Bow down, bitches. After years of speculation, “Yellowjackets” Season 3 finally unmasked the series’ “antler queen” — and despite plenty of viable candidates, the answer was hiding in plain sight.
The Season 3 finale, written by Ameni Rozsa and directed by Bart Nickerson, is titled “Full Circle” in a direct reference to its pilot parallels. After over a year in the wilderness, this episode brings the stranded Yellowjackets right up to the deadly flashback in the series premiere — and sets up the terrifying uncertainty of what’s next.
What We Know
The Wiskayok High School varsity girls soccer team crashed somewhere in the Canadian Rockies during the spring of 1996, probably somewhere around mid- or late-May based on the weather, timing with Nationals, and the freshman pouting about missing prom. They end up spending 19 months out there, which means they’re rescued not long after the midwinter madness depicted in Episodes 101 and 310.
After the first outsiders showed up in Episode 306, our teen protagonists were of two minds: either get the fuck out of Dodge and back to civilization, or stay in the wilderness because something about returning felt off. Taissa (Jasmine Savoy Brown) made practical points: The scientists caught them in the midst of ritual cannibalism, of their own coach and protector, no less. The girls may have left society behind, but Tai remembers enough to know that their actions won’t be well-received. Though less explicit in her reasoning, Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) agrees; the finale leaves no doubt as to why she clings to the wilderness, or Lottie (Courtney Eaton), whose “powers” were enough for her own parents to institutionalize her after getting home.
Back to the Beginning
In the wilderness of “Full Circle,” all the animals that were supposed to last through winter have died. (I realize this is probably sad for Akilah, but from the practical side — what’s the problem? Weren’t they going to be killed and eaten anyway? Are they not basically living in a refrigerator for the next few months?) So the girls resolve to have a hunt and placate the wilderness. Visuals from the pilot sneak in sporadically — a mask here, a fur there, and, of course, the thick coat of snow that Shauna wakes up to on the day of.
Eventually Nickerson (who serves as co-showrunner with Ashley Lyle and Jonathan Lisco) starts peppering the episode with actual footage from the pilot as the girls hunt down their sacrifice. Mari (Alexa Barajas) has long been the top suspect for “Pit Girl” but it’s still a transfixing reveal. The girls don their coverings and start to screech and run through the forest. In order to camouflage herself with the snow, Mari removes all her outer layers to reveal Pit Girl’s silky white dress. Glitchy video effects delineate pilot footage from the Season 3 finale itself, but the scenes would blend together without. The transitions instead mirror how the girls’ memories are actively glitching in and out, repressing the events as they occur.
As Shauna realizes Natalie’s (Sophie Thatcher) secret, there’s a shot of Misty (Samantha Hanratty) not from the pilot, but composed very close to it; she removes her mask, dons her glasses, and breaks into a small smile. In Episode 101, this reveals a lot about Misty, who is mostly in the periphery before the wilderness; now, she’s clearly about to thrive. In 310, it functions as definitive redemption. Misty is no stranger to questionable behavior, but now we know that she came clean about destroying the transponder, and she displays plenty of loyalty and decisiveness as an adult. As someone who was once the show’s de facto villain, she now smiles directly and defiantly in the face of her true enemy.
All Hail the Queen
Looking back, it’s actually not surprising at all that Shauna’s journey leads here. Even before the plane crashed, she was a person who hungered for power and reveled in self-righteousness when she couldn’t have the authority she craved. She spent Season 1 coming out of Jackie’s (Ella Purnell) shadow, Season 2 stewing because no one understood her pain, and Season 3 turning that pain and resentment into something else — a violent rage that no longer hides behind smiles or tears. In the wilderness, she leans into the impulses that stem from her suffering, and everyone around her cowers.
The hunt itself exemplifies this; while it was orchestrated by Lottie to re-invoke the wilderness (not to mention her own relevance as the group’s spiritual leader), death has been a staple of Shauna’s queenship since the death of Coach Scott (Steven Kreuger). He, Edwin (Nelson Franklin), and Kodi (Joel McHale) died in quick succession. The queen requires blood. She commands the circle as the they all draw cards, confidently intervening when she suspects the deck has been tampered with, and she’s the ultimate reason Mari picks the queen and ends up being hunted. It may have been the luck of the draw, but she was marked by Shauna long ago.
What’s Next
As of this article’s publication, “Yellowjackets” Season 4 has yet to be confirmed — but in the world where it happens, the possibilities are endless. I have refrained from mentioning “Lost” for the past 500 words and that ends now; the ABC plane crash drama devoted a full season to the events leading up to and including its survivors’ rescue in a truncated and potent 13 episodes (including the universally beloved “The Constant” and a pulse-pounding season finale). By catching up with the pilot, “Yellowjackets” answered a lot of questions, but leaves things in a place where no one is safe while rescue approaches. How long before someone comes for them? What happens to Hannah, who never made it out of the wilderness, or to the remaining Yellowjackets whose survival hasn’t been confirmed? What sort of agreement do they come to, and how, about what story to tell?
Even then, the wilderness has definitive answers. We know who makes it out and where they end up — but what about the present timeline? Travis (Andres Soto), Lottie (Simone Kessell), and Van (Lauren Ambrose) all made it back but died 25 years later. Now that adult Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) has unleashed her true self, will she hunt down her fellow survivors until she is, as the show states, the last one standing? Or will they team up and tear down the queen, which they were too afraid to do as teenagers? What about her family — and Taissa’s (Tawny Cypress) family, and Walter (Elijah Wood) — and what about Melissa (Hilary Swank), who’s on the run after murdering Van in cold blood?
There’s also the matter of what Lottie told Callie (Sarah Desjardins) in her last moments — that whatever lives inside Shauna is in her daughter as well; “It” or the wilderness or something else that made Shauna who she was long before her plane crashed. Could it be true that Shauna is jealous of her daughter for being “just like her but more?” What if this character’s eventual fate is not to hold on to her power, but to cede it to another?
With so much in the air (not to mention Natalie literally on top of a mountain), Season 4 can’t come soon enough.
“Yellowjackets” is available on Paramount+ with Showtime.
