(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
One word you cannot use to describe this season of Yellowjackets is boring.
The bodies in the past and present keep stacking up, and the finale doesn’t hold back. There is zero time to recover from the death of adult Van (Lauren Ambrose) at the hands of guest star Hilary Swank (who is playing adult Melissa) at the end of the penultimate episode.
So much happens in “Full Circle” that by the time Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) has climbed to great snowy heights, I had almost forgotten that Taissa (Tawny Cypress) buried Van and ate her heart. I know cannibalism isn’t new to Tai, but considering Van’s pre-death cancer status, this raw dish seems unwise (among many other reasons).
Van is not the only casualty of the Yellowjackets writers’ sword. Lottie (Simone Kessell) was a goner early on, Coach Ben (Steven Krueger) suffered before he was mercy killed by Natalie, and scientist Hannah (Ashley Sutton) stabbed Joel McHale’s guide in the eye to save her own skin. Not every actor is happy about their fate, and the present-day cast continues to shrink.
But one thing Yellowjackets isn’t doing is spinning its wheels. While I think Van and Lottie’s demise is premature, the big swings (particularly in the wilderness) have delivered thrilling and unexpected results.
The finale dishes out the answers to mysteries first introduced in the pilot—no need to speculate further about the identity of Pit Girl and the Antler Queen. While neither is particularly surprising, the execution is impressive, and there are several other twists to ruminate on now that the unhinged gloves are well and truly off.
Here are the most shocking revelations and moments from the bonkers Season 3 finale.
Callie Killed Lottie
Like mother, like daughter is Misty’s (Christina Ricci) conclusion when she confronts Callie (Sarah Desjardins) about murdering Lottie. It doesn’t take long for Callie to confess that she was the one who pushed Lottie down the stairs, but she didn’t mean to kill her. For some reason, I had never considered Callie a suspect, which probably means I will never be a citizen detective.
Callie went to Lottie’s place in New York to retrieve the mystery tape that we later learned was evidence of the Yellowjackets’ wilderness crimes. Lottie took Callie into the candlelit stairwell to reveal the big secret that Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) can’t love her daughter because she is jealous of how much of “It” runs through her. “You are the child of that place. It took our baby, and gave us you,” says Lottie. I think Jeff (Warren Kole) might beg to differ.
Mere speculation on my part, but the twists and turns in the past point to human choices rather than a supernatural entity guiding events. Either way, Lottie says she has waited 25 years for this moment, and rather than a happy ending, Callie pushes her down the stairs. Maybe “It” rejected its most vocal supporter, Lottie. More likely, a scared and angry teen girl felt cornered.
Jeff picks option number two. It is the wakeup call he needs to get his daughter out of this house and away from Shauna. A wife guy can only take so much.
Tai and Misty’s Present-Day Alliance
Tai blames Shauna for Van’s death, and who can blame her? Not me! And not Misty, who has entered an alliance of two with Tai. It is an interesting team-up because this pair hasn’t spent much one-on-one time in the ‘90s or the current timeline. Neither Tai nor Misty wants Shauna to be the last one standing, and it might be time for Misty to use Walter’s (Elijah Wood) unlimited resources to aid this quest.
Neither adolescent nor adult Shauna can read the room, and Tai has realized that Shauna fueled and thrived upon the worst things they went through in the wilderness. Teen Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) has become a monster, and forty-something Shauna is a menace (forcing Melissa to eat a chunk of her own arm is just one example).
Now home alone, Shauna goes back to journaling her rage, concluding the reason why they suppressed their survival memories isn’t because of PTSD but because they were all having so much fun. The looks of terror and grim resignation on the teen faces suggest otherwise. “I was a warrior. I was a f---ing queen,” Shauna writes. That is not not true, but I’m pretty sure everyone else hated it (other than Lottie).
Mari is Pit Girl, Shauna is the Antler Queen
None of what happens during the hunt is because of the Wilderness. Akilah (Nia Sondaya) poisoned the animals, which led to the suggestion of a sacrifice; Van (Liv Hewson) and Tai (Jasmin Savoy Brown) rigged it so Hannah would take the Queen of Hearts card death sentence, and Shauna moved position in the circle, ensuring Mari (Alexa Barajas) is the next victim. Shauna has long had a vendetta against Mari, taking great pleasure in this result.
Watching Mari try to evade her teammates is heartbreaking because we have seen a glimpse of this hunt in the pilot and know how it will end. The pit Mari fell into in the Season 3 premiere is now full of spikes, where Mari meets her bloody end. Shauna dishes out orders to prepare the feast, demanding Mari’s hair. Seeing her brunette locks on the Antler Queen robes is the horrifying icing on the cannibal cake.
I guess Shauna is right that she “was a f---ing queen.” While her paranoia about what the group was planning for the hunt was right, the Antler Queen missed one big clue.
Teen’s Natalie’s Perfect Dupe
During the hunt, Natalie uses the diversion to grab the satellite phone Van has been trying to fix. Earlier, Natalie punched Misty (Samantha Hanratty) in the face after discovering that Misty knew where the plane transponder was the whole time. But they are on the same page about getting back to civilization. Ditto Hannah, who convinces Natalie that all she wants is to go home.
Everyone is wearing a mask during the hunt, but if you notice, during the Mari preparation and feast, Hannah’s yellow face cover is absent. But it is Natalie who is not there. Shauna thinks the pink jacket-wearing Natalie drained Mari’s blood, but Hannah is wearing Natalie’s outfit (it helps that they are both wearing black ash eyeliner). When Shauna confronts Natalie about her involvement in messing with the hunt, she pulls down her face cover to find that it is Hannah.
“Where the f--- is Natalie?!” she screams. Not only does no one answer, but the whole team is glad Shauna has been tricked. Oh, and Natalie? She can’t hear Shauna screaming as she is at the top of a mountain to get the clearest line possible for the phone to work.
The one person more terrifying than a supernatural force is Shauna, who has nothing left to lose. There is no mystery to whether or not the Yellowjackets will get rescued, but how far Shauna will push the rest of the remaining squad in the present and past now that she is embracing the darkness gives plenty of food for thought. Roll on Season 4!
