Spoilers

“Thanksgiving (Canada)”

WTF is right.

I can’t believe the ending of Yellowjackets this week.

Of course, the rest of the episode was thrilling too.

So many things:

• Natalie killed Ben after he begged her to do it.
• Callie gave Shauna the DAT tape that was left for her
• “Testing, testing, one two three. Oh, my god. What is this?”- this was on the tape, the voice, unknown at this time. There were also the whooping and howling on the tape.
• Adult Misty continued her investigation and came across Lisa.
• Lisa told Misty she saw Tai with Lottie on the day she died.
• Tai sat up in bed in what seemed to be a cold-blooded trance, spooking Van
• Young Shauna is going to be the new ruler
• They force Natalie to carve up Ben’s body for the feast.
• Misty gets a DNA report from skin under dead Lottie’s nails

However, that final scene was the one that shocked me completely. Two people just walked into the campsite while the girls were howling and screaming. Oh, and eating Coach Ben. The man exclaimed WTF when he spotted ben’s decapitated head near him.

Who are these people? Where did they come from? Are they the voices on the tape? If so, how did this tape come into existence? Things really took a giant leap forward.

Spoilers

“Did Tai Do That?”

Who thought there would be an allusion to Steve Urkel on Yellowjackets?

A wild ride as the crazy girls from the woods prepared to execute Coach Ben by firing squad after Shauna basically bullied the jury into convicting him last week. The last second reprieve from Travis, Lottie and Akilah after they returned from the cave with a new vision.

It amazes me that every episode I seem to hate young Shauna more with each passing scene while feeling connected to adult Shauna. They are the same person, but I despise young Shauna so much. I am anxious to see how these two versions of Shauna came to be. It is clear that Shauna’s past trauma has created the person she is after all of these years.

Misty is the character that I started out disliking, but now I am a full fledged fan of, even though she continually does things that make one question her morality. I love the scenes between Christina Ricci and Elijah Wood. They are soulmates in this warped reality, for sure.

Who pushed Lottie down the stairs? Is it one of our own, Yellowjackets or is it the same mystery person who is seemingly pursuing Shauna? Does her father have something to do with it? His mental acumen has clearly slipped and his conversation with Lottie/Shauna showed that he may not be sure of what he was doing.

There are lots of mysteries set up in Yellowjackets season 3 episode 5 as we reach the halfway point of the season.

Spoilers

“12 Angry Girls and One Drunk Travis”

I found this episode really great as some major events happened, despite the feeling that the story slowed down a bit.

In the wilderness, the girls placed Coach Ben on trial for arson and attempted murder. Natalie was the judge, Tai was the prosecutor and Misty was the defense attorney. Misty did a great job too. They had decided that it would require a 3/5 majority to convict Ben and that would come back in a major way later.

After a really emotional and powerful moment from Ben on the stand, Shauna had to intimidate several of the jury in order to get the 2/3 required to convict him. Wilderness Shauna is my least favorite of the Yellowjackets. She is vicious and cruel and filled with hate. It is strange because she is one of my favorite characters in present day, even when she is blaming Misty for all of her troubles or stabbing people in the gut. It is difficult to process the differences between the same character and how I feel about it.

The episode ended with a major cliffhanger, as it looks as if Lottie is dead at the base of some stairs. What happened to her? I have no idea, but Lottie had some strange moments in the episode. This is most likely the big mystery of this season, and it probably connects to the mysterious person who is stalking Shauna and locking her in freezers.

Next week’s episode is the halfway point already in the season and it feels as if the show is starting to ramp itself up.

Spoilers

“It Girl”

“Dislocation”

Yellowjackets returned to Showtime with the first two episodes of season three with even more craziness among the girls.

Picking up after the shocking death of Natalie at the end of season two, the present day survivors continued on with their lives. Part of the reason this show is so good is that these survivors are still in such trauma over everything that they did and trying to make their way through. You can see the instability of all of these characters, with a chance that at any time they might flip out.

Meanwhile, the crash site victims are just as crazy as ever. Watching them makes me wonder exactly what horrors these girls did to get through the woods.

Misty is struggling with her part in Natalie’s death. Shauna feels like she is any moment ready to flip out and destroy everyone around her. Lottie is out of the mental institution and hanging out with Shauna. Taissa and Van running out on their bill at a restaurant and having a server chase them only for that server to have a heart attack and die. Taissa and Van hooked back up afterwards… even after Taissa is seeing shadowy figures.

These women are nuts.

