Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
Lottie and the Bear
Episode 10 of Yellowjackets begins with the girls waking up in the wilderness, having recovered from their eventful mushroom-fueled night. Nat shows up to see Travis, who’s obviously still spooked from the night’s events but claims that he’s fine. The thing is, camp is very much not fine. The situation with the shrooms is spilled, as everyone learns that Misty drugged them all. However, rustling out from the trees brings a brown bear to the cabin. Lottie though is not scared, and while the others back away, she holds a knife and stalks toward it. As it drops next to her, Lottie proceeds to stab it, killing the large creature outright. There’s enough food here to feed the whole group, and hr earlier prediction about them coming into food very soon, eerily rings true. Meanwhile, Van has been through quite the ordeal and she speaks to Tai in confidence. She believes she was “between” places when she was near-death. Van is obviously in shock and Tai tries to incredulously laugh it off. For Van though, she vehemently believes what she saw and upon hearing how spooked her lover is, Tai throws her arms around Van and promises that everything will be okay.
Misty’s Alibi & Moving The Body
In the present, Misty grabs her gear from the care home, being sure to wave goodbye to the other workers on the way out. This is simply to give herself a solid alibi for moving her gear around. She’s agreed to Nat’s deal, but with specific terms to their agreement that include her attending the reunion later on in the episode. Misty soon shows up at Adam’s apartment, unnervingly jovial and happy. She implores them to listen to her, as she goes through how to move this body and cover up the murder (although Shauna is quick to dissuade the use of that word!) First up, everyone is to switch off their phones, with Shauna tasked with cutting up the body into pieces. Nat agrees to help her with this, while Misty and Tai are on “clean up duties.” While Nat and Shauna get to work chopping Adam’s body up, they both discuss what they’re all going through. Shauna admits that sometimes she sees the world through the lens of darkness, and theorizes that perhaps Travis really did kill himself after all. I mean, given what these women have had to deal with, it’s not outside the realm of possibility. Interestingly, Shauna also tells Nat that she needs to “forgive Travis” too. Misty’s morbid plan here involves cutting all the limbs off but being sure to separate the head and hands from the torso. Misty volunteers herself for sorting that, giving herself an alibi and a front. Earlier in the episode she mentioned how Gloria, the woman she was “looking after”, has passed away. So naturally, Misty shows up at her funeral but stashing Adam’s head and hands inside the coffin, just before Gloria is burned and cremated. It’s a genius cover story in truth, but it remains to be seen if they get away with it or not.
The Reunion Party
Meanwhile, Jeff waits for Shauna patiently at the 25 year reunion. Out of all the people to show, it’s Ally, the girl who broke her leg and couldn’t make the plane that day. She questions Shauna’s resolve but Jeff is adamant that she’ll show up. And show up she does. After disposing of the body, Tai and Shauna both arrive at the reunion together with Nat. It’s here that Nat finally starts to come around to the idea that Travis may well have killed himself after all. At the same time, Shauna confronts Randy and promises to kill him if he opens up and says anything about the blackmail. Midway through the party, Ally jumps on the microphone and shows off a big montage video for the Yellowjackets. As it centers on Jackie’s picture, Ally encourages Jeff and Shauna to get up and dance, right under the shadow of Jackie’s face. She claims it’s “what she would have wanted”. The thing is, it’s definitely not.
What happened between Jackie and Shauna?
After killing the bear, everything that’s been boiling up spills over into a messy fight. When Jackie refuses to give thanks for the bear’s sacrifice (despite everyone else doing so) she outs Shauna and her cheating to the whole group. Shauna hits back though and lashes out at Jackie, telling her she feels sorry for her best friend and the perceived “perfect life” she has. Shauna calls her weak and outs her to the whole group, claiming high school is the best she’s ever going to get. With the girls rallying around her, Jackie grabs her stuff and leaves. With Jackie trying to survive on her own, Javi goes missing. Travis heads out into the woods and tries to find him, but refuses Nat’s help when she shows up. He simply tells her to leave. She doesn’t though, and eventually it knocks down his walls and Travis admits that he loves her. As they embrace one another, we cut back to the present to see Nat cleaning up her apartment and throwing away the pictures of Travis. As she does, Nat sits on the bed with her gun, contemplating her own future.
