Oh boy, here we go! I’m sure you’re feeling a lot of emotions heading into this Yellowjackets 309 recap, as it was a very emotional episode of Yellowjackets!!! There are massive spoilers regarding this episode, so please if you’re going to say anything spoilery in a comment, frontload it with non-spoilery text so it doesn’t show up in the recent comments box on the homepage. Let’s get into “How the Story Ends,” the penultimate episode of season three. It was written by Sarah L. Thompson and directed by Ben Semanoff. As a reminder, these recaps are totally free to read, but they are generously supported by our members, and you can become one today for just $4 a month! Also, I’m hosting a YELLOWJACKETS FINALE WATCH PARTY! RSVP required, so reserve your spot now!
This episode is called “How the Story Ends,” and this episode ends in a very tragic place. Here is where it begins:
Van, in the hospital, on oxygen. “Where’s Taissa?” she asks. An orderly in scrubs turns around, and it’s her younger self. Getting to watch Liv Hewson and Lauren Ambrose act in the same scenes together these past couple episodes has been such a treat. They’re both having incredible seasons, and they mirror each other disturbingly well. Teen Van catches Adult Van up: Misty and Tai are still here, but Shauna abandoned them. Adult Van wonders if this is a dream. “Am I dead?” she then asks. “Death is around every corner,” her younger self replies. Van, always cutting to the chase and no-bullshit, replies to this cryptic with a matter-of-fact “what do you want?” Given where this episode ends, this scene is pretty devastating upon rewatch, but it’s also funny, and that speaks to how good Ambrose and Hewson are at embedding humor amongst the horror.
On that note, Teen Van asks Adult Van very seriously if she remembers The Goonies. Adult Van is exasperated as her younger self then recaps the plot of The Goonies. There’s a point Van’s trying to make: The Goonies has a classic hero’s journey. She seems to be suggesting Van go on a hero’s journey of her own. “X marks the spot,” Teen Van says, adding Taissa knows. Adult Van notes Tai hasn’t really been herself. As in, she’s Other Tai at the moment. Teen Van suggests this is even more reason to listen to her. Teen Van injects black liquid into Van’s IV bag and tells her to get the treasure.
Adult Van wakes up from…whatever you want to call this: a dream, a hallucination, a space between life and death. Tai is by her side, going through it. Van asks if she remembers a time when they were by the shore and an old dying guy was there housing a box of saltwater taffy because it’s the only thing he wanted to do before he died. Tai offers to take her home and get her some taffy, but Van doesn’t want to go home, and she doesn’t like taffy. There’s some other adventure Van wants to go on. “Goonies never say die,” she says.
Again, this is all very hard to rewatch and consider once you get to the end of the episode.
Photo Credit: Kailey Schwerman/Paramount+ with SHOWTIME.
It’s time to check back in on Shauna and Melissa. Oh yes, they’re right where we left them! Shauna is force-feeding Melissa a piece of Melissa’s arm. “How can you do this?” Melissa asks. “It should be obvious by now,” Shauna says.
Melissa eats the piece of flesh, and Shauna grins. But then Melissa spits it in her face, temporarily disarming her. Hilary Swank and Melanie Lynskey have another very good action sequence, but then Melissa manages to get away and get in her car. Only one problem: She’s nearly out of gas, something her wife pointed out last episode.
The gas warning light indeed comes on right before we cut to the title sequence.
Photo Credit: Kailey Schwerman/Paramount+ with SHOWTIME.
We also pick up right where we left off in the wilderness, with a standoff between Lottie, Shauna, and Tai against Nat and all the others. Nat tells Shauna she can’t tell everyone what to do, and Shauna responds that she already did and that they’re going to do it. Lottie of course rambles that it’s what It wants. Tai is…sort of the voice of reason? If there can be a voice of reason when it comes to a truly unreasonable decision. She says no one is saying they can never leave, just that they shouldn’t leave right now, when there’s much to clean up.
“Well it sounds like you guys all have a lot to discuss, so have fun braiding each other’s hair and partaking in some light cannibalism, I’m fucking out of here,” Kodi says, turning his back to walk away. He chose the wrong girls to be lightly misogynist and infantilizing toward. Shauna grabs the gun and aims it at him.
“You sure you even know how to use that, little girl?” Kodi asks.
“Don’t worry. My boyfriend taught me.”
SHAUNA!!!!! My girl is acting unhinged, but I literally clapped for this line. Go off, (antler) queen! Shauna orders for Hannah and Kodi’s shoes to be taken away as they’re taken to the animal pen to be held as prisoners.
Van asks Tai if she meant what she said about leaving eventually. “Those frog scientists lost their shit when they saw Coach,” Tai says. Uhhhh, yeah! They saw his disembodied HEAD while the rest of you were eating the rest of them! “Imagine what’ll happen when the rest of the world gets here,” Tai says.
As I wrote last week, seeing the frog scientists see them broke something in some of the Yellowjackets, like holding up a mirror to all the worst parts of themselves or sparking an instant replay of all of the worst things they’ve done in the name of survival. Van knows the mind tries to forget things to protect itself, but she needs Tai to try to remember what winter was like. “We survived,” Tai says. “We ate a fucking kid,” Van adds, Hewson’s delivery absolutely gutting.
Van says the game will run out and they both know what comes next. “Good thing you’ve been practicing with the cards,” Tai says, suggesting that Van has perhaps been doing some sleight of hand exercises so they can rig card pulls. Van’s face falls as Tai says this. She can’t believe what Tai is implying: that they could choose who lives and dies. Of course, in the present day, that’s exactly what Tai has been trying to do, too.
Tai, Van, and Misty are on the road in pursuit of Shauna. They drive past someone having a worse day than them, and Misty tells them to stop the car, instantly recognizing Melissa, who is indeed having a very bad day.
When Misty calls her name out the window, Melissa turns to run. She has already been terrorized by one Yellowjacket today. Facing three MORE? Tai reverses the car and cuts her off. Tai then pursues her on foot and literally SLIDE TACKLES HER. “I got you now this time,” Tai says, suggesting she has tried to take her down before. Tai’s former cutthroat soccer player self for real just came rushing to the surface.
