S02.E01: Friends, Romans, Countrymen

[Cranberry]

Quote

Two months into winter the survivors cope with falling rations, low morale and their latest disastrous attempt to freeze a teammate out of the game. Shauna explores the secondary market for Yellowjackets memorabilia, while Taissa, Misty and Natalie all seek out best friends, both old and new. For those of you keeping the stat book: Lottie Matthews comes in off the bench.

Original air date: March 24, 2023 (streaming) / March 26, 2023 (Showtime)

[Anela]

Ew!!!!!

Oh crap. 

So, was Lottie's cult burying that guy symbolically? 

Jeff and Shauna - it was like Jeff was reclaiming her, or something. I wonder if their daughter will go to the police.

Tai being violent in her sleep, or as a split personality... confirmation that she killed the dog. I had wondered if someone else had done it for her. Please let this dog live.

How far could Javi have gone? 

The music really takes me back. 

 

Edited March 24, 2023 by Anela

[Chaos Theory]

Took me a second but I get the title.  

"I'll make a solid kidnapper out of you yet." Should be the tag line for the entire series.

Subtle changes to the title sequence. I am glad they kept the Jackie spot but there are subtle difference. Different moments from original cast and the new characters.  Plus dead Jackie talking to Shauna is a good way to keep Ella Purnell in season 2

Shauna having sex with Jeff in the art studio of her lover that she murdered and then cut into pieces....does that make her a pervert? Yes or no.  But I like that Jeff is having feelings about what happened during season 1 and the person Shauna has become.    Callie being the one whose loyalties are at play is an interesting developement.

Simone blackmailing Taissa was cute.....but it is not going to end the way she wants it to.

Not a bad opening for season 2.  

 

Edited March 24, 2023 by Chaos Theory

[BitterApple]

I'm gonna have to rewatch to pick up on what I missed, but my thoughts so far:

When Jeff and Shauna were having sex in Adam's studio, all I could think was, "You guys are leaving fingerprints and DNA all over the place!!! Stop!!!." It'll be interesting to see what Callie does with Adam's I.D. As much as she appears to hate her mother, she can't throw Shauna under the bus without implicating Jeff, so quite the conundrum.

The banter between Misty and the motel clerk was hysterical.

Javi's still alive? Are we jumping on the theory that there's another group of people living in the woods? Perhaps in that basement structure Lottie keeps dreaming about? Because otherwise, there's no way a 13/14 year-old kid is surviving on his own.

2 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

Simone blackmailing Taissa was cute.....but it is not going to end the way she wants it to.

Lulz! I had that same thought. A woman who's spent the majority of her life honing her survival skills isn't going to cave to threats.

I noticed the red shirts got a bit of screen time. I think that's only because the show needs people to kill off this season and we know it won't be any of the mains (except Coach Scott, I'm thinking). 

That last scene, omg. As soon as Shauna pulled out the ear, I knew she was going to eat it. This is going to be a crazy season. 

[AstridM]

What makes you think Javi is still alive?

[BitterApple]

1 minute ago, AstridM said:

What makes you think Javi is still alive?

Lottie said so when she was trying to calm Travis down. Nat admonished her for giving him false hope and Lottie said she had a feeling Javi was alive. All her visions have come true so far, so I'm assuming this is no different. Obviously we won't know until it's confirmed, though. 

[AstridM]

14 minutes ago, BitterApple said:

Lottie said so when she was trying to calm Travis down. Nat admonished her for giving him false hope and Lottie said she had a feeling Javi was alive. All her visions have come true so far, so I'm assuming this is no different. Obviously we won't know until it's confirmed, though. 

Yeah, I don’t take anything Lottie says as the truth, lol.

[jsm1125]

Are we assuming that Crystal and the other two teens are also part of the plane that the main Yellowjackets crashed in? Or are they also lost in the woods from a totally different scenario? 

Whoever is playing adult Lottie? Really good find, given the resemblance between her and teen Lottie!

Hoping Kevin (old best friend of Natalie and present day detective) from last season makes at least one more appearance.

That poisoning on Jessica Roberts from last season was fatal, right?

