in both the past and present. Three more flashback seasons of them living in a cave??
i’m hoping for some sort of really drastic reset of everything we’ve known up until now next season, or else it’s gonna start to feel too repetitive for credulity or interest. i still love this show, but if they didn’t have another season this would’ve been a suitable finale, and that says a lot.
Just by the math of it, it feels like the show should be ending. There were nine of them at the end there, and eight + pit girl in that opening scene of the pilot. They must have some kinda Lost-esq “We have to go back!” shake up in mind.
Sophie Thatcher’s the superior Nat.
I concur.
It’s also hard not to imagine that a certain Definitely Not A Cult to which Lewis belongs, that looks down upon portraying characters in recovery or seeking any kind of psychiatric help, playing a part in her decision.
She’s distanced herself from Scientology fairly recently, FWIW.
It’s such a shame, given how adult Nat was such a self-motivated leader in Season 1. She was being set up as the hero of the series – the one who really knew what was going on. Now that’s thrown away, and I’m afraid viewership will continue to slide.
I tend to read these recaps in the morning before I watch the show after work, which usually adds to my enthusiasm. This week, I feel kinda sad after reading and am less eager to watch this episode. Spoilers never, ever spoil for me…until they do, I guess.
I was stunned by that Buffy St. Marie needle drop (“God is Alive Magic is Afoot”). There are times that I think I am the only one that remembers her for her music, not for her time on Sesame Street. That was a deeeeeep pull.Considering the resemblence between Sophie Thatcher and Juliette Lewis, I wonder if Thatcher ever takes it as a cautionary tale as to what could happen to her if she lives life too hard. They have enough resemblance that you can see how 25 years of alcohol and drug abuse could turn Sophie Thatcher into Juliette Lewis.I also find myself wondering if they wrote Lewis off the show at her request. I know at the end of season one that she had said that she didn’t love the direction they were taking with her character.I think we know how Coach Ben is going to go out. They are going to kill him for trying to burn them out…and I wouldn’t blame them. He also will probably be partly responsible for them being able to survive the winter, being that Natalie will probably track him back to the tree.
I wasn’t loving some of the music choices for this episode (“Zombie” felt too on the nose), but having never heard Buffy St. Marie’s music, I was absolutely blown away by this song. Absolutely incredible. As someone with a pretty limited knowledge of and taste for music, this series has awakened me to so many damn great songs and artists.
The best place to start with Buffy Sainte-Marie is her 1970
greatest hits album “The Best Of Buffy St. Marie”. Fair warning, her
voice is not for everyone. People tended to either love or hate her wild
vibrato.
One of the reasons she is largely
forgotten as a musician is that she, along with other Native artists
involved in the NA rights movement, was blacklisted by LBJ, Hoover and
Nixon, starting with her fantastic “I’m Gonna Be A Country Girl Again”
album in 1969 that everyone thought would be a big hit, but it disappeared
almost without a trace. She continued writing and being covered by many
famous artists, and even won an Oscar for co-writing “Up Where We
Belong”, but she never charted again.
I’m Gonna Be A Country Girl Again is an awesome Country-Pop album available on streaming services. Not a bad song on it.
I wasn’t loving some of the music choices for this episode (“Zombie” felt too on the nose)
The show can be really hit or miss on its music choices. Often it’s too on the nose, which only really works for Jeff’s scenes (because him being shallow (in the most positive way possible) is kind of the point), but comes off as “hey remember the 90s?” elsewhere. Ditto using Lightning Crashes for the post-birth scene.But then we also get things like Low’s Poor Sucker in the previous episode where the lyrics are a better reflection of what’s going on in the scene without being too obvious.
Terribly behind the times but I finally got access to the second season. As a massive Tori Amos fan (just saw her in Boston last month, my 5th time) I was *floored* by the use of Bells for Her as the final needle drop of episode 3. Bells for Her is my favorite Tori song not least because it’s the most beautiful expression of dread I’ve ever experienced. And that specific moment invokes a fair bit of folk horror weirdness, which is one of my favorite subgenres of horror. That episode felt tailor made for me.
