Each week, Jenn and Joe discuss the latest episode of Showtime’s Yellowjackets S03. Spoilers ahead!
Missed a review?
- S01/S02: Murder Made Fiction Patreon
- S03: Episode 1-2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6
Episode 3.07 “Croak”: The Yellowjackets face the consequences of their actions. Misty pursues a new suspect and encounters an unexpected turn. Taissa’s growing desperation reveals hidden aspects of herself.
JOE
Huh, Jenn. That certainly didn’t go the way that I anticipated.
You called it last episode: the poor, unfortunate souls who wander into the Yellowjackets camp are immediately set upon by our feral band of girls, with poor Edwin (Nelson Franklin) immediately murdered by Lottie (Courtney Eaton). This sends lady scientist Hannah (Ashley Sutton) and guide Kodi (Joel McHale?!) running into the woods where they’re separated. Kodi is cornered at the cliff where he’s barely saved by Travis (Kevin Alves) with the promise to save them.
Hannah, meanwhile, spends the episode in hiding, recording a message to her daughter, Alex (an unseen person that Melanie Lynskey’s Adult Shauna assumes is her stalker).
Unsurprisingly I have a lot of thoughts about this:
- Writers Alisha Brophy & Ameni Rozsa adopt an unusual narrative framing device where the ‘97 storyline flashes back three days to give us some pretty extensive backstory on Edwin, Hannah, and Kodi, including the big reveal that the animalistic screeching we’d previously associated with The Wilderness/It is…a Banshee frog?
- I really appreciated that several girls seem to have broken from under Lottie’s spell, including Mari (Alexa Barajas) and Gen (Vanessa Prasad), who openly critique their former leader’s rash decision to kill a potential rescuer. Let’s all endeavour to use the phrase “Go fuck your dirt blood” in a conversation this week, huh?
- While the adult timeline still doesn’t hold a candle to the teens, at least we get a bit of a road trip as Tai (Tawny Cypress), Van (Lauren Ambrose), and Misty (Christina Ricci) tag along when Shauna decides to have a gentle, reasonable conversation with the person who wants to kill her. Plus: Shauna kinda/sorta apologizes to Misty for the brake line incident back in 3.03 “Them’s The Brakes.”
Let’s circle back to our three adults, though. Jenn, I am dying with curiosity to find out how the Yellowjackets fandom will respond to these developments. I worry that this is a soft “jump the shark” moment for the show: it’s not necessarily a deal breaker that will cause anyone to stop watching, but I can definitely see people groaning (not croaking) over the extended sight gag/reveal that this is what was making the haunting noise.
As someone who’s also quite fond of the Evil Dead musical, this extended sequence – following a set of characters who inadvertently stumble into danger while out camping (badly) in the woods – is sending me. I don’t mind it, but I do find it inherently silly.
Obviously when the bloodshed happens, admittedly some of that wears off. We’ve seen the girls go into a kind of hunting trance when they race around the woods in pursuit of prey and that’s kinda what we see here. Again, we’re seeing division among the girls: Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) wants to kill Hannah so that there are no witnesses, while Natalie (Sophie Thatcher), Travis, and Akilah (Nia Sondaya) have calmer reactions.
Sidebar: Did I read it right that Travis effectively used Misty (Samantha Hanratty) as a distraction for Kodi to shoot arrows at? Yikes!
What’s intriguing is how much of its hand this episode shows. We learn that even though Hannah is returned to camp alive by episode’s end that both she and Kodi are dead. We also discover that Gen and Melissa (Jenna Burgess) are apparently dead! Perhaps it makes sense that we’re getting some juicy stuff now that the season is barrelling towards its climax, but this is handled so nonchalantly, I barely even blinked before doubling back to confirm what I heard.
Jenn, I’m curious: what did you think of our three new characters? Did the Shauna/Misty stuff make up for our concerns earlier this season (I did love Ricci’s delivery of, when anticipating Shauna needing her help on a future clean-up: “If past is prologue, then you will. Late, and rudely”) Are you scared for Van now that she’s suddenly throwing up blood? And is it possible that Swank is really this mysterious Alex from Richmond, Virginia?
JENN
Joe, I was flabbergasted by the casual confirmation that both Gen and Melissa are dead. So surprised in fact that I wonder if it’s true. Could this be Brophy & Rozsa trying to throw us off the scent? It feels rather shortsighted to close the door on potential adult casting for seasons 4 and 5. It seems like we’re being led to believe that Hilary Swank will be playing this mystery daughter, but I don’t know if I buy this convenient (and sudden) addition.
Or maybe it’s that I don’t want to believe it? Of all the internal mysteries of the show, plus the teen characters we’re still introducing, I’m not crazy about outsiders coming in to ruin the vibe. Elijah Wood can do it, but nobody else. You’re right to compare this to jumping the shark, but I’m also thinking about Cousin Oliver’s sudden existence on The Brady Bunch. I LOVE the intrusion of these scientists/hikers, but I’m not sure I need it carrying into the adult timeline.
