Fire up your keyboards, Citizen Detectives, because the second season of Yellowjackets is upon us. We’ve been treated to a full-length trailer and some major casting announcements teasing where things might be going when we return to the woods but let’s be honest: It’s been a year since the season one finale and our sleuthing skills are, understandably, rusty.
With season two launching later this month, now’s the perfect time to ditch your neighborhood book club and instead, read up on all of the plot twists and unanswered questions the show’s finale left us with.
How Did Yellowjackets Season 1 End?
The dual timelines at the center of this show both delivered some shocking twists that asked more questions than they answered. In the past, the girls are left reeling from their “Doomscoming” party in the woods — remember, they got high off Misty’s shrooms and had a hormone-fueled, blood-thirsty bacchanalia that left one hell of a hangover. Lottie fully embraced her mystic cult leader aura, taming and killing a wild bear before cutting out the beat’s heart and using it in some sort of ritual sacrifice. (Maybe she saw The Craft in theaters before jumping on that plane?)
All of the occult extracurriculars were beginning to drive a wedge between Taissa — who definitely doesn’t believe in this spiritual nonsense — and Van, who has become radicalized after her near-death experience. Meanwhile, Shauna and Jackie finally came to blows, spewing every terrible thing they’ve ever thought about the other while the team watches on. (Well, most of the team. Natalie and Travis went looking for Javi who disappeared after the night’s Lord of the Flies orgy had run its course.)
In the present, Misty, Natalie, Shauna, and Taissa teamed up to take on their dreaded high school reunion and dispose of a dead body. (R.I.P. Adam, we never really knew ye.) Turns out Shauna’s extramarital hook-up wasn’t a long-lost Javi, he was just a guy whose obsession ended up costing him his life. She’s not the only one who committed homicide in the finale though because Misty had a freed hostage she needed to silence once and for all. Smoking really does kill, kids.
But perhaps the most unexpected revelation came in the episode’s final minute when Taissa, who won her run for state senate but lost her family in the process, was outed as a still-sacrificing member of Lottie’s cult. Whether Taissa is working with Lottie, who is alive and off kidnapping Natalie by the end of the episode, is still up for debate, but she most definitely is practicing the rituals Lottie introduced the girls to in the woods. She’s got an altar where the family dog’s head has been resting in her basement and she’s been munching on dirt at night while unknowingly traumatizing her own child.
Who Died In The Yellowjackets Season 1 Finale?
Plenty of people (and a couple of animals) took a dirt nap — though not the kind Taissa favors — by the end of the show’s first season. Shauna’s sidepiece, Adam, Misty’s captive, Jessica, poor Biscuit, and a bear just minding its business all breathed their last in the season finale but one death surpassed them all in terms of shock value.
We finally learned that Jackie, the team captain and all-around Queen Bee of this team, never made it out of the wilderness. Instead, she froze to death after her argument with Shauna ended with the girl demanding she leave the safety of the cabin as the rest of the group watched on. Jackie struggled to make a fire, eventually succumbing to the elements but the show first gave us an alternate ending to her death scene — a dreamlike “what if” that saw Shauna welcoming her friend back inside, apologizing for hurting her, and the team rallying around their former leader. The reality was much grimmer — Jackie froze to death and Shauna had an emotional breakdown when she discovered her body just a few feet from the cabin the next morning.
What Will Happen In Yellowjackets Season 2?
With the casting announcements of Lauren Ambrose as adult Van and Simone Kessel as adult Lottie, expect to see more about the mysterious cult that might be behind the recent blackmail scheme terrorizing the remaining group members. Lottie obviously believes the girls should’ve stayed in the woods and it’s likely she has a plan for them all to return to the wilderness, one way or the other. Elijah Wood is also joining the cast this season, playing another Citizen Detective that may pose some problems for Misty. And while Taissa juggles her political campaign and her crumbling home life, Shauna’s got a murder investigation to dodge and a nosy teenager living at home that should keep her busy.
Yellowjackets returns for its second season on March 26th at 10 p.m. ET on Showtime.