Buffy’s version of ‘Helpless’ is the definitive one in my mind.
I’m Gonna Be A Country Girl Again is an awesome Country-Pop album available on streaming services. Not a bad song on it.
That “God” song is easily the worst attempt at making music that I have ever heard. It was so horrible I thought it might be Yoko Ono. My ears bled.
That’s why I said a couple of comments below “fair warning, her voice is not for everybody”. You proved my point quite nicely.
I think that it’s probably the more experimental nature of the song that might turn someone off more than her voice.
Try “I’m gonna be a country girl again.” It’s a lot more traditional sounding Country-Pop. Very pop melodies. Available on streaming services, it’s worth giving a try.
Bruce, you aren’t the only one who remembers Buffy St Marie for her music. I, too, was surprised by the inclusion of “God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot”. On the one hand, it’s the perfect choice, on the other it’s kind of odd in that it’s an obscure album track from the early 70’s.
I’ve been reading a lot of people’s reactions to this season being less than or outright bad and… I’m not seeing it? Was it as good as S1? I’d say no if it weren’t for the superb additions of Lauren Ambrose and Simone Kessell and literally everyone else being at their absolute best. Did it meander? Yeah, a bit. Was it unsatisfying? Hell no. So I guess it wasn’t as good as S1, but it was still fantastic.I certainly wasn’t expecting Nat to die, however. I’ve read that Juliette Lewis wasn’t too happy about the direction they took Nat in after S1, so I guess that’s a factor. Either way, I think it was a fitting end. Her arc was good and while its end was handled more simply than I thought, I still think it hit pretty hard. And it certainly gives plenty of fuel for S3 (looking at you Misty and Lisa).I’m sure adult Lottie will return, but man she is just broken beyond repair it seems. Simone Kessell was truly the standout this season, I think. But in a crowd where literally everyone is always giving stunning performances, it’s difficult to truly pick the reigning (antler) queen.I also agree that the juxtaposition of “it” theories and how each of the women see or believe in “it” is still endlessly fascinating. I personally feel like the more satisfying answer here would be that there indeed is some force in the wilderness that they brought back. But from the tone and atmosphere of the show, it seems like its best bet would be something more abstract and down to earth than a deity or some such. Then again, this show isn’t always about being satisfying and it shows really well how fucking messy everything is. Life, survival, accepting who you truly are beneath the civility.Seems like Callie is being propped up as a bigger deal in S3, Lottie’s “powerful” observation really stuck with me. As did the seeming implication that Van’s cancer is going to recede. Misty sure did fuck up though, once again.I could go on and on, but this is as long as is already (sorry!). Very intrigued for S3 and more Walter and Jeff please!
Edit (since Kinja sucks): Wasn’t aware that Juliette Lewis had already expressed disappointment in the direction they wanted to take Nat in after S1, apologies!
I’d imagine that (at least in Lottie’s mind) they’ve now ‘satisfied’ the wilderness, Van will survive her cancer and that’ll tip her even deeper into believing some wider force was at work.
I’m increasingly hoping Ben is a live and out there somewhere both living his best gay life with a nice guy. It’s unlikely, but once he found Javi’s hiding place, I had some hope!
That would be great. But I think I saw him taking a rope, and I’m pretty sure early next season we’re going to see him swinging from a tree.
Isn’t there caves down there? I’m hoping it’s for exploring them.
I think the rope was to secure the cabin doors.
Ah, good point.
“nobody but Natalie and Javi even seem tortured that he’s gone”Think that’s a typo… unless Javi is tortured that Javi’s gone!
