Yellowjackets Season 2
Recap and Review
Spoilers for episodes 1 & 2 of Yellowjackets season 2
In the Fall of 2021, as we emerged from a stifling pandemic isolation and stepped into an even more uncertain world, Showtime unleashed one of its best projects in recent history–an instant-cult classic perfectly fit for the weak and wary masses: Yellowjackets. Nominated for seven Primetime Emmy Awards, this series follows the fictional 1996 high school girls soccer team the Yellowjackets, whose lives are forever changed when their plane to a national tournament crashes into a formidable and uninhabited wilderness. While following their nineteen months of extreme, violent, starved endurance, we’re simultaneously following the lives of these survivors in the present day. These women have all moved on from their shared trauma in the pursuit of normal lives, but when the secrets of their past threaten to upend everything that they’ve worked to cover up, this savage sisterhood must reignite their survival instincts.
From the wreckage of their past right into their shaky present, we follow Shauna (Sophie Nélisse / Melanie Lynskey), Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown / Tawny Cypress), Natalie (Sophie Thatcher / Juliette Lewis), and Misty (Samantha Hanratty / Christina Ricci). Last time we saw their younger, hungrier selves, the group was living in the aftermath of their accidental shroom trip that resulted in the disappearance of Travis’ (Kevin Alves) younger brother Javi, Jackie’s (Emma Purnell) discovery that her boyfriend is the one who knocked up Shauna, Lottie begins having prophetic visions, and Jackie’s decision to sleep outside just in time for a bitter Winter brings about her foreshadowed death. In the present-day, Taissa’s wife stumbles upon the bloody shrine that Taissa created in her sleep, Shauna kills her secret lover Adam whom she believes is blackmailing the survivors, and Natalie is kidnapped–presumably by individuals associated with Lottie.
Thankfully this season begins by answering some of the most pressing questions left behind in season one, most notably, where is Lottie now? We get a glimpse of the moment when the surviving Yellowjackets are brought back home in 1998, and this extremely shell shocked group is greeted by the clamoring of reporters. Lottie is transported from the airport to shock therapy to a psychiatric hospital, so it’s no wonder she’s potentially leading a cult at a gorgeous wilderness resort now that she’s grown up. Present-day Shauna and her hubby are still covering up Adam’s murder (much to the chagrin of their angsty teen), Taissa replaces the dog she sleep-murdered, and Misty is seemingly the only one worried about Natalie’s radio silence. Back in the late nineties, young Shauna is very pregnant and haunted by visions of her dead best friend while the rest of the group adapts to smaller food rations, and much colder weather.
As we find out in episode one, it’s been two months since we’ve seen this team, and not everyone is coping. Being the resident hunters, Natalie and Travis try to map out their surroundings and find something to eat. Travis is desperate to find his missing brother, whom Lottie claims is still alive. Young Taissa struggles not to sleepwalk but Van (Liv Hewson) assures her that she’ll never be afraid of Taissa–nocturnal cannibalistic urges or not. Their puppy love is juxtaposed against Taissa’s strained modern-day relationship with her wife, who is, reasonably, very afraid after what happened to their puppy. At a bougie, wooded resort somewhere, Natalie searches for an escape route but instead finds a group of animal-masked individuals performing a sort of sacrificial ritual for Lottie–who claims she has a message from Travis to share.
Episode two produces more issues for our present-day Yellowjackets, showing us a sleep-deprived Taissa having vivid hallucinations of her son, Misty coming face-to-face with the fellow investigative Redditor (Elijah Wood) she’s been sparring with, Shauna’s daughter vaping and flirting with an undercover cop, and Lottie confessing to Natalie that she was there when Travis died. These first two episodes highlight Lottie’s psychic influence in the past and the present, and while she has good intentions, her powers seemingly only cause death. Young Taissa realizes that Shauna has given Jackie’s dead body a makeover and promptly decides that it’s time to dispose of the cadaver–which they plan to burn. Jackie never helped her teammates scavenge or take care of their shelter in season one, but here she is given the chance to finally give back, when ice falls onto her burning corpse and effectively fries up a feast for her hungry friends.
The show was created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, and executive produced by Jennifer’s Body director Karyn Kusama–a dreamy creative grouping that has only proved their collective talents more and more as this tensely twisted and feverishly feminist story unfolds. Yellowjackets is critically-acclaimed and beloved by its audience not just because of its iconic cast, but because of their fearlessness in undertaking this brutal material. The show revels in its vivacious viciousness because its creators are keenly aware of how starved we currently are for diabolically fun storytelling. The uniquely feminine rage of this show feels cathartic, and its complicated portrayal of women of all ages is compellingly authentic.
The violence, the gore, the overall morbid sentiment borders on melodramatic, but each character, and the darkness that is imprinted on them, is rooted in realism. The performances continue to be superb, and the arrival of Simone Kessell as grown up Lottie means that Lauren Ambrose as grown up Van can’t be far behind. The second episode ends with a gloriously grotesque buffet of flesh that confirms everything that’s been implied thus far, and it makes this critic all the more excited for what’s on the horizon. Yellowjackets offers so much more than just bitingly bitchy dialogue and teenaged cannibalism, it is an innovation of feminist horror and an exciting showcase of raw talent. It is appointment television–that is discussed and dissected and theorized about on the internet and beyond–which is rare in the currently overpopulated TV marketplace. Season two teases even more mysteries, more mayhem, and if the first two episodes are any indication, more delectably disturbing answers to all of our lingering questions.
