‘Yellowjackets’ Recap: We Finally Get the Thrills We’ve Craved

I didn’t use to believe that I had the ability to manifest something out of thin air, but now, I’m starting to reconsider it. After labeling last week’s episode of Yellowjackets the worst of the series so far—and having my own opinion backed up every time I forced myself to rewatch that scene for my recap—I was at my wit’s end. All I wanted was a true taste of what made Yellowjackets Season 1 so delectable: a little cult magic, some coherent character arcs and motivations, and a few revelations as to the vile extremities that the show’s survivalist teenagers went to seemed like a small ask.

And I guess it was, considering that Yellowjackets Season 2, Episode 8 is almost a complete return to form, with very little necessary setup to get to the goods. Episode 8, “It Chooses,” feels like the show’s writers dipping into a curtsy, extending a hand to pull beleaguered viewers up from the cliff. It’s as if they were saying to us, “Sorry, we were just trying to weed out the fake fans.” This episode has excitement, tangible suspense, and actual plot development—what a curveball! None of those things existed in Season 2 before today. It feels like a dream, too good to be true. I’m almost scared to revel in it, lest this be pulled from under us in next week’s season finale. But who cares? “It Chooses” is proof that Yellowjackets still has some fight in it yet, and that’s enough for me.

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Last week’s episode largely botched its highly anticipated, present-day reunion of the surviving Yellowjackets by keeping them apart even longer. But by its end, the women were back together and throwing back tequila shots, with an air of something peculiar beneath their jovial imbibing. Adult Lottie is still suffering from the visions that have plagued her on-and-off for years, ever since she started dripping her blood onto weird artifacts in the woods. Now, they’re starting to take hold of her again. Lottie’s instability isn’t helped by the group’s dynamic starting to crumble before her eyes, after the hacked-up body of Adam Martin is found by police. The cops now have something concrete to try to pin on Shauna and her family, and the Season 2 newbies—Adult Van and Lottie—are quickly realizing that their former teammates were accomplices in his murder.

When this comes to light, Lottie suggests that they all shut the hell up, in case someone hears them, and that they instead all regroup up at her compound's “Sharing Shack,” which really did tickle me. Something about discussing felony manslaughter and grisly dismemberment in a building with a kindergarten-ish name is a great nod to what Yellowjackets can do so well:mixing the macabre with the darkly hilarious.

Back in the ’90s, the surviving Yellowjackets are on the brink of psychosis and starvation, and there’s no telling which will take hold first. They’ve come down to boiling a leather belt from dead Jackie’s suitcase, just to try to extract any possible protein to live another day. Teenage Lottie is still recovering from having the daylights beaten out of her by Shauna at the end of last week’s episode, and it’s unlikely she’ll survive if there is nothing to eat to nourish her ailing body. While everyone’s asleep, Coach Ben shakes off his suicidal ideation to try one last-ditch effort for save himself, combining Tai’s map of where the hunting cabin’s cult symbol appeared in the forest with sketches that Javi drew of a strange tree, after he was found alive in the woods.

At the Sharing Shack, all of the adult women are exchanging information to best decide how to address the Adam Martin situation, which leads to the group finding out that Shauna not only told Jeff about the murder, but that Jeff was also the one blackmailing all of them in Season 1. Eight episodes into this season, we finally have some slight reason for all of those seemingly useless (but definitely laborious) asides, like Misty and Walter impersonating FBI agents to interrogate Jeff’s friend, Randy.

There must have been a more straightforward way for Jeff’s mistakes to come to light, one that didn’t involve stringing viewers along for weeks and keeping this vibrant group separated for so long. But hindsight is 20/20, and I just hope that for Season 3, the Writers Guild can strike a great deal to get everyone in the Yellowjackets writers room an eye exam, so that we can avoid these mistakes from the jump.

