The Wilderness Returns With a Twisty Mystery That Will Leave You Hungry for More

When Yellowjackets first premiered four years ago, it took a minute for Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson‘s Showtime thriller series to attract some buzz. As someone who’s reviewed Yellowjackets from the very beginning, it was fascinating — and mostly gratifying — to watch a show that I was personally hooked by go on to draw in more viewers with every new episode. In hindsight, Yellowjackets may not have been as much of a success story if not for its weekly release, which allowed the series to develop a bigger audience through word of mouth, increasingly out-of-the-box fan theories, and the type of internet watercooler discussion that feels fewer and further in between these days, especially on streaming. By the time Season 2 rolled around, the expectation was that we knew how wild Yellowjackets could get — but it turned out we’d only just scratched the surface of the series’ capacity for shocking twists, devastating character deaths, and increasingly hostile conditions out in that Canadian wilderness.

Yellowjackets Season 3 — or, at least, the first four episodes provided for review — does feel like the series offering us a moment to breathe in the aftermath of so much trauma. In the past, this crescendoed with the titular girls’ soccer team facing down the destruction of their ramshackle hunting cabin in the middle of winter, watching their only means of shelter burn to the ground. In the present, the surviving Yellowjackets descended on Lottie Michaels’ (Simone Kessell) “wellness commune,” resulting in the group donning animal masks and chasing each other through the woods — as well as the tragic death of one of their own in Natalie Scatorccio (Juliette Lewis).

When the third season picks up around six weeks later, it’s a loss that the other women continue to mourn, although no one might be taking Natalie’s death more personally than Misty Quigley (Christina Ricci), given that she was the one who injected that fatal dose of phenobarbital. Meanwhile, in the past, the girls have successfully survived the winter thanks to teamwork, raising makeshift tents out of wood, coordinated hunting efforts, and, quite frankly, sheer determination — although tensions continue to rise between several group members, threatening to reach a breaking point.

What Is ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3 About?

It’s summertime now, in the wilderness, and the Yellowjackets are patting themselves on the back for the moxie and determination that got them through that harsh winter. There’s even a stirring recap of past events given by Van (Liv Hewson), which seems to serve as a wink to the audience in bringing us all up to date in case we need the refresher. The problem is that it feels like revisionist history where Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) is concerned, as she sits in her tent furiously scribbling in her diary about what’s being conveniently left out of this retelling. Everyone is pointedly avoiding the more unsavory aspects of that winter, including the cannibalism they engaged in (both literally and figuratively), to make themselves feel better about being survivors — but for Shauna, who’s still mourning the loss of her baby in childbirth, it’s a sentiment that frustratingly wallpapers over cold, harsh truths with clichés about girl power. It could also be that Shauna’s still feeling a little irritated about Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) being chosen as the new Antler Queen over her (not that she’d ever admit to that).

It’s no wonder, then, that some of the previously contentious dynamics between teammates begin to rear even uglier heads this season. Shauna and Mari (Alexa Barajas) don’t have a habit of seeing eye-to-eye about most things, but even an activity as seemingly harmless as an outdoor game of “capture the bone” runs the risk of getting a little too physical. That’s not to say that Shauna finds herself on the outs with everyone in the group, because she does develop an unexpected ally in the form of previously-silent teammate Melissa (Jenna Burgess). Natalie appears comfortably positioned in her new role of leader, but doubts start to emerge about her loyalty to the rest of the group, mostly spurred on by the game of telephone Misty (Samantha Hanratty) decides to play with her own suspicions. Meanwhile, Lottie (Courtney Eaton) may not hold the same authority she once did, but she’s still finding a way to get her hooks into Travis (Kevin Alves) for the purpose of communicating with the wilderness. Oh, and there’s the fact that no one has seen or heard from Coach Ben (Steven Krueger) since he conveniently disappeared into the woods shortly before the cabin burned down — so did he have something to do with that whole event, or is he even still alive out there?

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‘Yellowjackets’ Season 2 Recap: What You Need To Remember Before Season 3

The wilderness is calling.

