S02.E08: It Chooses

[crimsongrl]

I assumed Shauna wrote the journals after the rescue. Theres no way the group lets her leave with a stack of notebooks! Right?!

[sistermagpie]

27 minutes ago, crimsongrl said:

I assumed Shauna wrote the journals after the rescue. Theres no way the group lets her leave with a stack of notebooks! Right?!

We've seen her writing in one in the forest and seen one with blood smeared on the pages in the present. She wrote them while things were happening and brought them back with her.

[MBayGal]

That implies that she packed several journals to take for their several-day trip.  That seems highly unlikely.

[JenE4]

9 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

 

I have a hard time believe they were all so willing to turn to killers that fast though.

Is 8 months “that fast”? I started watching the 20/20 special last night, interviewing the surviving members of the rugby team that crashed in the Andes and resorted to cannibalism. (I only got halfway through but recorded the rest.) But they resorted to eating each other on day 10! Granted, that’s not killing. But at least our girls went a lot longer before eating each other.

ETA: Day 10 was when they called off the active search and then they segued into the cannibalism, so it may not have been a 1:1 timeline but it sounded like that.

Edited May 23, 2023 by JenE4

[peachmangosteen]

7 hours ago, MBayGal said:

That implies that she packed several journals to take for their several-day trip.  That seems highly unlikely.

You just have to be like 'it's an unrealistic tv show' with some stuff, I guess. That one is gonna annoy me now too though so thanks lol!

[Eeksquire]

Quote

That implies that she packed several journals to take for their several-day trip.  That seems highly unlikely.

When they burned them on the grill, they weren't all the same - you couldn't see all of them, but it looked to me like one was Shauna's journal (that she packed) and the others were notebooks/school supplies or other things that she probably got from the other girls, so not as unrealistic as packing 4 journals.

But: given that we saw them all walked through the press with nothing but sweatsuits, seems unlikely that she got to take them. I'd assume everything would be considered evidence and have to be left there.

[peachmangosteen]

I'll just fanwank it that she wrote some while there (amidst going insane and feral lol) and then wrote about her time there in journals after they were rescued as well. You gotta fanwank a lot of stuff with this show, especially since they have a tendency to just not show stuff lol.

[Trillian]

11 hours ago, MBayGal said:

That implies that she packed several journals to take for their several-day trip.  That seems highly unlikely.

Maybe it’s like Coach Ben and his impressive supply of condoms.  Best to be prepared for anything. 

[BitterApple]

I think the girls brought their schoolbooks on the trip. I can believe there were a bunch of extra notebooks they were willing to give to Shauna. 

[sistermagpie]

12 hours ago, MBayGal said:

That implies that she packed several journals to take for their several-day trip.  That seems highly unlikely.

 

4 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

You just have to be like 'it's an unrealistic tv show' with some stuff, I guess. That one is gonna annoy me now too though so thanks lol!

 

4 hours ago, Eeksquire said:

When they burned them on the grill, they weren't all the same - you couldn't see all of them, but it looked to me like one was Shauna's journal (that she packed) and the others were notebooks/school supplies or other things that she probably got from the other girls, so not as unrealistic as packing 4 journals.

Exactly. She was one student on a plane full of students who hadn't finished the year yet and we know for a fact that at least some of them brought school supplies and may have also had journals. It's not any kind of stretch. Javi's also using papers from that supply to draw pictures.

4 hours ago, Eeksquire said:

But: given that we saw them all walked through the press with nothing but sweatsuits, seems unlikely that she got to take them. I'd assume everything would be considered evidence and have to be left there.

Since the rescue people knew the girls were about to walk through a crowd of reporters and the plane was waiting for them, they could easily have just taken anything the girls had and put it onto the plane separately so they could go by as easily as possible. The girls had already been cleaned up at that point, so they might have all had a small pack of toilettries or a second sweatsuit and change of underwear.

[tennisgurl]

Holy shit, I did NOT see all of that coming. Poor Javi, he survives all of this and risks his life to save Natalie only for her to leave him to die a miserable death in the ice to save herself. No wonder Natalie is so screwed up, no way does Travis know what happened to his brother, especially after Travis stopped her from being the sacrifice. It was terrifying how fast the team escalated to "just" eating bodies to ritualistic sacrifice and chasing after one of their own teammates like a pack of wild animals. I know that some people feel like things escalated really quickly (and they did) but I think its been building for awhile. The team is getting increasingly obsessed with this woods religion in their desperation, they're starting to hallucinate, food is becoming more scarce, the situation has just gotten worse and worse until things finally broke down. 

I'm glad that we're at least getting some answers now and things are finally progressing, but there is still so much that has been set up that we aren't any closer to. Dark Tai, the shadow man that Sammy saw, the marks in the trees, where Javi was, some of it we can pretty well guess but some actual answers would be nice. I guess now we know where Javi was but not why he was hiding or why he was staying silent or who the lady was, but maybe we can still find out now that Ben has found his underground survival club house. If he was keeping it a secret to have a place to go if things took a bad turn at the cabin that was a very smart move, even if it didn't save him. 

