The road to heading home is more bizarre than ever. What you already knew about Yellowjackets gets multiplied by 10 and explodes in Yellowjackets Season 3, and it’s harder than ever to come back from.
There are some spoilers ahead, so proceed with caution.
To start, let’s see if we get our biggest questions answered:
- Who is Pit Girl?
- Who is Antler Queen?
- Who burned down the cabin?
Yes, that is a wild string of words, but fortunately, many of these are tackled in the third season. Fans predicted Mari (Alexa Barajas, The Flash) as the pit girl from the pilot, but the antler queen could have been a toss up, until it is ultimately revealed to be Shauna (Sophie Nelisse, The Book Thief and Melanie Lynskey, The Last of Us).
Shauna’s arc is one you will either stand on a hill and defend or hate with every passing episode. Before this season, Shauna was already a complex character. But there are points in this season where the writing makes her out to be almost comically supervillain-ish. There really is no reason to fight the others over everything, or boss them around for your own reasons, especially in the modern-day timeline when she gets pissed at characters like Misty (Samantha Hanratty, Shameless, and Christina Ricci, Wednesday), who are not even out to get her. And knowing Misty, that says a lot.
Still, the girls have been through a lot, and this season is no different. Though they find some semblance of peace when summertime rolls around, there are tensions building between them right from the start of the season, as Nat (Sophie Thatcher, Companion) has become their somewhat-leader and not everyone is on board with that. Plus, the Wilderness will never let them go; as we all expected, they once again eat people, and their friendships are more strained than ever. We can’t forget that their cabin was reduced to ash last season and they all think Coach Ben (Steven Krueger, The Originals) is behind it. That’s a major part of this season’s storyline, and the sad truth is we never do find out who really did it.
The girls hunting Coach Ben is matched with spine-chilling moments from the present-day timeline – namely a potential stalker who gives -A from Pretty Little Liars energy, Tai (Jasmin Savoy Brown, Scream, and Tawny Cypress, Unforgettable) battling with her other self and seeing things, and the Wilderness still weaving its way into their lives.
The debate is ongoing: is the Wilderness really supernatural, and playing with them, or is it all in their heads? The internet is divided over what it should be. In the end, we don’t get a conclusive answer, and it’s still really up to the viewer what they might choose to see. But as the season comes closer to its end, Akilah (Nia Sondaya, Heart Shot) mentions the visions she thought she saw and told Lottie (Courtney Eaton, Mad Max: Fury Road) about were just hallucinations. Travis (Kevin Alves, Fear Street Part One: 1994) realizes the same this season, and it makes Lottie seem more isolated than ever in her belief in the Wilderness’ desires.
Everything in the crash timeline really goes to shit when they have a chance of getting rescued. Frog researchers stumble upon the group and they all flip out when they realize what this means. That sounds wild and totally incorrect, but it’s Yellowjackets, everyone. Of course they were going to lose their minds at the prospect of returning, especially when the Wilderness “wants them to stay.” It’s creepy and incredibly frustrating when sitting on your couch and yelling at the screen.
Putting that aside, seeing the glimpses of the past are still as intriguing as ever and put the events of the future into more context. It does feel present day-heavy at the beginning of season three, but this eases up and we’re able to go back and forth more as the season progresses, which is a nice balance to strike. Season three is decidedly more intense, but there are glimpses of the happiness that maybe once existed in tiny fragments in the earlier seasons. For example, Tai and Van (Liv Hewson, Santa Clarita Diet, and Lauren Ambrose, Six Feet Under) are still impossible not to love, Misty and Walter (Elijah Wood, The Lord of the Rings) bring their messy dynamic-duo antics, and Shauna finds a way to bond with Callie (Sarah Desjardins, The Night Agent) through all of this. Knowing these characters, though, none of this can last for long. As things really take a turn for the worse in the past, things also get more chaotic in the future – especially with the amount of deaths this season.
Once again, the dreaded Queen of Hearts card is back and the Wilderness comes calling for new blood. Truthfully, the reaction and timings of the deaths this season feel a bit underdeveloped. For example, when Lottie (Simone Kessell, Hard Home) takes her fall down the steps, we barely have a moment to really grieve or understand the Wilderness’ connection to her, one that has been going on for a long time. It feels like the show just keeps on moving and brushes past the way the Wilderness has asserted its way into their lives years later – but hopefully this is something we’ll get more explanations about in the seasons to come.
This writer is a hardcore Nat and Van fan, so if you feel the same way, you know there’s only heartbreak down that road. You might also feel similarly disappointed in how things turn out. Instead, we get Melissa and the story of how she is alive and married to the daughter of the woman they killed – the woman who was with the frog research group and stumbled upon the girls in the wild. It’s insane that Melissa would go ahead and marry the daughter while assuming a fake identity, but it’s not surprising to see that she hasn’t changed – and she still craves the darkness in the same way Shauna does. And she’s played by Hilary Swank wearing a snapback, so there’s that.
In the present day, Shauna, Tai, Melissa, and Misty make for a final four that yours truly would definitely not want to be trapped alone in a room with. But in the past timeline, we’ve officially been stranded in the wilderness for three seasons. The finale seems like the glimmering ray of hope we’ve all been waiting for. Will they finally escape the trees and stop eating one another?
As we all know, the mess doesn’t end when they get back to their normal lives, but it will be fun – and horrifying – seeing it play out right after they return.
