Yellowjackets season 1 finale: Unraveling the ending’s big questions

“If somebody’s digging, we’re all fucked.” That was the promise that got here from Shauna (performed as an grownup by Melanie Lynsky) on the finish of first episode of Showtime’s Yellowjackets. Ten weeks and numerous digging later, we’ve — properly, extra questions.

It ought to come as no shock {that a} thriller field present with 5 seasons or so of plot deliberate didn’t supply a lot by the use of rationalization on the finish of season 1. In a approach, the finale felt like a affirmation of the present turning into a “New Misplaced” — that it’d overtly hoard its reveals the best way the staff has to retailer meals for the winter. We nonetheless know little or no in regards to the circumstances of Travis’ demise, or the place the remainder of the Yellowjackets are, or what occurs to the infant.

However when all is claimed and accomplished, Yellowjackets is extra in regards to the experience than it’s the conclusion. Some large questions linger on, however the season additionally featured some standout set items, and with season 2 confirmed followers (hopefully) don’t have to fret an excessive amount of about solutions coming (some day). And so we’re reflecting on that season finale and the questions that may proceed to hang-out as we await the subsequent installment.

[Ed. note: As you might have surmised, this post will be spoiling the end of the first season of Yellowjackets. Read on at your own peril.]

Photograph: Kailey Schwerman/Showtime

Zosha: Even with all of the comparisons to different reveals of its ilk, Yellowjackets felt singular in opposition to the TV panorama, the right bleak place to flee to, simply in time for the vacation season. I don’t assume the writing was at all times the smoothest, however it was clearly sensible sufficient to construct a thriller that might stand up to some ready time. So kicking us off: What shocked you most within the remaining episode of the season?

Joshua: That is going to sound bizarre however … Taissa successful her election? One of many extra attention-grabbing issues about Yellowjackets fandom is that the present-day storyline isn’t as broadly mentioned, not from what I’ve seen, a minimum of. It is smart: Whenever you begin with a bunch of stripling ladies doing cannibal shit, that sort of takes up all of the oxygen within the room. However most of Yellowjackets hasn’t gone again to that! A variety of the present is smaller, private stuff, and my shock is the place the present-day Yellowjackets find yourself — I sort of presumed their lives would start disintegrating, however Taissa is succeeding (though privately issues are not kosher) Shauna appears to be holding her household collectively regardless of killing a dude, and Misty is … Misty. The one one who appears to be bearing probably the most is Nat, who’s kidnapped moments earlier than making an attempt suicide. We’ll get to the previous in a second, however I need to know: The place are you at with the present-day stuff?

Zosha: The current-day stuff is on the entire not my favourite. It has nothing to do with the actresses — they’re all excellent, and produce out not solely attention-grabbing new strains of their characters, however attention-grabbing echoes of their previous — however relatively that I want nothing greater than to see all of the characters bouncing off one another. So whereas the 1996 Yellowjackets timeline affords the promise of bizarre spooky cult shit that results in cannibalism sooner or later, it’s additionally simply enjoyable watching the assorted factions kind and reform. For me, the present-day picked up pace within the again half of the season, as soon as we obtained the reveal that Taissa was additionally “the unhealthy one” within the tree that her son was seeing, and the remaining Yellowjackets got here collectively to (attempt to) cease a blackmailer.

So I suppose my greatest shock from the finale is that we didn’t get any extra of that! All season everybody I do know has been fancasting the grownup variations of the opposite surviving Yellowjackets, and I suppose I actually satisfied myself that we’d see one of them on the reunion, contemplating how constructed up that was as an finish of season occasion. (Regardless of Taissa and Shauna saying there was “nonetheless no signal of the others” for months within the pilot.) That being stated, was all of it value it for the reveal that Lottie appears to be nonetheless alive and wielding extra affect than ever? Possibly.

Joshua: I’ll be sincere, I don’t significantly look after piecing collectively the thriller on reveals like this. I’m in it for the experience. Stuff like Jeff saying “There wasn’t a guide membership?!” or an ill-advised seance deep within the woods. I feel you’re proper although: The 1996 story is simply full of plot and character in a approach that makes the present-day story really feel slightly slack as compared. I just like the give attention to Shauna’s marriage, however it comes at the price of the opposite present-day Yellowjackets, and any scenes of them interacting. Possibly that is by design: Maybe subsequent season will give attention to Nat extra, and so forth. However none of it has had any momentum since Travis’ homicide, and the present spending an entire season withholding who else could have survived feels coy in a approach that’s pointless. Are you a giant fan idea particular person although, Zosha? Who do you assume remains to be alive?