Misty threatens Melissa with a tire iron, and she finally gives in. Van, still in the van, turns and sees a railroad crossing sign. X marks the spot. She takes it as the sign her younger self told her to look for. But sometimes a sign is just a sign.
Van, Tai, and Misty are all bewildered by Melissa’s presence. They asks if she sent the tape, and she confesses. She also tells them about Shauna making her eat her own fucking arm. They decide they have to find her. Van tells Melissa to shut up or she really will be dead, and Tai seems alarmingly into the fact that a sinister side of Van is coming out.
In the wilderness, Travis sets out a bunch of sticks, looking a little, well, out of his mind. He tosses a log onto the sticks, and they collapse, revealing he has rigged the pit. As in The Pit. A bunch of sharpened sticks wait at the bottom. We’re getting closer and closer to Pit Girl I feel.
Shauna walks past the animal pen strapped with the gun, and the eye contact she and Kodi make is so good. He clearly still doesn’t take her seriously as a threat, and she so clearly is a threat everyone should take very seriously. As Shauna nears her shelter, she hears chatter from the other girls. It seems like some of this is fueled by paranoia. And it wouldn’t be the first time Shauna has succumbed to paranoia.
She meets with Melissa, Tai, Van, and Misty to tell them she thinks the others are plotting something. The rift between Shauna and Melissa has grown. Shauna’s short with her, and Melissa’s withdrawn. Misty suggests she could be a double agent with the others. Shauna tells her to do it.
In the present day, Shauna is frantically cleaning up the blood in Melissa’s kitchen. Her own face is still covered in blood, making Melanie Lynskey look so much like her younger self in Heavenly Creatures. She hears someone entering, so she grabs the knife and hides behind a corner ready to attack. But fear not, Shauna! It’s just your friends who are used to cleaning up your messes.
At least she’s self-aware enough to admit she has probably made things a little worse for them all. She’s surprised and relieved though to see they’ve brought Melissa back. Shauna says that since Melissa sent the tapes, she clearly must have killed Lottie. But Misty chimes in to point out Shauna’s DNA was under Lottie’s fingernails.
Misty thinks Shauna is trying to pin Lottie’s murder on Melissa. Shauna then once again lists all the things she thinks Melissa is guilty of, including the freezer, which is when Misty finally admits actually she was the one who locked Shauna in the freezer. It was to teach her a lesson.
Photo Credit: Darko Sikman/Paramount+ with SHOWTIME.
Tai comes to Shauna’s defense, and Misty asks if she’s just going to take her side. “Of course she is,” Melissa says. Tai is often blindly loyal to Shauna, which we’re seeing in the wilderness timeline this episode, too. Their dynamic is an interesting one, and I always think back to how Tai was the only one who figured out Shauna was pregnant and also that devastating scene where they tried to perform a DIY abortion together. Tai also has always seemed to take Shauna as a threat more seriously than others. Tai is nothing if not smart, and it’s smart to side with Shauna.
The freezer reveal shocks Shauna. You can see it all over her bloodied face. The narrative she has built around Melissa doing all these things — the phone, the brakes, the freezer, the tape — crumbles. It’s seeming like Melissa is truly only responsible for the tape. The rest are all coincidences turned into a conspiracy by Shauna’s paranoia. Paranoia is a dangerous force; it’s what led to Shauna killing Adam. It’s also what drives Shauna in her decision to force the others to stay in the wilderness.
Misty isn’t sticking around to be Shauna’s maid again. She leaves, vowing to get to the bottom of all this.
Travis goes to Lottie and tells her he felt something in the woods and thinks It might be trying to talk to her. He asks her to come with him, and she agrees. Did Travis set the pit trap FOR LOTTIE?! Is he trying to kill Lottie so they can have one less person standing between them and rescue?!
Gen, Nat, Mari, and Akilah whisper to each other about how they don’t want to do another winter. Nat says they just have to wait. Akilah says if they do have to do another winter, she hopes the wilderness chooses her first. Akilah seems caught between two competing desires: wanting to be rescued and wanting to continue believing in the wilderness as a mystical force.
Gen wants to steal the gun back. Nat says Shauna hasn’t let her leave her side. Mari thinks Shauna is too chickenshit to actually use it, but Nat doesn’t think so. Count Nat among those who understand just how dangerous Shauna is. Nat has another plan.
Callie is rolling a joint and being her usual moody self. Jeff is pumped about something and pops into her room to celebrate when he notices the weed and barely tries to parent. Callie isn’t having any of it. He tells her the Joels offered him the job, and then he tells her the nugs she’s adding to her joint are too big and to grind them up some more. Jeff has decided to be a Cool Dad, but I’d argue what Callie needs is just parents who are unconditionally there for her when she needs them.
Misty has a driver drop her off at a location arranged by Walter, who descends in on a helicopter. Oh Walter and his elaborate stunts. The citizen detective duo are back on the case together.
Teen Misty tries to buddy up with Akilah, Gen, and Mari, but Mari says they saw her with “Team Crazy” and to quit embarrassing herself. Looks like mission Double O Quigley isn’t going so smoothly.
Misty notices Van leaving camp and decides to follow her. Van is collecting a bunch of cables from the airplane, and she pulls the broken satellite phone out from a tree, trying desperately to fix it. Tech dyke is on it!
At Melissa’s beautiful home, Van and Tai let slip that this feels a lot like when they helped Shauna clean up her Adam mess, even if there isn’t a body yet. “You just dug her grave,” Shauna tells them of Melissa. If there’s one thing about Shauna, it’s that she doesn’t want any witnesses to the worst parts of her. Now Melissa knows she killed a guy named Adam. “What kind of psychopath brings home a dead woman’s tape and then marries her daughter?” Shauna asks, revealing Melissa’s wild ass choices to Van and Tai after Melissa tries to turn them against Shauna by summarizing the Adam stuff.
Photo Credit: Darko Sikman/Paramount+ with SHOWTIME.
While Tai, Van, and Shauna aren’t looking, Melissa closes the flue to her fireplace.
