Yellowjackets’second season has been high stakes from the very beginning, with winter now upon the team in the ’90s timeline, and crippling adult problems plaguing them in the present day. But the season’s fourth episode only further kicks things into high gear and everybody is up to something.
In the wilderness, the feud between Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) and Lottie (Courtney Eaton) heats up in competition, and the team begins to choose sides. In fact, the ’90s timeline is quite Lottie/Natalie heavy, making all present-day interactions all the more tense. Speaking of the present-day, Taissa’s (Tawny Cypress) sleepwalking grows worse, and she’s reunited with an old friend. Callie (Sarah Desjardins) confronts Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) about Adam (Peter Gadiot), and Natalie (Juliette Lewis) gains a soft spot for Lisa (Nicole Maines).
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Lottie vs. Natalie
The tension between Lottie and Natalie has been evident since Season 1, but Season 2 has only furthered that. It finally reaches a boiling point here as the food supply continues to dwindle and Mari (Alexa Barajas) points fingers at Natalie. Mari believes it’s Natalie’s fault they haven’t found any food since she often skips Lottie’s blessings. Naturally, Nat suggests a competition between the two to see who can find more food for the team: her or Lottie. It’s clear from the start that Lottie is apprehensive to agree but Mari (who has become Lottie’s most avid follower) insists she can do it — she even offers Natalie the gun, claiming Lottie doesn’t need it.
The pair set out on different paths, where Nat finds moose tracks and begins to follow them, hoping they belong to the large white moose she saw last episode. Lottie, however, isn’t quite as lucky, and instead of finding tracks, she discovers she’s right next to a tree that has that eerie symbol we’ve come to know so well etched into it. Feeling hopeless in the current situation, Lottie cuts her hand and drips blood at the same altar where she left the bear heart in the Season 1 finale, hoping her personal sacrifice will bring food. However, as she continues to walk through the woods, she comes across the old plane — the same plane thatLaura Lee (Jane Widdop)attempted to fly to find them help. Inside it, she finds Laura Lee’s teddy bear Leonard, her necklace, and a hatch that she climbs down into.
Down there, Lottie walks into a bright tunnel of light where elevator doors close behind her, and suddenly she’s in a mall. She finds the team, including Laura Lee, sitting in the food court, where there is food waiting for her. Before Lottie can take a bite, though, Laura Lee says she should say something first, noting that she’s shivering and that she needs to get out of there. Lottie says she just got here, though, and she doesn’t want to leave Laura Lee. But Laura Lee insists, saying that if she doesn’t get warm she’s going to die, and proceeds to yell at her to “go!” before shoving her chair backward, which effectively snaps Lottie out of her hallucination. She tries to sit up but is too weak and cold to do so, so she simply lays back in the snow and shuts her eyes.
All the while this is happening, Natalie finds the moose has fallen through the ice and died, but there is just enough of him sticking out of the water that maybe the group can pull him out. She recruits the team, aside from Akilah (Nia Sondaya) and Mari, and together they work to chip away at the ice to gain access to it. Unfortunately, the carcass is so heavy, accompanied by the cold water and ice, that they devastatingly lose their grip and it sinks. Nat, having fallen into the water with the sudden drop, is yanked out by Travis (Kevin Alves) as she cries over having lost what would be such a great food supply for the team. She’s then put in a bath back at the cabin to warm up, which is quickly interrupted by Mari and Akilah bringing Lottie in from the woods, having found her passed out in the snow. Natalie offers the bath up to Lottie, and the pair share a sweet moment as Natalie bandages her hand. She apologizes, claiming it’s all her fault, to which Lottie tells her “good game” before the two exchange some playful smack talk.Their problems certainly aren’t magically healed by this moment, but it is nice to see them call a truce for the time being when in peril.
Taissa Knows All
While all the stuff with Lottie and Natalie is happening, Tai (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Van (Liv Hewson) are dealing with their own issues: Taissa’s sleepwalking. Van believes that something in Tai’s mind knows the tree with the symbols on them exist and subconsciously leads her to them at night. She then suggests they talk to Lottie once again, believing that she’d be able to tap into whatever part of Taissa is doing this, but Tai stands firm and says it’s none of Lottie’s business.
Throughout Tai’s sleepwalking endeavors, Van has been making a map of all the trees she goes to, and when she puts them all together and connects each point she finds that they make up the symbol. Per Tai’s skeptical nature, she tells Van that you can make any shape out of those points, which only frustrates Van as Tai just won’t accept what is right in front of her. However, there is one missing spot on her map to complete the symbol, and so, in an attempt to prove that she may just be right, Van asks Tai to come with her to look for the final tree. As they search, they find a patch of uncovered grass and some melted snow and Tai spots someone in the trees before taking off after them.
