Ordeal By Hunger.01
My thoughts while watching Yellowjackets: S2 E1 “Friends, Romans, Countrymen”
I’m watching the new Yellowjackets episodes and giving you my thoughts as they happen, like I would if I were watching this with my wife. But, this is too horror and gory for her, so I don’t have anyone else to dork out with.
These will be a week or so after the episode airs so you have time to watch it and avoid Spoilers…
I like “Seventeen” by Sharon Van Etten, but it’s not time appropriate as we open the episode in 1996 or ‘97. I looked it up, and she’s about the same age as the characters are supposed to be, so maybe it’s okay as a metaphorical stretch. Nat and Travis getting ready to go out hunting, and Lottie has to bless them before letting them go. Is Lottie trying to exert her power over the stranded?
Now 1998, and they’ve been rescued. Oh shit, some grizzly ECT… But did that unlock her powers?
Everyone’s wearing purple in Lottie’s cult back in the present day. She’s dressed in orange.
Misty is trying to coach Shauna through an interrogation and gives everyone the one piece of advice you always need to remember with cops:
The only thing you should ever say to the police is, “I want my lawyer.” That’s why I put it on the cookie.
Senator Taissa is getting a new puppy. A Yorkie! Steve! Great crappy name for a dog
Misty checks out her true crime internet board, and this is who Elijah Wood is going to be this season. But now we’re given another reason why we might not be done with the Adam murder-coverup plot.
More Shauna and Callie butting heads. Don’t know if Shauna is picking up on some tension or distance between Callie and her boyfriend, or if it’s just the hostility and suspicion Callie has toward her mom.
In the past again… Oh shit, now we got a “Drown” needle drop! Shauna with the bad CGI breath giving away that she’s imagining playing MASH with frozen Jackie. Tensions are starting to rise in the cabin. Shauna pushes Jackie over, and part of her ear falls off, and of course she puts it in her pocket, ‘cause it’s totally the normal thing to do. The ear does kinda look like it may be mistaken for a mushroom or something, though… Hmmm. A stew ingredient maybe?
Present, and Shauna suddenly remembers that: “Oh yeah, Adam was an artist. Maybe he drew me or some shit.” Duh! Jeff is bragging about selling furniture, and I’m thinking maybe killing is bringing them luck? Granting wishes? The bear gets killed, and Jackie is removed from the picture. Tai kills Biscuit, and she wins the election. Killing one of the Cabin Crew is probably what is going to end up getting them rescued…
Oh, Tai doesn’t know that she killed the dog yet.
Past. They’re looking for Javi, not hunting. Travis doesn’t want to give up on his brother.
Larry Frankowski rules! Misty’s preternatural ability to be annoying sometimes comes in handy.
“#1 Crush” by Garbage. Shauna and Jeff go to Adam’s art studio. Shauna using sex to manipulate Jeff? Dammit, you’re gonna leave DNA evidence, you two! Oh shit! Don’t start a fire! Oh, okay. They’re finally doing something smart and using the turpentine to remove the paint and not as a fire accelerant.
Past. Misty is lonely (a parallel in the past for Misty wanting to be friends with Nat so bad), and Crystal wants to teach her how to sing. Probably leading to Crystal getting annoyed with Misty for some reason, and then Misty snaps.
So, Nat and Travis are mapping the area as well as hunting and looking for Javi.
Present. Misty is lonely. She figures out Nat was taken, and that there is probably video evidence.
Nat is strapped to a bed. Those are ridiculously tight looking leather pants, or whatever they are made of.
Jeff rocks out to “Last Resort” by Papa Roach, because of course he does. Jeff makes Shauna light the evidence on fire. Maybe because he wants her to symbolically destroy Adam (instead of the literal, which y’know, she did too) as penance for the affair. And of course the tree catches on fire for comedic effect.
Taissa finds her sacrificial altar, and Steve comes in like: What the fuck, lady? Tai then tells Steve: “I’m gonna do better with you.” No! Don’t kill Steve to get your family back!
“Old fashoned dad shit.” How can you not love corny-ass Jeff?
Past. Travis and Nat by the fire. He’s starting to, maybe, resent her(?) because she doesn’t think that Javi is still alive? Okay, maybe Lottie’s hand powers weren’t unlocked after they get rescued, maybe she just gets less spooky? And Travis sees the stump where they put the bear heart, and is he seeing the future since there’s a bunch of candles around it and no snow?
Present. Nat does the ol’ “Pretend to be helpful until the kidnapper gets close enough for you to stab them with a fork” bit, and tries to escape? Find a phone? Maybe she hasn’t thought this out. She’s being chased through the woods, and maybe you’re supposed to be thinking about the “Pit Girl” sequence from the first episode?
Past. Is Tai pretending to do her sleep walking thing when she bit Van, so she will just be locked up alone? So Van won’t have hurt wrists anymore, or worse?
Present. And now Nat finds a ceremony remenicent of what the Cabin Crew did, complete with animal masks. And of course you can’t have some sort of spooky ceremony without the obligatory naked dude. Maybe burying him as a symbolic killing instead of a real one like they used to do?
Past. “Cornflake Girl” by Tori Amos. Shauna is walking around with the ear like no one is gonna walk in on her like “WTF, girl?”
Present. You gotta collect and throw away your ashes when you’re burning evidence, people!
Past. I don’t know what Nat is thinking is weird. ‘Cause there’s no snow there, but everywhere else there is? There’s aren’t any footprints, so… And of course Shauna chomps the ear, because we have to get to the cannibalism somehow? And why make it make sense?
Final Thoughts
So, if killing does “grant wishes” or some shit, did Shauna killing the rabbit give her her affair? What did Travis’ murder do? Bring them all together, or something else we haven’t seen yet?
And Misty killed that one lady with the cigarettes, right? Maybe that is how Nat was saved-ish. Is Misty still connected with Lottie?
New girls in the Cabin are gonna just end up being killed, aren’t they?
Let me know your favorite parts and theories in the comments. I’ll have watched the next episode before this posts, so I won’t be spoiled by anything. See ya next week!
-bcp