In the wilderness, Melissa is keeping watch over Hannah. They’re playing a game, and Hannah jokes about turning on the TV. Melissa is charmed by this and says she’d do anything to be able to watch The Real World. Here’s where Hannah tells Melissa about having a 10-year-old daughter. This does endear Melissa to Hannah. It is so fascinating to think about the fact that Melissa will go on to MARRY Hannah’s DAUGHTER, because it’s easy to see Teen Melissa having a bit of a crush on Hannah here or otherwise seeing her as a mother figure. Either way, it’s all sorts of levels of psychologically messed up. And the fact that Melissa still thinks she chose a normal, boring life compared to Shauna? Delusional!
Hannah’s clearly manipulating Melissa by joking around with her and opening up. She says this is the most fascinating study of survival she has ever done as a scientist, even more so than horny frogs. “Probably because teenage girls are even hornier,” Melissa jokes.
“Am I interrupting something?” Shauna asks, intensely serious in the face of their giggles. Melissa’s face falls and she follows Shauna out. Shauna wants to know what they were giggling about, telling Melissa it’s dumb to get close to her because she’s clearly just using her to escape. Melissa then tells Shauna about Hannah’s kid. “And you believe that?” Shauna asks. So Shauna did know Hannah had a kid, even if Teen Shauna tries to act like it’s a manipulation.
Photo Credit: Kailey Schwerman/Paramount+ with SHOWTIME.
I actually believe Adult Shauna does forget about Hannah’s kid until she hears it on the tape, and even then, I think she’s a bit surprised by it. I think she forgets for the same reason Teen Shauna tries to pass it off as a lie: To accept it as real is to accept harming a mother, and Shauna’s own survivor’s guilt about losing her baby is too big and all-consuming. Teen Shauna can’t accept Hannah’s motherhood because she’s still grieving the violent end of her own.
Shauna calls Melissa fucking stupid, and Melissa storms out. But Shauna isn’t done. She follows her out, and in front of everyone, she tells Melissa: “No one gave a shit about you until me.” Melissa stops in her tracks. Everyone watches this very public dyke drama awkwardly. “Why can’t you just be a nice person?” Melissa asks. “You’re nothing,” Shauna replies, doubling down in the opposite direction of Melissa’s question. Melissa tells the others they were right, that Shauna is fucking nuts.
Shauna aims the gun at Melissa. “Say that again,” she says. I AM BEGGING PEOPLE NOT TO TRY SHAUNA!!!!!! “I fucking dare you,” Melissa says, not heeding my wise advice. Shauna fires, grazing Melissa’s jean jacket without breaking skin. Melissa pisses herself in fear. It’s every bit as fucked up as the arm eating moment.
Photo Credit: Kailey Schwerman/Paramount+ with SHOWTIME.
Travis and Lottie are out on their own, and if Travis was trying to kill Lottie, he seemingly can’t bring himself to do it. He tells her it’s all bullshit, that they have a chance at rescue and she’s standing in the way of that. Lottie says she wanted him to see that Javi’s here. “I just wanted you to feel him, too,” she says. The wind whistles. Of course Travis does want to believe in something bigger, that his brother’s spirit could really be with them. But he does know none of it is real, and he knows Lottie is causing more harm than good.
Lottie steps dangerously close to the pit trap. But she stops just short of it, turns around, walks away. Travis at his core is a good guy, so even though he was probably willing to let her fall, he isn’t going to push her or tell her to keep walking. He can’t take it that far.
Mari is guiding Hannah in the woods to take her to pee. But it’s part of the plan. Nat emerges and hands Hannah a knife.She instructs Hannah to cut herself and Kodi free while everyone’s asleep. They’re going to all make a run for it.
Callie and Jeff are having a classic Father Daughter Smoke Sesh, splitting a joint. Jeff thinks they should be ladies who lunch and go spend a bunch of money at a new restaurant in town. Callie says Shauna would kill them if they spent that much money, and of course she’s not speaking literally, but given that her mother is indeed a killer, it’s interesting word choice! Callie asks Jeff if he meant what he said to the Joels about Shauna, and he says he just said it to save his ass. Neither Callie nor Jeff seem to really believe that. She admits she feels that way about her mother. Suddenly, this smoke sesh is not so fun.
“It is hard being married,” Jeff tells her, adding that it’s.lonely.
In the wilderness, Melissa also decides it’s too hard to be with Shauna. She enters Gen’s shelter and says “fuck Shauna.” She wants in on whatever they’re planning.
Kodi tells Hannah the others are asleep and asks her to cut them free, but she thinks she heard something. Hannah asks him who Erik Cheong is because his name is on Kodi’s rucksack. Kodi says he got it at a thrift store. But once again, paranoia has set in, this time in Hannah, making her distrust Kodi in a crucial moment. He asks if she wants to see her kids, and Hannah does start to cut their ties.
But Shauna is there to stop them, aiming the gun at them. She asks who got them the knife, and Hannah says it was Kodi who got the knife. She stabs him in the eye. It’s the smart move. She protects herself and Nat in the process, making a scapegoat of Kodi and pledging her loyalty to Shauna. “I want to be part of this,” she says, handing Shauna the knife. Hannah’s a scientist who studies animal behavior. She knows this is how to survive, by making herself part of the pack instead of their prey.
At Walter’s, Walter prepares two Martinis a la Misty aka a chocolate martini. Misty tells Walter that Shauna’s cat story about why she was in Manhattan the day Lottie died actually checks out. She’s starting to second guess the fact that Shauna really did it. Walter says her judgment is a touch clouded when it comes to the Yellowjackets, and Misty tells him she thinks he’s right. She wants to see Lottie’ cloned phone, but when he gets up to retrieve it, her facade drops. She’s playing Walter yet again.
Photo Credit: Eric Milner/Paramount+ with SHOWTIME.
She requests chocolate shavings in her drink, and when Walter goes to fetch them, she goes through the phone. She sees something that shocks her, and by the time he returns with the drinks, she’s gone of course.
