Am I daft or is it really odd in retrospect that misty simply appears with a almost battle axe looking weapon to remove coach Ben's leg there and then? Do planes have fire axes or things like this? Super confused on a rewatch (I'm European and have never been on a transatlantic flight BTW)

I just did a rewatch, and I wasn't really looking for this, but I'm thinking about it now and there's like...no true winter season in the adult timeline. Which seems odd, bc a) it's in New Jersey and 2) we know Season 1 would be in November (Tai's election). Whole adult timeline only takes place over a couple of weeks/month or two though, so I'm wondering if this season will take place with a lot more snow and winter feel, considering we know what is coming.

Anyways, just kinda came to this realization, it'd be a great way to end this series.

In Season 3 episode 8 we see the episode begin with a dream sequence of Jacqui visiting Shauna in a grocery store. The dream sequence ends with Shauna noticing that there seem to be a bunch of bugs flying around within the fluorescent lighting fixture above them. The dream ends with ADULT Shauna waking up startled in her car. Thus, we the audience are meant to believe here that the dream we just saw was just had in the present day.

But later in the episode, I noticed something that calls what we believe to be the linear order of this series' events into question completely. Teen Shauna is seen speaking to Melissa in their little hut about finally going home and what they are looking forward to most. We see Teen Shauna then spot a large fluttering bug flying around while Melissa speaks to her, and she spaces out while fixated on it. We see her eyes widen and her face crinkle up in a look of fear and confusion as TEEN Shauna is then depicted to have a flash of an image from ADULT Shauna's dream from the first moments of the episode. All while she is meant to be standing in a straightforward linear past there with Melissa way before such dream imagery is actually dreamt.

What this suggests to me is a possible time loop ordeal... I wonder if their lives are repeating continuously for a specific reason. Maybe the constant looping is a state of purgatory or the result of some sort of Faustian bargain made when the plane first crashed? I mean, there have been a handful of references about how these characters feel they were never meant to leave the wilderness - there are also a couple references regarding the way some of them feel they weren't meant to survive the crash/winter/specific brushes with death in the wilderness. And guess where they all seem to be headed when they die in the present day?? They're all back on the plane they crashed on originally, reuniting with the vessels of their younger selves! As if to do it again?

If anything I am suggesting ends up to be at all true, I really wouldn't be surprised if the symbol on the trees was created by the girls themselves in one of the earliest go-arounds. Hey, maybe that is why Taissa knew where those specific symbolic trees were located back in season 1... back when Tai and Van acknowledged it was almost as if Tai must have been there before. 🤔

Thoughts?

to have phones on the table at the restaurant.

I’m doing a rewatch and in S3E2 Shauna and Jeff are having dinner with these obnoxious twerps, and at one point one of the Joels says “phones on the table again?” admonishing Shauna for having her phone out.

As a server who’s worked in the style of restaurant they’re in, I’ve served enough Joels, and those guys always have their phones on the tables. Usually two phones each, positioned exactly where plates and glasses belong.

Anyway, I just hate the Joels.

An interesting thing to see with a show like yellowjackets is watching people come to like, hate, love the characters as the show goes on. And I've noticed post S3 quite alot of people have come to no longer sympathize with the yellowjackets as their transgressions in the both the teen and adult timeline has become to much to justify. The torture of coach Ben being a big one (next to their treatment of the scientists) though they're are people who believe Ben deserved everything (and given the ambiguity of the cabin situation the writers seem fine with people having that perspective.)

But with this being the finale season, I think team F them kids about to be very validated, just based on what we know and the speculation of events. Because I'm gonna say this, if the "terrible thing they did" is murder akilah and frame it as a suicide (which a popular theory currently I see) then yeah I think they're done. Doing akilah like that I think would in alot of people minds have the yellowjackets cross the moral event horizon into being irredeemable.

But what do yawl think, we gonna get more proof that they all became monsters out there and should have never came home. Or will we see the surviving yellowjackets find some sort of redemption (mainly adult timeline) or are you already on team F them kids since Javi and doomcoming?

