S03.E05: Did Tai Do That?

[paulvdb]

Quote

The Yellowjackets confront the reality of having to pull an Old Yeller. Lottie mentors an up-and-coming prophet. In the present, Misty investigates a suspicious death. Shauna, desperate, turns to the last person she would trust – because, why not?

Premiere date: March 7 on Paramount+

[AnimeMania]

[Brn2bwild]

This episode felt dragged out and disappointing after last week.

On the one hand, 

Spoiler

yay! Coach Ben lives!  I'm terrified about what they'll do with him next.  Fuck Teen Shauna and Melissa for cutting his tendon.

On the other hand, the Lottie investigation stuff dragged on forever, as did the scenes with Tai, though the scene with Sammy was too brief.  As much as Tai could have killed Lottie, I'm betting she didn't.

[Anela]

They’re showing Shauna encouraging/bullying people to do bad things. I’m getting tired of waiting for Hillary Swank to show up. Since they just showed her telling Melissa to disable Coach even more, I do wonder if it’s as simple as Melissa still being alive. Although,

Spoiler

she’s calling someone else crazy, in the previews

when she’s just as bad, if it is her.  

I didn’t mind the present day timeline, but it felt like two different shows.  Shauna letting Lottie’s dad think she was Lottie, and comforting him, watching a movie with him.  

I’m wary of those chocolates from Misty. 

Edited Friday at 09:25 AM by Anela

[Anela]

I’m also wondering if they killed him, once they were found.  “Don’t kill him yet.” That’s the second time Travis has jumped in to save someone.  

[Black Knight]

I don't usually root for Teen Lottie's Wilderness nonsense, but I had a feeling that here it would lead to Ben being saved, so I was all for it this time.

Of course Teen Lottie merely incorporates the cave's gas into her Wilderness mythology, as opposed to insisting the visions have nothing to do with the gas. She knows about the Oracle of Delphi; I guess as was said at the trial, she really did pay attention in history class!

Continuing to question whether something is purely mundane or in fact supernatural in nature: Akilah's vision, is it the Wilderness, or was it born out of her subconscious wanting to find a way to save Ben? The show made a point of showing us earlier that Akilah was still very sympathetic to Ben.

I couldn't help but chuckle at Ben's expression when Misty said he was her first boyfriend and first amputation. He totally thought for a second about correcting her re: the boyfriend part before realizing it'd be better to let it go.

It was interesting to see the way Adult Shauna immediately accused Misty for Lottie's murder, after the way Teen Misty made Shauna out to be the prime suspect in the burning of the cabin. It raises questions about how much was Adult Shauna really thinking Misty might have done it as opposed to past resentments over Misty's cross-examination of her in Ben's trial.

Also interesting was the weird vibe between Shauna and Walter, the way Shauna actually seemed offended that Walter thinks she's not a "not friend" of Misty's. And Adult Lottie had pictures of them as teenagers on her bedside table. I think it speaks to how they're all so deeply bound together.

Taissa should have known better than to bring Van to the meet-up, and Van should have known better than to go. So insensitive. The actor playing Sammy hasn't visibly aged nearly as much as I thought he would have. I'm curious what happened in the second half of Tai and Sammy's interaction that we didn't get to see yet. Also was happy to see that the dog Tai got is safe and alive in Simone and Sammy's care. Simone, I hope you move on and find someone who's actually worthy of you, because I always thought Tai married a 10 when she married Simone. I like Teen Van/Teen Tai together, though not as much as I once did, but I really don't like Adult Van and Adult Tai together.

[Brn2bwild]

1 hour ago, Black Knight said:

Taissa should have known better than to bring Van to the meet-up, and Van should have known better than to go. So insensitive. The actor playing Sammy hasn't visibly aged nearly as much as I thought he would have. I'm curious what happened in the second half of Tai and Sammy's interaction that we didn't get to see yet. Also was happy to see that the dog Tai got is safe and alive in Simone and Sammy's care. Simone, I hope you move on and find someone who's actually worthy of you, because I always thought Tai married a 10 when she married Simone. I like Teen Van/Teen Tai together, though not as much as I once did, but I really don't like Adult Van and Adult Tai together.