Respectfully, I’m shocked you gave this episode an “A” rating. This narrative this season has been a mess, with lackluster character development, dropped storylines, and way too much filler. Natalie had a personality transplant once she arrived at Lottie’s center; I kept waiting for it to pay off through a plot or something else Nat had been cooking up, but apparently, that wasn’t the writers’ plan. Similarly, the Adam Martin storyline this season felt pointless and Walter’s cover-up felt like a “mystery of the week” whodunnit I’d expect from a lesser show. Are we supposed to accept Lottie’s story of Travis’ death and move on now that Nat’s not around to ask questions? And what is going on with Tai’s family?All that said, I did really enjoy the 1996/1997 timeline in the finale and I’m eager to see how the girls move forward in this New World Order. The writing hasn’t been tight enough to pull off a past/present show; I hope that next year, they give more screen time to the teens instead of continue to waste the big name talent they pulled in to play the adults. Surely, Juliette Lewis must be relieved that she can move on.
Same here; my jaw dropped when I saw the “A” rating. As S2 progressed I thought “well, maybe this isn’t for me”, but seeing how shoddy plot/ character threads are picked up, dropped off or inexplicably explained it’s less “not for me” and more… this isn’t that well written of a show, guys.The music is on point, the performances are great and the marketing department knows how to create buzz, but that’s about it. There is not 50 episodes worth of meaningful content to tell this story, and considering that they got one day in the writers’ room before the strike, by the time the show returns to air, who KNOWS what plot threads they’ll have rewritten because of a fan theory. Or who will magically be alive that was supposed to have died because they liked an actress despite not having a story for the character ::cough:: Van ::cough::
I’m more in the middle overall, but agree this was not a great episode. I’m digging the 90’s storyline even more. I think they’re maintaining a great witchy survival dramedy on that side of the house. The needle drops are getting a little too on the nose, but the “Scary White Lotus” score is excellent.The 2020’s plot is definitely off the rails, and Lewis’s death felt anticlimactic after a season where her character felt off. But the 2020’s plot has been pretty ridiculous from the start, and I still like the general tone and the acting and the character interactions. There are enough redeeming qualities that even with a bad plot I don’t feel like it’s wasting my time.I’m seeing Lewis’s death and the (way too convenient) wrapping of the police storyline as a slate wipe, and I’m hoping this means the focus will shift back to the witchy shit.
Or who will magically be alive that was supposed to have died because they liked an actress despite not having a story for the character ::cough:: Van ::cough::
I mean, they clearly set up the idea that Natalie’s death would be the sacrifice the wilderness was looking for to cure Van’s cancer (or at the very least, this was what Van was hoping for). Where things go beyond that is a bigger question, but the groundwork for Van being alive was already there.
What I meant was that Van was written off as dead in the original outline- the wolves actually DID kill her, and that’s why she wasn’t workshopped as an adult into the initial story outline. The showrunners liked the younger actress so much that they rewrote the plot to keep her alive, which bled into the present day storyline. What if hey, we like Gen now and despite her not being present in the rescue flashback (unlike Mari, who clearly IS there and behind Lottie), the writers just string her along and invent reasons why she’s suddenly there? Or we decide that hey, Mari is Pit Girl because Reddit says so so let’s forget the part where she was alive at least at the point of initial rescue?
it deserved the A rating. You’re watching a different show.
This was the worst season of TV that I’ve stayed with. I loved season one, and this one was simply awful. An “A” grade? LOL.