Jeff and Callie's talk about the son Shauna lost in the woods was a really touching scene. Jeff, you really need to get a lower the second the cops show up, especially if its cops with a vendetta who creepily tried to seduce your teenage daughter to get dirt on her mom. I do appreciate how much Jeff is trying to do to help Shauna, even if its in his own bumbling way. If nothing else, he's ride or die. 

Something about the way that Lottie said "Misty, you actually killed someone." made me laugh really hard. The "lets let the forest choose" turn with the sharing circle escalated even quicker than the sacrifice in the woods! At least this time the girls are significantly less desperate and more skeptical. 

"Not while I'm around" from Sweeny Todd is an appropriate song for Walter and Misty. For several reasons. 

[KaveDweller]

10 hours ago, JenE4 said:

Is 8 months “that fast”? I started watching the 20/20 special last night, interviewing the surviving members of the rugby team that crashed in the Andes and resorted to cannibalism. (I only got halfway through but recorded the rest.) But they resorted to eating each other on day 10! Granted, that’s not killing. But at least our girls went a lot longer before eating each other.

ETA: Day 10 was when they called off the active search and then they segued into the cannibalism, so it may not have been a 1:1 timeline but it sounded like that.

8 months isn't fast to resort to cannibalism. But to go from eating your dead friend or even wishing for someone to die to picking cards to decide who's throat to slit if a big leap.

I do think it was faster for the group in the Andes because they had no food at all to hunt or scavenge. The Yellowjackets landed in spring and were able to hunt for awhile and found mushrooms and stuff. Then they had the bear meat for the first few months of winter. 

8 hours ago, Eeksquire said:

But: given that we saw them all walked through the press with nothing but sweatsuits, seems unlikely that she got to take them. I'd assume everything would be considered evidence and have to be left there.

Evidence of what? To whoever found them, this was a rescue, not a crime scene. I would think the rescuers would let them pack up their stuff to take with them, if they had any. Then they would ask the girls what happened, but unless someone talked there would be no reason to bring CSI out to the wilderness. Plus, we don't know how they were found. Maybe they walked to civilization at some point.

The scene with the press was pretty brief, so you could easily explain there was someone else carrying a bag behind them.

 

[Emily Thrace]

2 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

8 months isn't fast to resort to cannibalism. But to go from eating your dead friend or even wishing for someone to die to picking cards to decide who's throat to slit if a big leap.

I do think it was faster for the group in the Andes because they had no food at all to hunt or scavenge. The Yellowjackets landed in spring and were able to hunt for awhile and found mushrooms and stuff. Then they had the bear meat for the first few months of winter. 

Evidence of what? To whoever found them, this was a rescue, not a crime scene. I would think the rescuers would let them pack up their stuff to take with them, if they had any. Then they would ask the girls what happened, but unless someone talked there would be no reason to bring CSI out to the wilderness. Plus, we don't know how they were found. Maybe they walked to civilization at some point.

The scene with the press was pretty brief, so you could easily explain there was someone else carrying a bag behind them.

 

Yeah I doubt anyone's first thought was cannibalism. The Indigenous people have been surviving in that area for hundreds of years, with a cabin and a gun it not impossible a group of girls did the same. I have a feeling someone talked. Maybe not one of the girls but perhaps a rescuer saw enough to draw conclusions.

One thing that has occurred to me about them getting  on plane after the rescue is most are assuming Coach Ben is dead because he obviously isn't in the press walk with the kids. It is possible he was simply loaded separately. In most cases airline's would use a chairlift for someone on crutches rather than have them attempt the stairs. He did seem to be rallying in this episode.

 

[sistermagpie]

21 minutes ago, Emily Thrace said:

Yeah I doubt anyone's first thought was cannibalism. The Indigenous people have been surviving in that area for hundreds of years, with a cabin and a gun it not impossible a group of girls did the same. I have a feeling someone talked. Maybe not one of the girls but perhaps a rescuer saw enough to draw conclusions.

 

I don't think anybody needed anyone to talk or see anything for people to start rumors of cannibalism when their plane crashed and they were in the woods in winter. Any plane crash with a delayed rescue translates into cannibalism.

[Shermie]

13 hours ago, Eeksquire said:

given that we saw them all walked through the press with nothing but sweatsuits, seems unlikely that she got to take them.

You think that a group of children (yes, they are children) who have just been rescued after 19 months in the wilderness and are starving and wounded and emaciated and mentally falling apart would be expected to carry their own luggage?

Maybe Ben stayed in the tree cave and never got rescued. And he’s been Cabin Guy ever since. 😁

[Hanahope]

I didn't understand why Javi was leading Nat across the ice.  I was thinking Javi was taking her to  the tree Ben found, which was back closer to the cabin, but maybe he had some other hiding place?

[peachmangosteen]

I assumed he was taking her to the tree. I just figured from where they were they needed to go over the ice to get there. Or maybe that it'd just be quicker.

ETA: I just realized that perhaps (and probably likely) all the trees (I think there have been 3 so far?) that had the melting snow around them lead to the underground area so he could have been taking her to the closest tree.

[JasonCC]

Reading the boards and a rewatch. The episode was superb.

