S01.E04: Bear Down

[Black Knight]

Yup. Black women are constantly tone-policed and Taissa knew exactly what was going on with that bullshit. The woman was way out of line, but oh, Taissa's tone is the real problem here. GTFO with that, lady. I don't know how Taissa will turn her political campaign around, but she didn't sell her soul to do it, so I'm rooting for her.

When Misty gave that short little speech to Jessica, it made me think about the team name of Yellowjackets. It's fitting. None of these women are to be fucked with; they're all dangerous. Natalie breaks into houses toting guns. Misty is a sadist. Taissa will destroy people if she has to. Shauna's currently a little under the radar compared to the rest, but if I'm right that she's onto Adam, she's already on it, and will be stinging him soon.

How awesome was that little bit with teen Misty in the background eagerly volunteering to bleed the deer, and Ben of course totally ignoring her? Looks like @BitterApple's spec that Misty will eventually kill Ben will be right after all. I thought with the flies circling him in the previous episode that he was dying of infection, but he seems to be doing really well now. Misty did do a great job of saving his life under very difficult circumstances - no medical equipment, no sterilized environment, Midol as the only drug, Jackie's astringent as the only disinfectant...it's a pity she's a sadist because she does have real talent in the medical field.

There was something about the way that plane coming at Jackie and stopped was filmed. There was such a big emphasis on Jackie staring at the nose of the plane, it felt like some kind of foreshadowing. BTW, in addition to the point upthread that such a plane can actually carry a fair amount, the owner of it also probably made multiple trips. The only reason to think only one trip was made is the girl who insisted that something (dum dum DUM) kept them from leaving, and I am still refusing to accept anything supernatural at play until we have firm confirmation of such. Until then, to me it's all red herrings for atmosphere and mood.

[Cinnabon]

On 12/9/2021 at 7:28 PM, WaltersHair said:

Here's another for you

In the pilot, scene at 12 minutes. The girl in the Ewok mask has blue or green eyes. By the end of the pilot, Misty is revealed under the same mask. She does not have blue or green eyes. Jackie does. Wouldn't it be so Misty-like if she got Jackie killed and took over her position in that circle (whose numbers shrink from 8 to 6 by the end)?

Spoiler

One of the actors confirmed that they used stand ins for those first scenes. And their eye colors don’t necessarily match the actors’ so nothing can be read into the eye colors 

 

Edited December 12, 2021 by Cinnabon

[Cinnabon]

28 minutes ago, WaltersHair said:

Shouldn't this be spoilered? and link would be nice to confirm.

I'm only posting about what I see and think. I personally stay away from interviews and reviews. YMMV

Spoiler

From an interview with Samantha Hanratty (young Misty):

Samantha Hanratty: Yes, but actually no, because when I filmed the pilot, it wasn’t any of our cast. They didn’t have anybody else go to Mammoth 🦣 with me. They just had a bunch of stunt coordinators as the other characters. So we don’t even know who which one of us is. 
https://hollywoodlife.com/2021/12/10/yellowjackets-antler-queen-misty-ben-samantha-hanratty-interview/amp/

 

 

Edited December 12, 2021 by Cinnabon

[MCMLXXVII]

22 hours ago, Black Knight said:

That photographer in the pilot mentioned something to Taissa about not believing any of the dark rumors. This is something people have been wondering about for years and years.

At some point, when they’re ready to confirm the full list of survivors, we should see stuff from post-rescue. My guess is that the major sticking point, that started the speculation, is the bodies. I don’t know for certain yet what the survivors’ story is, but the way Shauna told it to Jessica in the pilot made it sound like they claimed all the dead girls died in the plane crash. We know, obviously, that only one did. Around 10 other girls died in the 19 months after, plus probably Javi and Ben.

There are practical reasons for this as their cover story: They don’t have to keep multiple stories straight for whichever other deaths they need to lie about, and they could burn the bodies and say that happened in the plane crash.

But at the same time, claiming that all of the team’s deaths happened in the plane crash and all the survivors of the crash also made it through the 19 months since, and oh, all these bodies are super burned to make autopsies useless, would certainly raise eyebrows.

