**This review contains spoilers**

Yellowjackets continues to be one of the most insane shows on television. While watching it, I regularly write in my notes “wtf”. In some ways, that’s what keeps me coming back. I’m curious and intrigued and never have any idea where the story will go next or what these characters might do. But that’s also become the problem. The show has begun to take turns in directions I find less interesting, less sensical, and less consistent. But for a show that has established a “rules don’t apply” ethos, technically, it is all still in bounds. Fans, however, aren’t big on excusing issues based on technicalities. Many were disappointed with this season and feel that the show has lost its footing since the stellar first season. I don’t think they’re necessarily wrong. I still like the show and season 3 had its memorable moments, for sure, but I would love for the creators to recognize and recapture what made Yellowjackets so special in the first place instead of getting distracted and lost on these side streets. 

Yellowjackets is a dual-timeline story that follows the teen girls stranded in the woods after their plane crashes in 1996 and their adult counterparts trying to move on with their lives in present day. In season 2, the teen storyline was much more compelling than the adult storyline, giving the show a lopsided feel. This season, both timelines seemed to stall. It felt to me like they are running out of things for the characters to do. In the present, it’s ways to keep the adult Yellowjackets together and in the past, it’s just killing time until we reach the inevitable conclusion of their rescue. Time in the past is also moving at a much quicker pace. Season 2 took place in the dead of winter and season 3 picks up in the bliss of summer. It was actually a nice change of pace to be back in warmer weather, but it goes by all too quickly with the season wrapping up back in winter again. The one benefit of this is that we finally come full circle (in an episode titled “Full Circle”) on a monumental Yellowjackets scene: the show’s opening moment. “Pit girl”, as the fans have taken to calling it, has been a mystery since the beginning. Who was it that we saw fall into the spiky pit during that initial hunt scene to be eaten by the rest of the group and the Antler Queen? That, and what drove these people to this point? The second question has become far less of a mystery as we’ve seen the group devolve into their cannibalistic cult, but we have finally caught up to this moment in our past timeline to reveal that “pit gir”l is, in fact, Mari (RIP). It was cool to see that scene play out in real time with the full context and to close the loop on that teaser. And it does feel good to finally start to resolve some things and know the story is actually moving forward.

