Exploring Yellowjackets' Secret Spot In The Wilderness
This post contains spoilers for the latest episode of "Yellowjackets."
Depending on how online you are, you either met this week's big "Yellowjackets" revelation that there's at least one underground room in the forest with an "A-HA!" or a "What the hell?!" Either one is totally valid, as the show has hinted at the existence of some sort of underground system for two seasons — but has done so mostly through dreams and visions.
When Coach Ben (Steven Krueger) spotted a green, mossy tree in the woods that was venting hot air, it actually wasn't the first time we'd seen an out-of-place bit of greenery. In the season premiere, Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) and Travis (Kevin Alves) passed a much smaller (but equally green) stump but didn't put two and two together to realize that growing moss meant warmth and moisture were coming up from underground. Theory-loving fans of the series did, though, and guessed weeks ago that Javi (Luciano Leroux) might have survived after hunkering down in whatever lies beneath.
Could the cave be the answer to the show's creepy symbol?
The latest episode seems to confirm this theory. While poor Javi falls into an icy lake before he can show Nat the secret spot he tells her about, Coach Ben seems to find the same spot — or a very similar one — around the same time. He's guided by a drawing that Javi made episodes earlier, which shows a picture of a tree with an upside-down arrangement of branches. When Coach Ben steps inside, it seems clear that someone had been living in the underground space; remnants of an abandoned fire and the bones of small animals are among the debris littering the cavern's floor. The cave would also make a great hiding spot, so Javi could theoretically sneak out to steal bear meat from the camp or even meet with sleepwalking Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown) — who, it should be said, stopped sleepwalking after he was found.
The underground cavern reveal also might solve one of the biggest mysteries of "Yellowjackets," as the tree in question has the show's mysterious symbol carved into its trunk. The team has long since assumed the symbol is something powerful and unknowable, like an ancient rune or religious scrawl, but what if it's a map? The lines and shapes could be making sense of an underground tunnel system that's either man-made or natural; it's appeared on trees that Taissa woke up next to at night, as well. We know there's at least one other stump venting hot air because the one Natalie and Travis saw before is considerably smaller than the grand old tree Coach stumbles upon.
Lottie's visions have also taken her underground
Even stranger, though, is the fact that the tunnels and caves seem to show up in the dreams of at least one character who doesn't seem to have ever visited them. When Lottie was baptized by Laura Lee (Jane Widdop) last season, she had a vision of underground tunnels full of candles. When she was on the verge of hypothermia during her mission to find food earlier this season, she also imagined herself going levels below the earth — only that time, the tunnels led to a mall where she, Laura Lee, and the rest of the girls shared Chinese food.
The show has laid plenty of groundwork for the secret room reveal, then, but Coach Ben's discovery definitely doesn't give us all the answers. How has Lottie dreamt of them if she hasn't been there? Were they made by the hunter, or were they there before his time? Does the spooky symbol lead to other tunnels and caves? And perhaps most intriguingly: is there something else down there that left Javi too traumatized to speak?
We'll find out when "Yellowjackets" returns for its series finale on Friday, May 26, 2023, on the Showtime app. The episode will also air Sunday, May 28, 2023, on Showtime.