We hear the Wilderness, and It hears us. Yellowjackets Season 3 is on the horizon, y’all. Everyone’s favorite teen cannibals and traumatized adults are so close to returning to our screens. To prepare for Season 3’s arrival, take a walk down Memory Lane with me. Let’s recap what you should remember from Yellowjackets Season 2, which aired almost — gasp — two years ago.
Descent into Cannibalism (RIP, Snackie)
Much of the overarching plot for the survivors in the Wilderness is their slow unraveling and descent into madness, fueled by starvation and dehydration. Season 2 introduces cannibalism into the narrative, which we knew was already on the horizon. In episode two, Teen Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) and the others feast on Jackie’s (Ella Purnell) corpse after it becomes inadvertently cooked on the funeral pyre. The sequence is well-executed and complemented by Radiohead’s “Climbing Up the Walls.” (My favorite Radiohead tune.)
After eating Snackie, the gals eventually move on to poor Javi (Luciano Leroux) in episode nine. Javi drowns in the ice-covered lake while trying to help Teen Natalie (Sophie Thatcher), who the teens were hunting. Yes, this season also kickstarts the infamous hunt, in which the survivors pick cards, and whoever selects the Queen becomes the prey.
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The Deaths
Javi isn’t the only character we lose in Season 2. Crystal/Kristen (Nuha Jes Izman), aka Teen Misty’s (Samantha Hanratty) Wilderness bestie, tumbles backward off a cliff to her death. Before this, Misty makes the mistake of confiding her deepest, darkest secret — that she destroyed the plane’s black box shortly after the crash. Crystal threatens to expose the truth to the others, which will upend Misty’s new reality as a necessary cog in the Wilderness machine.
In the present timeline, Kevyn Tan (Alex Wyndham) bites it in the season finale courtesy of Walter (Elijah Wood), Misty’s Citizen Detective pal. A shocked Jeff (Warren Kole) assists with the body disposal. However, the most devastating death in Yellowjackets Season 2 is Adult Natalie (Juliette Lewis), who sacrifices herself to save Lisa (Nicole Maines), one of Adult Lottie’s (Simone Kessell) disciples. Misty tries to inject Lisa with phenobarbital, but Nat stops her, taking the needle in the arm instead. RIP.
Van Lives
She lives! Well, we already knew in advance that Lauren Ambrose was set to portray Adult Van, but watching her pop up this season and reunite with Adult Taissa (Tawny Cypress) is a blast and a half. Of course, this is after Tai’s wife, Simone (Rukiya Bernard), and her son, Sammy (Aiden Stoxx), move out. Oh, and after Tai discovers the altar Other Tai constructed with poor Biscuit’s head and heart. And after Other Tai seizes control and crashes the car with Simone in the passenger seat, hospitalizing her. Listen, Tai’s been through it.
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We learn in Season 2 that Van has terminal cancer, with only months to live. However, since Nat is unfortunately sacrificed in the hunt in the present timeline, there’s speculation that Van might be cured. She and Tai seemingly rekindle their romance while Van’s eerie devotion to the Wilderness resurfaces. Side note: I love that she owns a VHS rental place called While You Were Streaming. It’s perfect.
Power Struggles in the Wilderness
Teen Lottie (Courtney Eaton) assumes the mantle of Antler Queen, which Season 1 alludes to quite a bit. During the ’90s timeline, Lottie’s ascent proves polarizing for our survivors, splintering them into two factions: believers and nonbelievers. Shauna, Nat and Teen Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown) are pretty against the supernatural aspects of the Wilderness—if they even exist. Well, at least initially.
However, Teen Van (Liv Hewson), Teen Travis (Kevin Alves), Mari (Alexa Barajas) and the rest are very much on the “Lottie Is Our Queen” train. Eventually, Tai hops aboard this train after discovering that attending Lottie’s group sessions has kept her sleepwalking ventures as Other Tai at bay.
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So, the power struggles are real. By the season finale, though, that power shifts to a new leader — Nat. Despite the friction between them, Lottie chooses Nat to lead the survivors through the next chapter. While Lottie convalesced following Shauna punching the snot out of her, the hunt transpired. They all ate Javi. This is something Lottie insists she never wanted.