Van enters Melissa’s house to find Tai and Shauna passed out and Melissa close to it. The closed flue. Van drags Tai to safety and places her oxygen mask on her. Tai then hallucinates herself in the caves. A telephone rings, and she answers it, can hear Van on the other side urging her to breathe. Then the real Tai walks into the cave and tells Other Tai to hang up. The two fight each other, and I’ll admit I wish it were a longer sequence just so I could see Tawny Cypress fighting herself. I love a doppelganger moment, especially when it becomes physical.
Tai wakes up, and it’s the real her. They kiss.
Photo Credit: Kailey Schwerman/Paramount+ with SHOWTIME.
Van goes back in to retrieve Shauna. She really is having her hero moment, the one her younger self alluded she was barreling toward, saving Tai and Shauna’s lives. The fact that she’s essentially saving them from fire takes on even deeper meaning given all the times she almost died by fire.
But then there’s the issue of what to do with Melissa, who is writhing on the floor, still tied up and gasping for breath. Van stands over her with a knife.
In the wilderness, Nat is devastated by the news the escape plan was thwarted. Sophie Thatcher is doing so much without having to say much this season. Nat cries as the first snowflakes of winter start to fall.
She hears footsteps in the distance and sees someone, so she follows to find Misty uncovering the destroyed emergency transponder from the plane (specifically, the one SHE destroyed). “I know how to get us home,” Misty says when Nat asks what she’s doing. Misty brandishes the antenna from the transponder, a way to fix the satellite phone. But Nat of course is stuck on the fact that Misty has the transponder and knew where it was this whole time.
Van uses the knife to untie Melissa. But she still stands over her, holding it out. Melissa tells her it isn’t the only option, killing her that is. Van doesn’t seem so sure. “I have cancer, and there’s a chance that if I can kill you right now, maybe I’ll be allowed to live,” Van says.
“You don’t really believe that,” Melissa says. And I agree. I don’t think Van believes it deep in her heart. And it’s not like she wants to believe it either, because to want to believe it means to want to kill someone else as a sacrifice so that she might live.
“You know they weren’t real,” Melissa says of the sacrifices and the rewards.
But Van doesn’t know that, and she thinks there’s a part of Melissa that doesn’t either.
“But you’re different, Van. There’s goodness in you,” Melissa says. “There always has been.”
Van insists she doesn’t know her anymore. God, the acting in this scene is phenomenal.
Melissa submits herself, tells Van that if the Wilderness is telling her to put the knife through her heart so she can survive cancer, then she should do it. Of course, put that way, it sounds absurd. But Van and Melissa and all the Yellowjackets have lived through absurdity. It is so hard for them to know what to believe and what to feel and what choices to make, because they already did something that should be impossible by surviving a plane crash and then isolation in the wilderness as teenagers for a very long time.
Real life is full of tragedies and absurdities, and often those things go hand in hand. When experiencing a tragedy or experiencing something absurd, the same question comes to mind: how is this happening? And also: why? I’ve always loved when this show plays around with the foundations of reality, makes us second guess what is “really” happening, mixes in absurdist tones and scenes. Because that’s what it really feels like for these characters, I think. Their tragic lives are full of absurdity.
Van indeed asks Why here. “Why can’t I just be that? Why?” she asks.
“You don’t want to be,” Melissa says.
“No, I don’t,” Van says.
Photo Credit: Kailey Schwerman/Paramount+ with SHOWTIME.
To kill Melissa right now would not mean completing the hero journey her younger self sent her on. It would be something else entirely. This isn’t what she set out to do in this episode.
Melissa reaches for Van’s hand, still clasped around the knife. She lifts it and stabs Van in the heart. “But I do,” Melissa says.
“Isn’t this what It wants?” she asks.
Van falls back, and we’re transported to a plane, just like we were when Nat died. Van looks up, and the movie screen on board is playing footage of her own death.
And if you thought the Nat death scene was devastating, this one is so much harder to watch. Tai and Shauna re-enter Melissa’s house to find her. “Babe?” Tai asks, her voice breaking.
On the plane, Van watches it all play out. Her younger self appears again. “I know,” Teen Van says. “It’s hard to watch.”
“I died? I’m DEAD?” Adult Van asks, incredulous. (Even here, Ambrose manages to inject some humor into a truly tragic moment.)
Photo Credit: Kailey Schwerman/Paramount+ with SHOWTIME.
She wants to know why her younger self sent her in there if she was just going to die. “It wasn’t my call. This is just how our story goes,” Teen Van says.
Teen Van says the treasure was getting the real Tai back. She was a hero; she saved the others. Adult Van isn’t very satisfied. “Surviving this was never the reward,” Teen Van says. But if this isn’t the end, then what is?
I know this episode and this choice to kill Van is going to be divisive among fans, but Van’s eventual death has been telegraphed not only since Adult Van’s cancer was first introduced but since the very beginning of the series when she started experiencing near-death incidents starting with almost blowing up in the plane crash. It’s a shock, but it isn’t out of left field. And increasingly, I’m starting to think what Shauna said last episode about the only way to guarantee none of your secrets get out is to be the last one standing was a bit of a prophecy. I think at the end of the series, there can only be one.
Van choosing to kill Melissa would have been the worse outcome here. It wouldn’t have tracked with Adult Van’s arc. Van throughout this entire episode and in both timelines sees the harms the Yellowjackets are perpetuating for what they really are. She has to remind Tai they ate a fucking kid. Does she go to the van during the Melissa interrogation because she doesn’t feel well or because she can’t stomach to be a part of this? Van may rely on movies as a lens through which to look at life, but she’s actually very grounded in reality in a way the other characters are not. By not killing Melissa, she chooses to end a cycle of violence. But there’s nothing she can do to stop Melissa from continuing it.
Nat last season. Lottie and Van this season. In the adult timeline, the violence and cannibalization of the Yellowjackets is ratcheting up just like it is in the teen season. And here, I mean cannibalization in a more figurative sense, this pattern of devouring their own. Misty killed Nat; Melissa killed Van. We don’t know yet who killed Lottie. But it’s fascinating that this keeps happening, that the biggest threat to a Yellowjacket is another Yellowjacket. I’m sad for sure, but I appreciate the series’ big swings and high stakes when it comes to killing off main characters and in such brutal ways that are difficult to predict and yet don’t feel random.
