Each week, Jenn and Joe discuss the latest episode of Showtime’s Yellowjackets S03.
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- S01/S02: Murder Made Fiction Patreon
- S03: Episode 1
Episode 3.03 “Them’s the Breaks”: A hostile reunion ignites chaos among former teammates, while Lottie’s behavior gives Callie unexpected insights into her mom’s dark history. Meanwhile, Tai and Van face consequences for their past actions.
JENN
“Them’s the Breaks” sees adult Lottie (Simone Kessell) overstay her welcome in the Sadecki home while Tai (Tawny Cypress) finally has an interesting plot line. In the 90s wilderness, Mari (Alexa Barajas) turns out to be awful in every conceivable way while casually dropping a theory about horrific dimensions and the girls follow her into an approximation of hell. Old favorites return wielding razor-sharp slap bracelets and Coach Scott (Steven Krueger) continues to question his life choices. But before we dive into the talking Llama of it all, let’s start with the present day timeline.
Miss Lottie is living her best life in someone else’s house. Booked and busy, she’s waltzing about in admittedly glamorous attire (that black backless dress!!) and turning her nose up at her hostess’ pancakes. Lottie repeatedly snubs Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) for Callie (Sarah Desjardins) who seems to think she’s holding all the cards in this unusual friendship. It’s a pretty unsympathetic turn for this spiritual guru and a window into who Lottie really is. My stomach dropped along with Shauna’s when I saw Callie wearing the heart necklace. We’ve been led to believe that the bearer of this charm will be the next human sacrifice and this feels like an uncomfortable mirror to Lottie’s interest in Shauna’s first baby.
Meanwhile, Misty (Christina Ricci) is beginning to have doubts about her own friendships. With Nat dead, she’s trying to cozy up to Shauna and even resorting to some of her old tricks. I don’t know about you, Joe, but I’m frustrated with Shauna’s continuing rudeness. You mentioned this near the end of season two and I was hoping she’d be able to find some kindness for her quirky former teammate.
I’m also growing weary of watching perpetual outcast Misty be treated like dirt—and not the good kind of dirt you can pray to. Perhaps it’s my bias for this over-the-top character, but at this point Shauna just feels like a bully. And if not for someone cutting the breaks on her minivan, who knows how long Misty would put up with this treatment. Do you think this was Walter (Elijah Wood) using one of his girlfriend’s tricks to prove a point or Shauna’s mysterious Queen of Hearts?
Though things aren’t going so well with Lottie and Shauna, Van (Lauren Ambrose) and Taissa seem to be having a run of good luck. We find out that Van’s cancer is in remission and combined with news of the waiter’s death, we’re inching closer to a new type of human sacrifice. We even see a return of the man with no eyes in the most terrifying commercial I’ve ever seen. What do you think, Joe? Is this a Tai storyline we can finally invest in? And would you actually buy ice cream from this terror cafe?
This also ties directly to the 90s timeline in which the girls chase coach Scott to a truly hellish cave. The logistics of this setup boggle the mind, but it’s another reminder to avoid caves at all costs. Only bugs and terror await you.
I have mixed feelings about this sequence. I love young Lottie (Courtney Eaton) rocking a slicked-back bun while writing “Of all the ways to lose a person, death is the kindest” on a chalkboard. I’m also intrigued by these hallucinations and thrilled to see Ella Purnell return as a vengeful Jackie. I could watch Akilah (Nia Sondaya) play with baby barnyard animals all day long, but I just don’t know if I can get down with that Llama.
JOE
I’ll take the talking Llama over the human personification of Caligula from last year. But yeah, it’s gonna be a no for that ice cream parlor for me.
I have a feeling that fans are going to have a field day analyzing the three poisonous gas-induced “dreams” of Akilah, Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) and Van. It definitely seems to be praying on their own fears and insecurities – Akilah has the relationship with animals, Shauna continued grief about her dead son, and Van’s fear of fire – though the suggestion by teacher Lottie that this is “one dream” between them could be telling.
You’ve mentioned Tulpas and this points in the direction of a kind of shared hypnosis or mass hallucination. Naysayers have the ability to handwave this whole sequence away because of the gas, but we all know that a show like Yellowjackets, which is steeped with (visual) symbolism, would never allocate this much screen time to immaterial things.
Everything about “Them’s The Breaks” suggests that they’re on the cusp of believing “It” is coming back. Van and Taissa are the closest to that realization with Shauna a fearful step behind.