I wonder if this is setting up (I realize this is speculation) Simone reaching out to Van later, or Van coming to see Simone and Sammy to discuss Other Tai.

[BitterApple]

Damn. That was pretty ballsy of Tai to bring the new/old woman to a meet up with Simone and Sammi. I wish Van had sat this one out so we could've had more dialogue between Simone and Tai. 

I agree Akilah's vision doesn't mean what they think it does. There's no practical reason Ben would be the key to their rescue. Also, did anyone else notice that lingering shot of the fish when the girls brought Ben out to be executed? I wonder if there's a knife in there which leads me to my theory that 

Spoiler

Ben may unalive himself as a big f*** you to the girls, and thinking that's the end for any chance of rescue, they go full feral. 

 

The scene with Shauna and Lottie's dad was sad and sweet. Someone on Reddit had an interesting theory. They speculated that when Mr. Matthew's was making references to law enforcement classifying Lottie's death as an accident, he was talking about the plane crash, not the fall down the stairs. He kept mentioning a meeting with Bear Stearns, a company which hasn't been in existence in nearly 20 years. Even in his conversation with Shauna, he saw the teen version of his daughter, not the adult. Just some food for thought. 

 

[AstridM]

35 minutes ago, BitterApple said:

Damn. That was pretty ballsy of Tai to bring the new/old woman to a meet up with Simone and Sammi. I wish Van had sat this one out so we could've had more dialogue between Simone and Tai. 

I agree Akilah's vision doesn't mean what they think it does. There's no practical reason Ben would be the key to their rescue. Also, did anyone else notice that lingering shot of the fish when the girls brought Ben out to be executed? I wonder if there's a knife in there which leads me to my theory that 

  Hide contents

Ben may unalive himself as a big f*** you to the girls, and thinking that's the end for any chance of rescue, they go full feral. 

 

The scene with Shauna and Lottie's dad was sad and sweet. Someone on Reddit had an interesting theory. They speculated that when Mr. Matthew's was making references to law enforcement classifying Lottie's death as an accident, he was talking about the plane crash, not the fall down the stairs. He kept mentioning a meeting with Bear Stearns, a company which hasn't been in existence in nearly 20 years. Even in his conversation with Shauna, he saw the teen version of his daughter, not the adult. Just some food for thought. 

 

Just an FYI - there’s no need to use TikTok lingo on this site.

[Black Knight]

"unalive" is part of common internet speak now and has been for a while, not just a TikTok thing.

An important point that came from Misty learning that Lottie lived in that building as a child, before moving to NJ with her mother in the divorce - it gives us the mundane explanation for how Lottie could see that stairway in her vision in...I think it was S2. So her vision then wasn't necessarily a premonition of her death later, just her subconscious bringing up a stairway she was familiar with.

Akilah's "vision" of Ben being the bridge to go home could be read differently than him somehow being the key to going home, especially if you think as I do that her subconscious brought it up as a way to save him: It can be read as her belief that if the group crosses this particular line of murdering him, in a figurative sense they will never be able to go home. It would be burning a bridge, figuratively. That parallels with what Shauna wrote in her journal in the season premiere. And indeed, we've certainly seen that none of the adult survivors we know about ever did truly leave the woods (again, speaking figuratively) - from Shauna's pine air freshener in her car to Lottie's framed pics of the teenagers, we're reminded of that in basically every episode.

[tennisgurl]

*Puts on my Urkel glasses and rolls up my suspenders*

Did Tai do that? 

That shot of Adult Misty becoming Teen Misty looking at Teen Lottie instead of Adult Lottie in the morgue was a great moment. I still think that killing Lottie off was a mistake, but I do like some of the stuff they did with it here. Shauna pretending to be Teen Lottie to give Lottie's dad a nice moment with her was one of the nicest, least self serving thing she's done in awhile. 

