So, explain this to me, because it looks like bad writing: why the hell would the majority of the group listen to Shauna being like "you are not going anywhere", like?? Nat and Travis have a rifle and a crossbow for fuck's sake! Just go and get it over with it, what is Shauna going to do to 11 people? Yell and throw a knife? What was the point of having votes for offing Ben but Shauna says something and it's okay?? How that decision gets accepted so fast? Why would Natalie give her rifle to her just after? Looks like odd writing to me, there needed to be much more conflict.

The snow falling was too much winter is coming and her and Akilah can’t do another winter. Nat finally having her breakdown after trying to be strong for everyone. It sad that they ones with bad homes lives want to go home her and van my poor babies

I did this same cosplay for Nightmare Weekend 2024, and I’m proud to say that the makeup is massively improved since then :)

Alright, this is some heavy meta-analysis from a media nerd lens so if that’s not your thing, scroll on. Also, if I’m right, I’m ruining a surprise built on several years of carefully crafted work by some very talented writers, so I’m going to put the theory behind a spoiler blackout so you can stop at any point (also it does contain spoilers for the most recent episode). Proceed at your own risk. (That said I could of course be *wildly* off base and pulling things out of thin air and I am totally open to that being the case).

With all that, here’s my theory:

Yellowjackets is a piece of metafictional horror, where the true antagonist is not a demonic force or a supernatural manifestation, but the audience’s desire to consume the spectacle of female pain**. “It” is the structural demands of the horror genre, serving up the characters suffering and trauma for our enjoyment.**

The show is holding up a mirror to us in our voyeuristic (cannibalistic?) desire to consume these women’s pain, craziness, violence, anger, sadness and loss, and each episode it is starting to telegraph that more and more clearly:

• Melissa looking into the camera when talking about her “boring” life. She’s acknowledging we’re not interested in normalcy – we want chaos and brokenness
• The VHS glitch when the frog scientists show up, and Lottie screams “No”. That’s why Lottie axes him – “It” (Us) are rejecting him and his interruption of our viewing. We don’t want him here, possibly ending the trauma we are enjoying watching. Edwin and his analytical, rational, outsider observation risk shattering the mythology and our immersion
• Shauna saying “no one cared about you before me” to Melissa isn’t about the rest of the girls, it’s about us – and it’s true, we didn’t even know her name before she became involved with Shauna
• Melissa asking “Isn’t this what IT wants?” when she stabs Van – isn’t this what we’re here for? A show about pain and brutality?
• Us being detached from the actual emotion of Van’s death to join her in watching it cinematically play out on a movie screen in an episode titled “How the Story Ends”
• The conversation between Young Van and Adult Van basically voicing the expected audience reaction: “It’s hard to watch” (we, as the audience, are looking away from the actual emotional repercussions). “This is just how our story goes” (It’s what the genre / the narrative demanded) “WTF!? “I’m dead!?” You said I was going to be a hero!” (This death is not playing out according to the narrative arc we were expecting!)
• “Surviving this was never the reward” – surviving just means being put through more suffering for the sake of audience enjoyment. The reward is death – “The kindest way to lose someone” – and the appreciation and adoration of the audience

Within this framing, a whole bunch of things about the show make a lot more sense:

• The deaths are abrupt and unsatisfying because they are playing out according to the rules of a realistic psychological horror genre (real life is messy and abrupt and meaningless, and characters on these shows die not for greater thematic reasons or according to mystical narratives, but because the senseless pain of their loss drives the horror for the other characters), not the satisfying closure, success, redemption or condemnation we are expecting from the archetypes of the characters we’ve been given (elaboration here). It is a genre clash and the realistic psychological horror, and its inherent lack of satisfaction, wins every time
• Kodi coming in as a hypermasculine survival fiction trope from Deliverance or The Edge, setting the audience up for misogynistic expectations that a strong man is going to restore order and rescue these girls – but he’s in the wrong genre, and gets quickly discarded. His emptiness is the point – it’s a myth of masculine wilderness authority that is powerless and irrelevant to these girls
• The abrupt end of Kevyn Tan and the police investigation storyline – in a different show, he would have been a stabilizer, moral compass, light of truth. But he’s not part of the trauma economy, so he is also quickly discarded. His purpose was to move things forward, and once he no longer served the needs of “It”, he was removed