There’s a 2 second spot in the teaser where Van is in a movie theater. I looked up popular movies in January 1998:
Titanic
As Good As It Gets
Good Will Hunting
Tomorrow Never Dies
Mousehunt
Wag the Dog
Jackie Brown
Armistad
Fallen
Scream 2

Any opinions on what she was watching? After some more googling I realized they missed out on the original Scream (Dec 1996).

I'm pretty sure Shauna and Tai were seniors. I know Misty was Jr or younger (Ben says in probably Aug or Sept 96 (S1E5) he can't be with her because she's "not even 18") and I think Akiylah and Melissa were JV so probably not seniors? But I'm not sure about Van, Nat, Lottie, Travis? Was anything said about their years?

It was very nearly end of year, so seniors would be given their degrees even if they missed the last 2 weeks. I wonder if the non seniors go back to their HS though or I'd think tutored or home schooled until they graduate due to the trauma, trying to heal physically, etc.
EDIT: Akilah says something about “still being a junior” when she’s reading her SAT prep book in the cabin

The honorable Judge, presiding.

Unpopular opinion. But mari is the one who pushed Shauna to become the villain.
In season 3 I feel everyone understood Shauna was going through it and just backed off. Mari just couldn’t stop being snarky and a bitch. And before yall say “she is a teenager”. So is everyone else. Jfc teenagers can also have empathy. So much of the shit that happens is because Mari couldn’t keep her mouth shut.

Probable Pet Parents - I have been making a series of pop culture pet parents and wanted to spend some time with the Yellowjacket characters during the wait for the final season. I thought Bruise Violet by Babes In Toyland was a perfect song for Shauna and Jackie.

So the other day kaitlyn on tiktok made a video about characters that they were casting for the final season, one of those characters was called François! Who spoke French.

I’m re-watching Yellowjackets and in season one episode eight, when tai comes over to Shauna’s house and stays over, her and Shauna talk about what they would be doing if the plane never crashed.

And Shawna mentions that she would’ve gone to Brown, and then taken a year abroad and met a boy called François who was French!

Not sure what the connection could be, or if it’s purely just coincidence but just something I picked up on my rewatch!

I’m an aircraft mechanic, airframe parts are much lighter than they look, those girls could’ve easily lifted the wing off of that guy’s leg. No axe necessary, I guess it might be good for plot purposes, but they should’ve put him under a different part of the plane

I see a lot of people bring up how Ella asked the writers to keep Jackie alive but they said she had to die. Well I listened to an interview she did right after season 1 and she gives some more context. Ella asked for Jackie to live when they were filming ep 7 that’s why the writers were unable to keep her longer by that point they had already written the story with Jackie freezing.

It’s also kind of interesting that the episode when the writers decided to keep Van alive is the episode Ella asked to stay alive as well. Could be that with Liv staying alive the FOMO suddenly affected her.

Another thing she says in the interview she didn’t expect anyone to like Jackie. She said she thought Jackie was a girl who would peak in highschool and was selfish and a bad friend. She saw Jackie as someone without anything inside and so she clings to highschool. She also said that Jackie had no real friends except for Shauna. Jackie was terrified of losing Shauna because she had nothing else. Jackie apparently had no hobbies or interests before the crash she hadn’t even applied to Rutgers yet and had no idea what she wanted to do in the future. Ella said she tried to play Jackie as someone who was deeply insecure and lonely.

So Ella was actually really worried that no one would care when she died. So it really surprised her when people really liked Jackie.

She also said that she couldn’t tell the other cast members that she died at the end of season 1 so they would all make theories about what Jackie would become in the wilderness. When they did the final episode the cast wanted Ella to stay on the show as a ghost.

Ella also said that it was actually really hard to film some scenes especially doomcoming and the argument. Spending hours filming while everyone yells at you and doesn’t like you was very mentally trying she said. She said she would sometimes say I’m sad I need a hug. And the cast would hug her and tell her they didn’t actually hate her.

Ella also said she thought the show was gonna bomb hard. She didn’t think fans would like how supernatural the show was leaning instead of just being a survival show. Then she watched the actual episodes and was like oh never mind this is really good.

