The series premiered on Showtime on November 14, 2021. It has received critical acclaim, particularly for its story and the performances of the cast. Its accolades include seven Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series and acting nominations for Lynskey and Ricci. In December 2021, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on March 26, 2023.[4] In December 2022, the series was renewed for a third season.[5] In January 2024, it was revealed that the third season will not premiere until 2025.[6]
Premise
In 1996 a New Jersey high school girls' soccer team travels to Seattle for a national tournament. While flying over Canada, their plane crashes deep in the wilderness, and the surviving team members are left stranded for nineteen months. The series chronicles their attempts to stay alive as some of the team members are driven to cannibalism. It also focuses on the lives of the survivors 25 years later in 2021, as the events of their ordeal continue to affect them many years after their rescue.
Cast and characters
Main
From left to right: Adult Misty, Ben Scott, teenage Misty, adult and teenage Taissa, adult and teenage Natalie, adult and teenage Shauna, Jackie, and adult Jeff
Melanie Lynskey and Sophie Nélisse as the adult and teenage Shauna Shipman. In high school, Shauna is Jackie's best friend but is having an affair with Jackie's boyfriend, Jeff. She is accepted into Brown University prior to the plane crash. After the crash, she immediately adapts to life in the wilderness and forms a friendship with Taissa. She later discovers she became pregnant with Jeff's child, forcing her to keep it a secret from Jackie. As an adult, she is married to Jeff and goes by Shauna Sadecki, but is unhappy with her life as a housewife and has a strained relationship with her daughter, Callie. She initiates an affair with Adam after they have an auto collision.
Tawny Cypress and Jasmin Savoy Brown as the adult and teenage Taissa Turner. In high school, Taissa is determined to win the national championship by any means necessary. She injures teammate Allie during soccer practice, believing she is not good enough to play in the tournament. She is secretly dating Vanessa prior to the plane crash and their relationship continues during their time in the wilderness. After the plane crash, she begins sleepwalking which later develops into psychogenic fugue, causing her to wander around the woods in the middle of the night. As an adult, she is married to Simone and owns a pet dog named Biscuit. In the midst of her election campaign for the New Jersey Senate, she begins having problems with her son, Sammy, and the resurgence of her fugue states jeopardizes her marriage.
Ella Purnell as Jackie Taylor (season 1; recurring season 2). In high school, Jackie is the captain of the Yellowjackets soccer team, Shauna's best friend and Jeff's girlfriend. She is accepted into Rutgers University prior to the plane crash. After the plane crash, she has the most difficulty adapting to life in the wilderness and adjusting to life without a high school social structure. Her relationship with her teammates steadily deteriorates and she begins to doubt her friendship with Shauna.
Steven Krueger as Ben Scott, often called Coach or Coach Ben, the assistant coach of the Yellowjackets soccer team. After the plane crash, his right leg is mangled in the wreckage and Misty amputates it to save his life. While being nursed back to health by Misty, he has to simultaneously deal with his injury and the fact that he is the only adult who survived the crash. He is put off by Misty's affections, both because she is underage and he is secretly gay.
Warren Kole and Jack DePew (guest season 1) and Owen Gates (guest season 2) as the adult and teenage Jeff Sadecki. In high school, Jeff is Jackie's boyfriend but is cheating on her with her best friend, Shauna. As an adult, he is married to Shauna, the father of Callie, and owns a furniture store.
Christina Ricci and Samantha Hanratty as the adult and teenage Misty Quigley. In high school, Misty is the equipment manager of the Yellowjackets soccer team. She is frequently bullied and shunned by her teammates, who question her mental stability. After the plane crash, she demonstrates knowledge and skills useful for surviving in the wilderness and pursues her crush on Coach Ben. She later forms a friendship with Crystal over their shared love of musical theatre. As an adult, she works at a nursing home and continues to display manipulative and sadistic tendencies towards her patients. She owns a pet parrot named Caligula and is a member of an online crime solving club called the Citizen Detectives.
