Yellowjackets Season 2 Finale Keeps Us Guessing On A Question From The Beginning Of Season 1
This post contains spoilers for the season 2 finale of "Yellowjackets."
One of my favorite things about the sophomore season of "Yellowjackets" is that this time around, the Showtime mystery series seemed to be as much in the business of answering questions as asking them. The survival horror series has always shared some storytelling DNA with "Lost," but while that series piled on mystery after mystery, "Yellowjackets" actually eased up on its more enigmatic elements for much of this season — and even went so far as to give us explicit solutions to a few major puzzles.
By the time the credits rolled on the second season finale, fans knew how Javi (Luciano Leroux) survived the winter, what the mysterious queen of hearts playing cards meant, what happened to Lottie (Simone Kessell) and Van (Lauren Ambrose) as adults, and exactly how the show's element of cannibalism came to be. Yet there's one thing we're still not sure about, and it's a mystery that dates all the way back to the show's very first episode: who the hell is the girl in the pit?!
Let's talk about the girl in the pit
In case you need a refresher on the "Yellowjackets" pilot, here's how it starts: a girl in a light-colored nightgown runs barefoot through the woods, terrified of some screeching, howling offscreen presence. She's light-skinned, with long, brown hair, and soon enough, she runs straight into a snow-covered trap. It's a pit trap, and we see her body pierced through with multiple spikes. We also see that she's wearing Jackie's heart necklace, one of several details production designers have since used to foster a sense of misdirection. A mask-clad person steps to the edge of the pit, wearing pink Converse and a worn-out soccer sweatshirt. Later in the episode, we see the girl strung up and bled dry, and eventually, a group of seven mask-clad people (one of them Samantha Hanratty's Misty) gathers around a fireplace, feasting on her flesh.
This scene paints a hell of a portrait of what life will be like for these girls in the wilderness, and its twisted imagery kept fans hooked on this story — and convinced it would eventually involve cannibalism — long before the group took their first bites of their dead friend Jackie this season. Still, season 2 generally steered away from exploring the pit girl scene, even as it quietly delivered the backstory for several elements of the scene. We know now that a mixture of hunger, mental illness, superstition, and perhaps some dark influence lead the team to adopt a ritualistic hunt-based approach to staying alive. We've seen them draw cards and hunt Natalie, just as they'll one day hunt this girl.
The hunters' outfits are coming together
We also have a pretty good idea of who those masked figures will be, although the position of honor is still up for debate. In the dinner tableau, six people donning a mix of winter clothes, furs, and creepy masks sit around a now-infamous figure: the Antler Queen. The status of the Antler Queen has changed over time. We've seen Lottie don the horns, but she's also hallucinated the Antler Queen as a sort of forest spirit that drives her to action. Plus, she gave up her leadership position to Natalie in the season finale, meaning it wouldn't be surprising if Nat soon decides to don similar garb during moments of ceremonial importance.
Early iterations of the ritualistic outfits from the pilot first appeared at "Doomcoming," when the team celebrated what would've been a school dance by dressing up in forest-inspired garb — and making masks to make recently scarred Van feel more comfortable. At the time, the team wore mostly dresses, but they also donned the masks we've seen them wear again since. The winter clothes in the pilot's feast scene also make sense now, as there's a chance the girls will be exposed at length to the harsh elements without the shelter of the now-burned-out cabin. With that in mind, it's likely the wintery scene will take place pretty soon in the show's timeline.
Who's RSVPing to this feast?
As for the acolytes who surround the Antler Queen, those might be easy to guess, too. Natalie (or Lottie, if she's not the queen), Shauna, Misty, Taissa, and Van have all embraced the ritual of the hunt, and Travis seemed to be on his way in the finale when he took a bite out of his brother's heart. These are the seven main characters who are still kicking and still a part of the group in the '90s plotline, which leaves just a small handful of potential victims — the teammates whose present-day counterparts we haven't met yet.
This group includes Coach Ben (Steven Krueger), Akilah (Nia Sondaya), Mari (Alexa Barajas), Gen (Mya Lowe), and Melissa (Jenna Burgess). If we're feeling hopeful, we could also include Crystal/Kristen (Nuha Jes Izman), who fell off a cliff this season but whose body was never recovered. She's almost certainly dead, though, and the list of possible pit girl candidates narrows down from here. Coach Ben obviously isn't a teenage girl, and the victim in question has light skin, so she's not Akilah. Melissa, a background character whose most memorable moment so far was when she and Gen schemed to eat Crystal/Kristen if they found her, also has blonde hair and seems unlikely to find some dye lying around the forest, eliminating her from the shortlist.
Pour one out for Gen or Mari
That leaves just two possibilities: Gen or Mari. Both have long, dark hair and complexions that could match the pit girl. Gen, like Melissa, hasn't done much to differentiate herself at this point and is mostly known for being besties with Melissa. We know Mari a bit better: she has a tendency towards callousness and often acted as Jackie's catty second-in-command when she was alive, but seems to have mellowed out a little after her death. As much as I want every girl in the wilderness to make it out in one piece, if anyone has to get skewered in a pit and cooked for dinner, these are two characters whose loss wouldn't particularly sting at this point.
Even with everything we do know about the pit girl scene, there are still more mysteries to unravel beyond her identity. Why is she dressed in a nightgown, when everyone else in the scene seems prepared for the hunt? Is it possible she finds shelter the others don't — in Ben's cave, maybe? Or perhaps the pit girl is who Lottie was thinking of in the finale when she told Taissa they know what happens if someone refuses to draw a card. Could the rules of the hunt eventually degrade, leaving the victim surprised by the girls' suddenly predatory nature? Regardless of how the poor girl meets her fate or who she is, "Yellowjackets" has by now totally disabused us of the notion that there's any chance its opening scene could be metaphorical or hallucinatory: the hunt is real now, and anyone could be its next victim.
"Yellowjackets" season 1 and 2 are now available on the Showtime streaming site.