Next week, the season comes to a close. The fact that this episode isn’t a finale is wild! It feels very much like a finale. But Van said it herself: There’s still more to come. More tragedy, more absurdity.
Last Buzz:
- I said it up top, but I’ll say it again: I’m hosting a Yellowjackets finale watch party next Friday! RSVP to learn more!
- What the fuck part of Richmond, Virginia are they supposed to be in? I’m from outside of Richmond, and my parents live in Richmond, and it looks much more like they’re in like deep Henrico County or something? I suppose Melissa could still have a Richmond address and live outside the city — those areas certainly exist! But they should have made it Charlottesville or something? Sorry, this doesn’t actually matter lol
- “I guess you should have listened to your wife.” THIS DELIVERY.
- “Wow, what a totally satisfying answer.” Also THIS delivery. For such a devastatingly sad episode, there’s so much humor in here, too.
- Mari’s first thought of home being “cheeseburgers” is so me fr.
- Aquarium ornaments on Etsy!
- Was Shauna playing with the chunk of hair she found of Hannah’s while laying in bed????? That’s weird, Shauna!
- As far as there only being able to be one Yellowjacket left standing at the end of the series, smart bets are probably on Misty, but my bet’s on Shauna.
I don’t think this counts as a spoiler so I’ll start with it – It was adorable when Kevin Alves slipped into his Canadian accent at the beginning of the episode.
Now spoilery things
I thought Lottie did walk on to the trap. She took a step forward, we heard wood cracking, and then she took a few more paces before turning to look at Travis. Maybe I misread it.
I should have seen this episode’s death coming as soon as I saw the title, How the Story Ends. What else would you call the episode that features the death of your storyteller? I’m slow on the uptake.
Since Natalie’s death showed us Lewis and Thatcher on the plane together, and Van’s showed us Hewson and Ambrose on the plane together, I hope we will get a scene of Eaton and Kessell together next week when we learn more about Lottie’s ending. I really enjoy the interaction between the teen and adult versions of the characters.
I’m not trying to “well, actually” you Kayla, but it was Shauna who made the statement about there being safety in a lack of numbers.
whoops yes you’re correct i typed the wrong name — fixed and thank you!
i knooooow i want that lottie moment, too!
I still think this was dumb for Van to go out like that. Melissa needs to be killed by tai next season maybe they will kill each other at exact same time
Totally agreed with you on the Lottie moment, that’s exactly what I thought happened too! Not her avoiding the trap, but directly walking over it as though she knew she would be safe and protected by the wilderness somehow. It felt very Jesus walking over the water. It’s definitely veryyyy supernatural of her to do if so, but since we don’t know where she stepped exactly it still feels ambiguous. But I swear I heard the twigs bucking underneath her as she walked right over them. Lottie’s visions have always been a murky area, because there is some of it that is unexplained even with her mental illness, so maybe she did get a flash of what would happen. It’s also not hard to believe she had a moment of intuition there and could tell Travis was being strange about something and just stepped lightly to be safe.
1) Van and Van together is my favorite show, ever. I would watch them for hours just being hilarious and kind and hot and earnest.
2) Joel McHale is horrendous and brings the show down a thousand notches. He is so ridiculously cheesy. Super glad he’s dead now. Good job Hannah.
3) I hope both Shauna’s continue their unhinged journeys. Both actors are incredible and fun/terrifying to watch slide into madness.
Buzz buzz buzz no spoilers (which started autocorrecting to “spikes” which feels fitting).
I agree that I thought we saw Lottie walk out on the sticks, hear some snapping, then she looks at Travis and you can see he is kind of like WTF? Her walking in water moment.
Wow, what a phenomenal episode. The Vans are my favorite to watch, and today was no exception. Now spoilers are coming at end of this phrase….
I love the theory that there’ll only be one left standing. Bc that sure seems like where we’re headed, and I agree it’d make sense to be Shauna.
🎵 Two (or a whole soccer team) can keep a secret if (all but) one of them is dead. 🎵
Younger van was also such a star with pointing out how they ate a kid! God, She’s my favorite character as the gay, down-to-earth humor of the show.
Annnd I found the way Van died unexpected but satisfying, especially her goodness showing up and with her younger self explaining it. I LOVE that she didn’t kill Melissa. Plus, now Tai can stop trying to save her from cancer, so ideally that opens up a further break from other tai trying to commit murder. At least I hope so, it’d be a bummer if we get a Willow Rosenberg situation here and OtherTai comes right back.
Oh and thanks for the recap of how Shauna grazes Melissa. I watch on my little cell phone screen and also am not the best at paying attention to tv, so was so confused bc I didn’t realize she peed herself! The physics were perplexing to my tired brain. Beyond being community-building and entertaining, I appreciate your recaps for clarifying parts where I just don’t really see or what happened.
I’m sooooo excited for the season finale and learning what happened to Lottie.
More thoughts. I don’t think these are spoilers, because just starting with reflections on Shauna.
I like watching adult Shauna so much more than teen Shauna, because as an adult, I’ve accepted that she’s already hit a point where there’s no coming back from it (ie murder(s)). So, with Melanie Linsky‘s delivery, she’s just hilarious. Everything about her ridiculous actions entertains me. Especially the last couple episodes. But as a teen, I’m more bummed out every time she crosses a new line.
Totally agree, Nat has so few lines but is bringing so much in her presence.
I would love to see the two Tais together, like we got so much good stuff with the two vans. Mostly, I’m bummed out when adult Tai is on the screen. Probably because she’s mostly been other Tai. But even back when she was with Simone, a lot of her actions were a real bummer. Younger Tai is so much more interesting to me… Even though it was painful, watching her tell van to rig the cards. But felt really in line with her arc.
I was shocked that Hannah killed kodi. Good point that it’s a good animalistic survival instinct, but still! I’d imagine this is her first murder, which seems like a pretty big deal. Also bummer that her fate is likely to end up in the bottom of the pit.
I am so here for PLL references. May there always be TV shows of teenage girls being terrible on our screens.