The group’s discussion turns into a fight, where accusations are thrown left and right, and Natalie suggests that they try to start healing and moving forward by finally talking about their trauma—together. No more separation, no more trying to go it alone. Natalie sees a path to some form of healing if the group can finally own up to their actions. It’s a decent idea, one that speaks to Natalie’s legitimate growth as a character; her buying into the compound’s holistic therapy methods actually paid off a bit.

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“We’re not going to solve shit with talking, Nat,” Lottie responds. “This isn’t something that therapies can fix. I tried to bargain with it, I tried to will it away. But it’s too powerful. And now we have to give it what it wants.” The operative “it” is the maniacal presence in the forest, which Lottie believes returned with their group when they were recovered. The legitimacy of its “influence” remains questionable to the rest of the women—and to the viewers—but it leads to the episode’s big finale, which is the best 20 minutes of this season so far.

Coach Ben is off in the woods, following his makeshift map, and he finds some kind of tree fortress. It looks big and warm enough to house Javi, and it’s filled with animal bones. For that moment, he’s safe. Smart move, since everyone back at the cabin is so hungry that they’ve finally decided to act on it. Break out the salt and pepper, and maybe a bottle of Cholula. Shit is getting good. All of the surviving Yellowjackets—besides suffering Lottie, whom the group now sees as their leader—gather in a circle. Teenage Van grabs a deck of playing cards and shows them all a queen of hearts with its eyes scribbled out of the suit, before shuffling the deck. One by one, members of the circle come forth to draw a card, each one of them shaking with both fear and hunger.

The great thing about this scene is that there is blessedly no exposition within the episode’s script. Yellowjackets has been using unnecessary amounts of narrative explanation as a crutch this season, refusing to let its characters do more showing and less telling. There’s no need for any of that here: We all get the picture. Whoever draws the queen of hearts will be sacrificed, so the other survivors can live. Even Shauna, who just lost her child, lines up to take her chances.

But it’s Natalie who draws the queen and takes a hard swallow to accept her fate. Shauna tells Nat to stand with her back toward her, draws the group’s hunting knife, and puts it to Natalie’s throat. We already know that Nat survives, but the scene is no less nail-bitingly tense. Natalie, defiant, tells Shauna that if she’s going to kill her, she’ll have to look her teammate in the eyes while doing it. At the last second, Travis tackles Shauna to the ground, and Natalie flees the cabin into the woods as her teammates trail behind her with weapons, ready to feast. It’s a terrifying series of events, shot expertly with some of this season’s best camerawork.

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Javi intercepts Nat in the forest and tells her to follow him to the tree where he hid out for months—the one that Coach Ben has found. But to get there, they’ve got to cross the frozen lake, and quickly. The players-turned-hunters are trailing close behind, and there’s no time to take careful steps. One wrong move cracks the ice under Javi, who doesn’t even get a chance to move before he’s fallen into the freezing water. Nat—who might be the most purely good person out of the entire group—tries to help save him, but Misty pulls her back. “If you save him,” she explains, “the others will get you.”

Nat looks on in horror, as the brother of the person she loves freezes to death while begging her for help, another heaping of guilt and grief that Natalie will have to bear her entire life. Her will to live surpasses her kind heart, and she lets Javi die. The rest of the girls pull Javi from the lake before he can fall too far beneath the ice. “The wilderness chose,” Van says, still cowering in her own shock.

The wilderness did indeed choose, just like the Yellowjackets writers have made up my mind for me. I thought I was ready to give up entirely, but now, I’m not so sure. “It Chooses” was outstanding enough to defer my suspicions past next week’s finale, and into Season 3. I am hesitant, but I’m back in again. This season desperately needed something other than the inevitable cannibalistic feast of Jackie in its first half to quell my disappointments, and this harrowing hunting sequence certainly did the trick. Now, Yellowjackets Season 2 just has to land the plane. Here’s hoping it’s less of a crash-and-burn affair than the group’s trip to nationals.

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