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.
We’re starting in the past, before the plane, even. Ben is the health teacher. That makes sense. I think most of the Coaches and P.E. teachers I remember taught health, and they would be the ones doing Sex Ed. Did they even have Magnums back in 96-97?1 Was it established in an earlier episode that Jackie liked poppies? In The Wizard Of Oz (another story about a dream land or alternate dimension), poppies were deadly, right? And Misty asking how much blood there is, I’m sure isn’t foreshadowing. It could just also be her being creepy.
“Song 2” by Blur kicks us in the face with the panic and chaos of Shauna’s labor. And Misty is frozen (in a different way than Jackie).
Present. Misty has fucking brass knuckles?! Jersey, through and through, I guess… Walter is texting Misty after she kicked him to the curb. There’s Lottie with another “Leave us.” Misty, again, trying to prove that she’s important and needed, pretending to Lottie that she and Nat are friends. I’m sorry Shauna, but you kinda have to go to the police whenever they say. Unless you’re rich, I guess…
Past. I guess it’s a good thing that so many TV shows had episodes where people went into labor at awkward times? Mari keeping it real, I guess, since the United States has the highest rate of maternal mortality of any high income country. I wonder if Lottie being pushed away will be blamed for anything bad that’s going to happen.
Present. Gunshot! Oh no! Oh, it’s just Nat being a horrible shot…?
It was something that was already in him.
Some poignant shit here. I’m wondering if Nat is just out of practice, is why she can’t aim well, or if it’s her emotional state, or if she doesn’t have that part of herself anymore. She doesn’t need it — she’s moving beyond the hold that the wilderness had on her… Hmmm. Nat was the hunter. Shauna was the butcher. Mari, the cook. Lottie, the spiritual leader (especially with Laura Lee gone). Tai, leader. I don’t know if the roles that they took up are indicative of anything, or maybe just it’s easier to write them doing certain things, so you don’t have to wonder who is up to what.
Van is listening to “Your Woman” by White Town. Tai also wondering who “we” is. I don’t think it’s multiple personalities, Van (and that is also not the preferred nomenclature). I guess the song is sort of right on the nose for this scene. And Tai found the bills.
Past. Misty is trying to hype herself up, and then almost as an after thought is like: “Oh yeah, you can do this too, Shauna.” I’m wondering if this is Misty realizing that she has blood on her hands? A sort of isolating focus on Misty before she bolts. The tunnel vision of a panic attack? Akilah gets thrown under the bus, but she’s got Nugget by her side!
And Travis is just wondering around with a knife and grabs the skull off the wall? And now it’s Travis’ turn to cut his hand. It’s turning into Rosemary’s Baby up in the cabin with the offerings and shit.
Present. The director is kinda making it obvious that they’re not showing who Lottie is talking to. She’s never been ill, because she’s just seeing the alternate timeline and not hallucinations? Another mention of doing terrible things — does it get worse than just the cannibalism? Misty, you might not be wholly invested in whatever it is they’re working on in Lottie’s cult, but you can at least put your heart into that drum! Is Misty just shutting down the conversation, saying she’s never been through a breakup, or is it the truth, because she’s been afraid to ever let herself get that close to someone?
Past. “Rescue Me” by Madonna is another blatant needle drop. Oh, Ben and Paul’s apartment has parts of the cabin in it, is why I noticed it didn’t match before. The skull is there. Walls and a window with snow outside. And Shauna’s screaming brings Ben back to reality. Just the placenta? No baby! I was just waiting for Lottie to slap Misty and say: “Snap out of it!” Our baby? Wait, you haven’t even washed your hands, Misty? Akilah’s like: “I am not doing this shit again, you better be good, Misty.” And Misty’s Great? She just flipped a switch, didn’t she?
You are so close to being on the other side.
Present. Time for the questioning… And is it ever established in the past that Van is a film aficionado? You can barely hear Pulp’s “Sorted For E’s & Wizz” playing in the background as Tai tries to talk to Van about money. Did Tai really not know where Lottie was? Did her investigator not find her, or did she not get the chance to tell her before Misty intervened?
Past. Nat is still not buying into the power of the wilderness, and Shauna seems to be fighting it, too. Is the praying manifesting a baby? Is this the wish that Crystal’s death has granted? Blackout…
Everyone is smiling and happy as Shauna comes to. “Pitseleh” by Elliott Smith plays. I’ve never heard the song, but looking up the lyrics, this might be a clue.
Present. So that song is diegetic in Van’s car. Sleater-Kinney tour t-shirts?! Hey, they’ve been touring as recently as, like, 2021, Tai! And I think that’s when the current timeline of the show takes place2. Van doesn’t want someone getting close to her.