Edited March 24, 2023 by jsm1125

[peachmangosteen]

1 hour ago, BitterApple said:

Lottie said so when she was trying to calm Travis down. Nat admonished her for giving him false hope and Lottie said she had a feeling Javi was alive. All her visions have come true so far, so I'm assuming this is no different. Obviously we won't know until it's confirmed, though. 

That combined with Natalie finding something at that tree (I couldn't tell what it was) and saying 'interesting,' or whatever makes me think he's probably alive. If he is though, then yea there has be other people out there because I don't see any realistic way he could survive alone for months. But then again, the show isn't necessarily trying to be realistic so who knows.

7 minutes ago, jsm1125 said:

Are we assuming that Crystal and the other two teens are also part of the plane that the main Yellowjackets crashed in? Or are they also lost in the woods from a totally different scenario? 

They're definitely part of the team. I think it would have been a lot bigger of a thing if the YJs had found other people out there.

[BitterApple]

46 minutes ago, jsm1125 said:

Are we assuming that Crystal and the other two teens are also part of the plane that the main Yellowjackets crashed in? Or are they also lost in the woods from a totally different scenario? 
 

Yeah, they're the girls who were always lingering in the background during last season but never had any lines or interaction with the other characters. 

[AstridM]

1 hour ago, jsm1125 said:

Are we assuming that Crystal and the other two teens are also part of the plane that the main Yellowjackets crashed in? Or are they also lost in the woods from a totally different scenario? 

Whoever is playing adult Lottie? Really good find, given the resemblance between her and teen Lottie!

Hoping Kevin (old best friend of Natalie and present day detective) from last season makes at least one more appearance.

That poisoning on Jessica Roberts from last season was fatal, right?

What other scenario? 🤦‍♀️

1 hour ago, peachmangosteen said:

That combined with Natalie finding something at that tree (I couldn't tell what it was) and saying 'interesting,' or whatever makes me think he's probably alive. If he is though, then yea there has be other people out there because I don't see any realistic way he could survive alone for months. But then again, the show isn't necessarily trying to be realistic so who knows.

They're definitely part of the team. I think it would have been a lot bigger of a thing if the YJs had found other people out there.

The tree just had a lot of moss. That’s it.

[Chaos Theory]

4 hours ago, jsm1125 said:

Are we assuming that Crystal and the other two teens are also part of the plane that the main Yellowjackets crashed in? Or are they also lost in the woods from a totally different scenario? 
 

We know that there was more than just the four and now six pain characters on the plane.   The girls we didn’t see were likely part of the JV team or just not on camera.  

Edited March 25, 2023 by Chaos Theory

[Lila82]

Even when they're having angry sex to "#1 Crush," I cannot bring myself to care about Shauna, Jeff, Shauna and Jeff, or Shauna and Adam. I'm not a huge fan of her wide-eyed passivity in the 1996 timeline either, but there's enough weirdness to distract. In the present...the flat affect reigns, but not much else.

The music choices were not only spot on, but all hail the editing team for lining up "this is getting kind of gross" from Cornflake Girl with the moment Shauna decides to eat the ear. Related: of course Jeff would rock out, alone, to Papa Roach.

Re: Javi

My guess is that if he's really alive, he's the one that makes it to civilization and brings help. Shauna said run--maybe he never stopped!

Edited March 25, 2023 by Lila82

[Brn2bwild]

Count me among those who will have a deep anxiety watching these episodes until I know Steve the dog is safe.

I realize Crystal as a character didn't exist last year, but Misty would have totally been besties with her long before winter set in.

It shocked me when Shauna put that ear in her mouth, though I'm not sure why.  Maybe because Shauna seemed like the last person who would volunteer to eat Jackie.

And finally, how is it that Adam's death is broadcast everywhere, but nothing has been said about the apparent death of Jessica Roberts, who was also a big threat in their lives?

I wish they had aired the first two episodes because this one felt a bit slow and mostly like build up.

 

 

Edited March 25, 2023 by Brn2bwild

[AstridM]

42 minutes ago, Brn2bwild said:

but nothing has been said about the apparent death of Jessica Roberts,

Wasn’t there a post referring to her on the Citizen Detective forum Misty was searching?