I agree that this isn’t as consistent or good of a season, but the more I read between the lines here, the more I feel like Juliette almost tanked this season for the writers. She had to be shot at one location, per her request (read: demand) and be written out. That makes a ton of sense to me regarding how much is going on in the secondary plots of this season and the wilderness timeline but how the core group’s storyline starts to tread water once they are at the retreat. I think Juliette flipped the table and the writers had to clean up after her, late in the game, and that must have changed everything. The mid-season break suggests that as well. She was always more of a one trick pony to me than the rest of the cast anyways. The show is about trauma and survival and she does that well, but I never found her adult arc this season compelling and out of the adult core she has the least range. She does what she does well but it’s the exact same schtick she’s had since Cape Fear and Natural Born Killers in the 90s. If she didn’t want to be “tied down” so that she could tour with her band or whatever, I say go ahead!
yessss, all the cop stuff this season made me feel like I was watching that abc show with reba, Big Sky
“Are we supposed to accept Lottie’s story of Travis’ death and move on now that Nat’s not around to ask questions?” This. At the beginning of the season, when Lottie shared her story re: Travis’s death, it seemed SO dumb and far-fetched, I figured we were meant to assume it was a fabrication that would eventually give way to a much darker truth. But as Natalie lied dying in the woods at the end of the most confoundingly sloppy sequence in a season filled with confoundingly sloppy sequences, I asked myself this exact question and it dawned on me: I think I’d given the show, which had such an auspicious first season, way too much credit; Lottie’s explanation—however ridiculous and lame—IS the explanation. I had simply mistaken terrible writing for a character’s inability to tell a convincing lie. I don’t remember the last time a series left me feeling so disappointed. I was all in during the first season. During a time when there is almost TOO much exceptional storytelling on TV, Yellowjackets was a standout for me. The second season is one of the most precipitous drops in quality I’ve ever experienced. Even Dexter took years and major changes in the writers’ room before its famous descent into mediocrity. What a shame.If nothing else, the creative team should be held accountable for what has to be a criminal misuse of Lauren Ambrose.
Based on this season, I have to say it did not earn a third. I found myself just watching it………..wanted to see where it goes after enjoying the first season so much. But I was really disengaged at times if not all together bored. Hated everything about Camp Trauma, the pregnancy and loss in the cabin was oddly unmoving because a cheap and bloody fake was optioned instead. The resolution concocted by Frodo was a real stretch and goddammit where did Callie get a gun and know how to shoot or for that matter disengage the safety. It just was so lazy at time, plates spinning for very little payoff. When people discuss more about the music cues, you know the show’s narrative has lost its way.It was really disappointing.
She got the gun out of the glove box of the car, where Jeff had hidden it.(remember him telling her not to open the glove box?) I didn’t get a good look at the gun, but not all guns have safeties. On my Smith & Wesson .40, the only safety is the heaviness of the trigger pull.
I wonder how they determined the proper PSI from a finger to be considered safe.
I have no idea…but with mine, you would have to be excessively careless or stupid, as in “it snags on something and I keep yanking” kind of stupid.
Totally agree. The finale left me exhausted with suspension of disbelief. And where did Lottie get the funds for what appeared to be a well-appointed therapy farm?
where did Lottie get the funds for what appeared to be a well-appointed therapy farm?That part at least is no mystery, her family is loaded. They paid for the private plane, remember? If her parents died and she’s an only child she could have millions.
I agree that the finale left me exhausted with suspension of disbelief, but I totally disagree with your question/reason…they already established her parents paid for the jet the team crashed in, so it’s not hard to believe she doesn’t have millions imo
She comes from family wealth…IIRC her parents chartered the plane. Also, there was probably a pretty sizeable settlement from the charter company, or the airplane manufacturer, or both. The defendants wouldn’t dare let a case like that anywhere near a jury.
It’s shown from the very first episode that Lottie comes from a wealthy family. They were the ones who chartered the private plane in the first place for crying out loud. Is it so hard to believe she got a large inheritance after her parents died? The better question is – should the showrunners have to spoonfeed the audience exposition when someone who has been paying attention can make a simple inference?
Lottie is from money. It was her dad that chartered the plane that crashed.
I agree that Walter resolving the whole Adam thing was a wild stretch. But did you miss the entire sceen with Callie and Jeff in the car. He told her how Shauna took a gun from a carjacker and Jeff had it. (It was in the glove compartment in the car). And Callie’s facial expression during that reveal was one of the funnist things on this great show.
