Each week, Jenn and Joe discuss the latest episode of Showtime’s Yellowjackets S03. MAJOR spoilers ahead!
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Episode 3.10 “Full Circle”: Things turn frigid as bloody new alliances get built and spilled. It’s our time, right now, down here in the new Queen’s court. Eat up, drink deep, and descend.
JOE
Alright, Jenn, it’s finale time and several things that we predicted and anticipated have come true.
You’ve been writing for nearly half a season that you believe Lottie (Simone Kessell) was killed by Callie (Sarah Desjardins) and that is revealed to be true. I liked the way these flashbacks were filmed – almost like electronically distorted memories that characters have been repressing.
It’s also very in keeping that Lottie would essentially goad Callie into killing her because she believed that The Wilderness had sent her to the dank hotel basement. Ditto the fact that Misty (Christina Ricci) takes so much delight in telling Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), who has truly become Public Enemy #1 in both timelines.
The main reason that I think this finale works, however, is because it keeps the present day storyline to a bare minimum. We deal with Van (Lauren Ambrose)’s body and, in the most perplexing (but likely grief-fueled scene), Tai (Tawny Cypress) decides to blame Shauna for both Van’s death (partially accurate), as well as Natalie’s (blatantly false, even if you want to say Callie showing up is tied to Shauna).
Anyways, no one ever said that characterizations on Yellowjackets – and certainly not in S03 – were consistent or accurate!
It’s the stuff in 1997 that truly works best, though. We see several girls make moves to usurp Shauna (Sophie Nélisse)’s reign of terror when she demands a hunt after Akilah (Nia Sondaya)’s vision of the animals dying comes true. Of course it turns out that even this is a fabrication: Lottie told the animal caretaker that her vision was real and they need the hunt, so Akilah poisoned their food supply.
The result pays-off three years worth of speculation as the identity of the barefoot sacrifice from the series’ very first episode is finally revealed. It’s none other than Mari (Alexa Barajas), who is “chosen” by the cards after a suspicious Shauna inadvertently spares Hannah (Ashley Sutton) and dooms her enemy. The death weighs heavily on Van (Liv Hewson) because she stacked the deck; note that Jasmin Savoy Brown’s Tai doesn’t seem nearly as bothered (with either outcome).
I’m curious if you and other viewers will find this slightly anticlimactic. I personally think that Mari is one of the best/most obvious choices, so it wasn’t a surprise, but it works well. I just wished that there had been a bit more pay-off of the simmering feud between her and Shauna considering how hard they were going at each other at the start of the season. (Though I guess there’s something to be said of Shauna, now the new Antler Queen, demanding Sophie Thatcher’s Nat bring her Mari’s hair after dismembering the body).
Over to you Jenn: what are your thoughts on the finale overall? What did you make of the final moments, set to Aerosmith’s “Living on the Edge” as Nat and Misty (Samantha Hanratty) pulled off a brazen daylight escape plan? And do you have thoughts on drunk Travis (Kevin Alves)’ confrontation with Shauna just before the hunt…because that was the piece of “mythology” that most intrigued me!
JENN
Joe, now that I’m finished dumping Gatorade over my head for correctly predicting Lottie’s killer, I’d like to praise this Aerosmith needle drop. I wore out my copy of Get a Grip and loved this era of Alicia Silverstone videos (coupled with the emergence of Liv Tyler).
While I’m more of a “Cryin’” fan, this moment is absolutely perfect. It’s picturesque as Natalie climbs a snowy mountain peak, exciting as she finally makes contact with the outside world, and it should spin the show in a new direction. I mentioned last week that season three has felt like pulling a slingshot back to its furthest point and this is the moment when we let go.
Other than the survivors we see in the present day timeline, we know nothing about what’s in store for our wilderness girls. As the title foretells, we’ve come full circle and anything is possible from this moment on.
I agree that the 97 timeline is vastly more interesting, but I have to mention this moment of loving cannibalism. We’ve heard Shauna talk about “honoring” the dead by eating them and we see adult Tai “honor” the love of her life by hacking open Van’s corpse and eating her bloody heart. It’s a gruesome way to mourn the dead and I’m here for it.
I also love this final moment in which Misty and Tai fully turn against Shauna, who seems to have gone completely off the deep end. Though I don’t love her characterization this season, I’m enjoying the natural consequences of her actions. Shauna is completely alone and now has the freedom to indulge in her worst tendencies. But what do you think of the brief moment we get with Walter as he spies Misty’s clandestine conversation with Tai? Will he still try to woo the citizen detective in season 4 or might he team up with Shauna for a villainous turn?
Ok, let’s get to the meat of the episode. Literally. I absolutely love how this snowy hunt plays out. Not only are we resolving a scene of cannibalism from the show’s opening moments, but we’ve finally get an intentional hunt in which a member of the group is targeted and killed with no intervention or last minute reprieve. We are doing the thing.
I was expecting more of a revolt, though. Mari’s parting “you deserve everything that’s coming to you” leads us to believe that the group is about to overthrow their leader, but what we get feels a little more like gentle subterfuge. I would think Akilah would only sacrifice her animals for a bigger payoff and I was expecting an ambush during the hunt where the group formally turns against Shauna like how they turned against Natalie after killing Coach Scott.
