Showtime Review: ‘Yellowjackets’ is Just As Weird, Dark, and Incredibly Compelling as Ever in Season 3

How much does your past affect your future? That’s been the prevailing question throughout the first two seasons of Yellowjackets, which follows four high school soccer players several decades after they survived a plane crash that left them stranded in the wilderness for an extended period of time. Season three continues with a healthy mix of human drama and supernatural implications, exploring the lengths the younger characters are pushed to during their time away from civilization and how it has irreversibly affected the way they are as adults.

Having watched the first two seasons is critical, and season three picks up in the wake of the death of Natalie (Juliette Lewis). Because of that event, this is no longer just about those who survived in the woods but also Callie (Sarah Desjardins), whose parents Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) and Jeff (Warren Kole) have tried to shield her from this world and who takes an increased interest in learning about what happened, which includes getting to know Lottie (Simone Kessell). Taissa (Tawny Cypress) and Van (Lauren Ambrose) rekindle their past romance while Misty (Christina Ricci) develops increased resentment as the women she believes to be her best friends push her away. Two and a half decades earlier, the teenagers explore leadership roles and personality conflicts as they adjust to their continued harrowing existence.

It’s interesting to have a present-day death of a character mean so much on a show like this since the teenage Nat (Sophie Thatcher) is very much still alive, but there’s something about knowing when her story ends that makes it more compelling to watch the younger version of her interact with others. Similarly, seeing how teenage Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) becomes the much more well-adjusted adult Shauna and how Lottie (Courtney Eaton) harnesses her ability to commune with the universe into a marketable cult when she became the magnetic adult version of herself has not gotten old. At some point, these two worlds may feel like they’re actually coming closer together, but, for now, there’s something worthwhile about still having so many missing pieces and question marks.

Season three extends the uncertainty of whether this show is meant to have actual horror components or if it’s merely about the limits of human potential under extreme duress. A trial put on by the teens is a great example of the latter, empowering those with little life experience to make decisions with serious consequences because there’s no law enforcement there to say otherwise. Taissa and Lottie are most tapped into spiritual signs, both in the present and the past, but it’s hard to deny that others are experiencing them too in a way that they can’t explain away as just a figment of desperation or imagination.

It’s nice to see Desjardins elevated to series regular and how Callie rebels and pushes for answers to questions she feels she’s entitled to know. Lewis’ absence doesn’t change the dynamic too much but allows for more fun friction between Lynskey and Ricci as Shauna and Misty square off and Kessell’s Lottie continues to be an eerily calm wild card. Cypress and Ambrose are smartly paired together and are most interesting to watch in comparison to Brown and Hewson’s portrayals of the same characters. This is a standout season for Nélisse as teenage Shauna moves from trauma to anger and takes it out on everyone around her.

Yellowjackets is, as it ever was, unapologetically bizarre, indulging certain plot elements and leaning into the weird darkness that follows its characters from that fateful plane crash to their present-day meetings. It doesn’t always feel coherent or purposeful in its direction but that only serves to make the show more intriguing, and when it offers moments that can’t be explained away, like a shared dream-turned-nightmare when the teens go exploring, those are what should make audiences want to keep watching. Those seeking easy – or even plentiful – answers won’t find them all that often here, but this story has much more to unfurl, and season three is as strong as ever.

Season Rating: 8/10

Awards Buzz: Despite earning Emmy nominations for Best Drama Series for both seasons one and two, it hasn’t’ even been quite as positively received as perhaps it should have been. Is this the year that more of the ensemble, besides past nominees Lynskey and Ricci, get recognized? It very well could be.