[sistermagpie]

7 hours ago, BitterApple said:

Javi's still alive? Are we jumping on the theory that there's another group of people living in the woods? Perhaps in that basement structure Lottie keeps dreaming about? Because otherwise, there's no way a 13/14 year-old kid is surviving on his own.

I hope not. It would really be tedious to me if there's other people out there. So I'm interested in where they're going with the Javi thing. Because it's not like he could be surviving on his own.

 

6 hours ago, jsm1125 said:

Are we assuming that Crystal and the other two teens are also part of the plane that the main Yellowjackets crashed in? Or are they also lost in the woods from a totally different scenario? 

Of course they're Yellowjackets! I liked the way they lampshaded their presence by having them ask what the Varsities were talking about, then showed how they all had their own dynamic already, like with Crystal annoying them all.

6 hours ago, jsm1125 said:

Hoping Kevin (old best friend of Natalie and present day detective) from last season makes at least one more appearance.

Definitely he will, imo.

6 hours ago, jsm1125 said:

That poisoning on Jessica Roberts from last season was fatal, right?

I think the showrunners have confirmed it was.

47 minutes ago, Brn2bwild said:

Count me among those who will have a deep anxiety watching these episodes until I know Steve the dog is safe.

Seriously. The last thing we needed was Tai with another dog! Though since they already did it once, let's hope Steve is safe.

47 minutes ago, Brn2bwild said:

And finally, how is it that Adam's death is broadcast everywhere, but nothing has been said about the apparent death of Jessica Roberts, who was also a big threat in their lives?

His death isn't being broadcast, his disappearance is. Jessica was just found dead of an apparent overdose so there's less mystery.

I kept watching the show thinking I couldn't believe I was seeing a new episode i hadn't seen before. LOL.

Poor Van getting her face chewed on again by Wolf!Tai. But I can see why Tai will want to seek her out, since she'll never be afraid of her, unlike Simone. 

There's a lot of people who hate Shauna forever for sleeping with Jeff behind Jackie's back, but it really is tragic her entire life is going to keep going over those dumb decisions she made in high school. Jackie wouldn't have felt badly about sleeping with Travis in not that different circumstances!

Oh, and re: Shauna being the one to eat some of Jackie, maybe she's more likely to do it because she's the one with cravings.

Edited March 25, 2023 by sistermagpie

[yellowjacket]

I'm so squeamish about watching this show, more  so than the "normal" violent murder shows like Sopranos or Boardwalk Empire, because these characters are going to eat dead people.  I guess I have boundaries?

Speaking of New Jersey series settings, Yellowjackets shouted out three times to my stomping grounds - "remember that time we were in Holmdel?" And the motel where Natalie was tied up was called the Jolly Pitcher - there's a big old historic hotel on the Navesink River in Red Bank called the Molly Pitcher, named after a revolutionary war heroine (battle of Monmouth) and the number Shauna blurted out included 671, which is the local phone number for Middletown, between Red Bank and Holmdel.  Very meta, show.

[peachmangosteen]

14 hours ago, AstridM said:

The tree just had a lot of moss. That’s it.

I mean, it pretty obviously means something or else Natalie wouldn't have pointed it out.

[sistermagpie]

4 hours ago, yellowjacket said:

Speaking of New Jersey series settings, Yellowjackets shouted out three times to my stomping grounds - "remember that time we were in Holmdel?" And the motel where Natalie was tied up was called the Jolly Pitcher - there's a big old historic hotel on the Navesink River in Red Bank called the Molly Pitcher, named after a revolutionary war heroine (battle of Monmouth) and the number Shauna blurted out included 671, which is the local phone number for Middletown, between Red Bank and Holmdel.  Very meta, show.

Just remembered I've been to the Molly Pitcher when I was 13. My family all lives in the area so I think we just ate there, we didn't need a hotel. But one of my cousins broke into a video game machine and took all the quarters. Good times!

1 hour ago, peachmangosteen said:

I mean, it pretty obviously means something or else Natalie wouldn't have pointed it out.

Yes--like maybe warmth coming up from under the ground in that spot.