Yellowjackets is a lot of things, but a central piece of the show is that it is a character study fueled by highly talented actresses. It’s an ensemble to some degree, but Shauna has always been our anchor point in both timelines. Played by Melanie Lynskey as an adult and Sophie Nélisse as a teen (both fantastic), Shauna has bounced all over the map as a character. She’s had her more sympathetic moments (none more clearly than when her baby was stillborn last season.Truly heart wrenching), her less justifiable moments (cheating on Jeff and killing Adam in season 1 come to mind), and her concerningly unstable moments (every time she hallucinates Jackie… and eats people). But season 3 gives us Shauna’s full villain turn. In both timelines. This definitely seems like something that’s been building for a while and now we’ve finally pulled the trigger. Teen Shauna ended last season stewing that she wasn’t chosen as the leader of their group. She’s always had a superiority complex and a chip on her shoulder. Throughout the course of season 3, she gets angrier and angrier, spitting venom at everyone, and finally takes over to become a ruthless dictator and eventual Antler Queen. She was almost insufferable to even watch on screen because of the dark energy she radiated. I mean, sure, we do have to give her some grace because she has so recently been through so much trauma with losing Jackie and her baby, but the others have had loss as well. It felt like something more, something deeper than just that affecting Shauna. I began the season wondering how adult Shauna could be so much more sane than young Shauna. How was this the same person? It turns out that it, in fact, was the same person and teen and adult were really not so different after all. When adult Shauna confronts adult Melissa, the faceoff becomes positively feral, including maybe the most disgusting moment of the season when Shauna bites off a chunk of Melissa’s arm and forces her to eat it. One of more major “wtf” notes. (Actually, if we want to be fully factual, my exact note was, “What the actual fuck Shauna”). The showdown might take place in Melissa’s modern, suburban kitchen, but, in Shauna’s mind, she’s back in the wilderness. Shauna never felt normal. Even before the plane crash she had an edge. She was sleeping with her best friend’s boyfriend! She was always looking for trouble. But she felt like she had to mold herself into societal standards of a woman and a mother. We’ve always known the housewife life wasn’t satisfying for her. In episode 1 of the series, Shauna kills a rabbit in her backyard to make for dinner. Just to feel something. Season 1 explores this through her affair with Adam. It’s illicit, it’s dangerous, and it makes her feel free. But season 3 goes further and deeper with it. In the final scene, after returning home from the Melissa encounter to find her family has left to get away from her, Shauna comes to terms with herself. She is finally able to admit to herself that out there in the wilderness, hunting and killing each other, creating their own cult-like rituals, being in charge of everyone, was the most fun she’s ever had and the most alive and seen she’s ever felt. Melanie Lynskey says of Shauna’s journey this season, “To see her own up to the fact that this is not necessarily where she’s the happiest, but definitely feels most like herself and feels the most powerful. She’s been very aware of a restlessness within herself. In the moments we’ve seen where she gets to do something dangerous or crazy, she really does come alive… She’s the most capable when she’s doing something dangerous; she’s the most herself. [Sophie and I] both felt like Shauna was wearing a costume when the show began — in the teen timeline and the adult timeline. That she was very aware of her own power in every way. She was not a wallflower. She was not a shy person, but it was easier for her to present as that because she was actually quite scared of allowing herself to embrace her full power.” I think this characterizes Shauna so perfectly. She was also perceived as shy and timid because she was in Jackie’s shadow, but she was only quiet because she was scared of her own power. Scared to let it out. She got to be her full, true self in the woods, but then she came home and had to hide it. Now, it’s back out again. I’ll be curious to see what that means for the future.

Adult Shauna’s relationship with her husband, Jeff (Warren Kole), and her daughter, Callie (Sarah Desjardins), has always been an interesting touchpoint for her character. They know who she is, to some extent, but struggle with their own feelings towards her. Sometimes, like in season 2, they’re a family unit, covering up crimes and evading the police together. But in season 3, both Jeff and Callie reach limits with Shauna. Jeff grows tired of her selfish behavior, never paying attention to him and his needs and always worried about her own. Definitely fair on Jeff’s part. But he also seems to be worried about her sanity after everything that happened in the woods, telling Callie he should have protected her from her mother’s darkness. That is some real revisionist history on Jeff’s part. In season 1, he admits to reading her journals from those teen years. He knew everything and loved her anyway. And that was what was so beautiful about their relationship. But now, he seems to be backtracking on that sentiment and I’m not a fan. Although I’m always thankful for Jeff routinely coming in with some of the funniest lines of the season to lighten up an often dark show. Callie’s role in the story has continued to increase with each season and the focus on her here particularly looks at how much she is her mother’s daughter. Callie is yearning for connection with Shauna and tries to learn more about her past. Shauna won’t give her anything so she goes to Lottie. This ends with Lottie claiming to see “It”, the wilderness force, inside Callie, more powerfully than she saw it inside Shauna. Callie is so freaked out she pushes Lottie down the stairs, killing her. I guess murder does run in the family. Callie wants to be like her mom, she wants to be close to her, but it also scares her. Shauna feels the same way. She sees both the good and bad parts of herself in Callie which is both special and concerning. This puts such a strain on their relationship. Especially with the added tension that both recognize that Shauna is not able to love Callie the way she wants to be loved. Callie says to Lottie that she sees a “coldness” in Shauna’s eyes. Shauna does love Callie. She does love Jeff. But she is a broken, messed up person. And her version of love isn’t as traditional and open as her husband and daughter may want it to be. In season 2, Shauna says, “I never wanted to be a mom. In fact, I did not start out a bad person, but in case you haven’t noticed, life doesn’t tend to turn out the way you think it will. You have a kid that you don’t want to save a marriage that you got into out of guilt and shame, and you just, you can’t really let yourself love either of them. But of course, you do, you love them despite yourself. You’re just incredibly bad at it.” She tries in her own way. And, at least for now, that has driven them both away. 

