JasonCC

I tend to agree with the above that the Antler Queen and Pit Girl were more meant to show how far these descended. The animal masks, etc were all creepy as fuck. It wasn't necessarily a mystery but a teaser that "this is going to get twisted and DARK" if that makes sense. Not a guessing game or whodonit. I do speculate how they trim down the 90s cast. Akilah doesn't seem like she wants to stay at all and is wising up about all the Wilderness supernatural stuff. For one hot second I thought maybe she stays with one or two of the background girls (Gen, Robin, Britt) The ante now is a bit more the rescue logistics and the early integration into regular society. Sophie Thatcher deserves an Emmy nom from the latest episode. That scene crying as the first snow fell? I cried too.

The fact that the writers/adult Melissa let us know that her therapist Barbara isn't a licensed clinician will definitely come into play.

I started posting in "Croak" but then realized it's mostly speculation. If the timeline is correct and winter is right around the corner, as mentioned before, they don't seem nearly as desperate starvation-wise as the pilot pit girl/antler queen scene had me believe. Plus, we are adding two more characters to the group (personal prediction is Hannah is Pit Girl). To me the pilot episode scene implied Antler Queen now controlled all, or at least within an established heirarchy of hunters, prey, meat carvers. So, I was buckled in for a long journey of how they succumbed one by one during the second, harder, longer winter. Yet now as of Oct-ish: Akilah and Travis seem to be moving away from the Lottie cultish ways, adult Van said that Gen and Melissa end up getting closer to the adult in the group (Hannah), and Natalie seems to be keeping her wits about her. Last episode it seemed like meeting the Froggers made Taissa and especially Van snap back to being scared teenaged girls desperate to go home. Robin and Britt are just there. Therefore, based on the last few episodes I think the death count will be from some internal struggle with lots of surprises and shocker deaths. Not "merely" (Good Lord this show is dark) a slow, gruesome starvation descent story due to the 2nd winter and desperation alone.

I speculate the guy gets killed right off the bat--like before daybreak. Maybe shot maybe axed. The younger, female birdwatcher/hiker gets tied up in the BEN PEN and is interrogated. Hell, maybe Melissa and Shauna slice her achilles tendons too!

That is a good point--and thank you to the poster who also said Coach Ben was also interacting with the goat at some point so it's not just Akila who sees it. My friends who live in the country here in WA State do indeed have a couple goats that wander around their property and the neighbors semi-feral. They help keep the weeds manageable but aren't friendly enough to milk and they aren't really sure who they belong to (if anyone). But this throws me off MORE in terms of the timeline vis a vis the Pilot episode/pit girl! It's Oct now and even if the winter hits super hard they seem to have made themselves a decent little cache of meat: rabbits and ducks plus the goat if needed for meat not just milk. Then, they just created Ben Beef smorgasbord. Plus, presumably at least some of the other YJs get killed/eaten? Pit Girl whoever she is (Mari? female birder?) and the three girls we barely know (Gen, Robin, Britt). I was assuming they are not rescued even if Melissa does manage to make it out. That is plenty of food, no? I wonder if the killings becomes more craven/warlike (a split among the girls?) and not only sustenance. Or someone gets left behind?

Add me to the list that if the timeline is correct there are going to be a LOT of deaths in under 3 months. With the new birdwatchers/hikers added to the list? Insane. That said, I think Akila might die from the gas exposure and not eaten. I also don't believe those farmyard-style domestic goats would be out there. Could they be a vision like Akila's mouse S2?

I got the sense that until the snow was gone they just kept a campfire going from the remnant of the cabin and logs could be dried out next to a fire before becoming the fuel to the fire? Then, an earlier Spring than usual and the dwellings were constructed. Yes, I know that involves giving a lot of grace there...

I like Lisa, the actress and her family. But let's face it: Charlotte's PTA mom friends were more suited to a Back Door Pilot that could have happened in the old days. One episode introduced and then their own show. It's not mixing in well at all here. Miranda's date: it felt like a funny, old self-contained episode from original recipe SATC actually! Miranda meets a hero/girl crush from jogging Audible and gives it a try. But with all the Che, Steve destruction/LA move and other out of character stuff with Miranda it kind of ruined it. As others have said had AJLT opened with the time jump Miranda had been separated or divorced from Steve for years? And THIS was her first foray into dating men or women? I could have bought it (again, but as a stand-alone comedy/drama encounter). Take away the cat? That tiny, crowded flat was how Carrie should have been living in SATC to make it more realistic (although less books) The Human Growth Hormone injection? Agree @Roccos Brother. Nice to acknowledge the open secret in the community.... but Anthony should have walked in accidentally into a restroom and caught it. Or busted a bread boys' steroid deal in the breakroom. No one would just do that mid-conversation. To play for laughs, they could have had a hunky bread boy caught say something like "Duh Anthony! We expected you to start adding HGH to our employee medical/dental benefits now that we are a success thanks to these muscles"!