[AstridM]

1 hour ago, peachmangosteen said:

I mean, it pretty obviously means something or else Natalie wouldn't have pointed it out.

She thought it was odd that one particular tree had so much moss in the middle of winter when the rest didn’t? 🤷‍♀️ That’s what I thought looking at it.

[peachmangosteen]

37 minutes ago, sistermagpie said:

Yes--like maybe warmth coming up from under the ground in that spot.

Maybe from that underground area that Lottie sees in her visions.

[peachmangosteen]

12 minutes ago, AstridM said:

She thought it was odd that one particular tree had so much moss in the middle of winter when the rest didn’t? 🤷‍♀️ That’s what I thought looking at it.

And that’s not going to mean anything? Like why in the world would they have that scene then lol? 

[AstridM]

Just now, peachmangosteen said:

And that’s not going to mean anything? Like why in the world would they have that scene then lol? 

Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. Some forms of life are very resilient?

[Colorado David]

Great start to season 2, i am pleased. Adult Lottie so reminds me of Padma Lakshmi (Top Chef), it throws me everytime I see her.

No idea on the moss, but guessing there's some significance there. OMG this cult/retreat is frightening.

Oh no!!! I'm ff-ing thru any scenes with steve the dog. sorry i can't handle any potential animal cruelty.

Does anyone remember Crystal from season 1? I sure do not. Did I just miss her?

Edited March 25, 2023 by Colorado David
additions

[peachmangosteen]

18 hours ago, jsm1125 said:

Hoping Kevin (old best friend of Natalie and present day detective) from last season makes at least one more appearance.

Spoiler

He was in the clip they showed when Melanie was on Watch What Happens Live so he is definitely seen again.

 

[sistermagpie]

38 minutes ago, Colorado David said:

Does anyone remember Crystal from season 1? I sure do not. Did I just miss her?

She was only cast this season. She's just meant to have been one of the people in the background, but we never saw her specifically.

[BitterApple]

1 hour ago, Colorado David said:

 

Oh no!!! I'm ff-ing thru any scenes with steve the dog. sorry i can't handle any potential animal cruelty.

Does anyone remember Crystal from season 1? I sure do not. Did I just miss her?

Don't worry, Tai said she's going to do better! j/k. Seriously though, I was screaming "Simone! Take the dog!!!." Seeing Biscuit was bad enough, hopefully the writers don't traumatize us with another pet death. 

Interesting how Nat and Coach Scott are mapping the area. I wonder if that will play an eventual role in their rescue?

[jsm1125]

We knew absolutely nothing about teen Shauna’s family life last season, so it was at nice to hear a little bit more about it from her scene with dead Jackie. Hope we get to meet some relatives of Shauna and Misty this season, whether as their teen versions or as their adult versions. 

Edited March 25, 2023 by jsm1125

[AstridM]

39 minutes ago, BitterApple said:

Interesting how Nat and Coach Scott are mapping the area. I wonder if that will play an eventual role in their rescue?

I appreciate how they’re doing it calmly and rationally, and keeping it away from the chaotic, hormonal, hysterical teen girl angst of the others. 

[Anela]

The most unbelievable part for me, was that little dog staying quiet, and in the car, when that door was left open.  Even my best behaved dogs couldn’t pass up an opportunity to get out of there. He was newly adopted. 

[Penman61]

Just in case showrunners/writers skim here:

If you kill another dog, I'm out.

Kill, cook, braise, sauté, poach, and blanch teenagers, flay them and fricassee them, tear, chew, and chomp on them, lick your fucking fingers, whatever.

But if you harm another dog on this show, I'm the fuck outta here. 

And I'm serious.

[Black Knight]

I can't believe Simone didn't confiscate Steve when she was yelling at Tai! Tai, please just hand him over. He was supposed to be for Sammy anyway.

It's interesting that Nat came out of hiding once Lottie showed up. She's not scared of Lottie even though she is outnumbered, and was kidnapped and held prisoner. That made me reconsider some things.

I felt for Lottie when she was getting electroshocked. Her father sucks. His daughter miraculously turns up alive after 19 months missing and presumed dead, and he's still such an asshole!

