‘Yellowjackets’ Sting Meter: Wilderness Gives, Wilderness Takes

Welcome to the Yellowjacket Sting Meter. It measures the anomalous and inexplicable behavior of the show’s main line-up and ranks them according to how dangerous, deadly, and overtly insane they are in each episode. Who is the Wacky Worker Bee and who will take the Mad Queen seat in Episode 9’s “Storytelling”?

of “Yellow Jacket” In the season two finale, an annoyed Shawna (Melanie Lynskey) finds herself on the wrong side of the group’s ritualistic hunt, exclaiming that the wilderness was never there, it was with them all along. increase. It’s the kind of self-reflection all adult survivors need to express themselves more this season. But instead of slowing down the chase or stopping the hand-made masked, knife-wielding women from trying to kill his friends, Lottie has enough to make us wonder, “Does it really matter?” stopped for a while.

Does it matter if the darkness itself existed or if it was invented by the girl-turned-woman to survive the terrible choices they made deep in the woods? Either way, it was with them then, and it continues to warp their relationships and twist their minds to the point where they can no longer function as normal members of society. Civilization will always feel like a cage when it has lived like an animal.

In “Storytelling,” girls from the past and women of the present come face-to-face with the stories they have created. to excuse their actions. To distance yourself from shame. To survive, to move forward, to make life worth living again. Not all succeed, and the pacing of this episode is both confusing and frustrating, especially in its treatment of the adult cast. But by the end of things, I feel like we’ve reached somewhere in the big arc of this show.

Queen Bee – Misty

Yes, we know the Wilderness first chose Lottie and then Natalie as their spiritual conduit, but there is a sentient invisible god who turns teenage girls into ferocious avatars of herself. What the hell do you know? The real Antler Queen has always been Misty Quigley. She used the team’s tragic mishap in Season 1 to inspire her own self-esteem, and this season not only saves Lottie, but the group’s carefully crafted story that gave her a seat of power. organized ritual hunts to protect deprived ecosystems. She committed a morally gray act in the process, but never truly learned from the negative impact it caused. Sam Hanratty said of Misty, “She never considers herself a villain in this story.” This means she doesn’t question the often fatal problem-solving methods. Will Nat’s death change things? who knows.

Walter

A deranged queen bee needs a psychopathic short king with dissociative powers on her level, and Walter Tattersaw is nothing but that. We had so much fun watching him whistle show tunes and brew hot barbiturated cocoa that he killed people to help the ones he liked, and the other. I almost forgot that I had tricked people. All without her asking. Guys, what’s not to be Walter Tattersaw?

Lottie

Poor Charlotte Matthews goes from deliberately running a community that Gwyneth Paltrow’s goop team celebrates as a sanctuary for the wealthy looking to connect with nature and enjoy the good vibes, yet another in the span of a few episodes. Turned into a deranged patient in a mental hospital. Indeed, Lottie may have lost it when he suggested playing Russian roulette with poisoned oolong tea. Or maybe she lost “it” when she scheduled a therapy session with an imaginary psychologist earlier than that. But in fact, witnessing Lottie’s horror as she learned what the girls had done to Javi in ​​the past, she realized that the girls thought violence was the solution to all their problems. After seeing how quickly Lottie relinquished the title when it became clear, can we pin the blame? Does the entire cannibal business rest solely on her shoulders?

van

Van, like so many girls before her, has had a crisis of faith and is hitting even more rock bottom, and actress Liv Hewson seems to be having a really hard time showing her dark side. is. Given the hope and optimism with which the young Van kicked off her season, she has a shockingly threatening and ruthless demeanor. Her cancer diagnosis clearly showed how she views Lottie’s mental breakdown in the show’s season finale, but perhaps Natalie’s sacrifice also solved that problem. Either way, there’s a veiled suspicion that Van has no choice but to dive deeper before this story ends.

natalie

Natalie’s death in the current timeline was shocking, but her ascension to Antler Queen and sacrifice to the wilderness in the same episode feels painfully poetic. Her survival instincts and aptitude for handling guns clearly make her an option as a leader among a group of girls who might otherwise be dining on nothing but belt soup, but Nat has grit and determination that she can exercise (for better or worse). I have only scratched the surface. It’s sad to see Juliette Lewis leave the show, but her arc this season has been disappointing to say the least. On the bright side of things, the disconnect from the present may allow Sophie Thatcher to really hit the ground running next season.

coach ben

Rather than see Coach Ben go full Frankenstein in this episode and see it create destruction, he chose to destroy his own creation, Natalie, but to an extent, the entire team. He can’t stand murder and cannibalism, and thinks he’s gone too far to save the girls, but his arson acts also have a purely selfish motive. Once the girls learned about his cave and decided to eat the crab, he would be next in line for the butcher.

Travis

Travis can hold his brother’s frozen corpse, munch on his heart, throw it in a frying pan and watch it sizzle like a slice of bacon, all in a matter of minutes. Yes, the Yellowjackets have taken “hungry” to a whole new level this season.

Taissa

Thailand’s sleepwalking symptoms seem to be slower than they used to be, could hunger have something to do with it? – But she now has a lot to worry about. Van vacillates between deeming Lottie clinically insane and hinting at her wilderness theory, but it might not be too far off. Shauna and the rest of the girls plan a phantom-hunting session to trick a nagging witch doctor into committing suicide. She is a newly elected senator found in the middle of a crime scene at a cult facility deep in the woods. I honestly can’t wait to see how her PR her team plays out all this.

Shona

Shauna Shipman suffered so much this season that she wasn’t sacrificed to the hoaxed tree god despite drawing the Queen card and being antagonized by her friends for no reason. was good. In fact, this search ended up working in her favor, slowing down her police move and giving Walter time to put up Fall Guys and cover up her lover’s murder in a clever way. But none of it comes down to witnessing a frightened and bruised teenage girl having to cover her eyes in order to let the boy bleed. yeah. Shawna may feel invisible to her teammates, but she can’t live a day without her. I hope she exercises that truth for herself next season.

curry

We’re sorry that we’ve hurt Callie’s ways so far because she’s been the low-key hero in this episode. She saved her mother from a mob of fanatical middle-aged women in animal masks. She overpowered the police who tried to intimidate her and turn her against her family. And when she learned that her mother’s friends were into cannibalism and ceremonial knifeplay, she didn’t lose it. But how will this death and bloodshed affect her in the future? If the look Melanie Lynskey gives her in the final scene suggests anything, it wouldn’t be a good thing.

Jeff

“The American family is falling apart. You’re trying to make ends meet.” Never change, Jeff Sadecki.