This is pure speculation but--while a critically weel-received show with a devoted online fanbase--the show isn't a ratings smash. Can they quantify how many people added on the Showtime option to Paramount Plus just for this season like I did? The picking up of the pace happened so much these last couple episodes for good or for bad. I think perhaps (with the writers' strike also contributing) maybe instead of the mentioned five seasons we get one more for a total of 3. Ideally one that's 13 or 14 episodes long instead of 9 or 10, but Showtime only guaranteed three the writers just said they could do five. Somewhat related to that "picking up of the pace" to full on Antler Queen and Pit Girl society I think one of the big questions to unfold isn't as much "how do they get so witchy and cannibalistic?" anymore but "how the hell are Travis and Coach Ben going to fit into this new norm?" Remember they still have another whole winter to go. Right? 19 months would be May-ish 1996 to Feb 1998? That's a lot of time still. Or do they take a hiatus from the ritual, killings, and Lord of the Flies stuff over the summer and revive it in a much more streamlined fashion the next winter? Also, things could get dark sexually with a broken Travis being passed around (Lottie?) and that plays into the modern version with those three (Travis. Lottie, Natalie).

Reading the boards and a rewatch. The episode was superb. On the topic of pacing and how "fast they went" to ritualized cannibalism I have to say it was missing one beat--or going too fast--and it could have been fixed one of two ways with like two short extra scenes this episode or last. Showing how desperate and hungry and even hallucinating was done well but it felt "too fast" how ritualized it became. Like, we barely heard about the drawing of the cards to choose who empties the shit bucket to now it's a whole witchy ceremony culminating with throat cutting? There should have been more exposition over this season of the cards taking on symbolic importance and ceremony. Or, they could have had the first kill for food be less full blast intentional and blood-thirsty killing pack. Like they went straight from an accidental situation cannibalism of deep freeze Jacky to "let's slit my friends throat in the common area of the cabin". There should have been a beat in the middle RE intentionality. What they were going to do to Natalie (albeit thwarted) was like 8 and Pit Girl is a 9. I feel there should have been a death (or an intended death) in the 4,5, or 6 range. That little almost-played-for-laughs scene of Jen and Melissa acknowledging finding a dead, frozen Crystal might be a net good? Another scene or two in that vein could have taken us there. For example, before the (weirdly brief and perfunctory) search for Crystal an agreement/pledge by all the girls in a circle (resonating with the card ceremony to come): the goal and group consensus is now explicitly to find, roast, and eat. Maybe with some "wilderness provides" language thrown in. Again, just a few little middle-ground steps getting us from Jacky to Level 8.

I agree the identity of the pit girl isn't the be-all and end-all mystery. It's more (for me anyway) how they got so witchy and cult-like with the animal skins etc. Right now they are acting like there is NO small game whatsoever but aren't some of those S1E1 opener teases showing girls with rabbit and fox skins? Or am I imagining that? Add me to the group who thinks Mari is being portrayed a little less sympathetically--but two months later in winter would start to take its toll. They should just name and introduce all the background girls now. Even though 5 seasons (one too long in my opinion, but I'm giving benefit of the doubt) there are only 9 or 10 episodes a season. Let's just name and know who is who (Crystal, Gen, et al...) NOW (even if they get minimal screen-time) and avoid any gimmicky Nikki and Paulos being saved for later.

I'm getting a little confused about the 1996 background redshirts. Mari we knew, and Akilla (sp?). How many others are there? And yes, I'm trying to count who might be up to be eaten before poor Coach Ben. We saw it coming--Jackie was the logical choice although part of me didn't think it would happen this soon. The technique of the Roman feast (heavily borrowed from Donna Tartt's "The Secret History") actually left me with mixed feelings. I don't want to vomit from a TV show, but it also kind of glossed it over. I'm conflicted! I still think they should acknowledge some sort of rodent trapping ability. Squirrels? Rabbits? Maybe not good enough to feed everyone--so they are all still hungry and frantic about nourishment--but I don't like the implication only "big game" is edible. Were they stretching out the last of the bear in that pot? Or are there some small hunts happening (but not enough).

I too could see them going to Seattle once rescued--which wouldn't read visually as snowy winter in January necessarily. I live there and it's like always just hoodie or a flannel. Snow? That's what is 2+ hours outside the city in the mountains to ski or snowboard in.... I am under the impression they were closer to their destination than leaving point, but far off course to the north (and during the 1998 flashback didn't a reporter say something about off-course?). I bet the rescue searches for the crash site were Washington State and Idaho and maybe the close-to-the-border parts of BC and/or Alberta. For some unknown reason I think they ended up much further north than they were meant to be...

Poor DD/Paul Williams. Has there been any confirmation that he still wasn't recurring at least in theory? I'm kind of surprised they didn't bring him back for the photo and maybe like one episode. Even Snapper Foster or Lori Brooks gets the occasional "one and done". I wonder what date they took the photo. It's pretty impressive though herding all the cats for one big photo. Also--and sorry if this is the wrong spot to ask--which day was the Lauren-centric episode with the clips?

Good for MM--they screwed her over as Hillary and should be grateful for her coming back at all considering the dirty deed they did the character. I loved seeing the talented actor again, and loved she got that Emmy, but Amanda never took off with me like Hillary. I hated everything about the twin BS. I honestly would have preferred a convoluted storyline about her being alive and that evil doctor Ashley was with being a part of it/