I am so glad that Coach Ben lives to see another day, even if getting his tendon slashed was all kinds of nasty. Poor guy, I feel pretty confident that he'll never make it out of the forest but hopefully it wont be an actual murder on the part of the team. 

Normally Lottie's magic just makes everything creepier but I am all for it if it saves Ben and gives the kids someone to listen to besides Shauna. Teen Shauna has become so deranged even Lottie is looking like the better choice, at least for now. Did she seriously just say that they should burn Ben alive? And super casually? Melissa is such an enabler, she is definitely cozying up to Shauna because she can tell see Shauna coming into more power and wants to hitch her wagon to the winning team.   

I think one of the most unhinged things that Tai has done so far is bring her new girlfriend/high school sweetheart to the meet up with her estranged wife and young son. Sammy absolutely knows that Bad Tai is out and about, and might be in the drivers seat. I was so sure that adult Van was going to bring the crazy out of Tai, but now it seems like Tai is the one really losing it. 

"It was not a murder, per say." Shauna and Walter are a weirdly good team, they're both super bizarre but in different ways. 

Akilah is such a sweetheart, I am so worried about what happens to her. I think that she had that vision both because her subconscious wanted an excuse to save Ben (who she still obviously has sympathy for) and because killing Ben means that there really is no going back for them. Before this, the deaths have been accidental or more passive, this cold blooded murder would be them crossing a line and distancing themselves even more from civilization.

[Wicked]

When they first showed the cliff I wondered if we would see Crystal some how

[BitterApple]

7 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

 

Akilah is such a sweetheart, I am so worried about what happens to her. 

My biggest fear is Lottie is going to push the cave thing too far and one of these times Akilah won't wake up. Now that Lottie is convinced Akilah's visions foreshadow their rescue, she's going to encourage her to keep exposing herself to the gas. I don't think it will end well.

I rewatched today and circling back to my earlier comment, it definitely looked like there was a knife under the fish Misty gave Ben. If he doesn't commit suicide, I'm hoping he takes out Gen or Melissa. 

With regards to the adult timeline, I know there's been rampant criticism of this season and I agree much of it is warranted. I'm fine with the writers using the adult plots to bring moments of humor, but I wish they'd dial it back on the camp. Lottie's death should've been devastating for all of them, and yet I feel like I'm watching a wacky cop caper. I also agree it's crazy how they made such a big deal of casting Swank and McHale, yet we're halfway through the season and they've yet to appear. 

[WaltersHair]

Happy Coach made it through another day. I have had interactions with people who've had their Achilles tendons ruputure/cut, and it is one of the most painful injuries in sports. It will be particularly torturous for Coach because it won't be repaired. I'll bet he wishes he'd been shot instead.

What does a Suicide King have to do with an execution? Not sure about the connection there-maybe to just make it seem spookier.

The adult stories are devolving into boring. This episode was basically The Three Stooges go to a Penthouse to track down a killer. High jinks ensue. Bad Tai is still Bad.

Does Coach still have the necklace on?

[Wicked]

I feel like teenage Shauna is nothing like adult Shauna.  With the other characters you can tell they are the same person in each time line, but Shauna is two different people.  I suppose teenage Shauna dealing with the loss of her baby, but she has become down right cruel and evil, burning someone alive???  Adult Shauna is certainly not a perfect person, (and is a murderer) but I don't see that cruelty in her, I don't think she intended to kill him, (Andy??) it was impulsive, not cruel

[Thalia]

3 minutes ago, Wicked said:

I feel like teenage Shauna is nothing like adult Shauna.  With the other characters you can tell they are the same person in each time line, but Shauna is two different people.  I suppose teenage Shauna dealing with the loss of her baby, but she has become down right cruel and evil, burning someone alive???  Adult Shauna is certainly not a perfect person, (and is a murderer) but I don't see that cruelty in her, I don't think she intended to kill him, (Andy??) it was impulsive, not cruel

You took the words out of my mouth.  I kind of love Adult Shauna, because while she's clearly cray cray and quick to jump to the wrong conclusions, she has this underlying sad sack sweetness.   I'm sure a lot of that is due to Melanie Lynskey.  But Teen Shauna has been practically unwatchable this season.   And I certainly hope she never wins in the power struggle with Natalie, because there is no telling what she'd order the girls to do.  