Agreed, I’m going to assume that after they were found, the relatives of the folks killed in the plane crash might want what’s left of their bodies retrieved for proper burial? 
 I figure CSIs could tell if someone had been butchered unless they did a really good job of hiding those remains. If I recall correctly, we only saw the one girl burn up in the crash when they tried to rescue Van, the other crash victims appeared relatively intact. Unless they go so far as to dismantle the plane itself to help their cover story.

[Cinnabon]

20 minutes ago, MCMLXXVII said:

Agreed, I’m going to assume that after they were found, the relatives of the folks killed in the plane crash might want what’s left of their bodies retrieved for proper burial? 
 I figure CSIs could tell if someone had been butchered unless they did a really good job of hiding those remains. If I recall correctly, we only saw the one girl burn up in the crash when they tried to rescue Van, the other crash victims appeared relatively intact. Unless they go so far as to dismantle the plane itself to help their cover story.

They could just say they burnt the bodies and/or threw them into the lake, couldn’t they? I can’t imagine anyone questioning them too harshly after what they’d been through.

[BitterApple]

1 hour ago, Cinnabon said:

They could just say they burnt the bodies and/or threw them into the lake, couldn’t they? I can’t imagine anyone questioning them too harshly after what they’d been through.

I can see it as well. They could argue they didn't want to bury the bodies and risk predators being drawn to their location. I don't think anyone would question them too hard on it.

[Black Knight]

Yes, there are valid points the girls would have been able make to explain it all away. And I'm sure police, federal authorities, etc. gave them a break instead of questioning them closely. But it's still the sort of thing that would prompt speculation from true crime aficionados and such. Then, as @BitterApple pointed out upthread, the survivors agreed to stay out of the public eye. That would add fuel because it is pretty surprising to outsiders that all of the survivors avoided books, interviews, media tours. At least one of the survivors from Alive put out a book - I read it years ago.

It takes very little to start a conspiracy theory, and that very little is often something that can be reasonably explained away, but the reasonable explanations just aren't enough. Or sometimes it's just crap made up out of whole cloth, and yet there are people who believe it. Also, the fact this was only a few years after Alive came out probably impacted things too - the possibility of cannibalism, etc. was more on people's minds as an actually realistic possibility because it had already been known to happen in a similar situation. It's far less easily dismissible as ludicrous by reasonable people as, say, the moon being made of green cheese or Sandy Hook not being real. Many would think it more plausible than the idea a group of teenagers survived for 19 months just through scavenging, especially when it got snowy.

[WaltersHair]

4 hours ago, Black Knight said:

Yes, there are valid points the girls would have been able make to explain it all away. And I'm sure police, federal authorities, etc. gave them a break instead of questioning them closely. But it's still the sort of thing that would prompt speculation from true crime aficionados and such. Then, as @BitterApple pointed out upthread, the survivors agreed to stay out of the public eye. That would add fuel because it is pretty surprising to outsiders that all of the survivors avoided books, interviews, media tours. At least one of the survivors from Alive put out a book - I read it years ago.

It takes very little to start a conspiracy theory, and that very little is often something that can be reasonably explained away, but the reasonable explanations just aren't enough. Or sometimes it's just crap made up out of whole cloth, and yet there are people who believe it. Also, the fact this was only a few years after Alive came out probably impacted things too - the possibility of cannibalism, etc. was more on people's minds as an actually realistic possibility because it had already been known to happen in a similar situation. It's far less easily dismissible as ludicrous by reasonable people as, say, the moon being made of green cheese or Sandy Hook not being real. Many would think it more plausible than the idea a group of teenagers survived for 19 months just through scavenging, especially when it got snowy.

I have the Alive book in my library somewhere. I've avoided going back to it because I want this show to unfold on its own merits. I am also the one in 10,000,000 that never watched Lost.

1996 was also the year of Into Thin Air: a group of good to expert climbers got stuck up on Everest. It was completely captivating to many of my friends at the time and I read the book. I remember being surprised that some of those people came under fire from arm chair critics who had no idea what it was like to climb a long set of stairs much less the tallest mountain.

I think these kinds of shows are compelling because they make us ask ourselves "What would I do in this situation?"

It is noteworthy that none of the survivors has done an interview or book. There's no statute of limitations on murder, so maybe they're all terrified of conviction.  The show has ticked off all the boxes of things not to bring up in polite conversation: religion, cannibalism, sex, underage drinking and drug use, politics. All we have left is abortion and incest.