Etc etc – the show consumes any narrative arc or character that resists the central narrative economy of trauma and pain. Yellowjackets consistently pulls away from conventional narrative closure in order to foreground realism – life, and trauma, are messy, absurd, cruelly timed, meaningless, and anticlimactic.

If the show says true to this meta-horror structure, then it’s not going to end in clear answers, or moral resolution, or even a satisfying “what was the wilderness” reveal. If anything, it will turn the camera on us and expose how our need for narrative bows, meaning in pain, and consumable trauma, was the real villain all along.

The final horror may be that there is no cosmic order. No “It”. Just our human refusal to accept randomness and face difficult truths, and the lengths we will go to in order to impose structure, meaning, - and digestibility - onto human suffering

Thank you to u/Archive_intern, bc this was the piece that unlocked everything for me: The Wilderness, or “It”, is us, the audience.

I personally am not disappointed at all about Kodi. Everyone's entitled to their opinions on it of course, but for me personally, I wasn't expecting Kodi to have some major role here. We already knew the two scientists and their guide never make it home. There were tons of ways that could have played out, and I liked being surprised finding out what exactly happened. I feel like a lot of people get super attached to their pet theories about cabin daddy or whatever and then get upset when it doesn't happen, which seems like such a stressful way to watch a show! And then when their theories don't come to fruition, they call it bad writing.

To me it makes perfect sense that a manly man like Kodi would be eliminated quick. He was so bold from the beginning, making misogynistic comments and underestimating the yellowjackets because he figured hey, these are "just teenage girls." He literally saw them eating someone and still thought his masculinity guaranteed he would come out on top. Instead, understanding the complex power dynamics at play was what truly mattered, not brute force. Hannah survived that moment with Shauna because she was observant and cunning, not physically strong. She observed Shauna's role as dictator, the fear the other girls have of her, what she did earlier to Melissa, and made a split-second decision to earn her trust. She learned quickly how to play the game, and Kodi didn't. He never would have even seen it coming in his wildest dreams, because again, "women." He was even in the process of calling her a cunt when she did it; though to be fair, she was absolutely doing him DIRTY in that moment. Eat or be eaten.

I think Kodi's story goes to show that no one can survive the society the yellowjackets have created without being sly, strategic, and most importantly, observant of social subtleties. Things like knowing who is aligned with who, the psychology of who you're dealing with, etc. Hegemonic masculinity has no role in their world, maleness is not privileged, which is something completely foreign to us as viewers! I really like the subversion of gender dynamics at play here. I plan to write something up about this soon from an academic perspective.

I truly mean no hate or negativity with this post whatsoever, I just thought I'd offer a different perspective on Kodi and a place for people who enjoyed the episode to chat about it!

Side note, I know it's gonna get worse for Hannah now that winter is here, but tbh I don't think Kodi would have survived winter with the yellowjackets either, for all the reasons above.

After she snitched on coach for realistically no reason, she was dead to me. Oh coach, my coach. I'll never forgive them for what they did to you.

That when Shauna shoots the gun so it hits Melissa’s jacket and she pissed herself, Van was the one who ran up and covered her and comforted her when Shauna finally walked away. It makes me even angrier she ended up killing Van 😭

That’s why Melissa knew Van wouldn’t kill her, even in the cutthroat wilderness with an angry kill happy teammate in leadership where they had to kill each other for survival, Van wasn’t as cruel as the others.

