Yet another season of Showtime’s original series, Yellowjackets, has come and gone. The psychological horror series follows a high school soccer team in 1996. Their road to nationals is thwarted when their plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness, and they descend into madness as they become increasingly removed from civilization. The show’s themes tackle trauma and its effects, as is represented in the timeline set in the present, which is intercut with the 1996 timeline to show how the yellowjackets as adults are living with the guilt of what they did out in the wilderness.
Yellowjackets’ first season was met with spectacular reviews and seemed to be cementing itself among some of the best of what television had to offer. However, the following seasons haven’t quite managed to stick the landing the same way the show’s initial season had.
Major Spoilers Ahead
Lacking Storylines and Premature Deaths
After a divisive season 2 finale in which beloved yellowjacket, Natalie (Juliette Lewis), was killed off in the adult timeline, and the teens’ cabin was burned to the ground in the dead of winter, fans were eager to see what would happen next. In the teen timeline, the season’s premiere episode, “It Girl,” picks up a few months after the cabin burned down in the teen timeline. The girls are living in an idyllic camp during the summer that almost seems too good to be true, with well-constructed huts, bunnies, and goats. The yellowjackets have done well for themselves after surviving that first winter.
Ultimately, this time jump does a disservice to the teen storyline this season. Where the end of season 2 teased an even more brutal end of winter, the season 3 premiere is almost a soft reboot from where we last left the girls. We skip right over the most interesting parts of not only how they created this camp but also how they survived. Instead, we’re told of their resilience through a story narrated by teen Van (Liv Hewson).
Skipping over, not giving satisfying conclusions to, or entirely dropping certain storylines has been a pattern in this show that has become a bit more glaring in season 3. For instance, what happened with cabin guy and the bonus episode?, What is Tai’s (Jasmin Savoy Brown) connection to the wilderness? What are the symbols on the trees?
As this isn’t intended to be the last season of the show, there is time to answer these questions at some point down the line, but new storylines are continuously introduced in favor of storylines fans have been waiting for the progression of since season 1.
The show’s unique dual timeline structure was what set it apart from the others, however, this style is proving itself to be harder and harder to keep cohesive. In season 2, two new characters, Lottie (Simone Kessell) and Van (Lauren Ambrose), were introduced to the adult timeline; in season 3, they’re both killed off. It is expected for a show like Yellowjackets to have a high body count, but it begs the question of why exactly they were introduced to begin with. Neither character had completed story arcs, and both of their deaths felt random without any real payoff.
Van, who was killed by adult Melissa (Hilary Swank), who only became a major player this season, and Lottie, who was killed by Shauna’s (Melanie Lynskey) daughter, Callie (Sarah Desjardins), seem like their stories were cut short to fuel other characters’ arcs. We never learn anything about Van outside of her relationships with the other characters, mainly Tai (Tawny Cypress). Not to mention, Lottie’s death undercuts the season 1 finale “Who the f— is Lottie Matthews?” line, which was seemingly setting her up to be this intimidating figure with a much larger role than she ended up having.
Because we already know about some of the major plot points that we’ll need to hit before we end up where we meet our yellowjackets in the present, the show does run the risk of becoming a little predictable. However, I would argue that predictability isn’t inherently bad in a show like this. The overarching storyline is set up as a mystery that we, as the audience, are supposed to piece together based on the clues given to us. Yellowjackets is unfortunately falling into the trappings of other shows that rely on shocks and twists.
The Pit Girl Reveal Changes What We Thought We Knew
In the opening of the very first episode, we see a girl with long dark hair in a white night gown being hunted down by a masked group through the snow-covered woods before she stumbles directly into a stake-filled pit. It’s then revealed that they’ve butchered the girl and prepared her for feasting as they sit around a fire in what appears to be a cult like ritual surrounding a veiled leader who dons a crown of deer antlers.
The show’s pilot is intense, eerie, and mysterious, drawing the viewer in and making us wonder how we even get to that point. Naturally, the identity of “Pit Girl” and who is under the veil (who fans have dubbed “Antler Queen”) has long been speculated, and the season 3 finale, aptly titled “Full Circle,” has given us some answers.
One of the most popular contenders for Pit Girl was finally confirmed: Mari (Alexa Barajas). Mari’s death, while just as brutal as it is in the pilot, recontextualizes the scene as a whole. Instead of what we were led to believe, that the girls had fully devolved into depravity, we see that her death was technically accidental. In the previous episode, Travis (Kevin Alves) found the pit of stakes already out there. The girls didn’t make the pit, and it wasn’t an intentional part of the hunt. In fact, most of them weren’t all that into it — except for Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) and Lottie (Courtney Eaton).
The show’s iconic opening scene was actually a plan concocted by Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) and Misty (Samantha Hanratty) to call for rescue. It was meant to distract Shauna, who is forcing them to stay out in the wilderness after potential rescue arrives in the form of frog scientists who discover them out there. The plan is successful, but at the cost of Mari’s life.
The Antler Queen and Shauna’s Villain Arc
Shauna’s arc this season in both the teen and adult timelines sees her becoming increasingly unhinged and cruel. In the wilderness, Shauna becomes the leader of the pack and is revealed to be the Antler Queen. In the Yellowjackets fandom, the Antler Queen was more of a symbol of the wilderness rather than a dictatorial leader. Since season 1, most fans thought the show had been priming Lottie to take up the mantle, but this season it became apparent that was not the direction they were going.
Lottie’s influence on the girls as a spiritual leader, which was prominent in season 2, is largely diminished this season, with Shauna becoming a more autocratic figure to whom they all submit. Most of the girls don’t even agree with Shauna, so much so that they’re conspiring against her. So why did she ever hold so much power? The decision to make Shauna the big bad of a show that didn’t necessarily need an identifiable villain walks back the feral cult vibes that were being hinted at since the beginning.
This choice also muddles the dynamics in the adult timeline. Teen Shauna becomes deplorable, and it’s a wonder why the girls, as adults, continue to associate with her. They attempt to explain this away in a scene between Tai and Misty (Christina Ricci), where they discuss how they had forgotten just how awful Shauna was and her role in the worst of what happened in the wilderness. While it is true that trauma causes suppressed memories, the explanation and where it took place in the episode felt a little convenient.
Yellowjackets was initially planned with a five-season arc, but there has been speculation that they’ve since deviated from this. Since season 2, it’s been unclear where the show was headed. Season 1 had a lot of promise in its intriguing setup and marketing as “Lord of the Flies with girls”. It feels like there was some restraint on the story this season in continuing to explore the depth of these complex characters we’ve come to care for in favor of more conventional storytelling. Hopefully, by season 4, Yellowjackets can make a full return to what once set it apart from the rest.
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