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…
Van’s place, and 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up?” is scoring the scene. Well, there are those Past Due bills that I was wondering about last episode that reclaims some of the reality for me in this series. Guess I should just be more patient and wait for the story to unfold, huh? Thank god Van says “VCR” and not “VHS player,” which for some reason is what most people have defaulted to calling them (and if you want to be a super nerd, you bust out “VTR”). Oh, this is leading up to the end of last episode. Sort of like how when editing with tape, you need to rewind a little so that the tape can get up to speed before you start adding bits. And down goes Tai. Is it because she hasn’t been sleeping, or just fainting to be dramatic?
Back to normal credit music. Maybe they both are the same length, or it was longer in the first season? Or I’m just remembering things wrong.
Back to the cabin in the past. Akilah is giving Tai the side-eye because she’s falling into that white girl, witchy shit. Again, is this “him” the baby, or something else?
Present. Canadian band Necking is playing their song “Big Mouth” at the bowling alley where Callie and Mustachioed Jason Segel are. The sexual tension in the lyrics speaking for Callie. And of course she doesn’t know The Big Lebowski, she wasn’t even born yet! Oh, the terror on his face when she got that strike. “Am I going to have to arrest myself?” For a second, I even thought: “‘M. Saracusa?’ But his name starts with a ‘J’…” Because I thought he was using his real first name, at least. I mean, did he give her a last name at all? Would this be the first time she would have tried to Google him? Isn’t that what everyone does nowadays in the dating game, just to check to make sure the other person isn’t up to some nefarious shit?
Maybe he did die, and that’s his ghost.
Past. Oh now they’re just teasing us! And now here comes Nat to try to cover her ass for the whole “faked Javi was dead” thing. Akilah’s mouse is named Nugget! Mari is using the cards to assign chores. Yeah, this is some blatant foreshadowing, I can tell. Fucking Jack Kevorkian, Misty?! Oh shit, now I wonder if she’s been killing people at the nursing home where she works. And now I’m thinking that maybe all of them are the Antler Queen. They take turns deciding who has got to die, so that it’s equal, or something. Everyone knows that they could be next, so they all have to get along with each other, and not create factions, which could lead to conflicts. Okay, Crystal is not a figment of Misty’s imagination. She’s got poop duty — Doody Duty, if you will.
Present. Ha ha! Randy gets thrown under the bus again! Misty and Walter are listening to a cover of “Stayin Alive” by Tropical Fuck Storm (I just went blind for a second, I rolled my eyes so hard at that dipshit band name)… Is Walter trying to impress Misty with this bullshit? Wait — has Misty met her match in the annoying department? Has she realized: “Oh, this must be what it’s like to deal with me. No wonder I don’t have any friends.”
There’s only ever one rule: Win.
That’s gotta be some foreshadowing, too. And who is it that are asking questions about the moon landing? I guess digitizing tapes could bring in a little extra income. If they don’t have a Costco nearby, that is. I wonder if Randy ended up swiping that pen at the wedding… Shauna puts down the knife when she says she’s going to get mad. Ha! Jeff knows it’s not a good idea, because he knows all too well how brilliant a Fuck Up Rand is. Shauna’s “You did great” is right when she realized that Callie is a lot more like her dad than her.
Past. So there were Varsity and JV on the plane? What the hell could possibly have Vitamin C in it, Travis? Javi is looking at Lottie like they both know, and he’s checking to see if it’s okay to talk about where he was.
Think of me like a mirror.
Present. Hmmm. Nat and Lisa. Shauna and Callie. Misty and Walter. Tai and Van? Lottie and who? I’m thinking that all their time in the wilderness, Lottie cut her hand A LOT, and Nat knows what it looks like when Lottie’s been having “accidents.” Oh shit! And Nat was with Lottie last episode after her hand was cut and she got in the bath! Misty getting rejected again. That can’t be good for anyone’s health. Tai reacts to “Sam” like she’s surprised Van knows that she has a kid.