I was talking to my partner about this and how every time I’m watching and then remember it’s a show I am astounded by Sophie’s performance. The sadness and sorrow we felt for her in season two and the hatred and anger we feel for her now is amazing to me. Her face has literally changed. It looks like nothing is behind Shauna’s eyes. They now look empty when once they looked full of life. I just think Sophie is doing an amazing job. Really everyone is but I think Sophie’s role is the hardest. To literally be able to CHANGE your face over the course of several seasons is amazing to me as a film buff.

Van and Tai's whole relationship is so Romeo + Juliet - tragic star crossed lovers and all that. There are so many similarities the (near death) by poison/toxic gas, being unconscious and then Van dying via dagger only to be discovered moments too late to save her. I guess within this comparison Melissa would be Tybalt, Simone is Rosaline, Misty is the Nurse obviously and teen Van is The Chorus, summarizing the tragic tale. There's also the speed at which they go from dating again in the adult timeline to Taissa calling Van her wife - all within the span of a few days.

Also when Van went to the doctor I noticed it was shot similarly to the fish tank scene from the 1996 film Romeo + Juliet but assumed at most it was a nod to Vans love for 90s cinema but with the addition of the Hamlet poster behind Van in the cavefume classroom and her tragic, violent death (caused by a feud she wasn't really involved in but got swept up in anyway) and the use of the song "exit music for a film" by Radiohead which was on the soundtrack of R+J as well -I now believe this scene was foreshadowing her doomed fate for all the cinephiles - like Van herself. For never was a story of more woe, than this of Taissa and her Van ya know

You can't tell me the remaining adults would reunite 25 years later and everyone's super cool with Shauna and still treating Misty like the crazy outcast, given what we've seen teen Shauna saying and doing.

I get that storylines have changed, due to actors departing the show (Juliette Lewis, mostly) but there's no way this turn in Shauna's storyline was planned from the beginning, given how season 1 plays out.

Cloning Lotties phone = he could have easily removed or added anything to trick Misty to go down a certain path

Shauna’s DNA under Lotties = no one else other than Walter has verified this, Misty is just taking his word for it

He does seem to be trying to drive a wedge between Misty and the other Yellowjackets and he attempted to make himself indisposable in Season 2 by poisoning the cop and blackmailing the other cop

My husband pointed this out last night… the “instagram photo” of a wine glass in Lottie’s phone appears like it could have been taken right here in Walter’s living room on the brown table. Which they so lovingly show, as if to remind us in the same shot. I still can’t shake Walter calling himself The “Moriarty to her Sherlock” but all I want in the world is for their nerd-love to succeed! 😭

words can’t explain how lucky i feel to have these two women bring something so special to this show. i am absolutely gutted and devastated. but so thankful i have gotten to watch them honor this beautiful love story that has touched the hearts of so many.

Just off the top of my head:

1. Adam's murder and the cops. So much could have spiraled out of control from this, but it was very hastily and sloppily resolved within minutes in the most unrealistic way possible.

2. Build up of Tai's political career. Had great potential to see how this could get really messy. Instead a senator just disappears from the public eye.

3. Kodiak. Several different ways this character could have been used for great mystery, drama, and intrigue. Instead he was just stabbed in the face and it was all over. Just a normal, thrifty guy after all.

4. Nat and Travis. We were shown early on how they had this super deep connection and were very close. Natalie was determined to get to the bottom of his mysterious death. Instead she died, too, and it was all washed away.

5. Lottie. Is found again after everyone thinking she was overseas. We see her starting to influence Callie. This could have created so much strife, tension, and tragedy. Instead we got a quick shot of Lottie being dead at the bottom of a staircase.

The mysterious cabin/Cabin Daddy with all its secrets (now burned up and gone forever). Crystal/Kristen falling off the cliff. Javi's mysterious friend (unknown what that was all about since he died).

And on and on.

I don't even bother to speculate or theorize anymore because I know the writers will just keep taking the easy way out, if they ever resolve it at all.

