Power Rankings: Give In To the Possibility

Dissecting ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3, Episodes 1-3 🐝

The Yearning Rating: ✰✰✰

• Romance: ✰✰✰½

• Sex: ✰✰✰

• Storytelling: ✰✰½

• Performance: ✰✰✰✰

• Yearning: ✰✰✰✰✰

Buzz, Buzz, Buzzzzzzzzzz!

Written by Ali Romig

Well, our favorite high school soccer team turned straight-up murderers are back! Despite a somewhat disappointing sophomore season (you can read our take on that here), I am still very much seated for this one. And after the premiere broke the show’s previous streaming record for most views, it seems like I’m not the only one! I have heard mixed opinions on the new episodes so far. The good? There’s a noticeable uptick in narrative momentum. In the first three episodes alone, threads that were woefully ignored last season have resurfaced (hello, the Man with No Eyes!), and the story world has opened up a bit. If Season 2 felt like a somewhat claustrophobic means to an end, Season 3 feels like a full-on sprint toward…more questions.

So yes. The show still feels uneven. I find myself wishing more and more that there was a unifying thread in the adult timeline (like the blackmail postcards in Season 1), that would give it as much energy as the wilderness timeline, rather than scattering the characters to the wind. That said, if Season 1 could be described as “smart” and Season 2 as “dark”, then what’s the word for Season 3? Fun. Can I say that? Am I allowed? Episode Three ends with an absolutely whack-a-d00dle hallucination sequence that could have its own post dedicated to it. (I need to know what the snap bracelet signified!) I know this is a pretty disturbing horror/drama, but I feel like you just can’t ignore the camp. Is that what it’s going for? I don’t know! Am I enjoying it? Yes! As I said to a friend earlier this week, sometimes you just have to give in to the chaos and enjoy yourself.

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So what are the Yellowjackets up to? In the present day, the adults quickly mourn the loss of Natalie before continuing to fuck up their own lives. Shauna is maybe / probably being stalked by a woman (adult Melissa?), who left a mysterious tape on her doorstep. Her rage problem also seems to have hit a new high as she squirms against the banality of suburban life. Against her will, she briefly plays host to Lottie, who’s just recently been released from her court-ordered hospital stay. While boarding in the Shipman/Sedecki household, Lottie quickly bonds with a curious Callie, who seems eager to get close to her and learn more about her mother’s time in the wilderness. Misty is naturally taking Natalie’s death hard and isolates herself, pushing Walter away after he questions the quality of her “friendships” with the remaining women. And Tai is back in it—making sacrifices to the wilderness after a freak death caused by her and Van leads to Van’s previously terminal cancer going into remission.

As for the teens? They’re experiencing spring in the bush after barely surviving a horrendous winter. Things seem to be going well, actually. They live in whimsical little huts and have plenty of food, thanks to their refined hunting and herding skills. But underneath the facade of calm, Shauna is growing more and more volatile (and also kissing Melissa, a previously insubstantial extra!), Tai seems less than impressed with Natalie’s reign as “Queen”, and everyone is eager to find Coach Ben and make him pay for what they think he’s done (burn down their cabin).

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Instead of getting into my theories¹, which have probably already been talked to death on Reddit threads, I thought I’d go a different route.

I humbly present my power rankings of all the main Yellowjackets, from least to most terrifying (at the moment) according to me.

6. Natalie

Was there ever any question as to who the least lethal of our lethal ladies is? Natalie has always been the, um…bleeding heart of the group. And now that adult Natalie is dead (RIP, I truly miss Juliette, who brought a certain je ne sais chaos to her portrayal), she seems even more innocuous amongst the others. Natalie did make the choice to sacrifice Javi last season, but we know it was a decision that haunted her forever, and one that eventually led her to sacrifice herself to Misty’s needle to save an innocent. In the wilderness, Natalie is Queen (for now), but she seems a bit out of place in the role. Her attempts at benevolence are often overruled, and she runs things in a way that suggests she fears her subjects more than anything else. Her attempts to save Coach Ben go out the window when it becomes clear that the group won’t listen to her plea to look the other way. The ultimate decision to hunt him seems like an attempt to save herself from their scrutiny. Honestly, despite being in charge, Natalie feels like more of a follower than ever.

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5. Lottie

You may be surprised to see Lottie so low on this list, but let me explain. The original “It” girl, Lottie’s current role in the wilderness seems to be “isolated wanderer”. Similarly, in the present, without her cult of followers, Lottie is operating as a lone agent. Lottie is fueled by the need to influence. We can see it in both timelines. At first, she’s working on Travis, and then Akilah when Travis pulls away. As an adult, she’s set her sights on Callie. And yes, her influence can be dangerous, very much so, but I don’t believe that’s her intention. I think that Lottie misunderstands “It” and believes it to be a peaceful or good-natured entity that will help them. She thinks that “It” is on their side, when in reality it seems like something much darker and more violent. Ungovernable, as Van says in Episode Two. Her diminished role within the group, together with this possible misunderstanding of what they’re facing, makes me feel like Lottie is more misguided than truly threatening.

