S02.E06: Qui

[Cranberry]

Quote

Trapped inside on a snow day, the Yellowjackets revisit the highlights, humiliations and traumas of “Health Class.” Tai and Van help each other kindly rewind, Misty explores joining a classic Cosmic American tribute band, Lisa helps Natalie carp the day, and Shauna gets a pop-quiz on her cookie-reading assignment.

Original air date: May 5, 2023 (streaming) / May 7, 2023 (Showtime)

[Brn2bwild]

Oof.  Welcome back, show.

They really got me.  I thought the baby survived and wondered how Shauna would keep it alive in the wilderness.  Unless something really supernatural happens, I guess the "Lisa is the wilderness baby" theory is out.

Sophie Nelisse deserves to be nominated for an Emmy for this episode, but so does Melanie Lynskey, whose "I never wanted a baby" speech I found much more affecting than her monologue about wanting to kill in Episode 3.

This time I didn't get a preview for the next episode in the end credits.  Curious. 

[MBayGal]

The ending really shook me, I was in tears.  

[Anela]

That was so sad. I thought it was a dream/hallucination, but the reality still got to me. 

I'm also glad that one promo wasn't what really happened to the baby. I would have stopped watching, if they'd gone that route.

[Thalia]

Damn.  And, especially after the last episode, all I can think about is that this is all goddamn Misty's fault.  

Edited May 5, 2023 by Thalia

[BitterApple]

This episode was brutal. I did NOT see that end coming. In many ways a stillbirth is more merciful than slowly starving to death, but Shauna realizing she did want the baby only to wake up and find out it died was just awful. I'm curious as to how this is going to affect the group, because this is the first time Lottie's woo-woo failed. Does this bring some of the believers back to the pragmatic side? I also feel like Ben wimping out when the girls needed him most put him on borrowed time. No, he's not a doctor, but he should've stepped up and acted like a leader. I feel like the kids aren't going to forgive that. 

As far as the modern timeline, are Jeff and Shauna aware they're under no obligation to talk to the police? I can't believe they haven't consulted a lawyer by now, and all they had to do was say "Hell no" when Kevyn asked them to bring Callie. She's a minor, for goodness sake. Stop involving her in your shit. 

So I can't take credit for this theory because I read it on the YJ subReddit, but someone speculated that it's actually Van who has terminal cancer and not her mom. This was such a mind fuck for me because it explains so much. The meds in the bathroom cabinet that had an ambiguous "V" as opposed to a full name, Van not caring about overdue bills or the potential loss of her business, her telling Tai "there's no point" in trying to find love, and someone said the lollipop she was sucking on looked like the morphine pops given to patients to ease pain. If this is true, then it looks like we're in for another heartbreaker of an episode (unless Lottie heals her, of course). 

[AstridM]

39 minutes ago, BitterApple said:

the first time Lottie's woo-woo failed

I think we’re watching different shows. 🤷‍♀️

[Anela]

46 minutes ago, Thalia said:

Damn.  And, especially after the last episode, all I can think about is that this is all goddamn Misty's fault.  

I know that people have said that the box needed to be submerged in water, in order to work, but if little Misty could break that thing, then they could have carried it to the water (if they knew), and submerged it there. 

[AstridM]

41 minutes ago, BitterApple said:

So I can't take credit for this theory because I read it on the YJ subReddit

I wouldn’t take anything you read on Reddit seriously. 

[WaltersHair]

Personally getting very tired of every episode having a fake out. Just tell the frickin story.

[BitterApple]

24 minutes ago, AstridM said:

I think we’re watching different shows. 🤷‍♀️

 

22 minutes ago, AstridM said:

I wouldn’t take anything you read on Reddit seriously. 

In what way? Lottie and crew prayed to the wilderness gods and the baby died. Are you saying that was their intended result? 

As far as Reddit, that's why I said "theory." Nobody presented it as spoiler or fact. Just that it would be an interesting plot twist. 

 

[AstridM]

1 hour ago, BitterApple said:

 

In what way? Lottie and crew prayed to the wilderness gods and the baby died. Are you saying that was their intended result? 

As far as Reddit, that's why I said "theory." Nobody presented it as spoiler or fact. Just that it would be an interesting plot twist. 