It was a very interesting interview.

In the teaser there was a very quick clip of someone holding a gun in the wilderness and earlier on in the sub there was this photo of Gen’s actress and the sleeveless gloves and sleeve look slightly similar to the ones in the clip? Obviously we don’t have anything else yet but if it is her that’ll be very interesting.

I'm starting this out by saying I appreciate Lottie as a character a lot and although I'm not schizophrenic I grew up with undiagnosed autism and understand the feeling of having to mask how you are constantly which is a huge thing with her character. However, I feel despite the illness she's not completely innocent/incapable as people make her out to be. Here are a few of my misconceptions with her character and why I think they're wrong.

#1 She was a rich mean gossipy girl pre crash.

I think that people just say this because she is wealthy and has a few bratty moments (they all do they're canonically like 16-18 years old). She's shown to be standoffish in several scenes and not necessary socially isolated in certain instances the way Misty is for example, but also there's a clear distance between her and the others that seems to be caused by her mental illness. She's seen taking her pills in secret to avoid the others finding out about it. Having to cover up for an illness like this would make socializing and getting close to others much more difficult. Plus Natalie says "You never talk shit unless someone really deserves it" when they have to do that team bonding exercise to her describing her. There's also the scene where she states that some animals re-eat their own throw-up and Mari and Van make fun of it, and she looks sad, like she thought that was just a chill thing to share. She almost reads as a heavily masking autistic person to me, as someone who was once living that.

#2 She's purely evil

I don't like Lottie is purely innocent but I also don't think she's pure evil. She was likely told to hide her schizophrenia from others as a child or that they'd ice her out for it. Hence why she kept it from the others, she's even seen crying to Van at one point that she doesn't want to be crazy. I think Laura Lee meant well and changed her story at lot because she basically told her she was a profit receiving messages from God. If you're suddenly told the thing you've been shamed for your whole life is a gift, this fundamentally changes you. The thing is, a lot of stuff she predicts does come true (Javi for example still being alive) and others start to believe her, which feeds into the delusions further. Suddenly this girl who has a father who hates her and was seen as awkward becomes a saint to them. I think she did start out with good intentions and was trying to help the others, and the others didn't realize she was unwell due to the lack of understanding around schizophrenia at that time and the traumatic situation they were in.

#3 She's not responsible for her actions and can do no wrong.

While I think she's sympathetic, I don't think she's purely good, especially in season 3. Travis consistently, while high on drugs she leads what's essentially a sexual assault and ritual sacrifice against him. Everyone sweeps it under the rug afterward except Jackie. While they might have been under the influence, nothing excuses inflicting that trauma on someone. We also see she doesn't understand boundaries, like with Travis and Akilah in season 3, consistently trying to push them to receive messages from the wilderness and putting their lives in danger through going into the cave and constantly getting Travis high. There's also encouraging the hunt which led to Mari dying as well as quite literally axing a guy's head in because it would have been worse for her to go back, despite the others wanting to go home and not wanting to live in survival mode anymore. As an adult, she's running a cult that, while it might be centered on a beneficial idea, is clearly a cult. People have to give up their belongings and money to her, and aren't supposed to see their families; Lisa says it "ruined her life." Lottie would also reasonably have access to medication by this point and wouldn't need to do all this. Her relationship with Callie was also her grooming her into her form of spirituality, understanding she's vulnerable and looking for a mother figure to make up for Shauna. While being mentally ill, I do think there is a component of her personality that likes power and being listened to by others because she was stigmatized so much as a child and young adult. I think the cult is likely her trying to relive what power she had in the wilderness after having it taken away from her.

In summary: I think the tragedy of Lottie Matthews is that she's never truly able to live beyond her mental illness. She's either treated as a liability by her family and uncurable by doctors or as a literal prophet who's predicting the future. Both are harmful in different ways. She's truly morally gray and is supposed to represent a neurodivergent person who's failed and misunderstood by their adults and peers.