I just realized that part of what’s nice/elegant/tragic about what happened to Van at the end of the episode is that it leaves open the question of whether what Tai did (or almost did) last episode “counted” or “worked” or whatever you want to call it. We’ll never know now if Van’s cancer was magically cured or not. Which is both awful to think about and an incredibly satisfying line of continuing ambiguity. Right up there with the question of whether Lottie walking over the pit was magic, luck, or something else. (100% echoing everyone who compared it to her walking on water.)
This is a completely out there theory, and I’m not entirely sure I’m being serious. but…
(Adding some extra spoiler space just in case.)
Okay, so in this episode, we saw teen Lottie (possibly) walk on a surface that shouldn’t have supported her. How long has it been since Lottie died? Has it been three days yet?
Is the season going to end with adult Lottie somehow coming back to life?
I don’t think so, regarding Lottie, because I read a story with the actress recently where she said she was kind of shocked at being written off the show already. BUT I would love to be proven wrong.
This comment has been removed as it is in violation of Autostraddle’s Comment Policy. Repeat or egregious offenders will be banned.
you’re allowed to take issue with certain words but what’s not acceptable is demanding that everyone police their language use to adhere to your personal comfort level. Calling someone a raging bitch, btw, is also using derogatory slurs; it just happens to be a misogynistic one, instead of a homophobic one. This is such a deeply weird comment to leave, and you seem like a super unpleasant person to be around.
Not cool calling the author a bitch. Consider permanently logging off. The internet doesn’t seem like the ideal place for you.
I have to agree that using the d- word really felt jarring and alienated me. But calling the author names is unnecessary.
Despite your lack of generous assumptions, I’m going to generously assume you might not have seen how that word has been reclaimed in recent years by the lesbian community? Even so, there are about a million different ways a person could’ve gone about sharing their feelings re: that word other than personally attacking the author.
The world (and the internet especially) are a hellscape enough. Bums me out that you decided to add to it.
Mods please remove
Liv Hewson the actor that you are!
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG MENTION! Also enjoying the diegetic needle drops this episode, especially Hold On.
Tai driving the car in reverse to stop Melissa!? Crazy. Kind of hot, unfortunately.
Wow, Jeff gender journey. You ARE a sexy lady, Jeff! You can be a lady who lunches! I want this for you!
Nat shut down when Javi died. She shut down when she killed Ben. Watching her actually break down and sob here is so, so devastating.
I am thinking we may end the series with zero Yellowjackets – that being the only one left will not be enough to satisfy the paranoia, the fear, the haunting. No return!
okay actually it bothers me that their post-death plane scenes aren’t on The Plane! :(
yes great needledrops here for sure! meant to write more about that but this one got long
yes Tai going fast and furious moment was honestly quite hot i’m glad you said it lmaooooo
ooooo zero left standing is a fun outcome to consider!!! and would indeed be pretty fitting for the overall tone and scope of the series
The Glycerine needle drop at the end of the episyhit hard for me! I immediately went and listened to the whole song to extend the vibes from the end of the episode.
I somehow think that Callie will be the last one standing… I don’t know why but it just seems some kind of poetic justice for the teenager to be the one to end it all.
But tbh…. It will be Misty. She is simply the smartest and most procedural of them all.
I agree, seeing Nat break down was so sad. It made me think how much I miss the Nat/Travis interaction this season. have they even had a single scene together? I can’t remember. They have to reconnect before leaving the wilderness because otherwise their lifelong back and forth relationship doesn’t really make sense.
I have a horrible ear infection that has been making me feel miserable all day but thankfully Yellowjackets is so intense it distracted me and getting to come here to your article is great!
I have been thinking about how its rumoured that Juliette Lewis left the show earlier than intended, and how in this season it feels like a lot of what’s happening wouldn’t be if Nat was still alive. And Van feels like another loss of a character who was a tether to humanity.
I am fascinated on what people think Melissa’s motives might have been? She didn’t need to kill Van to escape. Does she think killing Van will keep her secret safe? Is her wife or child sick and that’s why she’s doing a sacrifice?
So, Nat knew about Misty + the black box but didn’t tell the others (as Misty would otherwise be dead). So is Nat keeping that secret what makes Misty see them as best friend’s? Adds a whole new vibe to Nat’s ‘Misty Fucking Quigley’ line.
I think that Walter killed Lotty and is setting up Shauna to try and get Misty to himself. I think Misty definitely thinks Walter framed Shauna.
Thank you so much for these recaps Kayla!! You always catch things I otherwise would have missed, and your humour is much needed to decompress after each episode!!
Thank you for reading!!! and thanks, I try to bring the humor as much as possible hahahaha. I guess I’m like Van in that sense!!!!
So honestly I don’t think Melissa HAD much of a motive beyond just a survival instinct/intense reaction. think about when Shauna first encountered her hiding in the pantry and Melissa was so firmly like YOU DON’T KNOW WHO YOU’RE MESSING WITH. also think about Teen Melissa giddily slicing Ben’s ankle (after coaxing from Shauna, but still). I think she has impulsive tendencies like Shauna does, and I think it’s yet another example of characters on this show killing when they extremely do not have to but THINK in the moment that they do. i think she thought this was the only way to get out of there alive/without Shauna and Tai attacking her. but of course now she has probably put a target on her back when it comes to Tai. but yeah I’m way more interested in thinking about this action of Melissa’s in terms of there being NO concrete motive. i also think that Van even CONSIDERING killing Melissa makes Melissa see her as a threat. i also think she was being facetious when she said “isn’t this what It wants”
As an RVA resident agreed they were not in city limits! That was definitely a county! And loved the Colonial Williamsburg butter churning shoutout!
I have two theories I’m percolating in my brain about how this show will really end. Maybe it’s because I watched From all the way through for the fifth time but…my mind is churning with a dash of From, a sprinkle of Dark, and a squeeze of Fringe. I almost don’t care because the ride getting there has a been a blast. No show is perfect and there will always be grumbles but first and foremost, they are humans and humans are imperfect oftentimes relying a lot on knee-jerk reactions and instinct. What my instinct is verses someone else’s is different. That’s what I love about this show. I honestly relate a little to each of the Yellowjackets in some way, be it survival mode, devotion to a loved one, or trust issues. I cannot say enough how much I love this show and this season, for me, has been a home run.
