Yellowjackets Season 2 Lost the Plot
Two months after the season finale, I'm seeing the second season with clearer eyes.
I’ve been having dreams that I’m in “Yellowjackets”.
Not as an actor on the show- with performers I admire like Sophie Nélisse and Jasmine Savoy Brown. No, I’ve been having dreams I’m stranded in the Canadian wilderness, in dire straits, low on food and morale. It’s been over two months since the finale, but I can’t seem to shake the end of this show’s sophomore season. And now that I’ve had some time and distance, I can see the second season for what it was: a disappointment.
Don’t get me wrong, it had its moments to be sure: the Grecian feast over Jackie’s body, Misty’s melodramatic “Steel Magnolia’s” monologue, Shauna’s heartbreaking vision of motherhood and Walter’s appearances, always accompanied by a “Sweeney Todd” or “Phantom of the Opera” tune. But Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, the show’s creators, were given the impossible task of topping the buzzy (pun intended) first season, which was particularly gripping for queer and young female audiences. Some of what made the show magic in its first season seems like it got lost in the sauce the second time around.
Season one drew me in because it gave me a pit in my stomach, just when I thought about the show’s premise. “Teenage girls are vicious” and “Teenage girls will eat you alive”, literally- what a concept. The relationship that gripped me the most was Jackie and Shauna. Within the two girls existed intense jealousy and unconditional love, anger, resentment, and a sense of ownership over each other. They shared clothes, secrets, and even romantic partners. Shauna loved Jackie in such an intense way that she wanted to be a part of her and to be with her. Even in the most gruesome way- consuming her. This dynamic, although never at this level in real life, is familiar.
That’s what kept me watching. But suddenly when season two came and went, I felt adrift. So many questions were unanswered. Did we all conveniently forget Taissa would soon be a Senator? What happened to Dark Taissa, and The Man With No Eyes? How is this all happening (both seasons 1 and 2) over the span of only a few weeks? And why, oh why, did the writers allow the season to end the way it did?
A lot of the second season had me questioning “What is the purpose of this?” I felt that way about Lottie’s vision in the mall, Misty’s bizarre dream in the sensory deprivation tank, and of course, the death of Natalie- and all that led up to it. It’s been unclear throughout the show whether or not The Wilderness is really some sort of spirit or just the animalistic cruelty of young women. Without that clarification, the Yellowjackets silently agreeing to hunt Shauna at the last moment made little sense to me. So did Lottie’s logic that they make a sacrifice now; if the timeline is to be believed, Travis only died a few weeks ago, and so did Biscuit (Taissa’s dog). Wouldn’t that be enough blood, at least for now? Does the Wilderness need blood payment every month, like rent?
The other big issue of the season was keeping all the women separate in the modern timeline. The older Yellowjackets do their best work together, but we got so little of Misty and Natalie, the best odd couple of season 1. I prefer the earlier timeline because the group is always together in close quarters, and the stakes are always dialed to a ten. Now, with the death of Natalie, we’ll have one less stellar performer in Juliette Lewis, whose brushes with death kept the stakes high in the present day. Part of the fun of the show is seeing a character’s journey in both timelines. In the finale, young Natalie is crowned Antler Queen, while modern Natalie is killed. As much as I like how those moments line up, this death will deprive us of those parallels in future seasons with Natalie.
I still love” Yellowjackets”, and as long as the showrunners keep writing episodes, I’ll keep watching. The best mystery box shows answer enough questions to satiate their audience, but not too many that we lose interest. When I turned on my tv after "Storytelling”, I was only left with one large question mark and too many loose ends. We can only stay optimistic that within the next three seasons, we’ll get some answers that will change our opinion on the second season, and it will make sense in hindsight. One can only hope.