 

I don’t think Lottie has been “right” about anything, really. It’s all just coincidence and superstitious nonsense, imo. 

[blixie]

This was easily my least favorite episode of the season, but I am glad all our Yellowjackets are in one place, and did love all the Nat in the present character development. I guess fake out Lottie was the real Laura Louise. The baby being still born makes perfect sense, so spending a entire episode with fake out felt a little tiresome. And why isn't someone keeping their eyes on mighty morphin Javi and asking him questions. 

 

Quote

 don’t think Lottie has been “right” about anything,

We're talking about what the girls on the show believe, and this is big failure of whatever power they think Lottie possesses. So it will be interesting to see if the Wood Witch believers start to doubt her. 

[BingeyKohan]

44 minutes ago, blixie said:

 And why isn't someone keeping their eyes on mighty morphin Javi and asking him questions. 

Right? Also if Crystal was real (and I always believed she was) why does no one give 2 poops in the bucket about her? Lottie's just "SHE'S GONE!" Why not, "Javi survived out there for months, she could turn back up..."

[AstridM]

59 minutes ago, blixie said:

This was easily my least favorite episode of the season, but I am glad all our Yellowjackets are in one place, and did love all the Nat in the present character development. I guess fake out Lottie was the real Laura Louise. The baby being still born makes perfect sense, so spending a entire episode with fake out felt a little tiresome. And why isn't someone keeping their eyes on mighty morphin Javi and asking him questions. 

 

We're talking about what the girls on the show believe, and this is big failure of whatever power they think Lottie possesses. So it will be interesting to see if the Wood Witch believers start to doubt her. 

I was speaking solely for what I believe and see. 

[Colorado David]

well damn, now i get to be sad all weekend.  show you stop jerking my emotions around, i cant take it.

[peachmangosteen]

4 hours ago, WaltersHair said:

Personally getting very tired of every episode having a fake out. Just tell the frickin story.

Yea, I'm over it. Once was enough, twice is pushing it, if they do it again it's gonna be very annoying.

After I got over my initial annoyance that it was all a fucking hallucination/dream, I was really affected by Shauna's reaction to the baby dying. I hope Sophie N gets an Emmy nom but I doubt she will.

I personally thought Melanie Lynskey was kinda terrible in the scene at the police station and even in the car with Jeff. Everything she does seems fake to me and I'm like is that intentional or am I supposed to be taking Shauna seriously?

Jeff listening to Fuck the Police in front of a police station while his wife and daughter are questioned by police was everything. I love him. 

There's a lot of stuff I'm really liking/finding interesting but I think overall this season isn't really working for me.

I'm annoyed there was no promo for the next episode. It made me wonder if they're trying to hide a big twist or something. I do remember seeing that the writers said episode 7-9 are very different than the rest of the season. And I'm still confused about the writer saying 'there's 9 regular episodes this season' when there's 10 in total. Like what does that mean?

[sistermagpie]

5 hours ago, BitterApple said:

This episode was brutal. I did NOT see that end coming. In many ways a stillbirth is more merciful than slowly starving to death, but Shauna realizing she did want the baby only to wake up and find out it died was just awful. I'm curious as to how this is going to affect the group, because this is the first time Lottie's woo-woo failed. Does this bring some of the believers back to the pragmatic side? I also feel like Ben wimping out when the girls needed him most put him on borrowed time. No, he's not a doctor, but he should've stepped up and acted like a leader. I feel like the kids aren't going to forgive that. 

 

4 hours ago, BitterApple said:

 

In what way? Lottie and crew prayed to the wilderness gods and the baby died. Are you saying that was their intended result? 

 

 

2 hours ago, blixie said:

We're talking about what the girls on the show believe, and this is big failure of whatever power they think Lottie possesses. So it will be interesting to see if the Wood Witch believers start to doubt her. 

Shauna survived, so if you want to believe in woo-woo, it's still there.

I was pretty sure from the start the baby wasn't alive - especially given how huge he was for a newborn. I mean, I know that's normal for TV, but it was too much in this case.

4 hours ago, WaltersHair said:

Personally getting very tired of every episode having a fake out. Just tell the frickin story.

I get the annoyance of a fake-out, but I think it was important character-wise in this case, though. Shauna's ambivalence about motherhood is central to her story, so having her just have the baby and it died wouldn't mean as much. She needed to love the baby and want it to live to get to where she wound up being.