Edited December 13, 2021 by WaltersHair

[TVMovieBuff]

On 12/12/2021 at 4:39 PM, Cinnabon said:

I can’t imagine anyone questioning them too harshly after what they’d been through.

Don't bet on it. Investigators would question them pretty damn hard. Families of non-survivors want answers.

[Black Knight]

5 hours ago, TVMovieBuff said:

Don't bet on it. Investigators would question them pretty damn hard. Families of non-survivors want answers.

If they just said everyone who died did so in the plane crash, I'd expect they would not get questioned that hard about it. They're survivors of a plane crash themselves, they can't be in great shape after 19 months in the wilderness, and they're high school teenage girls. There's very little reason to think authorities would approach them as criminals rather than victims of something horrific. Public sentiment would be with the girls, at least initially - after a few years, yeah, people would start thinking it's weird nobody's doing a media interview or book, because in American culture victims of trauma eventually tend to do that.

If any investigator did take a really hard approach in questioning, that would be counterproductive, because the survivors would have just peaced out of there. They aren't under any legal obligation whatsoever to answer questions, and their parents would be protective and combative. Some of these girls didn't come from much money, but teen Taissa's house looked pretty nice, if not a veritable mansion like Jackie's. At the first sign of any accusatory tone in questioning, her parents would have lawyered up damn quick and Taissa would have made sure the other survivors knew their rights too. And then the lawyer and all their parents would have marched out and complained that their poor traumatized daughters and son (who lost his father, and probably his brother) are being treated like criminals, and that shuts down that.

But I really doubt they would have been pressed hard about any of this in the first place, as long as they stuck to a simple story, which it sounds like they did. Many people died in the plane crash, the rest starved and scavenged (and prayed, if religious) until rescue, end of story. There is nothing there in that story to really raise the suspicions of law enforcement, who are going to be naturally inclined to be nice to these poor traumatized girls who survived (it certainly helps that they're girls), and the internet at that time wasn't anything like it is now.

[Cinnabon]

11 minutes ago, Black Knight said:

If they just said everyone who died did so in the plane crash, I'd expect they would not get questioned that hard about it. They're survivors of a plane crash themselves, they can't be in great shape after 19 months in the wilderness, and they're high school teenage girls. There's very little reason to think authorities would approach them as criminals rather than victims of something horrific. Public sentiment would be with the girls, at least initially - after a few years, yeah, people would start thinking it's weird nobody's doing a media interview or book, because in American culture victims of trauma eventually tend to do that.

If any investigator did take a really hard approach in questioning, that would be counterproductive, because the survivors would have just peaced out of there. They aren't under any legal obligation whatsoever to answer questions, and their parents would be protective and combative. Some of these girls didn't come from much money, but teen Taissa's house looked pretty nice, if not a veritable mansion like Jackie's. At the first sign of any accusatory tone in questioning, her parents would have lawyered up damn quick and Taissa would have made sure the other survivors knew their rights too. And then the lawyer and all their parents would have marched out and complained that their poor traumatized daughters and son (who lost his father, and probably his brother) are being treated like criminals, and that shuts down that.

But I really doubt they would have been pressed hard about any of this in the first place, as long as they stuck to a simple story, which it sounds like they did. Many people died in the plane crash, the rest starved and scavenged (and prayed, if religious) until rescue, end of story. There is nothing there in that story to really raise the suspicions of law enforcement, who are going to be naturally inclined to be nice to these poor traumatized girls who survived (it certainly helps that they're girls), and the internet at that time wasn't anything like it is now.

Exactly. It seems inevitable that some must have died from starvation, injuries, infections, etc during those 19 months. It would be surprising if they hadn’t lost anyone. 

[TVMovieBuff]

On 12/12/2021 at 4:39 PM, Cinnabon said:

They could just say they burnt the bodies and/or threw them into the lake, couldn’t they? I can’t imagine anyone questioning them too harshly after what they’d been through.

One step further, they could say they burned the bodies, as cremation, to avoid the unpleasant aspects of putrefaction, and not to attract scavengers. 

As for not just throwing them in the lake, they could say they didn't want the fish to eat the bodies, in case they caught and ate the fish later. To avoid second-hand cannibalism.