I’m going to pat myself on the back just a bit because in episode one, I mentioned that Solstice celebrations are known to summon banshees. I just did not expect them to arrive in the form of horny frogs. (and no, I don’t mean frogs with horns on them.) It’s a natural explanation for a phenomenon Lottie is currently building mythology around and I think it furthers my theory that this Wilderness God may be a figment of their collective imagination.
This development feels particularly inspired and I am excited to see how it plays out. The girls (and Travis) are not stuck on a deserted island or high on a peak in the Andes mountains. We’ve also seen plenty of proof that they’re not the first inhabitants of this particular stretch of woods. It was only a matter of time before someone stumbled into camp and this moment just shows how disconnected the girls have become from the idea of going home.
I also can’t wait to see how this development fractures the camp. Not only do we have the newly chosen leader barking, “If she dies, you die!” at Gen who’s trying to save Shauna’s girlfriend (er, dirt blond), it looks like Lottie just ruined their chances of rescue. They seem content for now with this summer camp utopia, but as Van recently noted, winter is coming.
How will they feel about Lottie and Shauna when they’re eating each other in the meager winter months knowing they could have gone home if she’d been able to hold onto her axe? It’s an interesting look at cult-adjacent power and what some will do to hold onto control.
Also, huge shoutout to Joel McHale. He’s the last person I expected to show up and I had to do a double take (and then check IMDb) to make sure that was him. I was a huge fan of The Soup and I love when this comedic actor takes on a villainous role. (insert plea for more people to watch the fantastic Assassination Nation) Since we do know that he’s not making it back to civilization, I guess the only mystery here is who smuggles Hannah’s tape back when they’re finally rescued for real. With no evidence at all, I’m going to guess Travis.
While I’m formally protesting this episode’s egregious lack of Walter (Wood) content, I guess I should mention the adult timeline. I love a road trip plotline and I cracked up at Shauna immediately clocking everyone texting about her in the car. This DNA evidence also seems to confirm my suspicion that Callie (Sarah Desjardins) actually killed Lottie. Shauna seems to have no idea what they’re talking about and I’m not sure a Citizen Detective’s DNA testing paraphernalia could differentiate between a mother and child. However, I do NOT accept Shauna’s apology to Misty, especially since she drives off moments later, leaving Misty stranded in what looks like my neck of the woods.
But I’m more interested in Van and Tai. (Can’t believe I’m saying that after how they’ve been mishandled in previous seasons.) We now know that Tai’s body has been possessed by the Other and that this being has an insatiable thirst for blood. Van does seem to be in imminent danger, but are you more concerned about the progression of her cancer or the monster currently sharing her bed?
Finally, regarding Travis using someone as bait? That is a total Misty move and I fully approve of Travis getting a little ruthless.
JOE
I am definitely worried for Van – on both fronts! It seemed obvious that things weren’t going well for her (and no one was buying the car sickness line), but there’s a difference between how she acts at the gas station and vomiting a giant mouth-full of blood!
I’m still not fully invested in Dark Taissa and “It” choosing a sacrifice that needs to be murdered in order for Van to live, but that’s definitely the narrative Yellowjackets seems to be pursuing. It’s just weird that storylines like that are still on the table in an episode where we get an explanation like the Banshee Frogs.
Moving ahead, I hope that this Shauna going rogue bit pays off. We’ll see who answers the mystery door, but I’m also saddened by the quick end of the road trip and the separation of everyone. Yellowjackets has always been an overstuffed show (character-wise) and scattering people to the winds has rarely worked in its favour.
As for your “Callie murdered Lottie” speculation: why do you think she would have done it? Also: is Misty a terrible Citizen Detective considering she accused Tai and also Shauna of being behind the murder? You’d think she’d be able to read some of the body language a little better, no?
JENN
Misty does seem to be levelling accusations at anyone in sight, which is ironic because she’s outraged that Shauna would do the same to her. It just goes to show that two Citizen Detectives are better than one. And I bet I know who she’s going to call for a ride.
I’m not sure why Callie would kill Lottie. The last time we saw them together, Lottie had given her the Necklace of Death and it’s possible the former cult leader tried to sacrifice Callie to It and Callie got the upper hand.
Or maybe Callie realized that Lottie was just showing an interest in her to fuck with her mother and she let her emotions spin out of control. In the timeline of the show, she’s just days removed from ordering and dumping raw offal on her classmate and I’m wondering if her rebellious streak has reached new heights.
But we shall see as we enter the home stretch. And with Shauna outside this mystery stalker’s house, surely Swank’s got to show up soon. In the meantime, I’ll be over here fucking my dirt blood.
Yellowjackets airs Fridays on Paramount+ on Showtime (and/or Sundays depending on where you’re watching)
Leave a Reply