Of course, Coach may be a bit nuts too after spending the winter hiding out in the woods talking to “it.” He caught Mari and took her back to his hideout against her will. He seemed to act as if he had no idea that the cabin had burned down.

At the end of the second season, there was an implication that everything in the woods was just in the girls’ imagination, an excuse for the bad things that they did. I wonder if that is true or if there is something there causing all of this chaos.

I liked the start to this season and I am excited to see where these characters go from here.

Spoilers

“Storytelling”

I thought there were two more episodes remaining in season 2 of Yellowjackets, but it turned out that episode nine was the season finale of this show that has been so wildly entertaining and nearly as disturbing.

“You know there’s no it, right? It was just us.”

This line was spoken by Shauna after she drew the Queen card as the six women re-enacted the “hunt.” procedure from the wilderness. This whole thing was odd since they all seemed to put on the masks and chase after Shauna, even though they had spoke about turning Lottie back in for her mental illness. Would they have killed Shauna? What is with these women?

The way that these seemingly normal women turn into wild savages is one of the most disturbing aspects of this show for me. I did not understand why Tai, Van, Natalie and Misty put those masks on and grabbed their weapons and chased Shauna. I understand why Lottie did it… she’s bat shit crazy. The others? Just does not make sense.

Back to the line that Shauna stated. “You know there’s no it, right? It was just us.” implies that there was no magical ‘wilderness’, no “IT” in the darkness. It was the choices that they made that created the darkness.

Such as eating poor Javi. Everyone jumped right in, including Travis. Only Ben was seeing somewhat straight. I thought Ben did not have long for the series, but maybe he has more than we thought. I still have not seen him in the present day, but that does not mean that he did not survive the trip. And it sure seems as if he set that cabin on fire, trying to trap the girls inside.

I couldn’t believe that Natalie died in the present as she stepped between Misty and the cult member she had befriends (with the fish). Misty was going to stab her with the poison, but Natalie put herself in the way, taking the needle and thus dying. Seeing her afterlife aboard the airplane with images of her younger self, Javi and past Lottie was frightening. I was shocked with this death and I wonder how it will project the story forward.

The whole Adam storyline seems to be put to bed by Walter, framing and killing Kevyn for the crime. Some of these characters are very likable, and yet downright psychotic. No matter what… Walter and Misty are the perfect match and that scares me a little.

I think I prefer the idea that there is not an evil, malevolent force in the wilderness making these decision, but that it was these girls looking for some sort of way to survive and justifying what they did in their own minds. How accurate… truthful… is anything that we have seen in the crash timeline? Is this an example of an unreliable narrator, showing us what these girls had made inside their minds.

“You know there’s no it, right? It was just us.”

Lottie’s response?: “Is there a difference?“

Spoilers

“It Chooses”

This show has gone absolutely crazy.

After Shauna went all psycho on Lottie last episode, it did not seem as if this show could get any wilder. Then it did.

The wilderness crew decided that they needed to off someone else to be able to survive. They drew lots and it was Natalie who was the loser. The savage crew chased after Natalie with the intent of killing her and eating her.

Man, crazy.

Instead, it turned out to be Javi instead, who was just trying to help save Natalie and he fell through the ice and drowned. The crazies could have pulled him out, but they decided to let him go so they could eat him.

I mean… what the hell.

Poor innocent Javi was clearly not in the present day, so you knew something was going to happen to him, but this was horrendous. I wonder how Travis will respond to this, since it was him that helped Natalie get away. When he finds out that they could have saved his brother, how will he react. We know he survived until the present day.

In the present day, the six survivors got everything out into the open at Lottie’s cult (or spa as Jeff called it) and decided that they needed to let “it choose.” This is another crazy moment as Lottie poured one glass of poison among six glasses. She believed that they had to let it choose which is what it has wanted from the start.

This is the evil that Natalie had spoke about bringing back with them last episode and that has been all around everyone here.

It feels as if we are heading toward that first scene that kicked off this show in season one. Yellowjackets has been a truly disturbing series and I love it. I may try to finish up season two tomorrow night. Season three is coming in 2025.

Spoilers

“Old Wounds”

“Two Truths and a Lie”

“Qui”

“Burial”

Sunday night and I got into a run of Yellowjackets on Showtime. Season two had some real gut punches in it, many of which centered around Shauna.

Seriously, the section of episode 6 that dealt with Shauna’s birth of her baby boy was traumatic in all the best ways possible. It left me with a hole in my gut that just was painful. Seeing the baby born successfully only to find out that the baby did not survive childbirth was horrendous. Some of the imagery from this section was tough too, especially the scene where everyone was devouring the baby.

