Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of Yellowjackets.“Storytelling,” the Season 2 finale ofYellowjackets, picks up right after the penultimate episode left off, exploringthe aftermath of Javi’s (Luciano Leroux) death. In the present timeline, the six known survivors of the crash contemplate how to get past the night without anyone else dying and unfortunately fail in the process. However, the biggest plot twists come at the end of the episode, proving fan theories both right and wrong and leaving the characters in brand-new territory for the already renewed third season.
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In the Wilderness
Starting right in the thick of it, the girls (plus Travis) must confront their actions. They didn’t actually kill anybody (yet), but Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) almost died, and nothing was done as Javi drowned in the ice-cold Canadian waters. When they return to the cabin, Travis (Kevin Alves) is initially relieved to see Natalie still alive, but soon after, he finds his brother’s skin cold and blue. Natalie tries to explain, but he leaves her in his grief. He doesn’t explicitly blame her, and by the end of the episode, the two are on good terms. That doesn’t mean Travis isn’tangry, though. He expresses this to Van (Liv Hewson),who defends herself and the other’s actions: “I’m not ashamed, Travis. I’m glad I’m alive.” Her words are important and give a huge clue into the motivations behind present-Van’s actions. But that’s not all for Travis. He doesn’t know how to eat his brother.
Javi’s death also heavily affects Shauna (Sophie Nélisse). She is the assigned skinner for their kills, so she is the one that has to cut the boy up. She does, but not without hesitation and grief, and although she struggles, Shauna pushes through. Throughout the rest of the episode, it is clear that Shauna doesn’t do this without thought. She thinks that her actions and contributions will give others high regard for her, making her rejection sting all the more. And even though she’s not the Antler Queen now, there’s always another chance with another card draw… decades in the future.
The person who perhaps changed most by Javi’s meal isCoach Ben (Steven Krueger). He had already refused to eat Jackie earlier in the season, horrified by the feast. Accidentally eating somebody and purposefully hunting each other for food are not the same thing. Not only does he happen upon meal prep, but he learns from Natalie that she was the original target, and she let Javi die. Even if Natalie thinks that it makes her like everyone else, Coach doesn’t think that, and wants her to come with him to the shelter that he found and Javi had usedafter becoming separated from the group.
Things come to a head (or heart) when it’s actually time to eat Javi. Travis is offered his heart, and in a raw and disturbing moment, he takes a bite out of the uncooked organ before throwing it onto the pan with the rest of the meat. Misty (Samantha Hanratty) brings food up for Lottie (Courtney Eaton), but she’s unhappy with the sacrifice for her survival, and tells the group so much, stating that she never wanted to be the leader. She had her time, and now that people are on board with the idea of the Wilderness, someone else should lead who is better suited. She crowns Natalie as that person, since she was chosen to die but didn’t, giving “it” responsibility for her survival. The queen of hearts now has multiple meanings.
Ben just happens to see these events from afar, witnessing Natalie’s crowning and the others submitting to her rule. With his faith in her broken, and already a broken man on the verge of a psychotic break himself, we can assume that he is responsible for what happens in the middle of that night. Shauna is jealously journaling about not being chosen as the Antler Queen when she smells smoke and discovers that the cabin is on fire, but from the outside. The girls are barricaded in, but with Taissa’s (Jasmin Savoy Brown) handy axe work, the girls (and Travis) escape, watching their only shelter burn to the ground. It’s no mistake that Ben is the only person alive that knows about the cave shelter, making revenge slightly more difficult. But could this all be a red herring: that Ben has nothing to do with the murder attempt, and something more sinister is at play?
At the Cult
“Storytelling” also picks up rightwhere the previous episode left off in the present timeline, that being Lottie (Simone Kessell) urging the girls to make a sacrifice to cure all the havoc occurring in their lives now, presumably because they brought “it” back with them when they were rescued decades ago. The girls don’t believe in “it” the same way they did when they were teenagers, so Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) obliges her for the moment until they can figure out what to do. On the fly, they decide to go along with her idea, but tell Lottie they need to do the hunt like they used to, clearing them from drinking the possibly poisoned drinks right then and there.
While the Yellowjackets are preparing for their hunt, Jeff (Warren Kole) and Callie (Sarah Desjardins) are being followed by Saracusa (John Reynolds) and Kevyn (Alex Wyndham), and Walter (Elijah Wood), who was previously seen emailing the police, arrives to help Misty (Christina Ricci). Running into Kevyn, he lethally poisons him, but Kevyn doesn’t pass out until after Jeff makes a false confession to save Shauna. When he does pass out, Walter uses Jeff to help him carry out his plan, blackmailing Saracusa to go along with the frame job on Kevyn, finally closing out the Adam Martin storyline.
Theplanis to have a “psych team” arrive at the compound to commit Lottie, but before they meet to draw cards,Van (Lauren Ambrose)cancels them. Throughout the episode, with young Van’s conversation with Travis especially, it’s evident that Van does this because she doesn’t want to die, and is willing to go to enormous lengths to give her any shot at survival, including letting one of the others die at her (and the others') hands. Still, she pushes this down and instead says she doesn’t want to just cart her off to the psych ward, especially considering their responsibility for her trauma. Without the others knowing this yet, the women draw cards and in the second round, Shauna is chosen. She tries to talk her way out of it, arguing that there is no “it,” but the others have already fallen back into a version of their old dynamic and chase her into the woods.
The final confrontation begins when Callie (who arrived with Jeff earlier) interrupts the chase, shooting Lottie in the shoulder to protect her mom. This truly ignites the chaos that tells Lottie that “it” is with them. She tries to explain how it always has been, but the others deny it, or at least from Lottie’s viewpoint, are in denial. Now Lisa (Nicole Maines) interrupts, having stayed behind despite Natalie (Juliette Lewis) asking her to leave earlier in the episode. She’s bewildered by what she’s hearing and holds a gun to Natalie and the others. Natalie tries to reason with her and get her out of the confrontation, especially due to their bond developed over the course of the season, but Misty runs at Lisa with a drug-filled syringe. Natalie protects her by jumping in front, and Misty accidentally lethally injects it into Natalie, her proclaimed best friend.
As Natalie begins to die, her mind goes back to the plane as she sees Javi, her younger self, and a younger Lottie, who helps her process her death. This final scene solidifies that Javi’s death and her role in it began her spiral of guilt that would follow her for most of her life. It also shows that deep down, she may have still believed in “it” despite having come a long way since she took the trip that made her tell Travis that she thought they brought “it” back with them.
Natalie’s death is ruled an OD by authorities. Lottie is committed to psychiatric care for the second time, the first one adding another layer of trauma on top of her experience in the woods. With Tai (Tawny Cypress) and Van most empathetic to her, they see her off. Natalie’s death only confirmed Lottie’s beliefs to herself, and before she is taken away, Lottie tells the two that “it” is pleased with them for giving “it” what it wanted. Van is led to believe that Lottie is somehow knowingly referring to her terminal cancer. With most of the other threads tied up, this is the biggest lead on how the present timeline could proceed in the third season.
The first two seasons ofYellowjacketsare available to stream on the Showtime app.