No real spoiler here, I just need to point out how it’s hard for me to be sympathetic with Jeff and all his complaining about Shauna this season. Dude, you actually started the whole yellowjackets show by blackmailing your own wife about some really fucked up shit she went through in her teens, which you perfectly knew about as you read her diaries!
Ooh GREAT point. I was trying to think why I’ve been less and less interested in any Jeff scene when they used to be some of my faves. Also, he and Callie just aren’t as interesting when they’re not actually with Shauna imo, so many Yellojacketsless scenes!
Technically, Jeff didn’t blackmail Shauna. He never intended for her to get caught up in that at all. The texts and postcards went to the other YJs he knew how to contact.
Should he have recognized Shauna would get roped in by the other YJs? Absolutely. He’s quite funny sometimes but he’s dim.
As usual, I went straight to this recap upon finishing the episode. Damn, what a penultimate ep of the season! Definitely eager for next week’s episode.
(hopefully enough words????)
While I do think there is so much to adult Van’s story that I would’ve loved, and I am GUTTED at her death, it does feel like the writers have a specific direction in mind. I’m determined to be patient for the “payoff” until proven otherwise (the writers are on thin ice but I aim to be a generous viewer!).
I tend to agree with you, Kayla, that if in fact Van had to die, this is a satisfying arc for her. Just as in Nat’s death, she tried to stop the cycle of violence. I do feel like that is one continual thing that the show posits: there are no outs for the trauma they faced in the wilderness and the ways that it affects the rest of their lives…except in death. No individual can truly hide or run from it. Submitting to It (“it” being the depth of depravity of the wilderness) as Shauna does only leads to more destruction. Destruction is a very difficult path to course-correct from, and no one person can stand in the way.
On the topic of bury your gays: since I do believe that the show’s position for these women is that death really is the kindest way out of the sheer unstoppable force of their trauma, it makes sense that Van had to die. As Melissa said, Van was always good, and on this show, good doesn’t get to stay around.
That being said, I wish Lauren got more time on the show. She brought so much to the adult timeline, and she left such a mark on one of my favorite shows.
Re: “death really is the kindest way out of the sheer unstoppable force of their trauma” – I can’t help but be a hopeless idealist/therapy stan and think “OR a decade or two of intense therapy!” But of course that wouldn’t make for good TV.
Oh absolutely! I even idealistically think there may even be a way out of it within the realm of this show. But if not, it all fits well in the container that the show has created. I think at the very least, given that Shauna really seems to be the main character, I hope for her own personal reckoning. That would be “redemptive” imho.
When the credits rolled I exclaimed to my dog that this was the best episode yet and she did not give one fig, but in her defense she slept through most of it.
Ok spoiler space taken care of!
Omg. Give Sophie Thatcher an Emmy! Her performance has been stunning every episode this season.
Hannah stabbing Joel McHale was shocking, but of course makes such sense! This is why these recaps should be required as part of the Yellowjackets experience.
Loved Van’s arc this episode. Lauren Ambrose has been SUCH a boon to the present day storylines, I’m going to miss her Van a lot! Between teen Nat’s processing spending another winter in the wilderness and the entirety of Van’s death/airplane scene, this was the first episode that made me cry.
Was looking forward to a “how do you do fellow kids”/“chronic” moment when Jeff caught Callie but oh well.
“This is why these recaps should be required as part of the Yellowjackets experience.” LOL love this
i truly love Van’s arc so so much and feel like it was so well done and I’m also so glad we got to see TWO long scenes between Hewson/Ambrose!
I really want to go back and watch just the adult yellow jacket scenes of the first episodes of season one. Now that we’ve seen so much more from the wildnerness it would be interesting to see their coming back together again. Especially Natalie and Shauna…last time we saw their adult selves together we had no idea where their relationship had been.
Love the observation that the show makes you experience the uncertainty, fear, and paranoia of the characters. Those gnawing questions of what is real are always there for them..and us.
Also major yikes that the only remaining main yellow jackets are Misty, Shauna, tai…doomed.
I just finished rewatching S1 with a friend who had never seen the show before, and it really does add so much to the adult YJ scenes. Like in the S1 finale, I had remembered that Shauna cut up Adam’s body, but I did NOT remember that Natalie helped her with it. And that hit so hard after the S3 scenes of Shauna first insisting that Nat cut up Ben’s body and then actually kind of helping her with it by giving tips.
yeah I think some of those dynamics are gonna read so differently on rewatch! i’m looking forward to rewatching!
Spoiler space spoiler space spoiler space, cannibal lesbians, cannibal lesbians, cannibal lesbians.
Okay I’ve come all the way around and my newest theory that will inevitably be wrong is that Melissa did kill Lottie after all.
It seems fairly unlikely, but another commenter posited that Lottie was practicing an apology for Hannah’s daughter – what if Lottie showed up at her house, found Melissa instead, and Melissa killed her?
Idk this SHOW, truly anything could happen and id be like “yeah sure okay”
Idk if it’s the state of the world or the way the show is escalating, but Yellowjackets has gone from a bright spot of my week to being kind of rough. Not due to a dip in quality! And not even due to the deaths per se. I’ve just found this season to be so deeply sad and upsetting.
I think the fact that they had a chance for escape and didn’t take it has recontextualized everything for me in a way that’s hard to stomach. I really respect that the show is going to these places.
Also did Walter kill Lottie and try to frame Shauna…
I completely agree. I’m finding this season riveting and totally engrossing. But that choice/enabling the choice to stay out there when they could have escaped feels like a really critical inflection point. Especially tied to the murder and eating of Ben.
It recontextualizes everything we’ve seen so far in the adult timeline. I think that’s great and very impressive storytelling that it can recontextualize like that without overriding, breaking continuity, or doing a big gotcha moment on the audience. But damn is it brutal to watch.
The Glycerine needle drop at the end of the episode hit hard for me! I immediately went and listened to the whole song to extend the vibes from the end of the episode.
