Yellowjackets Just Threw A Massive Wrench Into All Our Predictions
This post contains spoilers for the latest episode of "Yellowjackets."
After last week's episode of "Yellowjackets" ended with the show's most tragic moment to date, I'm not sure what I expected from the hour that followed, but it's definitely not what we got. This week's episode had a wide tonal range, delivering kooky fun with Misty's (Christina Ricci) theatrical dream sequence, surprising sweetness with the present-day Yellowjackets' night spent bonding, and a truly brutal ending with postpartum Shauna's (Sophie Nelisse) attack on Lottie (Courtney Eaton).
Somehow, in the midst of all the chaos, the show managed to throw out a massive revelation that it delivered in a surprisingly offhand manner: the survivors might have repressed memories about their time in the wilderness. The twist came in the middle of a night of drunken revelry on Lottie's compound, when Misty started to ask a question about the girls' time in the woods and was quickly cut off. "Do you want to casually reminisce a better time in f***ing oblivion?" Van (Lauren Ambrose) snaps back, clearly bothered. Lottie (Simone Kessell) and Tai (Tawny Cypress) are more understanding but just as stern in their response. Bottom line: let's not think about that time.
The women's unwillingness to delve into the details of their time stranded in the woods isn't just a narrative device that builds suspense: it also makes total sense. People who endure traumatic circumstances very regularly end up blocking out parts of their experiences, or as Tai puts it a moment later, taking bad memories and stuffing them "somewhere deep down." Natalie (Juliette Lewis), the survivor whose post-rescue years have brought her the closest to a different kind of oblivion, is curious about how much the women remember. "I remember," she clarifies. "It's just, um, some things are hazier."
'How much do you guys remember?'
While Van and Misty don't answer the question, the others confirm a similar feeling of lost memories. "If I'm repressing things I don't know about, I'm very okay with never figuring it out," Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) says, after Lottie explains that "in an ecstatic state, the human body can't hold memory that well." The conversation adds another layer of intrigue to the group's dynamic, as one woman's memories might contradict another in meaningful ways, but it's also a surprise that impacts fans of the shows. Since "Yellowjackets" debuted, enthusiastic fans have taken to message boards and social media to piece together the show's ample clues and Easter eggs.
Along the way, they've analyzed the survivors' reactions to one another (as have critics, like /Film's own little "Yellowjackets" hive), wondering exactly why Taissa and Van broke up, who else Shauna has killed, and how everyone ended up on good terms with Lottie after her controversial spiritual interventions. If the group has repressed memories, though, that throws every theory about the way their present connects to their past in question. Where we previously saw guilt, shame, or secrets, the women might actually be experiencing a form of protective self-deception: they may have forgotten the worst things they've ever done.
An ominous narrative clean slate
This new framework for the link between past and present is demonstrated just moments later, when we see that Shauna beat Lottie nearly to death after losing her baby in the '90s. It's a hard scene to watch, and a surprising one to process given the closeness these women easily re-established in the present day. Yet if, for example, either Shauna or Lottie doesn't remember the attack, then the relative harmony the group is experiencing in the present still makes sense. In short: with the concept of memory gaps on the table, all bets are off for chronic theorizers. Any of the surviving Yellowjackets could have attempted to sacrifice one another to the Antler Queen for all we know — and all they know.
From a writing perspective, this move is a great way to simplify the show's increasingly complex mythology, freeing up the past plot to contain any amount of chaos without its impact reverberating through to the present day. It's hard enough to keep track of the show's labyrinthine (but great!) lore without also trying to guess who is mad at who and why. Still, as Lottie says, any peace of mind the women have likely isn't permanent. Repressed memories often return, even if they bubble up indirectly in the form of the trauma responses Lottie mentions, like addiction and "compulsive behavior."
In that sense, this fireside gossip session doesn't feel like the sort of thing we should get used to. It's the calm before the storm, a moment of rare togetherness when the horrible particulars of the past still feel mercifully far away for these women. I wish I could say I think it'll last.
New episodes of "Yellowjackets" stream Fridays in the Showtime app, and air Sundays on Showtime.