buzz buzz buzz

All Our Burning Questions From the Yellowjackets Finale

Photo: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME

Forgive me for saying this, but: I’m buzz, buzz, buzzing. After a whirlwind of Reddit fan theories, the season finale of Yellowjackets Showtime’s thrilling, twisted, and terrifying show about teen girls stranded in the Canadian wilderness — aired on Sunday. (Obviously, spoilers ahead). In the 2021 timeline, our surviving foursome dismembered a dead man’s body (déjà vu! teamwork!) and headed to their 25th high-school reunion, all in the span of one haunting and gory day. The event features a distasteful and triggering Yellowjackets slideshow projected in the school gym complete with empty speeches about healing. Also, Misty kills a fake journalist; Shauna might not get away with Adam’s murder; Taissa is now a state senator (and maybe a cult member?) and Natalie’s been kidnapped by the cult of one Lottie Matthews.

The finale answered some questions — we now know, for instance, that Jackie died in the wilderness — but it also left us with several more. When are we going to find out who gets eaten?

Who is in the cult of Lottie Matthews, and what other survivors are out there? 
The biggest reveal of the episode is that — as many suspected — the foursome we meet aren’t the only survivors from the wilderness. Lottie Matthews is still alive and is possibly leading the cult of survivors and strangers who kidnap Natalie and kill Travis. It’s not hard to imagine Lottie — our verified antler queen, who’s already culling influence and starting up dark rituals in 1996 — as a cult leader. It’s very likely that additional Yellowjackets are also living and are part of her cult. I’m personally guessing Van is part of it — the girl survived a fire and a wolf ripping her face off, and she seems to be Lottie’s most devout follower in the 1996 timeline. But who else? Did the cult send the blackmail postcards? Do the other women know they exist? What kind of cult are they, killing and kidnapping their old classmates? Is Misty part of it? She and Van are both pictured doing the bear-heart ritual together, and it would be just like her to play all the fields.

What did Travis’s note mean? 
Now that we know that Travis’s suicide was — as Natalie suspected — most likely a murder, what did his final note mean? Why did the cult decide to target him? He mentioned that Natalie was right. Right about what?!

Who was part of the cannibal cult? 
We know from the pilot that Misty was part of the cannibal clan (at least, she served them the meat). But were the other known survivors part of it too? The facility with which they dispose of Adam’s body makes me feel like this is confirmed. Shauna even compares the act of cutting up Adam’s body to riding a really gross bike. That, coupled with the shame Natalie seems to have in offering to help her, makes me think that these two were part of the group of girls in the pilot who slice and dismember one of their own. Oh, and while preparing bear meat, teen Shauna’s tempted to lick raw blood off her finger, so yeah.

What’s going to happen to Natalie? 
Poor Natalie. I trust nobody on Yellowjackets, but out of all the very unsympathetic survivors, Natalie has a really rough go of things. Looking into Travis’s murder clearly made her a target of Lottie’s cult. Where are they taking her? Will she survive?

What’s going on with Taissa? Whose side is she on? 
I’m so confused by her, and with every episode, I’m left with more questions. The newly elected New Jersey state senator just has so many loose ends. Although she chews her hand during dissociative fugues and has grown up with haunting, intergenerational visions of an eyeless man (who is he?), she’s determined to be the rational, logical one. In previous episodes, she calls Lottie crazy and is skeptical of amulet protections and premonitions; in the finale, she’s incredulous when Van confides in her that he believes the woods are inhabited by other, possibly supernatural presences. But she also clearly wants to be a good girlfriend to Van, and that might mean believing in Van’s burgeoning supernatural occult beliefs.

And — oh my God — Taissa killed Biscuit. I knew that nothing good was going to happen to that dog. The altar where she kept Biscuit’s head also featured the wilderness symbol drawn on the wall in blood and what looked like Biscuit’s heart. It’s a sacrificial altar that’s reminiscent of Lottie, Misty, and Van sacrificing the bear heart at the end of the episode. Is Taissa secretly part of this cult? Did she sacrifice Biscuit for her political win? I don’t know, but I’m not okay.

What happens to Shauna’s baby? 
Teenage Shauna is starting to show, but if her child from the wilderness survived, they would be around 25 years old now. And they don’t seem to exist.


Was Adam Javi? And will anyone get busted for his murder?
We don’t know what happened to young Javi, who runs off during the “Doomcoming” episode. There’s been a lot pointing to the fact that Adam might have been Javi — his lack of an internet presence, lying about his past and identity, and the little wolf figurines in his room — but maybe it was all a red herring and Adam was just some guy whose murder is going to land everyone in trouble.

Why did Jackie’s notebook contain elements of her future? 
Jackie’s dead, as expected. But instead of being hunted and eaten, it turns out she froze to death after a blowout fight with Shauna. Why, then, did her journal contain movies from years after the crash, like Bring It On? Was it a production error? Did Shauna write Jackie’s journal posthumously? Mimicry and guilt at its finest.

How long is Ben going to survive? 
I thought this guy was going to last two episodes, and now I’m wondering if he’s somehow alive in 2021, doing shrooms in the cult of Lottie Matthews.

Did the survivors leave anyone behind in the wilderness — did anyone choose to stay there? 
There’s a cult flaring up, so this is a possibility!

Who do the girls eat? 
Now I know it’s not Jackie, I’m really not sure. Looks like they’re saving plenty of mysteries for season two.

All Our Burning Questions From the Yellowjackets Finale