I tried to tell myself, when Misty was crying about her "best friend" leaving, that I just didn't want her to give up and thus not rescue Natalie, but the truth is I genuinely felt sorry for the little murderous sadistic psychopath even though I know she's a murderous sadistic psychopath. Christina Ricci is just so good in this role.

I think they managed to handwave Crystal bonding with Misty now decently. Crystal's habit of humming/singing is the sort of thing that seems like it would be okay early on but would start annoying people once winter forced them to stay inside constantly, and so Crystal has now become an outsider.

I admit I screamed during the Shauna/Jackie scene when the camera first cut to a frozen dead Jackie. Holy fuck. And then to learn from the other girls that Shauna has spent two months hanging out with Frozen Jackie?

I feel like almost all of Shauna and Jackie's conversation confirmed that she's just a manifestation of Shauna's subconscious. (I'll get to the one part that gave me pause in a second.) So now we have confirmation of how Shauna/Jeff started, and on his side it turns out to indeed be the simplest and most banal thing: Jackie wouldn't give him sex and Shauna would. In a way that makes me feel bad for Shauna, but OTOH she clearly had her eyes open about it, so my sympathy is limited. Plus, while it seems that Jeff probably wouldn't have given Shauna the time of day if Jackie had been sleeping with him, I still don't think Shauna would have given him the time of day if he hadn't been Jackie's boyfriend, so one can argue these things balance each other out.

The one part that gave me pause was the part when Jackie and Shauna were playing the little game about Shauna's future. NJ housewife, marries Jeff...and has one million dollars. We've speculated before that the survivors got settlement money, probably from the company providing the plane since we've had indicators the plane wasn't up to snuff maintenance-wise. One million dollars would pay for the expensive wedding Shauna and Jeff had, that house, and set up the furniture store, with money left over, but still easily be gone in the 25 years if they were foolish about it. So, does that million-dollar tidbit mean it's Jackie's ghost who can kind of see the future? It's odd that Shauna's subconscious would come up with that detail, not to mention making the rest of that her future. Did she feel like, because in a way Jackie's death could be blamed on Shauna and Jeff's affair, that she needed to marry him so that it all would have been for something?

Last season when Shauna and Jeff's therapist told them to share fantasies, we got Jeff's boring furniture store fantasy, but we never heard anything from Shauna. Now, I didn't believe it for a second when she told Jeff that the thought of him being with someone else always scared her - we saw how she reacted when she thought he was having an affair - but I did somewhat believe it when she said it also turned her on. That would tie in with him having been Jackie's boyfriend. What's interesting is that she maybe is taking Jeff's words in last season's finale about them always having been these terrible people to heart, and is just embracing that.

I couldn't believe it when Natalie and Travis found the fox and didn't consider taking it back with them. But Natalie insisted on marking the spot. So they could still go back and retrieve the fox. I wonder if that's sort of how it'll all start. Shauna knows, on account of eating Jackie's ear, that meat can be thawed and consumed. So if Natalie mentions the fox, Shauna should be able to let her know the fox probably could be thawed out and consumed. And then maybe that starts putting the idea of Jackie into the other girls' heads. I don't think Shauna would make that particular suggestion; I feel like she'd want to keep Jackie for herself. It's interesting to speculate if we should read anything deeper into Shauna literally consuming Jackie than her just being really hungry and eating for two. (I cannot imagine how she's sat at birthday brunch with Jackie's parents for 20+ years!)

I wondered last season if Jackie was the first girl to be eaten, and if her necklace ended up being used as a way to mark the next person to be killed and eaten because Jackie was the OG, and now the first part of that theory has been confirmed.

[AstridM]

I also wondered why they didn’t grab that frozen fox and take it! Seems like common sense if you’re starving.

[Cranberry]

I don't think there was much, if any, meat left on that fox. Photo:

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Black Knight]

Looks to me like there would have been enough there to at least match that tray of reduced rations Shauna served.

And it's not like Jackie's ear offered a lot of meat either. (A sentence I can't believe I just typed.)

[WaltersHair]

I put off watching this because I was afraid season 2 would suck. I'm happy to say I don't think it did.

Random thoughts.