Plus, the absolutely brutal assault by Shauna against Charlotte as a way to get her anger out was difficult to watch. Lottie let her just brutalize her. This was the first time that I found Lottie to be more than a crazy person/sus character.

With Lotte, Natalie, Shauna, Van, Taissa, and Misty all together at the retreat, they seemed to have had a wonderful evening until Jeff called and dropped the bombshell that the police found the remains of Adam. I guess Misty is not as great at that as we thought.

Misty had a huge series of episodes too, as she inadvertently killed Crystal. Crystal fell off a cliff after Misty had confessed to destroying the plane’s black box. Then, Misty was having a major freak out during the birth of the baby with there being so much blood on her hands, literally. Misty came back to step up, but the baby still died.

We knew something was going to happen with this baby since we know that present day Shauna does not have a son, but it was still tough to watch.

Although, there is still a chance that everything that was going down in the wilderness is a dream-like state and that we do not know exactly what has happened. However, it does sound like whatever evil that was there in the wilderness with them found its way back to the real world with them. Why it is just now showing its ugly head, I don’t know.

I really thought Coach Ben was a goner too as he seemed ready to throw himself off the same cliff that Crystal fell off. Misty was there as well, but she seemingly got him to stop his suicidal tendencies. I still do not think he is long for the world, because we have not seen him in present day as of this moment.

We did meet present day Van though, which was great to see. Those who I have not seen in present day, I think they are dead. Van does admit to having cancer and only having a few months to live.

There are just three episodes left in season two, which has really picked up the pace recently.

Spoilers

“Digestif”

When Natalie had taken the remains of the recently consumed Jackie back to the airplane crash site, I swore I saw a polar bear walk out of the woods. It was one more connection to LOST for me, and I was definitely surprised. Turned out that it was not a polar bear but an all-white moose that apparently has some kind of power. I still think this can be tied to LOST.

Of course, the Island would always provide for the survivors on LOST so they never felt the need to eat each other. Last episode’s cannibalism was disturbing, as was some of the resulting actions in response. A baby shower? That was bizarre. I also love the comment they keep using to justify their actions, “This is what she would have wanted.” She would have wanted to be eaten? Hmm, feels a little exaggerated.

I really do not think coach is long for the world. He is having delusions that he chose to stay behind and not go on the plane. I think he might be the next on the menu.

Misty teaming up with Elijah Wood was fun, in order to interrogate Randy. This pairing is odd, but somehow appropriate for them both.

And there is just no way around it… Shauna is a bad ass. The way she disarmed that carjacker and then took that gun and stared down the criminal at the chop shop was amazing. Her description of peeling back the skin of a human was cold and brutal. I don’t blame that guy for folding. If I were Kevyn, I would be careful investigating Shauna over the death of Adam.

We are coming closer to the man with no eyes as Taissa’s sleepwalking is in overdrive. We are returning to the mysterious symbol and I expect that this will be more important over the next several episodes. It is clearly tied to the overall mythology of this series.

Spoilers

“Edible Complex”

Well, bon appetite.

It looks like my original thought back when this started turned out to be true after all. The surviving girls tried to cremate Jackie’s corpse because Shauna was spending too much time with her (braiding her hair and putting on makeup). That was pretty creepy. The creep factor was only getting worse.

When they tried to burn the body, some falling snow stopped the fire from completely burning Jackie’s body, leaving a perfectly cooked frame, just right for eating.

Ooof.

This scene of the starving kids stuffing their faces with pieces of the charred body of Jackie was truly wild. It felt like the deep seeded creatures inside the girls all came out. Coach limped away in disgust. Ain’t no way that he doesn’t become another meal, another day.

Present day, Elijah Woods is here and has a connection with Misty. I am curious to see where this goes.

Kevyn is circling around Shauna in the disappearance of Adam Martin. He thinks he knows that Shauna had an affair with Adam, but he is still on the outside.

Lottie says that she was with Travis when he hanged himself. He was trying to reach a certain level of consciousness so he could see images like he did in the mountains. However, the machine button jammed and he wound up dying. I do not know if I trust Lottie. She is certainly suspcious.

Taissa is really flipping out too. She imagined her son came to her house after school to play with the new puppy, however that did not happen. We’ll see what that car crash will do to this story.

Yellowjackets has been wild so far and the mysteries continue to abound in this wilderness. What is going on? What is the symbol? Who was Taissa following when she almost ran off the cliff in her sleep?