SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Yellowjackets Season 1. If you have not yet watched the show and/or the finale, continue on at your own risk!
If one is in the market to watch a dark and captivating small screen mystery, there is arguably no new show better to fit the bill than Showtime’s Yellowjackets. Across its first 10 episodes, the series has dug its claws deep into the minds of its audience, establishing an amazing cast of characters and a sinister, compelling plot that keeps you starved for more at the end of each chapter. It’s terrifically exciting, and now, in the wake of the stellar Season 1 finale, we’re more amped than ever about what is ahead in the story.
Of course, part of that anticipation is the fact that there is a long list of questions to which we are dying to know the answer. To process all of them, we’ve built this feature – breaking down what we do know, and offering speculation regarding what’s ahead. What’s in store in the future of Yellowjackets? Let’s break it down.
Why Did Lottie Kill Travis, And Why Is She Threatening Nat And Tai?
Most of Yellowjackets Season 1 has audiences believe that Travis’ death and the blackmail scheme are connected – but that comes unraveled in “Doomcoming” when Jeff confesses to Shauna that he was behind the latter. Unfortunately, the other half of that mystery is not concluded in the slightest, and instead it’s made vastly more complicated. We do learn that Lottie Matthews is behind it, but her motives remain a complete mystery.
So what do we know? Tai and Nat were the only ones to get a postcard with the symbol drawn on it (Shauna and Misty don’t), there is some kind of financial angle involved (hence Lottie draining Travis’ bank account), and there is some kind of mysticism spin to it all. That’s not a lot to go on, but needless to say we’re extremely intrigued, and at this point we don’t even expect to get all the answers we require in Season 2 alone.
Who Are Lottie’s Followers?/ Who Are The People Abducting Nat?
With the action occurring in 2021 almost exclusively centering on Shauna, Tai, Nat, and Misty, Yellowjackets fans are wholly in the dark when it comes to the subject of what Lottie has been up to since the team was rescued in the wilderness. What is clear, though, is that whatever she is doing has earned her some support – a.k.a. the group of people who break into Nat’s motel room and abduct her.
Based on the evidence presented, it seems that Lottie might just be at the head of her very own cult, with her visions convincing people that she is a prophet of some kind. We don’t know much of anything, but the passion of the followers must be intense if they are willing to commit a felony in support of her goals and wishes.
Precisely How Scared Of Tai Should We Be?
Over the course of Season 1, Yellowjackets fans learn that there seem to be two different sides to Taissa: there is the logical, practical side who is helpful in a crisis; and then alternately there is a feral side who eats dirt and climbs in trees. These are dual personalities that have followed Tai from the wilderness to adulthood, and it makes he a worrisome threat after the Season 1 finale.
Yellowjackets delivered a twin-barreled twist with Tai in the capstone episode, as not only does she win the state senate election, but we also learn of her basement hideaway where she behaves horrifically (including eviscerating the family dog). It’s unclear exactly how much control she has over “The Lady In The Tree,” and thus it’s unclear exactly how scared we should be now that she has gotten some political power.
Will Shauna And Jeff Tell Their Daughter About Adam?
There’s a good solid 30 seconds or so in the finale when it seems like Shauna’s home life is going to be ok. The blackmail scheme is settled, Adam’s body has been disposed of, and Jeff and Shauna invite Callie to the living room for some happy family couch time. But all the happiness drains out of the room as soon as the news comes on with the missing persons report about Adam, which Callie watches with an expression of horror.
Callie is obviously going to be suspicious of Shauna given her knowledge about the affair, but what further complicates things is that Callie doesn’t know that Jeff knows about Adam. A parental decision will be required: either mom and dad have to create some kind of elaborate lie that keeps their daughter in the dark about everything, or they’re just going to have to confess and essentially make her an accessory to their crimes.
Is Misty’s Body Disposal Really As Fool-Proof As She Claims?
Based on the aforementioned news report, it doesn’t seem like Adam’s inner circle of friends and/or family is buying the idea that he spontaneously went on a trip without telling anybody – and that suspicion is automatically bad for Shauna, Tai, Nat, and Misty, as there’s going to be an investigation. What we don’t know, however, is if Misty’s body disposal plan will actually work and keep the police off their tracks.