Photograph: Kailey Schwerman/Showtime

Photograph: Kailey Schwerman/Showtime

Zosha: I’m not normally a giant fan idea particular person, and even with Yellowjackets I discover myself not as all in on the puzzle field components of the present as others. However the delight of a communal viewing present like Yellowjackets is that you simply all of the sudden discover your mind is filling in issues in a different way than the folks round you — like how and when the group may fragment (or whittle down) within the woods, or who remains to be alive. We knew Jackie didn’t make it, however the revelation that she died as a result of she stubbornly refused to sleep inside on the night time a snow storm blew in (Coach Ben wyd man, you’re the grownup) is neat: Ultimately we all know the Yellowjackets shall be extra intentional about who lives and who dies, however each loss is tragic at this second. And that is one of the simplest ways to make it possible for Shauna actually feels it.

However to reply your query, I’m holding out hope that Van is alive. Thus far she is unkillable, and (possibly cult-indoctrination apart) I feel I hope she didn’t come to the reunion as a result of she’s residing in some cabin within the woods, having discovered contentment in contrast to the remainder of them. However a lot of it finally ends up feeling sort of foolhardy; in spite of everything, we all know that eight of them partake in a cannibalistic ceremony again close to the crashed airplane sooner or later throughout their time on the market. Issues obtained bleak! However I suppose at this level the largest thriller for me is the general narrative that’s shaped round them: The reunion reception was fairly rosy general, however who else made it out? In what state had been they found? How a lot does most people know, and which components are being stored to themselves?

Joshua: Yeah and that is the power of the best way Yellowjackets is telling its story: The stroll to cannibalism is a sluggish one however it begins with stuff that’s already there! Such as you, I feel it’s very sensible that it’s only a common outdated falling out that ends in Jackie’s demise, and that the Doomcoming in the end didn’t finish with them killing anybody. They’re all able to dreadful issues, and it makes each step nearer to what we noticed within the premiere that rather more horrifying. That stated, I’m curious in regards to the determination to make its most sinister characters the 2 distinguished nonwhite Yellowjackets — one thing that’s solely underlined by its overwhelming curiosity in white ’90s nostalgia. This ties into one other tough line Yellowjackets is strolling — what’s occurring with Lottie? I do know the creators and actors are conscious of some of these items, however how do you assume it’s dealing with all of it to this point?

Photograph: Kailey Schwerman/Showtime

Zosha: Just about any plot line that offers with “is it supernatural or is it psychological well being?” skeeves me out. I feel the success of Lottie’s storyline to this point is that there isn’t a therapist within the narrative who tells her to disregard what seems to be a really actual supernatural entity; as a substitute it’s the teammates type of acquiescing in their very own solution to her simply … being eerily proper when she says issues. Particularly as they’re all weakened by starvation, trauma, and hopelessness, they may simply really feel like they want one thing slightly extra.

However as a pal put it to me just lately: There’s not normally a ton of payoff in not telling your viewers one thing only for the sake of hiding it! And as you say, the longer the present refuses to unravel the thriller the extra the narratives calcify round what we all know in bizarre methods. It definitely looks as if no matter cult (Lottie’s cult?) kidnapped Nat within the current is the one liable for killing Travis. However we nonetheless don’t know why, or what he thought she was proper about (and it looks as if Juliette Lewis has some ideas about what we owe to Nat’s character, if just for her personal sanity).

What’s the one factor that may hang-out you till Yellowjackets season 2 premieres?

Joshua: That goddamn pet head. What the fuck, man. (No however actually: Please maintain the messed-up stuff coming, I find it irresistible.)

Zosha: For me it’s Nat’s bleached hair — the actual fact it hasn’t grown out after months within the woods looks as if the strongest case to this point for some supernatural meddling.

Now you can watch all of season 1 of Yellowjackets on Showtime.