It’s possible that’s what we would have gotten if not for Travis’s spiky pit of death. I’m loving his emergence as a chaos agent and wishing we got a little more time with him as an adult. I loved this confrontation with Shauna because, combined with her adult counterpart’s closing confession, it tells me that Shauna is fully aware that he’s right. She’s never placed much stock in Lottie (Courtney Eaton)’s Wilderness god, particularly when it affected her unborn child, but now that this mythology is giving her power, she’s leaning all the way in. I’ve been skeptical of this turn and reluctant to villainize this grieving mother, but I do love an evil queen.
I’m curious to see how long her power will last, though. It’s fairly obvious that she figuratively stacked the deck against Mari, particularly to Van who was already feeling guilty for placing her own thumb on the scales.
A wise woman once told me that fear-based leadership can only sustain itself for so long and I’m curious, what do you think is in store for our ragged survivors now that winter has finally come? Will Shauna’s reign last until the inevitable rescue or will her frightened subjects finally find a way to overthrow the new Antler Queen?
JOE
All important and valid questions! They speak to an issue that seemed more and more apparent in these last few episodes, which is whether the showrunners have begun reconsidering that initial five season plan.
The general audience response this year, as well as reviews such as ours, have skewed negative, so I wonder if Nickerson and Lyle have considered moving ahead with S04 as the show’s last.
It would make sense given some of the things that we see here. There’s a definite level of finality to Natalie on the ridge with the transponder, as well as the set up that’s pitting Tai and Misty vs Shauna in the present. To be honest, I’m not sure if the series is sustainable after another 8-10 episodes!
As for Shauna’s reign as Queen, I wouldn’t be surprised if this were the final rotation. Nat’s tenure was always destined to be brief; she’s too polarizing and her empathy for Coach pretty much doomed her from the beginning. Shauna’s also kinda/sorta aligned with Lottie (note how quickly she hopped on Lottie’s suggestion that they needed a hunt) so Shauna has shored up a certain level of support there.
In fact, I’d argue that the only person who truly opposed her is either a) gone (Nat) or b) played their hand and pulled back (Jenna Burgess’ Melissa).
I can’t imagine someone else making a power play unless it’s a full-group revolt, though that still seems entirely possible!
As for what comes next, as you suggested it feels completely open. We’ve basically exhausted all of the ‘97 mysteries aside from the identities of any other survivors. I wouldn’t be surprised if S04 of this timeline consists of Van and Tai keeping themselves alive while the secondary and tertiary characters plot a coup while slowly being whittled down by various hunts.
The more intriguing question is what can we look forward to/dread about the present day stuff? It seems evident that a war is brewing between our remaining Yellowjackets, and Jeff and Callie will try to keep their distance from Shauna. As an aside: I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t roll my eyes at Shauna’s newly rediscovered love of journaling, which reads like bad fan fiction from a delusional loon (perhaps that’s by design?).
I don’t know, Jenn. This season has left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. Perhaps if we weren’t dissecting this each week it would have gone down easier, but approaching the show with a critical eye has *really* exposed the deficiencies of the writing and characterizations. While this finale suggests a step in the right direction, it’s hard not to look back on the last 10 episodes as a big old mess.
From the extremely delayed and ultimately shrug-worthy guest appearance of Hilary Swank to torpedoing Shauna as a character to the ridiculousness of the aftermath of “Croak” when everyone improbably decides to stay in the woods…it was just a lot of no. My grade for S03: C.
I’m curious about what you think will happen, or perhaps, to keep this more positive, what would you like to see happen? Do you think we’ll introduce any other adult Yellowjackets in the present? (The show loves its stunt casting!) And what would you grade this on an A-F scale?
JENN
I agree that we will not get another queen before the inevitable rescue, but I do think teen Shauna will lose power before that happens.
The meaning of the Red Queen card has always been a little nebulous. Sometimes it means crowning a new leader (Nat) and sometimes it marks someone as food for the hunt (Mari). When adult Shauna drew the card at the end of season 2, it felt like a revelation and the first time this beleaguered character had been granted power. But season 3 threw that all out the window.
What I do like about this ambiguity (lack of clarity?) is that it opens the door for a showdown between those who believe and those who don’t, which is what I’m most excited to see in season 4. After all, if Travis is right and this wilderness mythology is all bullshit, they’re just eating their friends and dressing murder up in fancy robes. In this finale alone, Shauna clearly used the cards to take out her enemy, which introduces a cynical and manipulative edge to the lore.
But I’m frustrated that this cave vision plotline seems to have fallen by the wayside. Episode 9 sees Travis essentially try to murder Lottie with his spike pit, but how does that work with his breathless devotion and desperation to connect with “it” in season 1? We’re either in for a major turn for this chaotic survivor (whom I still believe burned down the cabin) or it’s another characterization that was arbitrarily reversed in season 3.
The adult timeline has felt like an exercise in spinning wheels, so I’m a little nervous to see what definitely feels like an endgame move stretched out for 20 more episodes. Perhaps a 4-season arc wouldn’t be the worst way to go out.
That said, I’ve enjoyed this season quite a bit. The cannibalism is popping and though I don’t love Shauna’s turn, I like a female villain (Two, if we’re counting teen Lottie)
I think I would give S03 a B. After all, I’ve seen one woman eat her lover’s raw heart and another take a bite out of her ex’s arm only to have the flesh spit back into her face. That’s Jenn bait for sure, and enough for me to forgive Misty’s egregious treatment of my beloved Walter.
I just hope we can regroup and return with a little more cohesion in season 4.
Yellowjackets has finished airing its third season on Paramount+ on Showtime
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