Also in this show the characters are all meant to be cracking under psychological pressure and questioning what's real. It's really central to it--without it there's no feeling on their part about something being "out there" with them or Lottie having powers etc. So they're actually living in a reality where things they imagine are as important as things that actually happen. In Shauna's case, she had reason to be unconscious for a long period.

I loved Misty in this ep, both her regret and horror about Crystal and her snark in the present. Especially when Nat noted they were "all like this" and Misty tilted her head like her beloved African Grey uncompretending.

Jeff was right about Shauna's crazy behavior. Stop talking the police, you idiots! Misty wrote it down for you on a cookie and you're still using these guys as therapists, Shauna! Why did you even go down there, much less let our minor daughter go off with a different cop?!

I liked also how Ben was completely not up to the task and the girls having to take over. His retreats into fantasy are getting harder, but they're still his chosen method of coping. Loved how the apartment was mixed with the cabin.

[peachmangosteen]

I don't have a problem with Shauna having a hallucination. What I find annoying is it being presented as real and then being like 'psych, that was a dream.' But I should have been preparing myself for a lot of annoyance since the writers keep mentioning 'unreliable narrators.'

[AstridM]

20 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

Yea, I'm over it. Once was enough, twice is pushing it, if they do it again it's gonna be very annoying.

After I got over my initial annoyance that it was all a fucking hallucination/dream, I was really affected by Shauna's reaction to the baby dying. I hope Sophie N gets an Emmy nom but I doubt she will.

I personally thought Melanie Lynskey was kinda terrible in the scene at the police station and even in the car with Jeff. Everything she does seems fake to me and I'm like is that intentional or am I supposed to be taking Shauna seriously?

Jeff listening to Fuck the Police in front of a police station while his wife and daughter are questioned by police was everything. I love him. 

There's a lot of stuff I'm really liking/finding interesting but I think overall this season isn't really working for me.

I'm annoyed there was no promo for the next episode. It made me wonder if they're trying to hide a big twist or something. I do remember seeing that the writers said episode 7-9 are very different than the rest of the season. And I'm still confused about the writer saying 'there's 9 regular episodes this season' when there's 10 in total. Like what does that mean?

I’ve never seen a promo for the next episode watching on Paramount plus. I’m sure if there is one it’s easily findable. They may not want to spoil anything for the last few episodes. 🤷‍♀️

[peachmangosteen]

There’s been a promo after every single episode of this season so its odd there wasn’t one here. But actually it might have been because they just wanted to end this episode with Shauna’s haunting ‘Can you hear him crying?’

[Anela]

7 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

There’s been a promo after every single episode of this season so its odd there wasn’t one here. But actually it might have been because they just wanted to end this episode with Shauna’s haunting ‘Can you hear him crying?’

That's what I thought, too.

[sistermagpie]

Oh, also wanted to mention that I did a whole Tom & Lorenzo type analysis of Lottie's outfits this season and how their colors seem to say something about her mental state, and one scene that really stood out was when she went to see her therapist. There she wears an uncharicteristic cream colored top with grey pants...and that's what her "substitute" therapist is wearing too, along with similar jewelry. There's also some similar decor in the office. It really seemed to suggest that this therapist, who was telling her to listen to her hallucinations as telling her something, was actually not real.

So wanted to mention how in this ep she returns to the therapist and this time we don't even see the woman, but from the back of her we do see, she's again wearing the same color top as Lottie.

[AstridM]

1 hour ago, sistermagpie said:

I get the annoyance of a fake-out, but I think it was important character-wise in this case, though. Shauna's ambivalence about motherhood is central to her story, so having her just have the baby and it died wouldn't mean as much. She needed to love the baby and want it to live to get to where she wound up being.

Exactly. It was necessary. 

1 hour ago, peachmangosteen said:

I don't have a problem with Shauna having a hallucination. What I find annoying is it being presented as real and then being like 'psych, that was a dream.' But I should have been preparing myself for a lot of annoyance since the writers keep mentioning 'unreliable narrators.'

I thought there were plenty of signs that it couldn’t be real. 

45 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

There’s been a promo after every single episode of this season so it’s odd there wasn’t one here. But actually it might have been because they just wanted to end this episode with Shauna’s haunting ‘Can you hear him crying?’