I don't like the older version of Lottie. She's just off somehow and last season I thought they did the age-ups perfectly. I did like that they contrasted Lottie's rehab experience with Jackie's rehab stint last season. Animal masks and naked bodies instead of group therapy.

I actually thought Shauna was going to eat Jackie's ear the second she put it in her pocket. I don't know why, but it didn't shock me. And the episodes of talking Jackie didn't surprise me either, but were in keeping with the story overall.

If Tai escalates her violence like a good serial killer does, then a human is next.

At first, I thought the mossy tree was to point out that moss is supposed to grow on the north side of trees, but I agree with the others here that an underground warm spring is possible.

[JenE4]

I don’t think Shauna ate Jackie’s ear because she was hungry, but for the same reason she carried it around in her pocket—to keep Jackie as a part of her. Shauna had a full-on psychotic break talking to her best friend’s corpse for two months. When Jeff said he read her journals and he’s horrified of what she went through, damn, it’s this right here that’s the most traumatic part. (So far. I have no doubt the show will top this.) Shauna’s job is butchering and rationing the meat. I guess we can assume they kept the bear and whatever else Natalie and Travis managed to catch along the way. I tend to think that after eating Jackie’s ear to make her part of her again, Shauna is so desperate on this psychotic break to bring Jackie back into the group, that she will unknowingly to the others start slicing off little parts of Jackie so she can be within all of them. Here we are 2 months later and they still don’t trust Misty over the mushrooms! What’s going to happen when they find out Shauna has fed them Jackie?!? I think they will be horrified at first, but then continue eating her. Then turn all Lord of the Flies on each other, with the pit trap featured in the season 1 premiere.

So that was a different tree trunk with the moss—somehow untouched by the devastating winter—than the one where they tried to sacrifice Travis, and where Lottie offered up the bear’s heart. (As an aside, with the bear heart ritual both Misty and the one who is dating Tai we’re kneeling behind Lottie, as her original cult members—so we’ll see where this goes today.) But back to the tree trunk… I do think all of them, and the one they found in particular, is almost acting like a chimney/opening from this great underground network that’s in Lottie’s visions—of like the heart of whatever this place is. Lottie reactivated whatever mysticism is happening in this place’s “circulatory system” by giving it a literal heart.

Edited March 26, 2023 by JenE4

[peachmangosteen]

I had forgotten how amazing Sophie Thatcher is at mimicking Juliette Lewis' voice and manner. The other young actors don't even come close to her in that imo. Funnily enough though, the teen and adult versions of the other 3 characters are much more similar in terms of personality than teen Natalie is to adult Natalie. 

It's pretty clear now that Natalie was wrong with her assessment that Travis 'never believed in that crap.' He even had his own vision!

[Black Knight]

11 minutes ago, JenE4 said:

Shauna had a full-on psychotic break talking to her best friend’s corpse for two months.

I still can't get over that. The sight of Jackie's frozen corpse propped up like a ragdoll was just so disturbing. I knew they wouldn't be able to bury her because of the ground being frozen and it being too difficult to find enough rocks underneath the snow to build a cairn, but jeez. I thought she'd be laid out with her face covered.

12 minutes ago, JenE4 said:

I tend to think that after eating Jackie’s ear to make her part of her again, Shauna is so desperate on this psychotic break to bring Jackie back into the group, that she will unknowingly to the others start slicing off little parts of Jackie so she can be within all of them.

Initially I felt that Shauna would want to keep Jackie to herself, especially since by the end she was the only one who still had affection for Jackie, but they did show us that Shauna has the means and opportunity to do what you're suggesting. None of the others go to the meat house, even when they're feeling impatient and starving, and who can blame them. I can't believe they let Shauna keep the knife, though. I wouldn't necessarily think of her potentially slicing up Jackie and serving her, but I would certainly worry she's a danger to herself. She'd be on 24/7 suicide watch, no sharp objects allowed, if I were there. Ben could train someone else to dress and cut up the animals, just like he did Shauna. By this point nobody's squeamish anymore about that kind of thing.

20 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

It's pretty clear now that Natalie was wrong with her assessment that Travis 'never believed in that crap.' He even had his own vision!