The long WGA strike could give Paramount all the excuses it needs to order one final season.
The coach is fucked up. He couldve left without killing them all. (Trying to.)
Yeah, HE is the one that’s fucked up, and the fact that you think that isn’t terrifying at all.
I feel like him doing that is a red herring, but if he did burn the cabin I’m kind of on his side. Those girls have gone totally feral, and Coach Ben is a literal one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. He knows he’s the next course on the menu.
Do we know if hes still alive in the present?
We do not.
I agree it’s probably misdirection, or maybe Coach is now under the influence of “it?”I don’t agree that he was kind of right to do it. If he could somehow poison them all, sure. But fire is a terrible way to go. Coupled with being trapped and knowing you’re about to burn to death. It was a dick move.
IMO, definitely a red herring. They showed dried moss all the way up in the roof of the cabin to act as tinder. Not buying he was able to stuff that shit up there without anyone reacting. It’ll turn out to be Shauna in my opinion. Just prior to the fire breaking out, they showed her ranting in her diary about feeling invisible to the rest because she was passed over for leader. Plus they keep hammering us over the head with how seemingly sympathetic she is, while her actions show her to be a violent maniac. She started the fire intending to lead everyone to safety, thereby usurping Natalie as the leader.
They’d just hunt him down and eat him, probably. It seems a fair enough play.
The butchery was a tough watch, thought they handled it well. Big reveal Nat is the leader was undercut a lot by adult Nat immediately dying, it made sense of the character and why she was so self-destructive but ulp, nah she’s dead so dead end. Coach Ben too. I guess he decided to burn all the girls alive. It’s a weird character, did absolutely nothing to help anyone survive the entire time, tbh the most helpful thing he could have done was do himself in when misty found them so they didn’t starve to death.I’d be very happy if next series was 80% set in the wilderness.
One of the “if this was real life” scenarios I find so odd about this show is that if a coach did survive a crash with all the teammates, he would totally be “in charge” by virtue of being the only adult. Strange that they structured the character to be an afterthought so that he can disappear for hours or days on end with almost no one noticing. It’s hard to fathom a real “lord of the flies” scenario would really happen with an actual adult around. They’d all be turning to him for how to cook, survive, etc.
That *would* be the case, except for the fact that Ben was incapacitated after the crash (to the point where Misty had to take him outside so he could relieve himself). That, coupled with the growing belief in Lottie, would have completely shattered any attempt he’d make at asserting authority
I think Coach Ben is a very fascinating (if underused) character. He did have some authority at the beginning; sure, his leg held him back, but he taught them how to shoot and stuff and was generally more of an (reluctant/accidental) authority figure. But you see pretty early on as everyone’s actual roles start to crystallize that his authority is loose at best, even Laura Lee of all people called it when he tried to put his foot down and keep her from flying the plane. I think after that, his nominal role got less and less relevant, and there are a few quiet moments towards the end of the first season where he realizes he’s been outnumbered. It’s a subtle progression until all of a sudden, he’s a complete outsider.That said, I kinda hope he gets more focus in season three (that is, if he’s not getting killed off soon) so we can explore that dynamic more.
yeah, like now i dont really… care? what happens with young Nat
Ugh I swear in previews before the season they said they’d explain more about the ghosts or woodsmen in the cabin and I don’t remember that happening and now it seems the writers burned the cabin down rather than explain everything. I was excited because of the Jennifer’s Body connection but then I checked the credits for the people involved and it was a handful of 5/10 rated horror movies I’ve never heard of and figured that season one was them overachieving and they probably won’t maintain that level of quality and I’m not feeling it anymore. It’s crazy both my girlfriend and I forgot that we watched season two’s penultimate episode which illustrates how empty an experience it’s become for us despite our high hopes.