Not that I’ve seen. I’ve yet to see even one promo watching at midnight on Thursdays on Paramount Plus. No idea why. 

Edited May 5, 2023 by AstridM

[BitterApple]

29 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

I don't have a problem with Shauna having a hallucination. What I find annoying is it being presented as real and then being like 'psych, that was a dream.' But I should have been preparing myself for a lot of annoyance since the writers keep mentioning 'unreliable narrators.'

I agree. I'm fine with unreliable narration: up to a point, but when it becomes the entire theme of the show, it feels like a cop out. The writers don't know which direction to go so they're flinging stuff out there, knowing they can retract it if it doesn't work. I was actually okay with the Shauna fakeout in this particular instance, but they're using this device way too much and it's causing a lot of frustration amongst the viewers. Like WaltersHair said upthread, just tell the damn story. 

With regards to ep 7, I've seen promo pics but no trailer.

51 minutes ago, sistermagpie said:

Shauna survived, so if you want to believe in woo-woo, it's still there.

 

Ha ha, I wonder if that's how Lottie will spin it to keep the Tree Cult intact? "We were praying for YOU, Shauna, the whole time, not the baby!."

[peachmangosteen]

I just remembered one of my fave parts of this ep: Akilah’s reaction to whoever saying she could deliver the baby. Her face was like ‘the fuck I can!’ lol. 

[sistermagpie]

17 minutes ago, BitterApple said:

I agree. I'm fine with unreliable narration: up to a point, but when it becomes the entire theme of the show, it feels like a cop out. The writers don't know which direction to go so they're flinging stuff out there, knowing they can retract it if it doesn't work. I was actually okay with the Shauna fakeout in this particular instance, but they're using this device way too much and it's causing a lot of frustration amongst the viewers. Like WaltersHair said upthread, just tell the damn story. 

 

I think it is the story, though. The central issue of how they survived in the forest was because of things that could be considered imaginary, but was experienced as real. So real that 25 years later it's the mental illness/imaginary story that seems like authentic. We saw the birth as Shauna experienced it and how she remembers it just as we saw Travis find Javi's dead body in the snow.

[AstridM]

24 minutes ago, BitterApple said:

I agree. I'm fine with unreliable narration: up to a point, but when it becomes the entire theme of the show, it feels like a cop out. The writers don't know which direction to go so they're flinging stuff out there, knowing they can retract it if it doesn't work. I was actually okay with the Shauna fakeout in this particular instance, but they're using this device way too much and it's causing a lot of frustration amongst the viewers. Like WaltersHair said upthread, just tell the damn story. 

With regards to ep 7, I've seen promo pics but no trailer.

Ha ha, I wonder if that's how Lottie will spin it to keep the Tree Cult intact? "We were praying for YOU, Shauna, the whole time, not the baby!."

If you’re considering the reactions of the crazies on Reddit to be reflective of the average viewer, I don’t think that’s realistic. 

Edited May 5, 2023 by AstridM

[peachmangosteen]

25 minutes ago, BitterApple said:

Ha ha, I wonder if that's how Lottie will spin it to keep the Tree Cult intact? "We were praying for YOU, Shauna, the whole time, not the baby!."

Lol that’d be hilarious. But honestly I bet this really fucks Lottie up because she was pinning a lot onto that baby.

[AstridM]

Just now, peachmangosteen said:

Lol that’d be hilarious. But honestly I bet this really fucks Lottie up because she was pinning a lot onto that baby.

She was batshit crazy in this episode. If I were Shauna, I would’ve considered killing her for her possessive, creepy behavior surrounding MY baby. 

[sistermagpie]

29 minutes ago, BitterApple said:

Ha ha, I wonder if that's how Lottie will spin it to keep the Tree Cult intact? "We were praying for YOU, Shauna, the whole time, not the baby!."

It's what she said about the hunting all along--that her blessings didn't get them food, but brought them back alive.

2 minutes ago, AstridM said:

She was batshit crazy in this episode. If I were Shauna, I would’ve considered killing her for her possessive, creepy behavior surrounding MY baby. 

But was she actually doing that? She led people in making sacrifices and got Misty back into the game, but all the stuff about feeding the baby herself etc. was in Shauna's imagination, wasn't it? 