Misty clearly knows a thing or two about covering up/getting away with a crime, but she is also a batshit lunatic – thus it’s hard to fully trust her in regards to anything. Cremating the head, hands, and feet was a smart move, but is the torso the women dispose of really without any evidence? And are they really totally in the clear just by destroying Adam’s phone, including the SIM card?
Who Is Actually Still Alive Other Than Shauna, Tai, Nat, Misty, And Lottie?
Of all the reveals in the Yellowjackets Season 1 finale, arguably the most important is that Shauna, Tai, Nat, and Misty aren’t the only survivors of the wilderness still alive. As noted, the fact that it’s Lottie still running around opens up all kinds of other chaotic avenues, but the simple reveal that anyone else is still around is a big deal. This is because it means that anyone we haven’t seen die in the wilderness could appear in the present day narrative at any moment.
Sadly, the finale officially confirms the death of Jackie, who dies of exposure after being forced to spend the night sleeping outside, and we know Coach Martinez and Laura Lee are gone – but now it sounds like anyone else could pop up in Season 2 and beyond.
Where Is Javi?
While there’s no denying that Jackie’s death at the end of Yellowjackets Season 1 is devastating, let’s also not forget that there is one among the survivors who is still missing by the time the credits roll on the episode: Javi. He was clearly freaked out during the Doomcoming celebration, and he isn’t featured in finale at all.
Travis, and Nat do make an earnest effort trying to find him after he runs off, but their search is never given any conclusion, and they go to bed that night without having found him. If Jackie is unable to survive the first snowfall in the woods, it’s possible that Javi won’t either… but we won’t know until Season 2.
Which Girl Is Hunted And Eaten In The Pilot?
Yellowjackets is very much keeping audiences on the hook when it comes to seeing the main cast of characters become a cannibalistic cult. We definitely know it’s coming based on the flashes of events that we see in the show’s pilot, but Season 1 comes to an end without yet getting to that point in the narrative. Because of this, a big question from that original episode returns: who is the girl who winds up being hunted and eaten?
As Yellowjackets continues, it wouldn’t be all that shocking if we get to a point where multiple characters are hunted and eaten, but for now we only know about the one – and we are still in the dark about her identity. Even rewatching the pilot after completing the first season doesn’t point in any specific direction, so we’ll just have to wait for Season 2 for our answer.
Will Misty Ever Confess To Destroying The Black Box?
Here’s a mystery to which we probably won’t see closure until Yellowjackets is ready to start wrapping everything up. One of the most insane moments in Season 1 of the Showtime series is in the end of the second episode, “F Sharp,” and sees young Misty gleefully destroying the crashed plane’s flight recorder – stopping its signal from broadcasting out to any would-be rescuers. The result of this is that the soccer team gets trapped in the wilderness far longer than they otherwise would have, all because Misty liked the attention she was getting for her survival skills.
The fact that Misty is still alive in the present suggests that none of the survivors know about what she did, as she surely would have been killed (and possibly eaten) if the team found out while they were still stranded. If that’s the case, Misty is the only one who knows what she did, and thus the information will only come out as a confession. But what could happen that would spur that confession? At present, we have no clue.
When Will Season 2 Premiere?
Our last question steps away from the plot-centric queries listed above, but after that finale it’s arguably the most pressing of all: when will we get Yellowjackets Season 2? Showtime gave the series a renewal order in mid-December, but we don’t presently have a timeframe for when production will start or when we will get to start seeing new episodes air.
It’s not uncommon these days for shows to take more than a year between seasons, but it feels like a safe bet that Yellowjackets could be back before the end of 2022 – if not especially because the show has a young cast, and the filmmakers likely want to ensure that the actors don’t age out of their parts. Expect our anticipation for the news of developments in regards to the future of the show to keep you CinemaBlend readers informed in the months ahead.
Yellowjackets Season 1 is now streaming in its entirety on Showtime, and to see what else is ahead on the small screen in the coming months check out our 2022 TV Premiere Date schedule.
