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…
We’re starting with Ben in bed in the cabin. I don’t know if this is supposed to be a dream or flashback, but there’s something going on with video effects stuff. Possibly a breaking with reality?
That skeleton hand sure is dripping and gross. So either Tai has amnesia’ed the whole eating thing, or it was Mirror Tai.
Present. “When I Go Walking” by Popecoke is appropriately scoring Nat walking around Lottie’s Compound, snooping. Duh, “Lottie” is short for “Charlotte.”
Mirror Tai is doing some drawing, with what — eyeliner or something? It sure wipes off easily. Wait, with the car crash and everything, we don’t know what’s happened to Steve?!
Misty is arriving at Potter’s Island Marina, and we’re rocking out to “Seether” by Veruca Salt, and damn, they had some great songs. I gotta dive into their discography. Is “Great Expectations” a reference?
“I think that stuff is for bisexuals and goths.”
Obligatory Relationship Discussion In A Diner Scene. Jeff chose to be this version of himself. People are not who they seem. Different personas. Tai and Mirror Tai. Shauna and Jackie. Eh? Eh?
I don’t think Shauna is a fan of Jeff’s taste in music, or maybe just Sonic Disturbia’s “Take Me Down.” Jeff says “I’m gonna call an ambulance,” and this scene is like that fucking meme! Goddamn, this show! Looks like Shauna’s bloodlust is rising, and now li’l Miss Chekhov’s got a gun.
This has got to be one of the longest stretches we’ve stayed in one time period, as we return to Lottie’s Compound. Nat’s “not really a joiner,” and could that be alluding to her not joining up with Lottie’s side in the before times? And is this mini-monologue about the bees and starving her way of saying that it didn’t have to get as fucked-up back then if you would have just joined my side?
The past. Nat is packing up the bones. And is Shauna sad because Jackie is really gone, or because she’s still hungry? Past Shauna doesn’t like feeling out of control, but Present Shauna is craving it. Welcome him…? No Eye Man? Javi coming back? Still going with my theory that Shauna’s not pregnant, is she going to symbolically give birth to the spooky-ass whatever is haunting the cabin, or whatever?
Present. Randy is hiding something, isn’t he? Or is he just high all the time?
Past. Leadership is starting to be thrust in Tai’s direction. And is Mari hearing, like, Tell-tale Heart hand dripping?
I am always in awe when I can see someone becoming someone else.
C’mon! It’s right there! Maybe Drama Girl is just in Misty’s head, and Mari’s “two of you,” line from the first episode this season was a misdirect. Ben is starting to freak out…
Ben’s past. He and Paul are listening to “These Are The Days” by 10,000 Maniacs. I wonder if the young Gen Z Gays understand how hard it was to be out of the closet in the 90’s, or actually at any point in time before 2 years ago, or something. Especially if he’s around kids. The tough aura of machismo in New Jersey probably didn’t help. There was a guy who murdered a couple of gays in the early 90’s in Jersey, so that was probably something that was always stalking the dark alleys of awareness in the community.
Cabin past. I thought moose shed their antlers in the winter? I wonder if she wishes she would have drunk the tea, now?
Present. Walter is starting to get into the interrogating bit, and I wonder if Misty is going to have to dispose of another body.
“You found the biggest truth of all. We’re made of lies.”
Past. Mirror Tai wakes up and lets Van follow her. Are the symbols holding what the No Eyes Man represents in that area? A spell keeping the evil from escaping out into the world?
Present. Jeff is going to ruin everything, isn’t he? And now Shauna is finding the minivan. Because she just can’t get enough thrills, can she? Oh, this guy doesn’t know who he’s dealing with, does he? Damn, Melanie Lynskey is so good!
Past. And Ben is delirious from hunger, or sick, or having a dream. Letting his mind wander, since he’s stuck in the wilderness… The bummer baby shower, and Misty is going to perform a monologue, which is always a hit at parties! Is this just something that she had in her back pocket from watching the movie so much, because this is before even DVDs or the real internet, so she would have had to have really worn a hole in her VHS copy. And this is what she craves: to be wanted. To be important. To feel like somebody.
Present. Hey, Mirror Tai is in the mirror! “Don’t you hurt her…”? And then she covers up her face like Van’s bandages looked. Is it Mirror Tai that is going to drive away, now?
The foreshadowing of Misty’s catching the drama bug paying off as she lies her ass off to Walter. And so is Misty afraid of getting too close to Walter because he might unravel her web of lies, or because she doesn’t want to be herself, because no one likes who she really is?
Lottie totally rolled her eyes! Nat is wearing purple. Lisa lets people walk all over her, like when she messes up someone’s drink, eh Lottie? Is this her way of showing Nat how much control she has over her followers — that she can easily manipulate them — or showing Nat that she really can help her?
Past. Lottie gives Shauna a blanket, and oh look, its got that creepy sigil on it. I’m sure it’s not sinister at all. And they were all around the dead guy, maybe holding him there so he couldn’t escape, and so that’s where he died? The divisions are starting to show. And blood gets on the sigil, and a bunch of birds die.
When Lottie cut her head from the window, didn’t some of her blood get on one on the window sill? What happened after that — the rotted deer? Is it blood activated, or something? Another Tori Amos song (“Bells For Her”), as Lottie’s acolytes gather the birds and lay them at her feet. And how do they know there’s a lot of iron in the ground? Was there a compass acting weird in the first season I don’t remember?
Present. All of Lottie’s bees are dead. They had to have been killed by someone. And I don’t think that’s blood — the color is too off. Or maybe it’s honey that the bees made out of blood, or it’s mixed and that’s why it looks weird? “Il veut du sang,” means “He wants blood” according to my (and probably everyone else’s) Google search. “He” as in No Eye Man? And so that was just your typical foreboding hallucination and all the bees are fine.
Final Thoughts
I think it’s about time to vent my geek rage/pet peeve: YELLOWJACKETS ARE NOT BEES, THEY ARE WASPS! I hate when people confuse them, mostly because I did a report on wasps in the 4th grade, and if I could learn the difference when I was 9, then what the hell is everyone else’s excuse? Sure, bees, wasps and even ants are related, but so are gorillas, chimps, and humans. But one important — and probably intentional — difference between the two, is that bees eat pollen and honey, while wasps eat meat.
Thanks for letting me get that off my chest… 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. Since there’s a week or two break until the next episode, that’ll give me some time to hopefully catch-up. See ya next week!
-bcp