[Trillian]

That was … hard to handle. Hugs to all the other moms out there who suffered a perinatal loss.  Obviously, they couldn’t do a trigger warning without a major spoiler (assuming that women’s pain is acknowledged enough for a trigger warning), but I kind of wish they had. Would love to hear from this board’s resident gynaecologist (does she post on Yellowjackets?) on the birthing scene. As a mature woman who has given birth as well as had pregnancy losses, I knew the presentation of the placenta first was a major obstetrical complication, but I can’t even imagine being in the position of a naive teen or an adult man without children facing that horror. I think - well done, show - but I might have to recover from my own trauma watching it before I can fully cope with it. 
 

That said, I’m going to do some disassociating myself from those parts, at least before the traditional rewatch.  Shauna’s an idiot for not lawyering up (read the cookie!).  There are some wonderful videos on YouTube - including this great one  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE on how NEVER TALK TO THE POLICE. Put it on a cookie. 
 

I loved loved loved  Callie in this episode. The way her face lit up when Shauna said her evidence would be inadmissible if copstache had slept with her?  One could see the light bulb going on. Truly, she is her psychopathic mom’s daughter.  I do hope she survives the series. 

 

[AstridM]

2 minutes ago, sistermagpie said:

It's what she said about the hunting all along--that her blessings didn't get them food, but brought them back alive.

But was she actually doing that? She led people in making sacrifices and got Misty back into the game, but all the stuff about feeding the baby herself etc. was in Shauna's imagination, wasn't it? 

Yes, some of it was in Shauna’s imagination. I think the creepy chanting about the fucking “wilderness” was real, though. Just SHUT UP. 🤣

[sistermagpie]

1 minute ago, AstridM said:

Yes, some of it was in Shauna’s imagination. I think the creepy chanting about the fucking “wilderness” was real, though. Just SHUT UP. 🤣

Oh yeah, that part was real. And look at Travis right there with her, grabbing the skull and slicing open his hand.** This the guy Nat first said didn't believe in any of that shit. Really, Nat? Since when!

 

**Why do people always do this on TV? If you absolutely must cut yourself, slicing open your palm is so obviously that worst, stupidest place to do it. 

[Anela]

4 minutes ago, sistermagpie said:

Oh yeah, that part was real. And look at Travis right there with her, grabbing the skull and slicing open his hand.** This the guy Nat first said didn't believe in any of that shit. Really, Nat? Since when!

 

**Why do people always do this on TV? If you absolutely must cut yourself, slicing open your palm is so obviously that worst, stupidest place to do it. 

I know! One of my cats caught my palm with their claws, when I was breaking up a fight, and that *hurt*! That was just a tiny cut. 

[Chaos Theory]

Poor young Shauna losing her baby to childbirth actually does explain a lot.   Probably felt disconnected from Callie and that explains why they never really connected until the whole Adam thing happened and were able to connect over that.  It’s sad but Callie being devious and lying for mom about sleeping with dumb cop guy actually would bring her closer to Shauna.  

this has always been a show about trauma (the supernatural stuff is debatable at best) and I have zero problem with how the show presented the birth.  This is how Shauna dreamed the first days of the life of her baby had gone.  Taissa had even said they thought she had died as well or something to that effect.   This was Shauna dreaming about a baby that was already dead.  

 

Coach Ben needs to sort his shit out or he is going to get eaten and I won’t even feel bad for him.  He is losing any  authority he has over the goths day by day because he is separating himself from them instead of being the adult in the room.

 

 

 

And the gang is all here.  

 

 

 

Edited May 6, 2023 by Chaos Theory

[Thalia]

Did they show Javi during the childbirth scenes?  I don't remember seeing him. 

I was so excited when Shauna, Tai, Van, Natalie, and Misty were lined up facing Lottie.  I literally shouted "the band is back together!"  And then of course, the ending scene slapped me back down to earth with a thud.  

[sistermagpie]

3 minutes ago, Thalia said:

Did they show Javi during the childbirth scenes?  I don't remember seeing him. 

 

He was standing off by himself, looking away from the birth whenever we saw him.

I read a recap that mistakenly said he was the one that got the skull down for Travis to bleed into, but that was Travis. It seems like Javi and Coach Ben are more in sync with each other than anyone else. But Javi is a young boy with more reason to have been looking away!