Right with you. I was really worried once I heard they’ve planned FIVE SEASONS. It’s overkill, and there have been so many inconsistencies in pacing and plot this season that the show is morphing into Lost, or worse, we’ll get a nosedive that mirrors the last two seasons of Game of Thrones. The writers and directors/ showrunners are really banking that the mystery box format will sustain interest, but even the hardcore fans walked away from the finale feeling a little deflated.
Please, this show wishes it was Lost…
Aeon Flux was a crime against humanity but all of Kusama’s other films have been excellent.
Couple things the detective with the mustache wouldn’t have gun residue on his hands and I’m pretty sure they could figure out post death gun shots. Why would he even have to shoot him if there was enough phenobarbital in him to kill him which they could probably trace back to Lottie’s psychiatrist I think is where they got it?
maybe this will come up next season, somehow?
Was also surprised he folded so quickly after seeming not to take anyone else’s empty threats (Callie, Shauna, Jeff) very seriously up to that point.
He was probably more taken aback at seeing his partner poisoned, stuffed in a trunk, and shot 3 times to form a proper reaction.
Something I am curious to see them address next season is how does this not become a viral news story? You have one Yellowjacket dead, one in a straitjacket, and three more on the scene. That not only make will straight news, but that will headline TMZ and gossip/true crime magazines for months, if not years. Their secrets are going to get out now, there’s almost no way they don’t, especially if Lottie is ranting and raving in a rubber room. There may be doctor/patient privilege, but not guard/patient privilege.
let’s not forget you’ve got a MP among them
Huh?
Member of Parliament presumably? I think it’s just British for Tai being a State Senator in this context
I’m betting that grrrz is Canadian, or some other part of the British Commonwealth. Their version of Congress is Parliament, so MP is “Member of Parliament”. Tai is American though, so she is actually a congresswoman (state level, I think?)
State Senator
see I couldn’t remember; and for a second thought senators were not elected in the USA (of course they are; I’m thinking of France); so went with MP.
lol I’m french; yeah I meant representative; MP is used in most european countries in english, I though it was ok a a generic term.
yeah, the cult compound should already be well known to the press anyway, it’s easily located, easily called on their landline etc, does mainstream new age wellness stuff….
My main complaint since mid-season:
A
newly-elected state senator disappears after a horrific car accident,
leaving her wife in the hospital in critical condition and abandoning
her young son, all to visit a former lover.Not a news story, apparently.
She reunites with survivors
from a mysterious past, where 2 people die—one a police officer—and 2 other recent murders are apparently solved. The
senator, who had taken great pains to research and test the survivors
during her campaign, employed the victim of one of the murders.
Ho hum. What else you got?
I said from the beginning that YJ does not take place in a realistic world. The cannibalism would have been known by Internet sleuths and investigative journalists by the early 2000s. Hell, the girls would have been found via satellite images shortly after the cabin fire or sooner (the plane wreckage). I think in the world this takes place in, 9/11 didn’t happen. And there’s no public interest in their survival story, which is impossible to accept. So yes, by this point in the story, they would be all over the news. In our world. But this is not a realistic world.
Because that isn’t even close to being an interesting storyline for them to follow. Plus – would any of those characters (besides possibly Tai and her family) even give a shit after everything they’ve been through, or are facing?
I agree with some who have written that the plotting was a little messy here. But damn, the acting is still great. I love all of the cast, in the past and present settings.The first season finale was also not the best of the show. I appreciate that this one wasn’t focused so much on a cliffhanger, at least aside from the cabin burning down.Everyone seems to be attributing the fire to Coach Ben, but would he really jump straight to trying to burn them all alive? It feels a bit too extreme for his character. Hopefully there’s some other explanation pending in season 3.
I saw someone suggest elsewhere that it was probably Misty that set the fire, being peeved she wasn’t given the new leadership position. That tracks and I’m betting it will be her, but she’ll blame Coach Ben.
If she had set the fire she’d have set herself up to heroically save everyone.