The episode was a letdown after last week's.  Some cute moments among the Citizen Detective Brigade, but that seemed to me to be mostly filler.  

I bet those girls still hear Ben screaming.   Goodness knows I do. 

[Brn2bwild]

2 hours ago, Thalia said:

You took the words out of my mouth.  I kind of love Adult Shauna, because while she's clearly cray cray and quick to jump to the wrong conclusions, she has this underlying sad sack sweetness.   I'm sure a lot of that is due to Melanie Lynskey.  But Teen Shauna has been practically unwatchable this season.   And I certainly hope she never wins in the power struggle with Natalie, because there is no telling what she'd order the girls to do.  

The episode was a letdown after last week's.  Some cute moments among the Citizen Detective Brigade, but that seemed to me to be mostly filler.  

I bet those girls still hear Ben screaming.   Goodness knows I do. 

I could see that "sad sack" quality as something that emerges later, though, as Shauna (in her own way) atones for her previous viciousness.

It's similar for me with Van.  The Van in the woods seems almost blase about killing and is really gung-ho about Lottie's religion, whereas Older Van seems conflicted and almost traumatized by it, maybe because she's ashamed of what she was. 

[BitterApple]

5 hours ago, Wicked said:

I feel like teenage Shauna is nothing like adult Shauna.  With the other characters you can tell they are the same person in each time line, but Shauna is two different people.  I suppose teenage Shauna dealing with the loss of her baby, but she has become down right cruel and evil, burning someone alive???  Adult Shauna is certainly not a perfect person, (and is a murderer) but I don't see that cruelty in her, I don't think she intended to kill him, (Andy??) it was impulsive, not cruel

I agree. Killing Adam was impulsive. Shauna thought he was digging into the past, all her trauma bubbled up and she lashed out. Teen Shauna suggesting Ben be burned alive was vicious. I think part of the issue is the group relies on her to do the dirty work, which only fuels her rage and bloodlust. Now that she's got a useful idiot enabling her grievance complex, it's only going to get worse. 

I'm just curious as to what's going to be the tipping point where leadership shifts from Natalie to her? It has to be something significant. 

[sistermagpie]

I was really worried there that they might be setting up Ben to be killed before Cave Team 3 could save him!

I, too, thought maybe Ben's bridge was metaphorical, keeping them from "going back" after they crossed a moral event horizon. 

Interesting that it seems like Shauna and Melissa are just taking personal revenge on Ben, but it turns out the group was aware of it and basically ordered it. As if Ben wasn't already disabled enough. What a terrible thing to do to him!

It does feel like there's more of a disconnect between the adult characters are the kids. I understand the kids better. But I like the surprising moments, like Shauna being stung by the fact that she hasn't been a friend to Misty, and Walter seeming surprised that Misty really does hate him for treating Lottie's death like a game (and partnering with Shauna). So I'm interested in Walter and Shauna as a team--that makes for a good pairing given Misty in the center. I like him interacting with her more than Misty.

I'm hoping Shauna's going through a phase this season that will be sort of a fever breaking by the end. It would make sense for her to rage for a while and then move on to something else, because adult Shauna really does seem to struggle to connect underneath the cold exterior.

Wonder if Lottie's dad killed her or something.

[Black Knight]

Teen Shauna had to turn off her humanity to butcher a younger boy she had affection for in order to feed herself and the team. A person full of rage who is utterly dissociated from their humanity is bad news, and that's where Teen Shauna is in her arc right now. Adult Shauna has spent 20+ years anesthetizing herself with the kind of boring life she never wanted.

Re: Lottie's dad, I really like the speculation that, given his dementia, he's actually talking about the plane crash, not Lottie's death, when he's telling Misty he's shut down the investigation.