[AstridM]

32 minutes ago, Chaos Theory said:

Poor young Shauna losing her baby to childbirth actually does explain a lot.   Probably felt disconnected from Callie and that explains why they never really connected until the whole Adam thing happened and were able to connect over that.  It’s sad but Callie being devious and lying for mom about sleeping with dumb cop guy actually would bring her closer to Shauna.  

this has always been a show about trauma (the supernatural stuff is debatable at best) and I have zero problem with how the show presented the birth.  This is how Shauna dreamed the first days of the life of her baby had gone.  Taissa had even said they thought she had died as well or something to that effect.   This was Shauna freaking about a baby that was already dead.  

 

Coach Ben needs to sort his shit out or he is going to get eaten and I won’t even feel bad for him.  He is losing any  authority he has over the goths day by day because he is separating himself from them instead of being the adult in the room.

 

 

 

And the gang is all here.  

 

 

 

Coach Ben is having a mental breakdown of some sort. He is ill. I don’t think he can just will himself back to health. 

Edited May 6, 2023 by AstridM

[Chaos Theory]

Shauna’s personality is manifested in loss.    First Jackie.  Than her wilderness baby.   You can see why she always kept an emotional distance from Jeff and Callie.    Adam (for better and worse) made her feel young again which for Shauna is emotional turmoil all in itself but ironically brings her closer to Jeff and Callie. 

 

Jeff, Shauna and Callie are unironically my favorite TV family 

Edited May 6, 2023 by Chaos Theory

[Dminches]

12 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

There's a lot of stuff I'm really liking/finding interesting but I think overall this season isn't really working for me.

 

Same. The adult storylines are just boring to me. Enough already with Lottie.  Shauna's police issues aren't remotely interesting or clever. I was interested in Tai and Van (maybe only because of Lauren Ambrose since Tai is annoying as heck) but now they are at Lottie's.

The crash storyline has always been the best for me, but there doesn't seem to be enough meat left (no pun intended) to keep it going to 30 minutes each episode.

 

[JenE4]

I’ve gone full circle and halfway around again trying to decide whether Melanie Lynskey delivered a slightly subpar soliloquy to the police on how her trauma made her unable to love as a mother/wife or she’s such a good actress that she gave a few little “tinges of acting” so we’d know she was lying to the police. But then that’s sort of the point of this show—the trauma they’ve carried through their lives. So seeing the young actress version of Shauna give such a heart-wrenching performance, that, yes, it should ring true that this is some root of why she cheated and why Callie is basically never home and she doesn’t seem the least concerned about her whereabouts. But then maybe she did confess the truth but added some “bad acting” to course correct so she could kind of laugh it off and say okay, it’s really the “bored housewife” angle to the police? Okay, I think I went three times around that circle and firmly landed on Melanie being such an incredible actress that the “bad acting” was to lead us back to understanding she’s been holding onto this deep trauma for 25 years but she’s never allowed it to bubble up in her life, easier to blame boredom.

My takeaway from Lottie’s blood sacrifice/chanting ritual in the past plus her realizations in the present is that Lottie has never held any “power.” She was just the first person to realize that this place/spirit demanded blood and devotion (for whatever reason). Sure, Travis tried to give it a few drops of blood, but look at all of the blood pouring out of Shauna! If there’s some sort of evil spirit that is summoned by blood or whatever, it’s not going to pay attention to the chanting circle, it’s coming to/for Shauna and the baby. Lottie and crew also had some misperception that this was a good spirit and by giving it blood, it would help them. In present time, Lottie is finally recognizing that it’s an evil spirit and always has been. There have been a number of wild and surprising deaths that may have been accidental or could potentially be explained by being “caused by the evil spirit”—from the small plane just exploding in the sky, Jackie’s body being frozen then slow roasted, Misty’s bestie falling off the cliff, and now the baby being stillborn. None of them were officially a sacrifice to the spirit, but maybe the evil spirit sacrificed them on its own? 