Shauna’s character isn’t always the most fun to watch on screen, but she’s possibly the most complex. Few other characters on the show were as compelling this season. Young Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) continues to be one of the best characters, a true audience avatar, who is as sane and just as one can be in these circumstances. Sophie Thatcher has become a real rising star. Adult Nat was equally captivating, fueled by the off-kilter performance of Juliette Lewis, and the show definitely feels her absence after her departure last season. Young Misty (Samantha Hanratty) played her usual notes but adult Misty (Christina Ricci) had an eye-opening season of realizing her own worth. Christina Ricci is so good and is the other comic relief of the show. Her Misty always makes me laugh. With adult Tai (Tawny Cypress), we were apparently supposed to spend the season wondering if it was really her we were seeing or her evil alter ego sleep demon known as “Dark Tai”. I’m not sure what that does for the story or our understanding of her character, but none of that came through for me. The surprise character of the season for me was Mari (Alexa Barajas). Up to this point Mari had been, to put it simply, the worst. Many people were rooting for her to be “pit girl”. But then, this season, she became so much more likable and funny and fun to hang with on screen. It made it all the more tragic when we realized she really was “pit girl” and she would die. Never thought we would be sad to lose her but that’s credit to a powerful redemptive (mostly) arc. A newcomer to the group this season was Melissa. After previously being a 90’s timeline background player, Melissa (Jenna Burgess) was promoted to the varsity team, joining the main cast and conflicts. Don’t worry, there are plenty of funny meta jokes made about this change. In the present day timeline, it is revealed that adult Melissa faked her own death and is still alive, played by none other than Hilary Swank. I didn’t love the sudden revelation that Melissa is still alive. We already did that with Lottie and then Van. How many adult Yellowjackets are still out there? Are they just going to keep popping up whenever the story needs a boost? Melissa’s appearance also never proved its worth. Her motives remain totally unclear. Interacting with her served to move the plot forward for other characters. But what does it do for her? The best part of Melissa showing up was that it made an internet joke-theory come true: she was, in fact, still wearing the backwards baseball hat that defined her teen style. How else would we have known it was her?

Yellowjackets was unafraid to kill off main characters this season. We lost Juliette Lewis’s adult Nat in the season 2 finale, and then lost Simone Kessell as adult Lottie, Lauren Ambrose as adult Van, Alexa Barajas as Mari, and Steven Krueger as Coach Ben all throughout season 3. Characters being killed off always causes an emotional response among fans, but these character deaths seemed to stir up some controversy between the show’s creators and the cast. Both Simone Kessell and Lauren Ambrose gave post-episode interviews following their death scenes where they clearly expressed anger and disappointment about their characters’ fates. Lauren Ambrose said, “I mean, that’s what they wanted to write, so that’s the story that got told… But, yes, for whatever reason, that’s just the story that these writers decided to tell. I didn’t really have much control over it, it was just what the story ended up being for this production and what this job kind of turned into.” Even the remaining living Yellowjackets seemed to be unhappy with the direction of the show. Melanie Lynskey told an interviewer, “There was a lot of processing that and listening to how they felt about it, and I felt a certain way about it. Obviously, I’m not in the writers’ room.” There’s a theory floating around the internet called “the last Yellowjacket standing” based on a quote from Shauna where she says, “the only way to be perfectly safe is to be the last person standing.” Essentially, only one Yellowjacket can remain in the end. If that is where the writers are taking this story, then these character deaths make a little more sense. But there seems to be more than just plot choices going on behind the scenes. A director of one of the episodes this season complained publicly that the vision he was trying to communicate in a scene became unclear in the edit saying, “If the dream sequence had played out a little bit longer, maybe we would have gotten a stronger sense of that.” I’m not sure what exactly is happening to make so many people who work on this show unhappy with how it’s going, but I do know it makes me very concerned for the future of it.

