In its first season, Yellowjackets‘ mix of survival thriller tropes, tantalizing mysteries, and the savagery of highschool ladies made it must-see TV. In its second outing, the present delivered some much-anticipated cannibalism and additional explored the grownup Yellowjackets’ trauma. However wonky pacing and an unfulfilling Twenty first-century storyline meant that Season 2 could not attain the beautiful highs of Season 1. Was the present in decline, or was Season 2 only a misstep?
After watching the primary 4 episodes of Season 3, the reply is sadly the previous.
Regardless of the occasional jaw-dropping second, Yellowjackets continues to really feel unmoored this season, particularly on the subject of its grownup timeline. Not solely does the sequence don’t have any clue what to do with a number of members of its ensemble — it additionally looks as if it is simply treading water till it could possibly get to its terrifying Season 1 chilly open.
What’s Yellowjackets Season 3 about?
Christina Ricci in “Yellowjackets.”
Credit score: Colin Bentley / Paramount+ with SHOWTIME
Yellowjackets Season 2 ended with the teenager Yellowjackets’ cabin burning down — presumably by the hands of Coach Ben (Steven Krueger) — and the promise of a troublesome winter with out shelter. Season 3 skips forward to the summer season, when the staff has constructed a thriving commune full with animal pens and exquisitely construct shelters. In a speech celebrating the summer season solstice, Van (Liv Hewson) catches us up to the mark on what we missed within the time leap in addition to the occasions of Season 2, a second of self-mythologizing that additionally doubles as an eyeroll-worthy recap. (“Previously, on the Yellowjackets,” Van says, in a meta nod that falls flat.)
Shauna (Sophie Nélisse), however, needs no half in Van’s sanitizing of the horrors the staff has endured (and dedicated) — understandably so, given the still-fresh lack of her child. Her anger, which principally manifests in fights with the ever-annoying Mari (Alexa Barajas, taking up an even bigger function this season), will drive a wedge between staff members and problem present chief Natalie’s (Sophie Thatcher, Companion) maintain on energy. Natalie, for her half, is in a precarious place: How can she defend Coach Ben whereas her teammates beg for his blood?
Within the current, the grownup Yellowjackets grieve the lack of Natalie (Juliette Lewis). Properly, Misty (Christina Ricci) does, at any price. Other than one scene of post-funeral commiseration, it looks as if Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), Taissa (Tawny Cypress), and Van (Lauren Ambrose) have moved on pretty shortly. That a lot of the grief falls on Misty is sensible given her function in Nat’s demise, however the different Yellowjackets’ fast transferring on cheapens Season 2’s greatest loss.
It is not like they even transfer on to extra thrilling issues! Shauna has to cope with her daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins) prying additional into what occurred within the wilderness, in addition to a mysterious new particular person making an attempt to succeed in out to her. (Sure, the latter reads as an uninspired rehash of Season 1’s blackmailing plot.) In the meantime, Tai and Van rekindle their teen romance, however regardless of Cypress and Ambrose’s stable chemistry, their arc appears like a boring, slow-moving aspect quest in an already unfocused present-day storyline. Take me again to when the adults had been working collectively, as a substitute of scattered.
Mashable Prime Tales
Yellowjackets Season 3 would not know what to do with lots of its characters.
Tawny Cypress, Lauren Ambrose, Warren Kole, and Melanie Lynskey in “Yellowjackets.”
Credit score: Kailey Schwerman / Paramount+ with SHOWTIME
The unlucky grownup Tai and Van storyline is only one symptom of Yellowjackets‘ greatest downside: a lack of information of the right way to use its ensemble forged. (An identical downside has befallen The White Lotus, one other present with an underwhelming third season.)
In any ensemble present, there are sure to be characters who fall to the wayside. However in Yellowjackets Season 3, these characters are amongst those that had been set as much as play an enormous function. Teen Tai and Van are sometimes sidelined as a lot as their grownup counterparts, making story parts like Shauna and Tai’s Season 1 bond a distant (and much-missed) reminiscence. Lottie (performed by Courtney Eaton and Simone Kessell) additionally will get quick shrift this time round. With no merciless winter pushing the staff to place their religion within the wilderness, teen Lottie has been pushed to the sidelines, the place she makes an attempt extra obscure, non secular practices that, regardless of some ominous visions, appear extra like filler than something significant. And bear in mind how grownup Lottie was arrange as a serious new arrival in Season 2? You would be hard-pressed to seek out something remotely near that affect in Season 3.
Elsewhere, characters who get extra airtime, like Melissa (Jenna Burgess) or Mari, battle to face out towards the much more developed leads. One single joke about Melissa instantly having a persona doesn’t, the truth is, a persona make! That disparity is much more clear when the 2 work together with Shauna, who stays the present’s most fully-formed lead in each timelines. Within the current, Yellowjackets dives deeper into her relationship with Misty, which ends up in scenes that, whereas enjoyable, additionally remind us of all of the wealthy interpersonal dynamics we may very well be having throughout the season if Yellowjackets knew how finest to showcase its unimaginable forged.
Did Yellowjackets set itself up for failure?
Sophie Thatcher in “Yellowjackets.”
Credit score: Kailey Schwerman / Paramount+ with SHOWTIME
Other than its shoddy character work, Season 3 of Yellowjackets meanders much more than Season 2. Sure, there are a set of episode-ending cliffhangers that may shock viewers, however do not anticipate Yellowjackets to do a lot with them — actually not an intriguing kiss that feels increasingly like wasted potential the additional we get from it. In the meantime, Hilary Swank, whose thriller function has been teased in Yellowjackets‘ trailers, would not even present up within the first 4 episodes.
The shortage of propulsion feels additional egregious contemplating Yellowjackets‘ first-ever scene: the staff searching an unknown sufferer by the snowy woods as a part of their ritualistic cannibalism. Stated scene provides us a definitive ending level for the teenager Yellowjackets’ journey (except for their rescue), however the present dangers dragging its ft too lengthy to get there. The Season 3 premiere even opens with a fake-out echoing that first hunt, so the present is conscious how a lot we’re craving that payoff. However three and a half years and two seasons have handed since that premiere, and as Yellowjackets continues to spin its wheels about what actually occurred within the wilderness, its momentum suffers.
Its present-day timeline suffers too, because the survivors are lowered to cryptic vagaries about “what we did out there” with a view to shock the viewers about what different atrocities they dedicated as youngsters. There’s solely a lot pussyfooting I can take, although, particularly when Yellowjackets set itself such a excessive bar in Season 1.
In setting that bar — and particularly singling out that scene — Yellowjackets might have set itself an inconceivable job. Can it actually maintain audiences invested within the present’s many mysteries, a number of of which have remained mysteries since Season 1, over the course of its deliberate five-season arc? Primarily based on the beginning of Season 3, with its unsatisfying character growth and continued foot-dragging, it appears unlikely. Yellowjackets might already be operating out of steam.
