Continuing to up the ante, we welcome the return of Yellowjackets – streaming on NEON from Valentine’s Day. Dominic Corry previews the new season of the hit US series led by two Kiwi actors.
After upping the crazy ante at the end of season two, Yellowjackets isn’t slowing down in season three, a more focused affair than the occasionally ponderous second season which sees the show gleefully embrace its fascinatingly dysfunctional characters.
For the uninitiated, the series follows two time periods—one focused on a group of high school soccer players stranded in a desolate wilderness after a plane crash, and the other following their adult lives in the present, with much ambiguity hanging over what exactly happened out there. Although it has been established that they totally resorted to cannibalism.
The present-day part of the season two finalé saw Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) being chased through the woods by cult/wellness retreat leader Lottie (Simone Kessell), who is shot in the shoulder by Shauna’s daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins) before Natalie (Juliette Lewis) steps in front of a lethal injection wielded by Misty (Christina Ricci).
The wilderness parts of season two concluded with the girls eating the remains of poor Javi, and then evacuating their cabin in the woods due to an as-yet unidentified person—Coach Ben (Steven Krueger), who has split, is the main suspect—having set it on fire.
I went into season three thinking mostly about poor Callie and all the crazy stuff her parents have subjected her to. I was glad to see that the show isn’t skirting over the effect being exposed to murder, blackmail and other adult activities is having on Callie, who has an increased presence here and is living up to her mother’s bouts of extreme behaviour.
Although, at a glance, Shauna is the most grounded of the group, when you really think about it, she is probably the most messed up character in a show not lacking them. And god bless Lynskey for how she still manages to humanise this volatile psycho.
The show is worth celebrating alone for how it has given New Zealand national treasure Lynskey her biggest stage yet, which only made it more exciting when season two added fellow Kiwi actor Kessell into the mix as the adult version of the enigmatic Lottie (played by Courtney Eaton as a teen).
Lottie spent much of season two espousing culty wellness nonsense, so I’m happy to report that she has more direct interactions with the other characters, especially Shauna, in season three. Despite trying to kill Shauna (because “The Wilderness” told her to) at the end of season two, Shauna welcomes Lottie into her home in season three. Like I said, twisted.
Seeing Lynskey and Kessell bounce off each other in this environment fulfills the promise of Kessell joining the cast, especially with Lottie getting her hooks into a willing Callie. It helps fill some of the gap left by Lewis’ departure. Promised season three addition Hilary Swank is yet to show up in the episodes I’ve seen, but her impending presence is exciting indeed, and feels perfectly in line with this show’s always-fun casting instincts.
Misty continues to be the most overtly mental of the adult characters, but endearingly so thanks to Ricci’s one-of-a-kind performance. She is growing increasingly impatient with the odd Walter (also introduced in S2 and played by NZ-adjacent actor Elijah Wood), despite him clearly being her murderous soulmate.
Meanwhile, the adult Taissa (Tawny Cypress) and Van (Lauren Ambrose, another S2 addition) recklessly explore their unresolved feelings for each other, and in one of the most WTF moments of the season three episodes I’ve seen, discover the drastic consequences of trying to live in the moment.
In the early episodes of season three, several adult characters appear to be being stalked or messed with by persons as yet unknown, but as with all the genre-leaning aspects of this series, it remains unclear if something is really happening or if it might just be in their very messed-up heads.
It’s a line the show has managed to tread admirably, helping it to avoid some of the Lost-like pitfalls of endlessly teasing tangible reveals. The show maintains the possibility of something actually supernatural happening, but leans on the metaphorical aspects and implications to an extent where all possibilities remain in play.
This is particularly the case in the wilderness sections of the story, where we discover that the girls have built new accommodations and are now raising animals and functioning as something resembling a community. While also taking hallucinogenic drugs and thinking about who next to eat…
Those drugs give the show permission to depict all sorts of fun oddities, some of which may be real and some of which may be not. Like the blood-curdling screams that regularly echo through the woods…
Teenage Shauna (Sophie Nélisse ) remains traumatised by the death of her unborn child, and that trauma is manifesting in interesting ways, while Natalie (Sophie Thatcher, who’s having a massive year with lead roles in Heretic and Companion) is struggling with the responsibilities of the leadership role thrust upon her by Lottie.
Akilah (played by Nia Sondaya since season two) and Mari (Alexa Barajas), two characters who’ve been around since season one, get a bit more to do in the new season, with the former proving her worth as someone who connects with the local wildlife, and the latter becoming Coach Ben’s cave captor when she falls in a hole.
Yellowjackets has always been highly self-aware, but I laughed out loud when a character actually said the words “Previously on The Yellowjackets” out loud in an early season three ep. It’s just that kind of show.
