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In its first season, Yellowjackets‘ blend of survival thriller tropes, tantalizing mysteries, and the savagery of high school girls made it must-see TV. In its second outing, the show delivered some much-anticipated cannibalism and further explored the adult Yellowjackets’ trauma. But wonky pacing and an unfulfilling 21st-century storyline meant that Season 2 couldn’t reach the exquisite highs of Season 1. Was the show in decline, or was Season 2 just a misstep?
After watching the first four episodes of Season 3, the answer is unfortunately the former.
Despite the occasional jaw-dropping moment, Yellowjackets continues to feel unmoored this season, especially when it comes to its adult timeline. Not only does the series have no clue what to do with several members of its ensemble — it also seems like it’s just treading water until it can get to its terrifying Season 1 cold open.
What’s Yellowjackets Season 3 about?
Credit: Colin Bentley / Paramount+ with SHOWTIME
Yellowjackets Season 2 ended with the teen Yellowjackets’ cabin burning down — presumably at the hands of Coach Ben (Steven Krueger) — and the promise of a tough winter without shelter. Season 3 skips ahead to the summer, when the team has built a thriving commune complete with animal pens and exquisitely build shelters. In a speech celebrating the summer solstice, Van (Liv Hewson) catches us up to speed on what we missed in the time jump as well as the events of Season 2, a moment of self-mythologizing that also doubles as an eyeroll-worthy recap. (“Previously, on the Yellowjackets,” Van says, in a meta nod that falls flat.)
Shauna (Sophie Nélisse), on the other hand, wants no part in Van’s sanitizing of the horrors the team has endured (and committed) — understandably so, given the still-fresh loss of her baby. Her anger, which mostly manifests in fights with the ever-annoying Mari (Alexa Barajas, taking on a bigger role this season), will drive a wedge between team members and challenge current leader Natalie’s (Sophie Thatcher, Companion) hold on power. Natalie, for her part, is in a precarious position: How can she protect Coach Ben while her teammates beg for his blood?
In the present, the adult Yellowjackets grieve the loss of Natalie (Juliette Lewis). Well, Misty (Christina Ricci) does, at any rate. Aside from one scene of post-funeral commiseration, it seems like Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), Taissa (Tawny Cypress), and Van (Lauren Ambrose) have moved on fairly quickly. That most of the grief falls on Misty makes sense given her role in Nat’s death, but the other Yellowjackets’ quick moving on cheapens Season 2’s biggest loss.
It’s not like they even move on to more exciting things! Shauna has to deal with her daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins) prying further into what happened in the wilderness, as well as a mysterious new person trying to reach out to her. (Yes, the latter reads as an uninspired rehash of Season 1’s blackmailing plot.) Meanwhile, Tai and Van rekindle their teen romance, but despite Cypress and Ambrose’s solid chemistry, their arc feels like a boring, slow-moving side quest in an already unfocused present-day storyline. Take me back to when the adults were working together, instead of scattered.
Yellowjackets Season 3 doesn’t know what to do with many of its characters.
Credit: Kailey Schwerman / Paramount+ with SHOWTIME
The unfortunate adult Tai and Van storyline is just one symptom of Yellowjackets‘ biggest problem: a lack of understanding of how to use its ensemble cast. (A similar problem has befallen The White Lotus, another show with an underwhelming third season.)
In any ensemble show, there are bound to be characters who fall to the wayside. But in Yellowjackets Season 3, these characters are among those who were set up to play a huge role. Teen Tai and Van are often sidelined as much as their adult counterparts, making story elements like Shauna and Tai’s Season 1 bond a distant (and much-missed) memory. Lottie (played by Courtney Eaton and Simone Kessell) also gets short shrift this time around. Without a cruel winter pushing the team to put their faith in the wilderness, teen Lottie has been pushed to the sidelines, where she attempts more vague, spiritual practices that, despite some ominous visions, seem more like filler than anything meaningful. And remember how adult Lottie was set up as a major new arrival in Season 2? You’d be hard-pressed to find anything remotely close to that impact in Season 3.
Elsewhere, characters who get more airtime, like Melissa (Jenna Burgess) or Mari, struggle to stand out against the far more developed leads. One single joke about Melissa suddenly having a personality does not, in fact, a personality make! That disparity is even more clear when the two interact with Shauna, who remains the show’s most fully-formed lead in both timelines. In the present, Yellowjackets dives deeper into her relationship with Misty, which results in scenes that, while fun, also remind us of all the rich interpersonal dynamics we could be having across the season if Yellowjackets knew how best to showcase its incredible cast.
Did Yellowjackets set itself up for failure?
Credit: Kailey Schwerman / Paramount+ with SHOWTIME
Aside from its shoddy character work, Season 3 of Yellowjackets meanders even more than Season 2. Yes, there are a collection of episode-ending cliffhangers that will shock viewers, but don’t expect Yellowjackets to do much with them — certainly not an intriguing kiss that feels more and more like wasted potential the further we get from it. Meanwhile, Hilary Swank, whose mystery role has been teased in Yellowjackets‘ trailers, doesn’t even show up in the first four episodes.
The lack of propulsion feels extra egregious considering Yellowjackets‘ first-ever scene: the team hunting an unknown victim through the snowy woods as part of their ritualistic cannibalism. Said scene gives us a definitive ending point for the teen Yellowjackets’ journey (aside from their rescue), but the show risks dragging its feet too long to get there. The Season 3 premiere even opens with a fake-out echoing that first hunt, so the show is aware how much we’re craving that payoff. But three and a half years and two seasons have passed since that premiere, and as Yellowjackets continues to spin its wheels about what really happened in the wilderness, its momentum suffers.
Its present-day timeline suffers too, as the survivors are reduced to cryptic vagaries about “what we did out there” in order to surprise the audience about what other atrocities they committed as teenagers. There’s only so much pussyfooting I can take, though, especially when Yellowjackets set itself such a high bar in Season 1.
In setting that bar — and specifically singling out that scene — Yellowjackets may have set itself an impossible task. Can it truly keep audiences invested in the show’s many mysteries, several of which have remained mysteries since Season 1, over the course of its planned five-season arc? Based on the start of Season 3, with its unsatisfying character development and continued foot-dragging, it seems unlikely. Yellowjackets may already be running out of steam.
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“Yellowjackets” Season 3, streaming Feb. 14 on Paramount+ with Showtime, gets off to a slow, unsatisfying start.