What happens to Jessica?
Back in the present, Misty heads down to see Jessica. She’s unsure whether she can trust her but Jessica manages to convince her. She calls herself a “fixer”, pointing out how she cleans up the mess of the rich. This certainly resonates with Misty, who lets her go… or does she? As Jessica drives away, she puffs on the cigarettes Misty suggests she give up. The thing is, Misty has drugged her again, this time lacing the cancer sticks with fentanyl. As she drives onto the curb, she passes out.
Who wins the election?
With Tai spending the evening with her team, The election results are called in. The race happens to be much closer than anyone expected. However, as everyone sits around waiting anxiously, Adam’s face flashes up alongside a missing person report. Ordinarily that would be fine, but for the fact Callie knows about Adam and happens to be on the sofa with Jeff at the time. And she certainly looks worried as Shauna heads in with a bowl of popcorn and doesn’t even bat an eyelid to the news. The election itself sees Taissa win, beating out Phil in a stunning upset. As she sees the news come in, she smiles.
What’s going on with Tai?
At Tai’s house, Simone heads in to collect up her stuff to take to Sammy. Heading down into the basement, she finds blood droplets by the vent. She also finds a strange pedestal with a heart, their family dog’s head, Sammy’s toy and that same strange sigil up on the wall. That’s important, but we’ll explain why later on in this recap.
What happens to Jackie? Is she really dead?
The ending to Yellowjackets is absolutely insane and there are several shocks back to back that really gives us a peek under the hood of the mechanics behind this series and what’s really going on. First, Jackie freezes to death outside the cabin after being banished from the others. With everyone snug inside and sleeping, Jackie is left alone. However, in a vision from Jackie’s perspective, we see her encouraged to come inside the cabin by Shauna – or who she believes to be Shauna anyway. Inside, she sees a whole group of people, including many of the deceased and a shadowy figure who looks a little bit like Jeff. Or at least the older version of Jeff anyway. “We’ve been waiting for you.” He says ominously.
Who are the cultists? Is there anyone else alive from the wild?
In the present, Nat looks like she’s about to commit suicide. She has the gun to her jaw and is about to pull the trigger… when suddenly a whole rabble of people burst into her apartment. One of them, a man in a grey hooded jacket, has a weird necklace on that has the same symbol that we’ve been seeing all over the place. The same symbol, I may add, that we saw in Tai’s basement. Now, it would appear that Tai is part of all of this, and potentially calling on this cult’s help to secure the election result too. Anyway, Tai is not the real ringleader behind all of this. As Nat is taken away, kicking and screaming, we learn that the money transfer was actually enacted by… Lottie Matthews. Yep, she’s still alive and it appears she has a whole cult of worshippers outside too. This brings Travis’s perceived suicide into perspective, with it becomingly increasingly likely that these cultists actually killed Travis. The final shot of the season shows Lottie in the snow-covered wild, kneeling before the remnants of a tree trunk, dropping a bear heart and requesting the powers that be to “let the darkness run free”. It appears we’ve got some serious voodoo mojo to contend with going forward!
The Episode Review
So what next for our Yellowjackets? Well, it seems like Tai may have made a deal with the devil, especially if that wry smile is anything to go by. Has she been liaising with Lottie in the shadows this whole time to swing the election in her favour? That’s certainly hinted at here, and could well explain that strange pedestal in the basement if that’s the case. Now, it seems like Travis didn’t actually commit suicide and it could well be that Lottie is the ringleader of this cult. Those people who showed up appear to be her followers, and it could be that she’s brought her warped ideology back from the wilderness and formed a cult to keep her teachings going. Jackie’s death is pretty unexpected as well, especially in that manner. I was personally convinced that she’d be brutally killed by the girls as they turn on her but alas, seeing her frozen to death outside is everything bit as crazy. This season has been crazy good fun though and there’s the right balance of teen drama, mystery and fantasy in this puzzle box to make it an enticing small screen prospect. It’s one of the rare mystery shows that seems to have come out of nowhere and absolutely knocked it out the park. Sure, there are some plot contrivances here and there, along with a couple of plot holes (how on earth has Van recovered so quickly?!) but there’s a lot to like here, making for a really enjoyable watch. Season 2 looks set to be absolutely crazy – and we are all for it!