I noticed that too. Travis was clearly open to the possibilities. Adult Natalie was in denial. Travis even got aroused while Lottie was touching him, so I'm thinking Jackie isn't going to be the only other girl besides Nat that Travis had sex with out there, and maybe that's got something to do with Adult Natalie not wanting to admit Travis was at least open to the supernatural stuff.

11 hours ago, WaltersHair said:

I don't like the older version of Lottie. She's just off somehow and last season I thought they did the age-ups perfectly.

She seemed off to me too, but the show has done such an amazing job of casting that I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt here. Maybe the actress killed some of the stuff they need her to do later and that's why she got the role. This is one of the buzziest shows right now, so casting can't have had a shortage of actresses wanting the part. I don't think we saw the real Adult Lottie in this episode, if that makes any sense; she was just putting on a show for her followers. Maybe that's why she felt off.

[peachmangosteen]

3 minutes ago, Black Knight said:

Travis even got aroused while Lottie was touching him, so I'm thinking Jackie isn't going to be the only other girl besides Nat that Travis had sex with out there, and maybe that's got something to do with Adult Natalie not wanting to admit Travis was at least open to the supernatural stuff.

Oh, yea, I will be surprised if Travis and Lottie don't hook up at some point. Maybe even as adults.

[WaltersHair]

12 hours ago, WaltersHair said:

I don't like the older version of Lottie. She's just off somehow and last season I thought they did the age-ups perfectly. I did like that they contrasted Lottie's rehab experience with Jackie's rehab stint last season. Animal masks and naked bodies instead of group therapy.

I am unable to edit my post, which is strange. Obviously I mean Natalie and not Jackie

[sistermagpie]

2 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

It's pretty clear now that Natalie was wrong with her assessment that Travis 'never believed in that crap.' He even had his own vision!

 

1 hour ago, Black Knight said:

I noticed that too. Travis was clearly open to the possibilities. Adult Natalie was in denial. Travis even got aroused while Lottie was touching him, so I'm thinking Jackie isn't going to be the only other girl besides Nat that Travis had sex with out there, and maybe that's got something to do with Adult Natalie not wanting to admit Travis was at least open to the supernatural stuff.

I really love how it seems like adult Nat was just in denial--and maybe at the time was too. If Travis did commit suicide, maybe "Tell Nat she was right" was saying that he now thought the magic was bullshit and that took away the hope Lottie gave him or something. Which would be tragic, but could be possible.

I'm still on the side of thinking Shauna ate the ear out of pure hunger rather than any feeling it makes Jackie part of her. But that's yet another guilty reason she feels like Jackie is still part of her whether she likes it or not and is haunted by her. 

Edited March 26, 2023 by sistermagpie

[peachmangosteen]

2 minutes ago, sistermagpie said:

If Travis did commit suicide, maybe "Tell Nat she was right" was saying that he now thought the magic was bullshit and that took away the hope Lottie gave him or something.

I was thinking the same thing.

[Black Knight]

More tidbits:

At the press conference before the survivors come out, the lady speaking says something about the crash site being "over 600 miles north of" something. Maybe over 600 miles north of where the search efforts had been focused? That would fit with my theory that the pilots never actually communicated their amended flight plan to Flight Control and so searchers had no idea they should be looking in Canada instead of America. It's another reason for the survivors to sue the plane company.

I hadn't thought about this, but the survivors would've had to first be flown from the crash site to this airport. Then after going through some processing, they then had to board this next plane to go home to New Jersey. After first enduring their own plane crash and then watching that other plane blow up with Laura Lee inside, that had to be quite triggering. No wonder that except for Misty they all look so grim.

There's a red-headed survivor who pushes away some nosy reporter, but doesn't really look like Van. It's probably just the angle though because I don't think there are any other redheads besides Van (and Jackie, obviously not a possibility). Nat's blonde dye is entirely gone, as it should be after 19 months.

Maybe it was a Nat/Travis/Lottie triangle that Nat never wanted to accept existed. It's going to destroy Nat if Lottie and Travis stayed in touch as adults.

It's increasingly clear the reason Shauna doesn't like Callie is because her daughter is too much like her. It feels like karma.