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3. Shauna / Misty

This might be unpopular, but Shauna and Misty feel equally as dangerous to me. This is because they are both what I’d call “real life” dangerous. Neither truly believes that “It” is real—Misty goes along with it because she wants to fit in, and Shauna (just barely) goes along with it because the rage inside of her finds release in the violence. While Shauna’s rage is reactionary, Misty is much more calculated—but both only attack when they feel threatened. I go back and forth on who is scarier at the moment. It’s funny, when the show first premiered I felt like young Shauna and adult Shauna were the most tonally different from each other. But as young Shauna continues to suffer loss after loss, she’s hardening into the emotionally vacant time bomb that is Melanie Lynsky’s adult Shauna. If Shauna’s present-day stalker ends up being a threat to her or her family, we will likely see her body count rise. As for Misty, the end of Episode Three suggests that she may be turning on the other survivors, which is a very dangerous place for them to be in. You want Misty on your side. And if she’s against you, all bets are off.

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2. Van

Here we go. My top two. Is it weird that the Yellowjackets I am most afraid of are also my favorite Yellowjackets? Maybe. But I will always ride for the lesbians! Teen Van thinks she understands something about the wilderness and “It” that nobody else does…that it’s not there to help them, that they are pretty much powerless to control it. This stands out as important to me, because despite realizing that they’ve probably made some kind of deal with the devil, Van continues to go along with it and will continue to give “It” what it wants. Teen Van is the definition of a survivor. She’s survived a horrible home life, a plane crash, being caught on fire, and a wolf attack. She wants to live, and will seemingly do whatever it takes to continue on. This is why it struck me as odd how resigned adult Van seemed to her fate, in terms of her cancer. Of course, when we first met her, she had nothing really to live for. Now, she has a glimmer of hope…and she has Tai. Does anyone else remember this creepy picture Tai’s son drew in Season 1 suggesting the “other Tai” and Van’s continued connection?

Truthfully, the reason I think Van is so dangerous (and also very much in danger) is because she is extremely loyal to Tai, every version of Tai, which brings me to…

1. Tai

Before I get into it, I want to say how happy I am that the show is finally addressing all of the craziness that surrounded Tai in the first season. There is just so much here. “Other” Tai, The Man with No Eyes, her need for control at all costs. Tai’s ruthless tendencies existed long before the plane crash—remember when she broke Ally’s leg? The Man with No Eyes also haunted Tai long before the plane crash. And Adult Tai was making sacrifices in the form of her dog’s head to something way back in Season 1. Whether the darkness surrounding Tai exists separately from the wilderness, influenced the wilderness, or is the wilderness is a major question that still needs to be answered. I happen to think that The Man with No Eyes is representative of Tai’s personal bent towards violence, but that she’s confusing it with the wilderness. This is extremely troubling, because if she believes this death march is fueling something reciprocal, then she’ll be more likely to give into it fully. And I think if she believes that killing people will save Van, then that’s what she’ll do. My biggest theory at the moment? Tai is about to become a full-on serial killer, and Van will help her, because that’s what Van does. And unfortunately, I think Van will pay the price in the end. After all, they seem to know what It wants…It wants “more”. I just hope Simone and Sammy continue to stay far away from Tai <3

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Are you watching Yellowjackets?

Traitor Behavior

Season 3, Episode 9:

• The last episode had us SCREAMING at our televisions. Carolyn and Danielle continue to fight in the turret and we know it’s gonna be one of them or the other. I think that if Carolyn had just done a little less during the challenge, it would’ve been Danielle to go…she was the one everyone was suspicious of! Sometimes you have to take a “sit back and see” approach.

• Despite being frustrated by her gameplay in this episode, I really loved Carolyn’s arc on the show and thought she could’ve won the whole thing, if only she hadn’t let Danielle get to her. It is wild to me that the Traitor who has played the worst strategically might win it all.

• It’s 100% Gabby supremacy now, folks! She smartly picked up on the Traitor vs. Traitor fighting that happened at the round table, and has been calling out Danielle’s overacting for weeks now.

• I did get a kick out of Britney calling Danielle obvious after getting recruited. Like yes, you chose to align yourself with the worst to ever do it! Good luck!

Next episode of The Traitors Season 3 comes out tonight at 9p ET!

1. Who else is convinced the show will end with all but one of the Yellowjackets dead? My money would be on Shauna as the lone survivor, but she did draw the queen card at the end of Season 2, which makes me believe she is running on borrowed time right now. The creators have said that it’s not a coincidence that Natalie, who in the wilderness timeline drew the queen but evaded death, ended up dead anyway. That feels like a BIG clue!