Lisa is giving Nat, Gilly the 14th. People give friendship whether the other person deserves it, or not. I don’t know if Lisa is portraying someone who is learned in the ways of recovery that Lottie’s cult is offering, and is working on indoctrinating Nat, or if she is countering Nat’s “Oh, I’m older and know how the world really is” cynicism with her “Okay, Gen X auntie, we don’t do things like that anymore” youth and optimism. Ultimately reminding Nat that: yes, when you are young, you are idealistic and think that you can do stuff that really matters to the world, and it’s only because time and the world beats you down and wears down your joints that you feel like you can’t do it once you’ve reached middle age, so you just have to give up on your principles and complain that they don’t make music like they used to anymore.
Past. I remember going to birthing classes with my wife when she was pregnant, and they talked a lot about how some people have issues with latching, and took a lot of time normalizing that issue. That if you can’t get the hang of it right away, it doesn’t mean you’re going to be a bad mother, or that the baby doesn’t love you, or that you’re a failure as a woman. Tai is fed us with all the crying, but also maybe feels sorry for Shauna and the baby? And isn’t it a sort of horror trope that when a baby cries all the time, there’s something evil about it?
Present. Of course Jeff is waiting in the car at the police station rocking out to “Fuck Tha Police” by NWA. I also feel awkward picking up my wife’s phone, not knowing if I should just let it go to voicemail or not, because whenever I leave a voicemail for her, she never listens to it, she just calls me back when, if she listened to it, should would know why I was calling her and wouldn’t have to have me explain everything all over again to her, because I already said everything when I left the message… Sorry for the over-share… And Jeff over-shares with the bathroom talk. Ha ha!
Is Nat upset by seeing Misty because she thinks Misty is going to ruin her plan, or because Nat thinks she might actually be starting to make some progress on herself, and Misty is showing up like it’s all some sort of game?
We’re all like this, aren’t we?
Nat getting down to the root of everything. They’re all traumatized? They all chase away those that are trying to get close to them? They all self-sabotage their relationships?
Past. A scene of Shauna trying to care for her child.
Present. A Scene of Shauna trying to care for her child. But maybe Shauna doesn’t know how to take care of people? She only knows how to manipulate them. So then does Shauna think that she is stuck and not going to get off? And has she forgotten about the cake already?! And here comes Callie trying to be cunning like her mom, but is gonna end up screwing it all up like her dad.
Past. Lottie is humming to the baby and it’s not crying anymore. Oh shit! Wet nurse cucked! We need to feed? That’s a tulpa baby, or something.
Present. Spit take! Yes!
It’s all a goddamn prison, anyway.
Above and below. Above and below water. What’s a prison? The cult, or life itself?
Past. The baby is crying again. And Shauna just manipulated that baby into feeding, didn’t she? It may seem like a baring of her soul — just like during her interrogation — but there’s probably a reason why both of these scenes are so close to each other in the same episode.
Present. Damnit, Van, it was Flavor Aid! I’ll have none of this Koo-Aid slander! Wait, so Van wasn’t going to go in until she saw Shauna go in? Now Nat has fully embraced wearing purple. Ha ha! Of course Lottie has it all laid out like the sigil. They’re even making the hook at the bottom.
Past. Shauna wakes up and the baby is gone. Oh fuck… Oh, okay. So that was either a dream, or an almost dying vision into a parallel world like Lottie in the mall.
Final thoughts
Holy shit. Okay, this was a heavy one. This was definitely an Emmy swing, but not in a contrived way, I think.
Okay, so I made a tarot connection in episode 4, and I don’t know why I didn’t think about the sigil since it’s referred to online as “The Hanging Girl.” The Hanged Man, of course is Major Arcana card XII, and since the person on the card is usually hanging upside down on a hook, it can symbolize sacrifice and changing prospective. The Hebrew letter it represents is “Mem” which means “water” and can refer to knowledge and discovery. Mem also represents the womb. It can also symbolize a mid-life crisis.
However, the sigil is upside down from the tarot card, so the reversed card can be interpreted as a stalling or not making progress.
Upside down. Right-side up. Above. Below.
Sorry it’s taken me so long to finish watching this episode. I don’t even think people care anymore, because you have to be with the times and firmly within the wave wake of the zeitgeist. But, I’m a dweeb — and I just now put together that: Weeb = Dweeb - D — so I like taking time and thinking about and dissecting the things I like, so I can get every savory morsel I can from off the bones. So, just like everyone else who creates things,I’m doing this for myself.
-bcp
I went ahead and Googled it, and they came out in 1989. So, okay. And I guess you could tell what I was up to back then if I had no idea if they were even around (and no, I don’t mean raw dogging it).
Yeah, in August they were just in New York and Philly. With Wilco, even!