With Nat ascending to Antler Queen for Season 3 and with said season taking place during the warmer months, I’m curious to see how she handles her reign.
Kevyn and Matt
Kevyn and his partner, Matt Saracusa (John Reynolds), dive headfirst into Adam Martin’s (Peter Gadiot) murder. Of course, they suspect Adult Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) from the jump. After all, the police unearthed no dearth of texts between them. Much of Shauna’s storyline in Season 2 is simply trying to throw Kevyn and Matt off her scent. She even stages a fake tryst with Randy Walsh (Jeff Holman) at a hotel to thwart the detectives but to no avail.
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Matt pretends to woo Shauna’s daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins) to gain intel on Shauna. Callie’s still in high school, so that’s creepy. His and Kevyn’s pursuits lead them to Adult Lottie’s compound, where they hope to arrest Shauna.
Unfortunately, it culminates in Kevyn’s murder and Walter threatening to frame Matt for it if he doesn’t comply. How so? Walter can make it look like Kevyn killed Adam and Jessica Roberts (Rekha Sharma). He insists that Matt can emerge from this situation as a hero, one who exposed Kevyn as the epicenter of deep-seated police corruption.
Shauna Gives Birth
Teen Shauna goes through the wringer in Yellowjackets Season 2. For most of the series thus far, she’s been pregnant, and there are no Lamaze classes in the Wilderness. In episode six, Shauna finally gives birth in the cabin, with Misty and Akilah (Nia Sondaya) taking turns coaching her through her labor. Unfortunately, Shauna’s son is stillborn, but a traumatized Shauna hallucinates he’s alive. In her visions, he eventually falls prey to the other survivors as they, well, eat him. Nélisse gives an Emmy-worthy performance.
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After realizing her baby is dead, Shauna tries to bury him outside. In a fit of grief-fueled rage, Shauna accuses the cabin of feasting on her child. Lottie offers herself as a punching bag, allowing Shauna to channel that rage into a brutal beatdown. Ouch.
In the present timeline, Jeff tells Callie about Shauna giving birth to their son in the Wilderness. The story elicits a visceral reaction out of Callie and marks a crucial pivot in her often-tumultuous relationship with Shauna.
The Truth About Travis
What kickstarts the present-day narrative in Season 1 is Nat embarking on her mission to find Travis (Andres Soto) after he vanishes. Unfortunately, she finds him dead, hoisted up by the neck via crane. Immediately, Nat suspects someone murdered him. Misty helps her uncover the truth in Season 1, but it’s not until Season 2 that we learn what truly happened.
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After Lottie’s followers kidnap her (to prevent her from dying by suicide), Nat finally gets the answers she craves. Lottie reveals Travis was in pain — he felt the Wilderness was haunting him. He proposed he bring himself to the edge of death to confront It. He asked Lottie for assistance. Travis also asked her to empty his bank account.
Lottie operated the remote for the crane as it lifted Travis slightly off the ground. However, Lottie saw a vision of Zombie Laura Lee (Jane Widdop), distracting her. When Lottie tried to lower Travis, the buttons on the remote jammed. Instead, the crane lifted Travis higher, where he died from asphyxiation. So, his death was accidental.
Of course, Lottie might not be entirely in her right mind. Should we take her account with a grain of salt?
The Yellowjackets Reunite With Lottie
A major element of the present timeline involved the surviving Yellowjackets reuniting with Lottie, who is no longer in a mental facility in Switzerland. Now, she runs a compound that feels very cultish—not too far from how she operated things as the Antler Queen in the Wilderness. Lottie helps her purple-clad followers with their grief and trauma. She’s also medicated and seeing a therapist, so she’s on the right path—that is, until the others reenter her life.
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Lottie proceeds to fall apart at the seams, first requesting an increase in her medication dosage. She hallucinates attending therapy sessions and sees visions of the Antler Queen, beckoning her to rekindle her connection with the Wilderness. She insists the Yellowjackets give the Wilderness what It wants — one of them. Only with It sated will they be free.