On the topic of pacing and how "fast they went" to ritualized cannibalism I have to say it was missing one beat--or going too fast--and it could have been fixed one of two ways with like two short extra scenes this episode or last.

Showing how desperate and hungry and even hallucinating was done well but it felt "too fast" how ritualized it became. Like, we barely heard about the drawing of the cards to choose who empties the shit bucket to now it's a whole witchy ceremony culminating with throat cutting? There should have been more exposition over this season of the cards taking on symbolic importance and ceremony. 

Or, they could have had the first kill for food be less full blast intentional and blood-thirsty killing pack. Like they went straight from an accidental situation cannibalism of deep freeze Jacky to "let's slit my friends throat in the common area of the cabin". There should have been a beat in the middle RE intentionality. What they were going to do to Natalie (albeit thwarted) was like 8 and Pit Girl is a 9. I feel there should have been a death (or an intended death) in the 4,5, or 6 range. That little almost-played-for-laughs scene of Jen and Melissa acknowledging finding a dead, frozen Crystal might be a net good? Another scene or two in that vein could have taken us there. For example, before the (weirdly brief and perfunctory) search for Crystal an agreement/pledge by all the girls in a circle (resonating with the card ceremony to come): the goal and group consensus is now explicitly to find, roast, and eat. Maybe with some "wilderness provides" language thrown in. Again, just a few little middle-ground steps getting us from Jacky to Level 8.

Edited May 25, 2023 by JasonCC

[KarenX]

I am enjoying the show! My persistent complaint is that the fake clouds if breath are so distractingly fake and those girls just simply do not act cold enough. They do not look or move as if they are starving and freezing. Ok fine I guess they can pass for starving but there is no sense of actual numbing cold.
 

The actresses are too vigorous. It doesn’t look like they are at the point of delusions and desperation. They would be. I think mostly the show presents it well with script and plot but you see these girls and it’s not jiving. I think that makes the timelines seem off. 

If we were a book club and this was a novel we’d have no problem accepting it. 

[Shermie]

9 hours ago, KarenX said:

The actresses are too vigorous. It doesn’t look like they are at the point of delusions and desperation.

I’d agree that they’re too physically vigorous. I’m thinking about early seasons of Survivor where they’d get only a bit of rice to eat and they’d lose massive poundage within weeks. The Yellowjackets have been starving for months. I realize they can’t have them actually lose large amounts of weight, but it is unrealistic.

However, mentally they are at the point of delusion and desperation.

[sistermagpie]

13 hours ago, KarenX said:

I am enjoying the show! My persistent complaint is that the fake clouds if breath are so distractingly fake and those girls just simply do not act cold enough. They do not look or move as if they are starving and freezing. Ok fine I guess they can pass for starving but there is no sense of actual numbing cold.
 

The actresses are too vigorous. It doesn’t look like they are at the point of delusions and desperation. They would be. I think mostly the show presents it well with script and plot but you see these girls and it’s not jiving. I think that makes the timelines seem off. 

If we were a book club and this was a novel we’d have no problem accepting it. 

 

4 hours ago, Shermie said:

I’d agree that they’re too physically vigorous. I’m thinking about early seasons of Survivor where they’d get only a bit of rice to eat and they’d lose massive poundage within weeks. The Yellowjackets have been starving for months. I realize they can’t have them actually lose large amounts of weight, but it is unrealistic.

However, mentally they are at the point of delusion and desperation.

It's true it might be helpful if the actors had some real coaching to physically suggest more fragility and lethargy even when they're having a burst of adrenaline. I feel like I remember a scene in The Little Drummer Girl with Florence Pugh where she was really good in a scene with an actor where she just physically made you feel how this other guy was supposed to reek.

[Kristi800]

Quote

Would anyone not have done the same? I can’t imagine allowing someone to continue to believe their hallucinations were real .

I think giving someone a little leeway to pretend a skeletal mouse is real when everyone else is hallucinating about something (blood coming from out of the walls, Shauna talking to dead Jackie, etc., and continue to hallucinate all kinds of things) is pretty far down the list of what to allow someone to believe was real at this point. 

Yes, I have to suspend disbelief the amount of clothing they're wearing and amount of notebooks that Shauna has to write in.

ETA: Second paragraph

Edited May 29, 2023 by Kristi800

[Quickbeam]

I was so excited by the running on the ice because the action was finally light enough for me to see it. The rest of the episode was like a black screen. So damn dark, this show and I mean that literally. 

[Eeksquire]

I figure we're probably in for at least four seasons, if not the full five that the creators have outlined. If that's the case, then most sophomore seasons of shows that are 4-5 seasons turn out to be the slowest and least loved (by me).

With that in mind, I enjoyed this season. I feel like there is plenty to circle back around to next season (whenever that might be) and plenty for me to rewatch and notice stuff I missed the first go 'round. (If I watch at night, with all the lights off - You're not kidding @Quickbeam! 😂)

The only real thing from this season that I wouldn't mind leaving here is Detective Pornstache, who was awful from beginning to end, the character, the actor, the storyline, everything, and I really wish he'd gotten got in the finale. Other than that, I remain open-minded.