The reality is that Callie is just wearing a necklace, but Shauna imbues it with power because of what she perceives it to mean. I can certainly see your frustration with her reaction, but, yes, I do think it has more to do with your love of one Misty fucking Quigley than anything else; we’re primed to defend Misty because we know the other women do take advantage of her. (And because Christina Ricci is a fucking dream in this role).
Is Shauna overreacting? Yes. But considering the tense relationship she has with motherhood (both in the 1997 timeline and currently with Callie), her defensiveness makes sense. Is she taking it out on the wrong person? Also yes. But she also believes that Misty would tamper with the brakes of her car (again – justified because we saw Misty do it with Nat back in S01).
The reality is that if it was Misty who did this, that wouldn’t be very exciting. So my belief is that this is going to be revealed to be whoever Hilary Swank is playing, ie: the mystery woman who left the phone for Shauna. No further clues in this episode as to whether that’s Mari or Gen, though if we’re talking about messing with Shauna, all signs do point to Adult Mari.
Jen, I’m curious about your feelings about how things went down between Mari and Coach Scott. The girls (again rightfully) find it creepy that he took Mari in bonds back to his batcave (heh), but we know from the first half of this episode that he’s just a man without a plan.
I personally felt deeply for the guy, especially his repeated disbelief about “is this real?!” (which, in hindsight, makes a lot more sense if we understand that everyone is probably breathing in toxic fumes in the cave). But there’s a lot of both comedy and pathos in their shared scenes, including Mari’s admission about “the bad version of reality” where 4 year olds die of brain cancer.
So yeah, what did you think of Mari & Ben? Is the “bad version of reality” a hint from writers Jonathan Lisco, Ashley Lyle, and Bart Nickerson? (Dear lord, please don’t say we’re in LOST territory) And is it possible that Lottie is a) truly just naive about how Shauna reacts to her and/or b) is fucking around with her for letting her rot on the 13th floor (ie: psych ward)?
JENN
Joe, I had not even considered the possibility that Lottie might be angry with Shauna for essentially signing her committal papers and this could all be a twisted sort of revenge. I’m also intrigued by her defense of giving Callie the necklace with a cryptic, “it was never what you thought it was.” Because what we assume Shauna thinks “it” is involves human sacrifice for the purpose of cannibalism. Which might be my favorite thing, but I imagine Shauna is less enthused. Perhaps this is all a giant fuck you to the survivors’ new Queen.
Also, Shauna: no gift basket in the world is going to make up for that spectacularly cathartic takedown of the hotel bros. I don’t care how great the semi-hard cheese is.
I know I’ve spent a lot of time ranting about the present day timeline (I feel like Cara Cunningham tearfully pleading with everyone to “LEAVE MISTY ALONE!”), but the first cave sequence was my favorite part of this episode. It begins with a Right Said Fred needle drop and Mari repeating “I’m too sexy for this cave” and concludes with an admittedly hilarious double mace attack.
I also admire Mari’s painfully obvious attempts at flirtation and absolute refusal to abandon the bit. But we learn a little more about how awful this teenager truly is when Coach Scott recounts the horrendous rumors she spread in their former life. I’m fully team Shauna in this wilderness feud. Not even a Jenn-bait monologue about an evil timeline lurking in the shadows can change my feelings about the team’s resident brat.
My Mari Rage intensifies when she sells Coach Scott out! I really believed the two had come to an honor among thieves kind of truce and I’m now convinced that Coach Scott didn’t start the fire (cue Billy Joel chorus). I was also really moved by his struggle to accept the hell he’s found himself in. Compared to the girls and their hippy-esque commune, the man is in a rough state. He’s dirty and disheveled. He’s eating bats, and he doesn’t even have any of those paper lanterns we saw in episode 1!
Now that the girls have found his cave, I’m even more concerned for Coach Scott’s welfare. And the real arsonist has a vested interest in keeping him quiet. What do you think, Joe? Am I being naive and not wanting to accept that Coach Scott tried to burn the girls alive or will the real culprit reveal herself soon?
JOE
A very valid question. If we take Coach Scott at his word, then someone else is lying. Is that person prepared to see the lie through now that the girls have caught him? Because the way that Tai, Van, and Shauna looked when Nat waffled about finding the cave tells us everything we need to know about where this is heading. That was murder in their eyes.
I’m very worried for Coach Scott, Jenn. I definitely don’t think he’s going to make it through the season, but I’m starting to fear he may not even make it through the next episode.
We’ll find out when we return for episode 4, “12 Angry Girls and 1 Drunk Travis” which – judging from the title – will presumably feature some kind of wilderness trial for Coach.
Yellowjackets airs Fridays on Paramount+ on Showtime (and/or Sundays depending on where you’re watching)