Past. Hmmm. Ominous cliff. I’m sure that’s not going to come into play later. Scraping the rest out with sticks has got to be the worst part of that shit job. Crystal is really Kristen!? I don’t know — I went to middle and high school at this same time with at least 4 different Crystals. All the sudden they started listening to you, Misty? Oh no, you’re thinking of telling her, aren’t you? Crazy smile! Oh fuck! She’s doing it! Oh no! Misty, you fucking psycho!
Misty trying to act like she’s not serious, like those dipshits that say something racist and then when no one agrees whole-heartedly, they say that they’re just kidding, even though they’re not kidding and just looking to see who else is a piece of shit chud… Crystal brings up Misty’s attempted drugging of Ben. OH SHIT! How’s Misty going to spin this? There are two pretty convenient rocks at the bottom of the cliff. Kind of a coincidence that I just watched Midsommer for the first time this weekend.
Present. If Misty didn’t know what was going on with Lottie, did Tai’s investigator know? Is Misty trying to convince Walter that she and Nat are super good friends, or herself? Walter cutting Misty to the fucking CORE. Wait — so is Misty upset that Walter is seeing through her lies, or that he could love someone as flawed as she is? That he could love the Real Misty, and not the one that she puts on? Is he a serial killer, or something, too? Can Randy pull this off? Okay, he can’t even pull off snacks, so… Oh, that’s why he was nervous on the boat — he wasn’t high (he’s just a dumbass), he was involved with Jeff’s blackmail.
Past. Dammit Lottie! Tai trying to ride the line and play both sides to keep the peace. Lottie is helping her to stop Mirror Tai from coming out, but she just keeps being so fucking weird.
Present. Tai finds Oxys. That’s not how you properly dispose of narcotics, Van. Wait — Mirror Tai was the one on the way to Van. If Van were to somehow be able to help, Mirror Tai would go away again. There’s something else here. Here comes Randy — sorry, Ran-dawg — to screw everything up. Nat is finally getting into the locked cabin. Is that the gun from the wilderness? The one Nat had? Are they one and the same? Some people that are in cults are usually fine with being in cults, Nat. Of course they’re okay with giving Lottie their money. Leave us? That’s some villain shit, there. What did Lottie start with Travis? The witchy shit? Drugs?
Past. The forest is coming for “the baby.” Are Shauna’s emotions influencing the environment? Ah, there’s the “Stayin Alive” connection coming back. So if Crystal is dead, what’s the good thing that’s going to happen?
Present. Strawberries? To bad Shauna didn’t bring the strawberry lube.
Past. Drawing of roots, and Javi sneaks up on Ben like a fucking ghost. Javi made a friend in the wilderness. Okay… Are those his drawings? Misty’s relieved Tai and Shauna are missing. Yeah, Van, everyone can hear the wind, that’s one of the problems.
Present. I don’t know, Sonys had that technology for a while, where they would turn to a blue screen if they lost signal. I know they had it in models that still had coax inputs. And Van goes right for the pills. Mirror Tai did want to find Van for something else. Who’s “we?” Tai and Mirror Tai? All the Yellowjackets? Is Lottie doing EMDR? Near death, Nat sees everyone dead and the Antler Queen. If they “brought it back” with them, is that what Mirror Tai meant — that they’re still supposed to be in the wilderness, or maybe they’re not even supposed to be alive? Was that Morse Code Misty was pressing on the buzzer?
Past. Tai and Shauna find they’re way back, and it’s dark, so how long were they out there in the blizzard? Is that the “wish” granted by Crystal’s death? And c’mon, “Mother” by Danzig is a bit on the nose, don’t you think?
Final Thoughts
Maybe the cabin is a focal point for some kind of energy, and the sigil amplifies it. They were supposed to die, but went into a parallel universe, and they keep seeing glimpses of it. And it all could have started with Lottie seeing the car crash when she was a kid. Mirror Tai is from that other place and can travel back and forth. Ben is seeing his real past and how he was living until he got sucked into this timeline?
They did bring the sigil back with them… Shauna with her diaries, first. Lottie has it everywhere at her cult. Travis made it with the candles. Jeff put it on the postcards.
Next is the Birth Episode, so that’s one sort of building anxiety that will be resolved. Because again, I don’t think the baby is real.
Let me know what you think the visions are about 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