That’s so Misty!
But Misty seemed to give no indication she was pissed. I think Ben is still the obvious culprit.
After watching the episode myself on Friday evening, I think you’re right that it was Ben. My second guess now that I’ve seen it would be Shauna. My husband thinks my Shauna theory is way off base, and it may be, but she’s the only one who was truly upset about not being the leader. But, all evidence points to Ben.
I don’t think it’s extreme at all – he’s been disgusted with them since they ate Jackie. And seeing what they did to Javi would’ve been more than enough for him to decide they had to die.
But as a character he’s shown no inclinations towards violence so far in the show. To go from that to murdering everyone should merit, like flashback next season, at least. I think the writers left themselves a bit of wiggle room on it.
Yeah, but they’re choosing to kill people to eat now, and worse they’ve given up the choice to “the wilderness”, and also he’s had a leg amputated already, AND he has seen what he thought was the one good person there turn to the crazy side.It’s not murder, it is 100% self defense.
None of the girls (with the possible exception of Misty) were showing inclinations towards violence until circumstances forced them into it. After depression-induced delusions, a suicide attempt, and Nat’s confession that she let Javi die in her place, I really don’t think it’s a stretch that Ben saw “those girls” as irredeemable
idk why, but i honestly do think it was him, maybe in a fit of rage after what happened or whatever (not excusing it)I’d be shocked if it was somehow Misty, she has to know the cabin is their best and quite possibly only chance of survival
Also, I appreciated the staging of the butchering scene, which was very gruesome and yet affecting. But looking at it practically, they really shouldn’t be wasting so much blood by letting it spill on the ground. You’re gonna want to drain as much as possible into a bucket, so that you can cook with it later. It’s got lots of nutritional value left in it, for stews or sausages or whatnot.
Also, wouldn’t it attract predators? That was my thought. But then that could be good for hunting. But also, don’t be messy
But also, don’t be messy
Just great life advice.Misty seems to have learned a lot about handling blood splatter in the time between the past and present storylines.
Just checking, but we all knew that Kevin was dead as soon as he was handed the hot chocolate, right?
yep. i was surprised, being a cop, he’d accept misty quigley’s boyfriend handing him a cup of a drink he didn’t see poured.
He just thought he was somebody who lived at the compound and a police fan.
i honestly didn’t see it coming lol 🙁
wait there’s a tenth episode listed will it not air next week?
Secret bonus episode? (Maybe a Halloween episode?)
I don’t know it’s listed in the episode listings you find online as broadcasting next; week; not sure what it’s about
A few weeks ago there were photos on Reddit of Jason Ritter as “Cabin guy” as some type of flashback in the wilderness. Possibly it’s some standalone episode coming at some point?
There’s a “special episode” planned for between seasons 2 and 3… but with the writers’/actors’ strike who knows when it’ll be out.
Things went from zero to crazy really fast in the present storyline. I had trouble understanding why the characters were doing what they were doing, especially Lottie, but not just her. Also increasingly I am having trouble connecting the characters in the present and especially their relationships with them in the flashbacks. Maybe we are supposed to believe they have forgotten a lot of what happened or dissociated from it, but that is hard to track
During their bonfire bonding sesh last week Van asked the others if they had trouble remembering their time in the woods, and the others didn’t definitively answer but it seemed like they did.
If the Yellowjackets in the past are suffering from mercury poisoning, either from exposure to mine runoff or from eating the bear that was also exposed to it, symptoms can include cognitive issues and memory loss So maybe it is not all their fault, and not Lottie’s fault for being “crazy” either…
That would make sense, particularly with the red river water they found.
Yes exactly, that was the first and biggest clue
A big issue I have with this idea is that Season 1 established that Lottie and Tai had issues prior to the crash. Lottie’s ‘visions’ came back in the wilderness because she ran out of her meds, and Tai had been suppressing an earlier trauma around her grandmother’s death.Them having trouble remembering their time in the wilderness as adults is more likely to be a trauma response than the result of heavy metal poisoning from an (at this point) entirely theoretical mine in the area.