[Cinnabon]

Also, remember they’re in Canada (IFAIK). It would have to have been Canadian authorities who investigated and made any decisions to charge them with anything. I just can’t imagine they would done that.

[TVMovieBuff]

1 minute ago, Cinnabon said:

Also, remember they’re in Canada (IFAIK). It would have to have been Canadian authorities who investigated and made any decisions to charge them with anything. I just can’t imagine they would done that.

Probably an American-based plane. Both would be involved. There might not have been any charges for any foul play. I'm not seeing that, so far in the series, which I really like. 

[Cinnabon]

3 minutes ago, TVMovieBuff said:

Probably an American-based plane. Both would be involved. There might not have been any charges for any foul play. I'm not seeing that, so far in the series, which I really like. 

I’m sure some Americans would be involved in the rescue, but only one country has jurisdiction and the ability to press criminal charges imo. 

[Zonk]

I mean there is no way in real life the gas inside that small plane would still be good after all this time, but apperently it is in this universe. So can't they run it for a bit and try to use the radio in it to call for help? It has to have a radio, right? How is the plane just dropped and never brought up again?

[Cinnabon]

15 hours ago, Zonk said:

I mean there is no way in real life the gas inside that small plane would still be good after all this time, but apperently it is in this universe. So can't they run it for a bit and try to use the radio in it to call for help? It has to have a radio, right? How is the plane just dropped and never brought up again?

Not sure about the gas, but they absolutely should have tried to run it for a bit and tried the radio.

[Hanahope]

signed up for Showtime during Amazon's prime-days for $1 a month for two months and I've been wanting to watch this.  Done with the first 4 episodes.

I just can't fathom that these girls were missing for 19 months.  They found a lake, a cabin, blankets, a gun and bullets.  they can hunt the local wildlife.  They easily could have stocked up on some food and water so that a group of 3 could have followed the lake south (to presumably a creek/river going south) and walked to some sort of civilization.  yeah, maybe it would have taken a week, maybe two.  but it could have been done.  they act like they were surrounded by impassible cliffs or a deserted island.  

they could have started a big bon smoke/fire at the lake with stones spelled out to read SOS.  yeah, it might have taken a while for someone to see it, but it likely would have happened long before 19 months.  they had plenty of resources.

So i'm going to be looking for more reasons why they never did that, or didn't do it for over a year.

And seriously, Tai's son needs therapy stat.  He has issues.

And the other big mystery - who killed Travis?  It wasn't Misty or Natalie, nor Shauna or Tai.  So who else survived and why kill now?

I tried to come up with some non-sexual affair reason for Jeff's meeting Bianca and could not.  no other reason exists for meeting in a swanky hotel ('usual place'), with a present, and not telling his wife.

[sistermagpie]

4 hours ago, Hanahope said:

I just can't fathom that these girls were missing for 19 months.  They found a lake, a cabin, blankets, a gun and bullets.  they can hunt the local wildlife.  They easily could have stocked up on some food and water so that a group of 3 could have followed the lake south (to presumably a creek/river going south) and walked to some sort of civilization.  yeah, maybe it would have taken a week, maybe two.  but it could have been done.  they act like they were surrounded by impassible cliffs or a deserted island.  

Yeah, following water downstream is a good idea! I wonder if none of them know that. But that idea, at least, will be addressed by someone who points out they're not on an island. Of course, they can also be influenced by the idea that whatever "it" is is won't "let them" leave--or if such a supernatural thing actually exists in this universe, it could not be letting them leave. 

[Hanahope]

Oh yeah, like amazing that branches/vines grew around the wheels of the plane for 10+ years.  🙄

[sistermagpie]

2 minutes ago, Hanahope said:

Oh yeah, like amazing that branches/vines grew around the wheels of the plane for 10+ years.  🙄

I wonder how much of a lot of this also comes down to these people being sort of in denial so making pretty dumb decisions. Like they're here at this place, so they just don't want to leave, and in their minds they feel like somebody's just going to show up. Jackie's the most aggressively in denial, but it's not like the other ones are total survivalists now.

[Eeksquire]

Quote

signed up for Showtime during Amazon's prime-days for $1 a month for two months and I've been wanting to watch this.  Done with the first 4 episodes.

Me too! I'm enjoying it so far, though I consistently feel like the episodes are 5-10 minutes too long.