Cut ahead to the present day, and the survivors aren’t only grieving a fairly recent death; they’re all somewhat aimless in their current circumstances. Taissa (Tawny Cypress) makes quick quips about becoming the first senator to successfully impeach herself before ever taking office, but it’s also a reminder of how far she’s fallen. Even if Tai appears relatively content now that she has Van (Lauren Ambrose) back in her life, the overall situation is rendered more bittersweet thanks to Tai’s inability to see her son and Van’s secret struggle with her cancer diagnosis. Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), on the other hand, feels like she’s hit rock bottom as a wife and mother, given that both Callie (Sarah Desjardins) and Jeff (Warren Kole) were on the scene when everything went down at Lottie’s commune. Yet, despite Shauna’s worries about her family, the Sadeckis are even more tight-knit this season, linked by all the admittedly illegal things they’ve done rather than trying to keep major secrets from each other. While Misty’s relationship with Walter (Elijah Wood) has shifted into something that could almost be called a form of domesticity, his tendency to hover and her lingering sadness about Natalie — as well as the dawning realization that the rest of the Yellowjackets consider her an afterthought — leads Misty to push away the one person who may truly see her for who she really is.

‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Struggles To Make Both Timelines Equally Interesting (Until…)

The biggest issue with Yellowjackets‘ newest season is one that the show has struggled with since the beginning — making the present-day timeline just as compelling as the past. This isn’t a knock against the series’ older cast, several of whom are giving some of their best work this season; Lynskey and Ricci, in particular, remain a pleasure to watch, especially when they’re given the opportunity to spar with each other directly. Shauna earns a particularly unsettling and mysterious plotline in Season 3, one that appears to involve another threat from her past playing coded mind games, while Ricci is the type of scene-stealer who delivers every line at the precise level of unhinged required for that particular moment. The Sadeckis do earn a bigger spotlight this season overall, with an increased focus on Desjardins’ Callie and an always delightful turn from Kole as Shauna’s humorously exasperated husband Jeff, and the show is stronger now that both characters have been brought into the fold.

By contrast, it’s becoming difficult not to develop the impression that the show is still grappling with what to do with Taissa, especially now that she’s essentially blown up her entire life. On the heels of putting her wife Simone (Rukiya Bernard) in the hospital and losing visitation rights to her son Sammy (Aiden Stoxx), it feels like Tai should be more determined to address her reemerging fugue state that upended everything, and yet her subsequent self-interrogation — and the investigation she and Van eventually start to pursue — takes a little too long to really get going. That said, once the present timeline takes one of its biggest swings yet, it proves to be a really exciting move for Yellowjackets overall, one that emphasizes that some threats weren’t left behind in the wilderness all those years ago; they’ve just been waiting for the right time to strike.

The past, however, remains as gripping as ever, especially thanks to the new power structure established within the team. While Natalie’s promotion to Antler Queen, apparently courtesy of the wilderness itself, initially seems like a good shift for the group overall, lingering resentments are brought to a boiling point with the reveal that this new leader has been keeping secrets. The younger cast remains strong — Thatcher walks a tightrope between making Natalie too accommodating or too power-hungry, while Eaton’s version of Lottie seems to inhabit a different plane of existence from everyone else most of the time. Yet these first four episodes are undeniably ruled over by Nélisse, as Shauna enters her rage timeline this season, openly resentful of everyone celebrating their survival when not all of them made it through the winter in one piece.

While the season’s initially slow pace might tempt you to lower your guard, Episode 4, directed by Jennifer Morrison and written by Julia Bicknell & Terry Wesley, is a clear standout early on, a 12 Angry Men homage that puts its own Yellowjackets spin on the story and will also undoubtedly put your head on a swivel once the credits roll. It’s also the episode that finally convinced me that I was in for the ride this time around. Between that and one particularly trippy, shared hallucination sequence between teammates, it does take a minute for Yellowjackets Season 3 to really embrace all the best parts of itself — the parts that remind us that you can’t spell the word “wilderness” without “wild,” and that, sometimes, the best, twistiest mysteries are the ones that make you hunger for more.

Yellowjackets Season 3 premieres with its first two episodes beginning February 14 on Showtime, with new episodes dropping weekly every Friday.

Yellowjackets

Yellowjackets Season 3 returns with a twisty mystery that takes a little time to really propel forward and make both timelines intriguing again.

Release Date

November 14, 2021

Network

Showtime, Paramount+ with Showtime

Pros & Cons

• The past still rules over the present in Yellowjackets Season 3 (until a major twist changes everything).
• Episode 4, directed by Jennifer Morrison, is a particularly strong installment all on its own.
• Melanie Lynskey and Christina Ricci are the standouts of the present-day timeline.
• Younger!Shauna is entering her personal rage timeline this season, courtesy of Sophie Nélisse’s powerful (and admittedly unlikable) performance.

• It sometimes feels like the show doesn’t know what to do with older!Taissa anymore.