Initially, Lottie goes the phenobarbital route, presenting the survivors with cups of tea. One of them is spiked, and whoever drinks it is the sacrifice. However, the other adults dissuade her from this, claiming they should restart the hunt. Then, they secretly plan to commit Lottie. Of course, it all goes pear-shaped when Kevyn and Matt arrive, and Misty inadvertently kills Nat. Authorities arrive to cart Lottie off to a hospital in the aftermath. Lottie tells Tai and Van that the Wilderness is pleased, though.
Callie Learns Hard Truths (and Jeff Is the Best Wife Guy)
In addition to learning about Shauna surviving pregnancy in the Wilderness, Callie discovers her mother killed Adam Martin, with whom she was cheating on Jeff. Shauna starts to peel back layers of the Wilderness onion, feeding Callie tidbits from her time there. Callie also learns about Shauna having a gun and that Mama Dearest is not to be trifled with.
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During the hunt in the season finale, Callie defends Shauna, who pulls the Queen card and becomes the prey. She trains Shauna’s gun on Lottie and shoots her in the arm. After Nat dies, Callie and Shauna reunite with Jeff. A peculiar look passes over Callie’s face — as if this brush with danger unlocked something within her. Lottie also seems fascinated with Callie, so that’ll surely lend itself to some narrative intrigue in Season 3.
As for Jeff, he proves in Season 2 why he’s the best. Even after Shauna admits to her infidelity, Jeff remains unwaveringly loyal. Of course, he was blackmailing the Yellowjackets, so he doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on. Jeff does everything in his power to keep Kevyn and Matt off Shauna’s tail during their murder investigation. We also learn he read Shauna’s journals from her time in the Wilderness.
In the finale, Jeff attempts to turn himself in for Shauna’s crime, confessing to Kevyn that he killed Adam after learning about Shauna cheating on him. However, Walter giving Kevyn phenobarbital (the drug poisoning of choice that night) to Kevyn saves Jeff’s hide.
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On a more trivial note, Jeff headbanging to “Last Resort” and “F*ck Tha Police” in the family minivan is proof positive that he’s an icon.
The Cabin Burns and Ben Vanishes
The Season 2 finale concludes with a significant cliffhanger. Coach Ben (Steven Krueger) presumably burns it down and locks the teens inside as we see him making a beeline for Javi’s hiding place. A few episodes earlier, before Javi’s unfortunate demise, Ben learns that Javi has a secret hiding place in which he survived for the few months he was missing. Javi also tells Ben he has a “friend” who helped him. We see Ben seek out this sanctuary while the teens hunt Nat.
Ben returns to the cabin to find Shauna the Butcher chopping up Javi. Nat urges him to leave, claiming he won’t survive in the cabin with him. They’re too far gone. Ben doesn’t eat Snackie in episode two, so cannibalism isn’t on the menu for him.
We see Ben grab matches outside the cabin, hinting strongly at him torching the cabin. He knows the teens will inevitably hunt him. After all, he’s down one leg, making him easy prey. The Season 3 trailer shows the survivors questioning Ben’s whereabouts so they’ll eventually track him down for destroying their home.
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Let’s get a prayer circle going for Ben, folks. I want him to survive the Wilderness.
Yellowjackets Season 3 drops its first two episodes on Friday, February 14, 2025, on SHOWTIME on Paramount+, with an on-air debut on Sunday, February 16, at 8 pm EST/PST.
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What I do: I'm GGA's Managing Editor, a Senior Contributor, and Press Coordinator. I manage, contribute, and coordinate. Sometimes all at once. Joking aside, I oversee day-to-day operations for GGA, write, edit, and assess interview opportunities/press events.
Who I am: Before moving to Los Angeles after studying theater in college, I was born and raised in Amish country, Ohio. No, I am not Amish, even if I sometimes sport a modest bonnet.
Bylines in: Tell-Tale TV, Culturess, Sideshow Collectibles, and inkMend on Medium.
Critic: Rotten Tomatoes, CherryPicks, and the Hollywood Creative Alliance.
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