In a surprising twist, the person is Javi (Luciano Leroux) who has been presumed dead (at least as faked by Nat). Van says Lottie may have known that Javi was alive, but Taissa knew where he was, whether she believes it or not. Even though Javi is safe and back at the cabin with everyone, he’s not speaking, not even to Travis, so what happened to him while he was out there? Is he simply in shock or is there something more sinister in the woods?
In the present-day timeline, Tai wakes up in her gasless car with a file labeled “Yellowjackets” in the passenger seat, hours from home. The file contains the address to a video store called While You Were Streaming (which, I might add, is quite brilliant). We’re unsure what this place is at first, but Tai simply grabs her things and begins walking. Eventually, a transport truck stops and the driver asks her where she’s going before offering her a ride, telling her he voted for her. She says she doesn’t usually hitchhike, and the man says it makes him like her more; after all, if the state senator can have a bad day, so can the rest of us. She accepts his ride, but not before picking up a pen that, when turned upside down, reveals a naked woman. He begins to apologize, but she simply smiles and asks him how much he wants for it before climbing into the passenger seat. He brings her to the video store we saw in the file and when she walks inside, it’s revealed that the owner of the store is Van (Lauren Ambrose), finally reuniting our dynamic duo before the episode ends.
Meanwhile, Natalie convinces Lottie (Simone Kessell) to give her car keys, claiming she’s going to help Lisa run the farmer’s market booth. Lottie seems suspicious at first, but Natalie assures her that she wants to bond with Lisa since their moment of forgiveness. Lottie tells her to let Lisa drive since she never gets to and needs the practice. Thus, the next road trip of Season 2 is underway. Lisa informs Natalie that they’re allowed to leave the compound whenever and for however long they want, and then drives them to visit her mom before asking Nat not to tell Lottie. Lisa’s mom asks her if she’s still taking her medication for depression, to which Lisa says that she got help to wean herself off of it. Lisa admits she’s come back to get her fish, but when an argument ensues, her mom says she’ll only kill the fish since she can’t even take care of herself. Natalie, having overheard the conversation, butts in, which only makes things worse, and when the pair go back out to the car Nat unscrews a water bottle and hilariously spits Lisa’s fish into it, revealing that she stole him for her.
While this is going on, Lottie has been visiting her therapist and has asked for her medication to be upped as she’s having visions for the first time in decades. Her therapist tells her to look deeper into them and find out what they’re trying to tell her, but later, as Lottie is looking through notes from the members of her compound she finds a playing card of the Queen of Hearts with the eyes scratched out. She then goes outside to an altar, similar to the one she’s left sacrifices at as a teen, and cuts her hand, tearfully asking, “Can this just be enough? Please?”
Shauna has found the piece of Adam’s driver’s license in Callie’s desk and realizes she needs to talk to her about it — so she picks her daughter up and the pair take a drive to a stop in the middle of nowhere. Shauna calls Callie out of the car and confronts her about her lying, to which Callie brings up the license and asks if either she or Jeff (Warren Kole) killed Adam. Shauna admits that she’s the one responsible, but Callie then says she knew it was all her mother. Ultimately, Shauna admits that she and the rest of the Yellowjackets did things out there in the woods that they’re really ashamed of and hints thatJeff isn’t the first person to try and blackmail them, but she doesn’t elaborate. One day, Shauna says she’ll tell Callie the rest of the story — but for right now, can this just be enough?
We’re on yet another road trip with Walter (Elijah Wood) and Misty (Christina Ricci), who arefollowing their lead from the previous episode. When he hands her a box of musical theater cassette tapes she berates him, accusing him of being a Yellowjackets obsessive. He assures her he isn’t, saying that it’s the least interesting thing about her, and the pair continue on their way. At a diner, the two learn from their waitress that the cult of purple people they’re looking for sell honey at the weekly farmer’s market, which just so happens to be that day. A vendor there clues them in on where the cult grounds are, giving them a vague area, but as it’s getting dark, Walter suggests they break at a BnB and head to that location in the morning. There’s a brilliant little sequence of the two scoping their rooms from top to bottom and having similar night routines. It seems like the next episode will be a big one for them, and we’ll get to see our new duo of citizen detectives really jump into action.