I get the concept of red herrings or misdirections, but it truly feels like every single major mystery we are strung along with does not have any payoff.

Normally I would be excited to see where this goes with Van's murder, Tai's reaction, Jeff facing his subconscious fears with Shauna, but I have lost faith in the writers that any of it will really even matter.

They have some serious epic setups that leave you on the edge of your seat, only to resolve them in the most unsatisfying and rushed way possible.

Still love the show and I will watch it every Friday but it is maddening.

I’ve seen so many theories of Walter being Alex or Walter being the child of the scientists or Walter being secretly obsessed with the yellowjackets or Walter having SOMETHING to do with something.

I heavily disagree. I think Walter is just a mode of comedic relief, and a way to move the story along? Anyone have any thoughts to this??

I don't really care that Van died. I'm sorry, but at this point if you're still palling around with Shauna after everything she's done in the past and present timeline, it's a lay with dogs/get fleas scenario.

This group all piled in a van to help Shauna go kill someone who may or may not be connected with Lottie's death (because they care about Lottie all of a sudden). Then after getting abandoned, they drag someone who Shauna clearly attacked back to a house, tie her up and open say they plan to kill her because they decided to openly talk about a previous killing Shauna did. Van objects to none of this.

Then, after all that, instead of helping said person escape the house because it isn't right, Van just laments she can't put the knife in herself. She doesn't have to, she knows Shauna and Tai are going to do it when they come back in.

I'm not happy she died, but I'm not sorry, either. Van had no issues cheering on others getting their hands dirty under the pretense she can tell herself she had no real part in it. I am team otherJackets. I secretly hope Gen and Mari are still around and help take out Shauna and Tai. The only one of the originals left with any redeemable qualities is Misty.

Van is my favourite character of the young storyline and I was so excited when they brought the adult Van in. I’m so upset they killed her off - especially right after Lottie. They truly killed off the only somewhat sane one lol. I’m also disappointed that she was under utilized - other than supporting in Tai’s story she ended up not doing much in the adult storyline.

Props to Lauren Ambrose for an amazing job. Damn I’m sad she’s gone :(

Stand up for herself more in a reasonable way as this season progresses. It feels like the spirit of Nat's jacket is helping her evolve or something. Or am I imagining this? lol

I love the idea of just turning the camera on us by the end.

I always thought the show would end with the public finding out what they did, but with a twist, that the characters don't expect, but we as the audience should. People finding out has been their worst fear since shit went sideways in the wilderness. They have worried this whole time it would destroy their lives, people wouldn't understand, and they would disgust people.

But when people find out, a loud and larger than expected group is obsessed with them.

• They fetishize them and their trauma.

• Countless proposals come in to monetize their story in many different ways.

• People constantly come up to them and talk to them about the literal worst things they have done in their lives but with a smile, like they think it was fun or something.

Yes, all of this must have happened when they got rescued, but this time it disturbs the YellowJackets way more because it's the true story. After seeing the public's reaction, they would rather be hated by society because that's what they think they deserve. Their fans and the media disgust them.

The characters we love so much would hate us the audience for loving them.

I just noticed (sorry if it's already posted or is stupid) that the pit girl and the one hanging from the tree are two different people, the girl hanging from the tree doesn't seem to have any wounds from falling into de pit, plus, she get sliced to drain her blood. When the pit girl it's being dragged in the snow, her wounds are already dry, maybe because of the cold or for being in the pit for a couple of hours.

Thats mean two dark haired girls are dying next episode. If Gen and Melissa got close to Hanna, they need some time to bond, I do think Melissa wouldn't have contacted Hana's daughter just for a bonding that lasted 2 minutes on screen.

Gen could have lived a little bit more than the others and Hannah too.

That let us to Mari and Brit dying next episode or one after the other. I don't want Mari to die 😭

Sorry, English it's not my first language.

“A little something for the road.” Flight 2525✈️