Yellowjackets Season 2 Confirms What Happened To That Body, You Know The One
Spoilers for "Yellowjackets" follow.
The flashback storyline in "Yellowjackets" follows teenage girls from 1996 suburban New Jersey who are part of their high school's "Yellowjacket" soccer team. While flying to Seattle for a National championship match, they crash land in the woods of northern Canada. From the beginning, we've known where this is heading; the survivors will eventually turn to cannibalism, not just to stave off starvation but as part of ritualistic practice.
Flashbacks in the pilot showed a girl being caught in a trap and killed by the Yellowjackets — thanks to some concealing camera angles and the cultists' heavy fur coats, we don't know their identities yet, preserving some mystery. Episode 2 of the second season, "Edible Complex," revealed the girls' first indulgence with human flesh while tying up a loose end from season 1.
Jackie Taylor (Ella Purnell), the Yellowjackets' captain, had a rough go of it in season 1. She stubbornly refused to get her hands dirty with hard work and her relationship with the team fell apart. Since Jackie didn't feature in the present-day scenes, fans were predicting a grim end for her. Sure enough, in the season 1 finale, "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi," she freezes to death after being kicked out of the cabin the Yellowjackets took shelter in.
Despite her demise, Jackie's spirit — and mortal remains — have continued to factor into season 2 so far.
Imaginary friend
Jackie's best friend until the end was Shauna (played by Sophie Nélisse in the past and Melanie Lynskey in the present). However, they had a falling out once Jackie learned Shauna had slept with her boyfriend, Jeff. The last conversation they had was a nasty one; Shauna said, "I'm not jealous of you Jackie, I feel sorry for you... high school was the best your life was ever going to get." When Shauna woke up the next morning, she was devastated to find Jackie dead and their chance to reconcile gone.
The season 2 premiere, "Friends, Romans, Countrymen," opened two months afterward in the thick of winter and revealed how Shauna has been keeping her friend's memory alive. She took Jackie's body to the nearby shed and has been conversing with it as if Jackie was still alive, just like Norman Bates did to his late mother Norma in "Psycho." Shauna went so far as to braid the body's hair and apply makeup. However, due to the implied supernatural influence in "Yellowjackets," it's uncertain if Shauna is hallucinating or if is this an evil presence wearing Jackie's visage.
The uncertainty grew after "Jackie" taunted Shauna about Jeff, causing Shauna to push her. After this, Shauna started to see Jackie for what she was — a corpse. Is this because her brain snapped back to reality or because whatever was pretending to be Jackie left? In either case, Shauna's illusion of the pristine Jackie has been shattered because her ear broke off when the body fell.
Winter cookout
The Yellowjackets are running low on meat from the bear Lottie (Courtney Eaton) killed last season. Shauna, desperately hungry, kept Jackie's ear and the premiere concluded with her eating it, an appetizer for the events of tonight's episode.
Now with a taste for flesh, Shauna goes to "talk to" Jackie in the middle of the night. The hallucination taunts her and begins cutting flesh from her own arm, saying, "[She] doesn't need it anymore." When Shauna comes to she realizes the knife is in her hand. The next morning, Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown) walks into the shed and finds Jackie's made-up body, with powdered cheeks and smeared pink lipstick. The horrified Tai confronts Shauna. When the latter is still reluctant to get rid of Jackie, Tai decides they're going to dispose of the body. Since the ground is frozen hard, they opt for cremation on a mound of firewood instead.
The Yellowjackets sleep while the fire burns, but as they do, a pile of snow falls from a tree branch onto it (the aerial POV shots beforehand give the impression this was more than serendipity). All of the flames are extinguished except those beneath Jackie's body; the funeral pyre becomes an oven.
The Yellowjackets awaken to the smell of cooked meat and spot the crispy Jackie. Unable to restrain themselves any longer, they all gorge themselves. They collectively imagine it's a feast of immaculately prepared fruit and (animal) meat with themselves draped in golden togas like Greek gods. The only one who abstains is coach Ben Scott (Steven Krueger). The Coach hasn't shown up in the present day — is he next? All we know for sure is that Jackie won't be the Yellowjackets' last meal before they're rescued.
New episodes of "Yellowjackets" air on Showtime every Sunday.