Yellowjackets, now in its third season, is quickly running out of steam. When do you know it’s time to wrap things up?
Warning! The following contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Yellowjackets, including season 3 episode 8.
In 2021, Yellowjackets emerged as the new, must-see TV show. Not only was the cast a beguiling mix of up-and-coming young performers and more experienced, well-known character actors, there was also the fascinating dual narrative of teenagers getting stuck in the woods and their adult selves coming to terms with their trauma.
Oh, and cannibalism. Yellowjackets includes a decent amount of flesh consumption – a bold choice which quickly made it the biggest horror show on TV.
To quickly recap things, the show follows a girls’ soccer team whose plane goes down in the middle of nowhere as they’re on the way to a tournament in the 1990s. The girls, along with their coach, his two sons and an assistant coach, are stranded in the wilderness for several months, with few supplies and little hope of rescue.
The second narrative follows some of the survivors, namely Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), Taissa (Tawny Cypress), Van (Lauren Ambrose), Misty (Christina Ricci) and Nat (Juliette Lewis), 25 years later as they’re still trying to overcome – and cover up – the events of their youth. But what exactly happened during those long months before the girls returned to civilisation?
Season 1 of Yellowjackets was superb. The first episode begins with the group hunting down a woman and slaughtering her, immediately grabbing our attention. Although no actual cannibalism happens until season 2, it was implied the girls might have to change their diet soon, and season 1 proved to be mysterious and disturbing enough to keep us interested.
Things started going downhill towards the end of season 2 as the story got more and more convoluted and more survivors were introduced in the present day. By season 3, which debuted in February, Yellowjackets has begun to feel hugely drawn-out and, honestly, a little dull.
Season 3 has particularly struggled to offer us much intrigue. The 90s flashbacks are still engrossing, but the present day storyline feels stilted. Shauna is getting increasingly unstable and is mostly driving the story, but Misty, Taissa and Van have little to do and the show has no room to develop them further.
Episode 6 offered us a glimmer of hope as two strangers showed up at the survivors’ camp in flashbacks. Could they finally be rescued? Is this finally the end? Are we getting somewhere with Yellowjackets or will the narrative be stretched out even more?
Turns out, more stretching is in order.
Co-creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson have already said the plan is to conclude Yellowjackets by season 5, but with the narrative losing steam fast, we have to ask: do we want that? The pair recently spoke to Collider’s Perri Nemiroff and said that, on top of the two current timelines, they will be exploring a third timeline: the time after the girls – or at least some of them – are saved. I’m sure Lyle and Nickerson have a plan for another two seasons, but having one doesn’t make it a good plan.
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Yellowjackets isn’t the only show that is having trouble knowing when to wrap things up and call it a day. Grey’s Anatomy is a mere shadow of its best seasons, Supernatural’s 15 seasons varied hugely in quality. And who could keep up with the messiness of Netflix’s Riverdale by the end of it? Not this writer.
So, how do you know when to stop? There isn’t a sure sign when you’ve gone too far, but in the case of Yellowjackets, both timelines have become repetitive and unsurprising. When the team gave in to their hunger by eating Jackie – who had been accidentally slow roasted after her death – it felt like the show had something to say, something bold to explore, but that sense is long gone now.
That being said, episode 8 was a marked improvement to the present day stuff. Shauna, increasingly fearful that someone is out to kill her, found Melissa (Hilary Swank), another survivor, alive and well, after having faked her death and married the daughter of a woman, Hannah, they killed in the woods. Melissa suggested that there isn’t actually anyone after Shauna and she’s just trying to make her personal life explode in order to make it interesting, to break free from the monotonous daily routine.
The episode ended with a fight between Shauna and Melissa. In the end, Shauna bit off a bit of Melissa’s arm and forced her to eat it or she would reveal who she really is. We’re not trying to vouch for cannibalism here, but finally, it felt like there was some meat around the show’s thematic bones.
Clearly, Shauna isn’t really okay, which is hardly surprising. The poor girl ate her best friend and a couple of others, just to name a couple of the horrors she endured. There’s so much potential in Yellowjackets, but the show has an overabundance of characters and no real sense of who they are or what to do with them.
Swank revealed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that she signed on before reading a script, because there simply wasn’t one to read yet. Filming was due to begin a couple of weeks later, but she had no idea what the role entailed. Lyle and Nickerson might have a detailed plan for the series, but from the audience’s point of view, it seems that they just keep introducing random survivors in order to keep the show going.
It’s not that Yellowjackets needs more cannibalism per se – it just needs juicy themes that it can explore with meaning. With two more episodes to go, season 3 could be the most disappointing run so far, or it could finally justify the present day narrative as something worthwhile. Yellowjackets hasn’t officially been renewed for season 4 (or 5 for that matter) yet, but if Lyle and Nickerson are keen to keep us watching, things need to stay interesting. If you’re asking us to devote an hour to watch your show, you need to make it worth our time.
New episodes of Yellowjackets debut on Paramount+ every Friday.
