‘Yellowjackets’: What we know and what questions remain for Season 3
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This story contains spoilers for the first two seasons of “Yellowjackets.”
Television’s favorite champion soccer players turned wilderness survival cannibals are finally back.
The third season of “Yellowjackets” premieres Friday on Paramount+ with Showtime, nearly two years after the conclusion of Season 2. Created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, the series follows a group of teenagers (and one adult) that are stranded in the Canadian wilds after their plane crashes in 1996 as well as their grown-up present-day counterparts who have tried to move on with their lives after being rescued.
Unfortunately for the survivors, their past continues to haunt — and hunt — them.
Call it a mix of “Lord of the Flies” and “Heathers.” Or the Spice Girls meet the Donner Party. “Yellowjackets” is the best show on TV right now.
At the end of Season 2, the teen survivors anoint Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) as their new leader after sacrificing one of their own to appease the wilderness and then eating him to satisfy their extreme hunger. They are last seen scrambling out of the cabin they have been using for shelter as it is engulfed in flames. The fire was possibly set by coach Ben (Steven Krueger), who was seen stealing some matches after fleeing to a new secret shelter to escape the teens’ growing madness and descent into cannibalism.
In the present day, Natalie (Juliette Lewis) is accidentally killed by Misty (Christina Ricci) amid the survivors’ attempt to revive their practice of offering a ritual sacrifice to the wilderness — though not everybody was actually on board. Meanwhile, Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) may no longer be the suspect in the killing she did commit. Whether Taissa (Tawny Cypress) has resolved her dissociative sleepwalking is yet to be seen.
Who’s still alive?
The present-day survivors of the 1996 plane crash who have been reunited to deal with the aftermath are Shauna Sadecki née Shipman, Taissa Turner, Misty Quigley, Lottie Matthews (Simone Kessell) and Van Palmer (Lauren Ambrose).
The 1996 survivors of the plane crash also include coach Ben Scott, Travis Martinez, Mari, Akilah, Melissa and Gen. While present-day Travis was discovered dead by Natalie and Misty in Season 1, the fates of the others have not yet been revealed.
Notable deaths
Natalie Scatorccio: The troubled former leader of the Yellowjackets was accidentally killed by Misty in the present while trying to protect her new friend Lisa.
Kevyn Tran: The detective and former classmate of the Yellowjackets was killed by Walter Tattersall in the present while investigating the death of Adam Martin.
Javi Martinez: Travis’ younger brother fell into a frozen lake and died while trying to protect Natalie from being hunted by her teammates in 1996.
Crystal (Kristen): A member of the soccer team who survived the plane crash. Falls off a cliff to her death during a tense moment with Misty, who had revealed to her that she destroyed the plane’s transponder to sabotage their chances of getting rescued.
Shauna’s baby: Shauna was pregnant (with the child of her present-day husband — and Jackie’s then-boyfriend — Jeff) when the plane crashed in 1996. The baby boy did not survive childbirth.
The actors find they are still processing the physically and emotionally grueling second season. “It’s been very overwhelming,” says Sophie Nélisse, who plays young Shauna.
Adam Martin: The artist who is having an affair with present-day Shauna is killed by her when she believes he is blackmailing her and her Yellowjacket teammates for what they did while they were stranded in the Canadian wilds.
Jackie Taylor: The captain of the soccer team and Shauna’s best friend froze to death in her sleep after a falling-out with her teammates. She is the first person to be eaten by the plane crash survivors. She occasionally appears to Shauna in visions.
Travis Martinez: The elder son of coach Martinez and Natalie’s on-and-off lover who survived the 1996 plane crash. Found hanging in his barn by Misty and Natalie in the present. According to Lottie, who says she was there, the death was an accident.
Jessica Roberts: The fixer hired by Taissa in the present to investigate her fellow plane crash survivors by posing as a journalist. Held captive by Misty who eventually kills her.
Laura Lee: A religious member of the soccer team that survived the crash but dies when the plane she was piloting to try to seek help explodes in the air. She sometimes appears to her teammates in visions.
How the ‘Yellowjackets’ star resisted pressure to make her sociopathic character more “relatable.”
Some questions that remain for Season 3
What is “it”? One of the central mysteries of the series is whether the wilderness is some sort of supernatural entity or dark force hunting the surviving Yellowjackets, as some like Lottie in the present still believe, or if it’s something the girls collectively imagined to justify what they did to survive the 19 months they were stranded. If the latter is true, everything happening in the present could just be some sort of manifestation of their repressed trauma. Either way, it seems “it” will be looking to add to its body count in Season 3.
How many survivors were there initially after the plane crash? The series has focused on the small group of core survivors who have reconnected in the present: Shauna, Misty, Natalie, Taissa, Van and Lottie. But the number of other survivors shown in 1996 has fluctuated over the course of the show’s first two seasons. Just how many of them there were in the wilderness (and how many of them were sacrificed and eaten) remains a mystery.
What’s up with Walter? During the second season, Misty befriends Walter Tattersall (Elijah Wood), a fellow citizen sleuth active on the crime-solving message board she frequents. Walter initially seems keen on solving the mystery around Adam’s disappearance and death, but he later helps derail the official investigation by killing and framing Kevyn Tran. Is Walter so into Misty that a little murder is no big deal, or does he have ulterior motives?
Who was the girl that was hunted and eaten at the very beginning of the series? The first episode of “Yellowjackets” opens with a girl being chased through the woods during the winter who falls to her death in some sort of pit. She is later shown to be slaughtered and eaten as part of some sort of cannibalistic ritual. Although there has been plenty of speculation, the identity of the girl has not yet been confirmed.
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