I do now know how to start a new comment on this thread so forgive my ineptitude!
Do yall think Kodi would have really lead them to rescue? Can’t tell if he was just an asshole or if he would have caused harm (the YJs know all about causing harm but I’m wondering if their spidey sense was right)
It feels in a way like they blew their initial chance at getting out of the wilderness, yes. But right up until the escape plan got blown up by Shauna, I had been thinking it wasn’t going to work very well for the group anyway. Kodi had no reason to bring them to the rescue point because he knew they would kill him once there. I was expecting him to use the journey to take out a bunch of the YJs and then get away from them. Honestly, as soon as Lottie buried an axe in Edwin’s head that path was closed off.
BUT Misty seems to know how to fix that sat phone, and if she does call and that’s how they end up rescued, then maybe it’s not as different as if they had gone on a suicide trek with Kodi.
And it’s going to be the greatest irony if the girl who was responsible for them not being rescued within a day or two of the plane crash ends up being the one who brings rescue.
yes def deeply sad and upsetting in a way i admire! too much tv is trying to be “fun” these days and i’m like nah give me THIS (but i know this says a lot about me)
Kayla, your recaps are a delight. I’m from near Boston so I empathize deeply with your location issues – also fwiw Virginia may be the most beautiful state I’ve driven through. Gods country for sure.
Ok so maybe I’m alone on this but I’m not really jiving with the back half of this season. Idk why either, I like the show and I think all the individual parts (acting, directing, etc.) are really operating at the top of their game but for some reason it doesn’t cohere for me the way the first two seasons and even the front half of this one did. It’s doubly frustrating bc I can’t pinpoint my gripe!
That said; my heart keeps breaking for Callie. She’s just a kid searching for some reassurance in the midst of her home life fracturing and neither of her parents can get it together to be there for her. Jiff is, to his credit, trying but he can’t see that she wants a capital D Dad. She’s looking for authority not necessarily companionship and while it makes for a funny moment and a good character beat him smoking weed with her really fails her in that moment. Her face when Jiff is out of focus with his head in his hands just breaks across his loneliness, Sarah Desjardins is doing some great work this season.
Gonna shout out both Sophie’s here too- seeing Natalie cry instantly brought her youth back to her the same way Vans “I gotta call my mom” did a few episodes ago. And I really hate teen Shauna right now, largely bc she’s a bully. Sophie Nelisse is knocking it out of the park playing her like an exposed nerve.
Agent Quigley is gonna have some splaining to do! I’ve made it very clear I’m team quigley till I’m dead and all ate up so I sincerely hope she doesn’t wind up on that big ol plane to the next plane.
Speaking of which, and this may be my Catholic showing, I’m reading the Soul Plane as an indicator that these women are going to hell. The plane is shaking in both vans and nats scenes on it and that reads like sugar it’s going down. Van was the one good one among them but she IS the one who told them to let javi drown iirc and she did et him up so it’s not like she’s without mortal sin.
Also read the trav Lottie moment as her walking over the branches and not falling in like the commenter above but who knows!
Friday is band practice night but enjoy the watch party! I’ll be there in spirit and I’ll join you in the comments once I get a chance to catch up.
Also just noticed the Guy Picciotto and Videodrome references in the episode description, hell yeah
Spoiler block
X
X
X
X
X
Okay… im going to start by the things that actually surprised me this episode.
1. Hannah stabbing Kodi in the eye. I am one of those ADHDers that definitely calls the plot in most shows and I just didn’t expect that at all. Right up there with Lottie busting through Edwin’s (is that his name?) skull.
2. Shauna shooting the gun and Melissa pissing herself. That whole scene was just so hard to watch. And the utter joy Shauna shows on her face when Melissa pees herself was so rough to experience.
3. Jeff being excited to work for the Joels…. Like not a huge shocker, but c’mon, Jiff, dream bigger.
4. Nat seeing that Misty knew where the transponder was this whole time. Definitely makes me wonder if Nat ever disclosed this or if Misty ever disclosed she destroyed it to Nat.
And how close the box was to their camp. I keep not really understanding distance in this season. Like how far are they from the cabin? The caves? The pit? The lake? The plane?
I didn’t need for Kodi to stay around longer but I have to admit that seeing the Shauna rage aimed at someone who might have actually been worthy of it felt somewhat relieving. Like take the rage out on someone who isn’t your team.
Also, Shauna hasn’t actually killed anyone yet correct? Unless you blame her for Jackie’s death but she hasn’t actively murdered anyone in the teen timeline yet right?
Oh and Walter is deffo up to no good and I’m SO CURIOUS what Misty found on the phone!
Excited for next week!
i do kind of think of shauna as having killed jackie — not sure if that’s a fair assessment or not!
many
many
sad
faces
for
space
OK, that’s bullshit, it should have been Shauna to get killed, not Van! I was yelling “it’s not FAIR!” at my tv like a teenager watching this. Man, this show is just one gut punch after another.
At least they remain consistent in killing people off before we get any answers out of them. Now we will never know who Kodiak really was, I guess, or how he knew the woods so well. And at the end of the day, it WILL be Misty who saves everyone’s asses. Nat has been since day one, and remains, my favorite teen character and seeing her break down is gutwrenching.
Interesting you thought Lottie stopped short of the pit, I felt like she walked on top of it and it didn’t fall, and that’s why Travis looked so confused when she walked away. My newest theory about Lottie’s death is that her dad wandered away, and she followed him down to the basement and he didn’t recognize her, so they got in a struggle, she fell and died and her dad forgot about it in his dementia. Doesn’t explain Shauna’s skin under her nails, but I feel like it’s more plausible than another YJ doing it.
If it’s true that only 1 will be left standing, i think it’s gonna have to be Misty. Not because she tries to kill everyone else but because she is the one who tries and fails to be part of the group over and over, so she will end up alone, like she always has been.
I know we always knew Van was gonna die, but it just feels unfair that it’s at the hand of a freaking JV squad member!
can i ask what is the point of an article that’s just a beat-for-beat recap of the entire episode with no useful/intelligent commentary or insight? is this what pop culture journalism is now?