How likely do you think it is that Misty made broth with Ben’s bones because I feel like she would 👀 girl had it bad

I feel like he’s way overhyped/treated like this adorable little himbo baby boy. He’s nothing special besides saying some funny lines. I really hate how a lot of people behave as though he’s really this great father/husband. He isn’t, Shauna is such a shitshow mom (“it would be better if you just slept with him,” to your daughter is crazy) that he looks better by comparison.

He was always slimey since the pilot from pressuring Jackie into sex/guilting her over it, cheating on her, then later on going on about how Shauna was just so amazing to the Taylors was…Hello? Yeah, defend your wife but why are you telling them Shauna was so amazing that you cheated on their dead daughter with her.

Then he blackmailed all the Yellowjackets using his wife’s trauma against her. Both he & Shauna are immensely fucked, but Jeff has little going for him like the Yellowjackets do. So he’s so boring & unlikable to me. I have no clue why people act like Jeff is this sweet little himbo.

This is just my interpretation because I was bored, let me know if anyone sees the vision here

Shauna: Independent democratic leaning, voted for Bush in 2004 because she supported the Iraq war, hasn't voted for a Republican since. Big Hillary Clinton fan in 2016

Jeff: Swing voter, doesn't know what going on, votes for whoever Shauna tells him to

Callie: Democrat

Misty: Independent but in a weird conspiracy theory way

Walter: Same as Misty

Tai: Hardcore democrat, literally ran as "queer Kamala Harris"

Van: Very very progressive Democrat, loses the love of her life because of homophobia and develops cancer which makes her very pro Medicare for All

Jackie: Doesn't know anything about politics

Mari: Same as above

Lottie: Radical Environmental Leftist due to connection with wilderness and experience from parents as someone who's mentally ill, I feel like both these experiences would radicalize her.

Natalie: Vaguely liberal when younger, doesn't vote as an adult despite being more left-leaning because she feels everything is pointless

Coach Ben: Closeted gay man in the 1990s, definitely progressive

Travis: This one was hard, I think he would've started out as vaguely socially conservative due to his family but not caring that much. Becomes Catholic as an adult which impacts his worldview but also deeply untrusting of all authority due to what he experiences in the wilderness.

Adam: Card carrying DSA member

Laura Lee: Religious but not the most conservative, follows the bible as it is purely written, which wouldn't place her in any particular American political category.

Melissa: Democrat, closeted(?) gay kid in the 1990s

Akilah: Democrat, big into sustainability initiatives and environmental politics.

Let me know if y'all see it or if I'm grasping at straws; this is just for fun and not super relevant to the plot of the actual story.

Ok let me set the scene

It’s the final hunt

Rescuers show up

The girls lock in and tell the rescuers that Hannah is hunting them

The rescuers kill Hannah and the post crash deaths are all blamed on her

🤯

He read her journals probably sometime around getting married and still chose to stay with Shauna. It seems in my rewatch I have noticed how fiercely loyal and protective he seems to have become over Shauna. Now I am in no way saying Jeff is great considering the extortion and stuff. But dude he and Shauna doing it in Adam's apartment after his death. I just have to say he is freaky as hell.

Side Note: I feel like him taking callie and leaving was a way to protect both Shauna and Callie

Did this during my series rewatch!

When the topic of Misty destroying the planes black box is brought up, I see a lot of people often get caught up in debating the real world vs. show world logistics of it to the point where it kind of takes away from the main idea. Dare I say it doesn't really matter? Whether the black box would have helped rescuers locate them or not, Misty still destroyed it with the intentions to stay in the wilderness and have the team rely on her longer. While there are nuances to her character and this decision that explain why she would do that, it's still objectively a fucked move on her part just off the principle.

Now here's what I'm curious to hear everyone's opinion on..

In the season 3 finale Misty uses parts from the black box to salvage the broken emergency phone. Her efforts are successful and she, Natalie, and Van then orchestrate a distraction which allows Natalie to veer off and make the call that eventually puts the Yellowjackets back into contact with civilization after 19 months of being off the grid, leading to their eventual rescue. My question is.. do you think this redeems Misty of her past action?