The major theme the show tries to tackle has always been trauma and responses to trauma. We see it in so many different ways with our Yellowjackets. In the teen timeline, the girls are constantly vying for some sense of control and explanation in a wildly turbulent situation. The brain searches for meaning to give some structure to the unknown. They are also in full survival mode. To internally reconcile the societal right and wrongs they were raised on with the lawlessness and starvation of the wilderness, it is easier to shift the blame. Instead of saying,“We’re going to eat each other to survive,” they say, “It wants us to.” Inventing an “It” that is at the core of their newly founded community/religion/cult gives everything meaning. It gives them answers. It gives them direction. It gives them faith. The show still rides the line of “everything supernatural has a logical, real-world explanation”. So it could be mystical, but it could also be normal. Personally, I think the show is so much better and more interesting if nothing is actually supernatural. It’s all just a trauma response.  

The adults deal more with reckoning with the memories of their trauma. We see many of them displaying childlike behavior, shoplifting, dining and dashing, Shauna’s entire affair with Adam. Because of their traumatic experience at a young age, they are stuck in a kind of arrested development. They want to go back to a time before their worlds were turned upside down and live a life as if it never happened. Trauma also directly impacts memory. Perspective gets warped and the truth gets distorted. In present day, we see the women both trying to remember and trying to forget. But when a memory is brough clearly into focus, it can awaken something long buried. At the end of season 3, Shauna, Tai, and Melissa all seem to be re-radicalized into their wilderness religion having faced old experiences in a new light. Show co-creator, Bart Nickerson, was quoted saying, “we’re not seeing anything that is necessarily entirely objective, even in the present-day storyline.” That’s a pretty tough take. I like the ambiguous line of real and supernatural. But there has to be some anchor point for what we’re seeing on screen. It feels like they’re just giving themselves an out to suddenly say, “actually none of that was real the whole time.” That’s really dangerous territory. If nothing is objective, what are we even watching?

Every mystery-box show lives in the shadow of the best to ever do it: Lost. Yes, Lost has been more prominently on my mind lately because I am currently in the middle of a rewatch, but it is still relevant here! I mean, they literally played “Make Your Own Kind of Music” by Cass Elliot in an episode of Yellowjackets. The song most famous for being the soundtrack to the first appearance of Desmond inside the hatch in the Lost season 2 premiere. Speaking of hatches, Coach Ben finds a pit (not quite a hatch) with supply drop crates inside, marked with a symbol of the organization that sent that. It screamed Dharma Initiative to me. Yellowjackets also loves a weird dream sequence and this season introduced a mysterious jungle sound (later revealed to be frogs, not a smoke monster). In character parallels, Lost definitely had its fair share of people who did not want to leave the island. We see this with the divide (read: war) in the Yellowjackets crew this season after rescue seems like a real possibility. Lottie also takes on the John Locke role of believing they have a divine connection to the place they crashed and that it speaks to them personally. Obviously, Yellowjackets will never be Lost. But, as a fan of both, it’s fun to draw these connections and see the way that television is still indebted to Lost 20 years later.

This show is still gross (if that’s what you’re looking for) and still funny (Jeff is the best always and Misty had some banger lines in the finale). The bones of the original show are still there. But it does seem to be straying further and further away from what audiences first fell in love with. My biggest takeaway from this season was that I wanted to go back and rewatch season 1. To feel that again. Honestly, I think a big part of that is the loss of Jackie (Ella Purnell). Her death was a huge and important catalyst for much of the plot which I stand by as a storytelling decision. But her character brought such a specific energy to the show that it has not been able to recapture. Two seasons later and we’re still feeling the Jackie-sized hole. There has not yet been any news of a season 4 renewal of the show which is definitely a little bit strange. Even though season 3 wasn’t the strongest, it seemed to have the most fan fervor of any of the seasons so far. As much as I had some issues with this season, I hope the show gets renewed because I would like to see this story brought to some kind of conclusion. Whether I agree with how they get there or not.

2025 Count: 26 movies, 19 seasons of television, 3 specials