Shauna as "Jackie" writing the MASH game lends support to the thought that Shauna also wrote all that stuff that she was reading last season in Jackie's bedroom. I didn't understand that theory at the time - I just couldn't visualize how that would work - but now I do.

Tawny Cypress killed that moment of "I'm gonna do better with you." So creepy, and line of the ep for me.

[Penman61]

1 minute ago, Black Knight said:

At the press conference before the survivors come out, the lady speaking says something about the crash site being "over 600 miles north of" something. Maybe over 600 miles north of where the search efforts had been focused? 

I don't recall the exact line, but my memory is "over 600 miles" off the intended flight path. Basically, "so far off we weren't searching in the right place."

[BitterApple]

56 minutes ago, Penman61 said:

I don't recall the exact line, but my memory is "over 600 miles" off the intended flight path. Basically, "so far off we weren't searching in the right place."

I wonder if it's going to end up where the survivors are far from the original flight path but not as far from civilization as they thought. If the theory that the symbol represents some sort of underground tunnel structure is true, there has to be a road nearby. You'd need all kinds of equipment and materials to build something like that and Dead Cabin Guy couldn't have flown them in on his puddle jumper. 

Edited March 26, 2023 by BitterApple

[AstridM]

3 hours ago, Black Knight said:

I still can't get over that. The sight of Jackie's frozen corpse propped up like a ragdoll was just so disturbing. I knew they wouldn't be able to bury her because of the ground being frozen and it being too difficult to find enough rocks underneath the snow to build a cairn, but jeez. I thought she'd be laid out with her face covered.

Initially I felt that Shauna would want to keep Jackie to herself, especially since by the end she was the only one who still had affection for Jackie, but they did show us that Shauna has the means and opportunity to do what you're suggesting. None of the others go to the meat house, even when they're feeling impatient and starving, and who can blame them. I can't believe they let Shauna keep the knife, though. I wouldn't necessarily think of her potentially slicing up Jackie and serving her, but I would certainly worry she's a danger to herself. She'd be on 24/7 suicide watch, no sharp objects allowed, if I were there. Ben could train someone else to dress and cut up the animals, just like he did Shauna. By this point nobody's squeamish anymore about that kind of thing.

I noticed that too. Travis was clearly open to the possibilities. Adult Natalie was in denial. Travis even got aroused while Lottie was touching him, so I'm thinking Jackie isn't going to be the only other girl besides Nat that Travis had sex with out there, and maybe that's got something to do with Adult Natalie not wanting to admit Travis was at least open to the supernatural stuff.

She seemed off to me too, but the show has done such an amazing job of casting that I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt here. Maybe the actress killed some of the stuff they need her to do later and that's why she got the role. This is one of the buzziest shows right now, so casting can't have had a shortage of actresses wanting the part. I don't think we saw the real Adult Lottie in this episode, if that makes any sense; she was just putting on a show for her followers. Maybe that's why she felt off.

Have you read the Deadline interview with Simone Kessell? It answers some questions (warning - spoilers):

https://deadline.com/2023/03/yellowjackets-simone-kessell-adult-lottie-premiere-1235309593/amp/

[peachmangosteen]

2 hours ago, Black Knight said:

There's a red-headed survivor who pushes away some nosy reporter, but doesn't really look like Van. It's probably just the angle though because I don't think there are any other redheads besides Van (and Jackie, obviously not a possibility).

This made me go rewatch that part and I agree it doesn’t really look like Van. I wish I could slow-mo it but the horrible Showtime app doesn’t have that feature lol. But I assume it really is just Van because yea there aren’t any other redheads. (Also, I didn’t realize Jackie was a redhead.) And I also just assume there weren’t any more survivors than the ones we already know about. It’s already kind of insane that many survived lol.

[BitterApple]

Was it Shauna? My hair is a similar brunette shade and it used to lighten to a reddish/auburn in the summer. Maybe long term exposure to the elements did the same to hers? 

[Brn2bwild]

33 minutes ago, BitterApple said:

Was it Shauna? My hair is a similar brunette shade and it used to lighten to a reddish/auburn in the summer. Maybe long term exposure to the elements did the same to hers? 

I thought that was Shauna who pushed the reporter away.