It can be two things! But yes just a theory
Two interesting echoes of Dark Tai’s statement of ‘we’re not supposed to be here’ in the finale, from a dying adult Natalie on the hallucinated plane and young Natalie telling Ben he’s too good of a person to be in the wilderness. Considering the drastic action Ben takes at the end of the episode, I think she might be wrong on the latter one.
Also, ‘processional’, not ‘professional’. C’mon, AVC.
I’m assuming the burning cabin and smoke does not lead to their rescue.
They’re a solid year away from being rescued, so no.
I don’t think we can get a tv episode better than this finale, it was near perfect. I get that there are disappointed people with season 2, you want the narrative to be a certain way and it isn’t. If we believe Juliette wanted to go it’s her choice, it doesn’t diminish the quality of the show and she still gave it her all this season and her death was so tragic, her sacrifice to protect others is also deep in teen Nat character who is now the leader of a group of teens inventing the IT to replace the US. Without Misty, Nat saves Javi and without Misty, Lottie tells the group that she never wanted this to happen. Misty breaks the rescue signalbox in season 1, Misty breaks the moral compass in season 2. Her punishement killing Nat, supposedly her best friend, accidentally. Loved Richie and Lewis in that scene (possibly my favorite of the season). Consequences of past actions number 1: the death of Nathalie at the hand of Misty. Shauna, Taissa, Van and Lottie, what will be the consequences of their past actions? Is it the narrative going forward chosen by the creators of the show. My music MVP: Buffy Sainte-Marie, actor MVP: Simone Kessel director MVP: Karine Kusama
Lottie’s shocked reaction to Tai’s initial decision to refuse the draw—that they all know what happens after a refusal—indicates there’s still new levels of their hunting process to be revealed in season three. The wilderness took Javi instead of Natalie the first time they hunted, but he didn’t say no to the draw. What happens when someone outright refuses?
I’ve got a feeling that Pit Girl being nude during that hunt is because she refused the draw.
She wasn’t nude until they strung her up… Under-dressed and barefoot during the hunt, yes
Could we get some closer line editing/copy-editing on this site? Or even turn o ff spell-check or ChatGPT or whatever has replaced the skilled human eye for detail (and last line of defense) in this craft? Just in the opening grafs, “professional” not “processional”? And “nobody but Natalie and Javi” s/b “Natalie and Travis.”
Excellent article, though; both the writing and the analysis. It’s just ill-served by lack of attention to editing before publication. It’s far too common anymore, even among quality publications like this one.
— signed, disheartened former journalist
A newly-elected state senator disappears after a horrific car accident, leaving her wife in the hospital in critical condition and abandoning her young son, all to visit a former lover and reunite with survivors from a mysterious past, where 2 people die—one a police officer—and 2 other recent murders are apparently solved.
The senator, who had taken great pains to research and test the survivors during her campaign (employing the victim of one of the murders!), does not once consider or worry about any of the repercussions of this bizarre behaviour or the even the well-being of her child.Oh, and the press is presumably incompetent or uninterested in such a humdrum story, given their complete absence.
THIS is the loose end that still feels extremely untied. But it’s actually just horrible writing and character abandonment.
I just really really don’t buy Walter’s blackmail working in real life at allllllll. It’s been bothering me for days. Just any little bit of detective work would easily reveal Walter killed Kevin…
Nothing about the murder investigation has made any sense in a practical or reasonable way when it comes to building a murder case.
It’s feeling increasingly like they’re going to keep the possible supernatural/paranormal element vague to the bitter end. Which I’m honestly OK with — leaving the option open keeps things plausible, where if they decided to go with “no they’re all just crazy” everything that happens on the show would be absolutely fucking inane.