Edited May 6, 2023 by JenE4

[peachmangosteen]

2 hours ago, JenE4 said:

I’ve gone full circle and halfway around again trying to decide whether Melanie Lynskey delivered a slightly subpar soliloquy to the police on how her trauma made her unable to love as a mother/wife or she’s such a good actress that she gave a few little “tinges of acting” so we’d know she was lying to the police. But then that’s sort of the point of this show—the trauma they’ve carried through their lives. So seeing the young actress version of Shauna give such a heart-wrenching performance, that, yes, it should ring true that this is some root of why she cheated and why Callie is basically never home and she doesn’t seem the least concerned about her whereabouts. But then maybe she did confess the truth but added some “bad acting” to course correct so she could kind of laugh it off and say okay, it’s really the “bored housewife” angle to the police? Okay, I think I went three times around that circle and firmly landed on Melanie being such an incredible actress that the “bad acting” was to lead us back to understanding she’s been holding onto this deep trauma for 25 years but she’s never allowed it to bubble up in her life, easier to blame boredom.

This. At first I was like OK this is very bad acting from Melanie but then I was like wait maybe we're supposed to think Shauna is acting here so Melanie's bad acting makes sense but then I was like wait are we supposed to think Shauna is being truthful. In the end, it was all of those things. But still, I love Melanie Lynskey as a person in so much as I can know her as a person but I find her acting overrated tbh.

The Jeff/Shauna/Callie story is actually one of the things I most enjoy about this season but at the same time it is so stupid and unrealistic and obvious filler.

[Brn2bwild]

2 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

This. At first I was like OK this is very bad acting from Melanie but then I was like wait maybe we're supposed to think Shauna is acting here so Melanie's bad acting makes sense but then I was like wait are we supposed to think Shauna is being truthful. In the end, it was all of those things. But still, I love Melanie Lynskey as a person in so much as I can know her as a person but I find her acting overrated tbh.

The Jeff/Shauna/Callie story is actually one of the things I most enjoy about this season but at the same time it is so stupid and unrealistic and obvious filler.

Maybe I'm a poor judge of acting, but I found the moment where Shauna admitted she didn't want to have Callie and did it to save her marriage to be real and affecting.  I agree that overall she was acting in front of the cop, but that realization wasn't acting.

[SeanC]

20 hours ago, AstridM said:

I don’t think Lottie has been “right” about anything, really. It’s all just coincidence and superstitious nonsense, imo. 

At this point, trying to say that there was never anything supernatural going on with Lottie and it was all coincidence would be extremely contrived.

[peachmangosteen]

Yea, I think the plot is just gonna end with everything was a coincidence/trauma made them do it it/such and such never happened it was a hallucination type stuff. Which I imagine will be very annoying, especially if they do the full seasons.

[SeanC]

21 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

Yea, I think the plot is just gonna end with everything was a coincidence/trauma made them do it it/such and such never happened it was a hallucination type stuff. Which I imagine will be very annoying, especially if they do the full seasons.

Personally, I think that's unlikely. This is most likely building up to them going back to the wilderness to confront whatever is there.

[TVMovieBuff]

I love the unreliable narrator trope and this show is full of them. It is well done though, gets me every time. 

[BitterApple]

5 hours ago, Dminches said:

Same. The adult storylines are just boring to me. 

 

I read that eps. 7-9 pick up the pace quite a bit, so this should be good for those who think the show is going in circles. 

On 5/5/2023 at 9:18 AM, Thalia said:

Damn.  And, especially after the last episode, all I can think about is that this is all goddamn Misty's fault.  

I wonder if the survivors will ever find out Misty destroyed the transmitter? There's no way they can know, right? I can't imagine any of the adults being willing to give her the time of day if they knew she was the reason they didn't get rescued. 

20 hours ago, BingeyKohan said:

Right? Also if Crystal was real (and I always believed she was) why does no one give 2 poops in the bucket about her? Lottie's just "SHE'S GONE!" 

Lulz! Everyone wrote off Crystal so easily! There's still what, 12 or 13 of them left. Everyone was mostly standing around watching Shauna. Nobody thought to send Travis and one of the girls out to look for her? It's bad enough that she fell off a cliff and died in a pile of poop. Nobody caring just makes it that much worse. 

Edited May 6, 2023 by BitterApple

[AstridM]

39 minutes ago, SeanC said:

Personally, I think that's unlikely. This is most likely building up to them going back to the wilderness to confront whatever is there.

There was never anything there. 🤦‍♀️