Juliette Lewis (seasons 1–2) and Sophie Thatcher as the adult and teenage Natalie "Nat" Scatorccio. In high school, Natalie is frequently judged and harassed by her teammates due to her drug and alcohol abuse. She is best friends with Kevyn prior to the plane crash. After the plane crash, Natalie and Travis prove to be the most proficient with the hunting rifle and the two begin dating. As an adult, she maintains a destructive on-and-off-again relationship with Travis but later breaks up with him. She returns to New Jersey after finishing a rehab program paid for by Taissa, but struggles to maintain sobriety and begins contemplating suicide after Travis's death.
Simone Kessell (season 2) and Courtney Eaton (recurring season 1; main, season 2) as the adult and teenage Charlotte "Lottie" Matthews, a member of the Yellowjackets soccer team who has schizophrenia. Her wealthy parents are responsible for providing the private plane that ultimately crashes. After the plane crash, she runs out of medication and begins experiencing disturbing visions, prompting her to seek spiritual guidance from Laura Lee. Her superstitions are gradually adopted by the survivors during their time in the wilderness. After the survivors are rescued, she is involuntarily committed to a mental hospital in Switzerland. As an adult, she becomes a healer and runs a wellness commune called Camp Green Pine. Although she seems to have been cured, her visions unexpectedly return for the first time in decades.
Lauren Ambrose (season 2) and Liv Hewson (recurring season 1; main, season 2) as the adult and teenage Vanessa "Van" Palmer. In high school, Vanessa is the goalkeeper of the Yellowjackets soccer team. She is secretly dating Taissa prior to the plane crash and their relationship continues during their time in the wilderness. After the plane crash, she is nearly burned alive in the wreckage but manages to escape. During an expedition, she is mauled by wolves which leaves permanent scarring on the left side of her face. Her belief in Lottie's superstitions strains her relationship with the skeptical Taissa. As an adult, she owns a video store and has recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Kevin Alves (recurring season 1; main, season 2) and Andres Soto (recurring season 1; guest season 2) as the teenage and adult Travis Martinez, Coach Martinez's eldest son and Javi's brother. After the plane crash, Travis and Natalie prove to be the most proficient with the hunting rifle and the two begin dating. He maintains a destructive on-and-off-again relationship with Natalie after the rescue, but when Natalie and Misty find him dead from an apparent suicide, Natalie suspects that he was actually murdered. Prior to his death, he was in contact with Lottie.
Recurring
Peter Gadiot has a recurring role in the first season as Adam Martin.
Alexa Barajas as Mari, a sarcastic member of the Yellowjackets soccer team. After the plane crash, she becomes deeply devoted to Lottie and her superstitions despite her initial skepticism.
Keeya King (season 1) and Nia Sondaya (season 2)[7] as Akilah, a member of the Yellowjackets soccer team who is knowledgeable about edible plants. She adopts a mouse she names Nugget that she keeps in her pocket.
Jane Widdop as Laura Lee (season 1; guest season 2), a deeply Christian member of the Yellowjackets soccer team. After the plane crash, she keeps morale high with the survivors through prayers, and later performs a submersion baptism on Lottie.
Luciano Leroux as Javi Martinez (seasons 1–2), Coach Martinez's youngest son and Travis's brother who struggles to come to terms with the death of his father
Mya Lowe as Gen, a member of the Yellowjackets soccer team
Jenna Burgess as Melissa, a member of the Yellowjackets soccer team
Aiden Stoxx as Sammy Abara-Turner, Taissa and Simone's son
Rekha Sharma as Jessica Roberts (season 1), a reporter hired by Taissa to investigate the survivors of the plane crash
Peter Gadiot as Adam Martin (season 1), an artist who has an affair with Shauna after having an auto collision with her
Alex Wyndham (seasons 1–2) and Charlie Wright (guest season 1) and Sean Martin Savoy (guest season 1) as the adult and teenage versions of Kevyn Tan. In high school, he is best friends with Natalie prior to the plane crash. As an adult, he works as a police officer and has a son who plays soccer.
Nicole Maines as Lisa (season 2), a follower of Lottie's who is recovering from trauma[8]
Elijah Wood as Walter Tattersall (season 2), a citizen detective who tries to help Misty[7]
Nuha Jes Izman as Crystal (season 2), a member of the Yellowjackets soccer team who forms a friendship with Misty. She loves musical theatre and admits to Misty that her real name is Kristen.
François Arnaud as Paul (season 2), a New York writer and Coach Scott's secret boyfriend
John Reynolds as Matt Saracusa (season 2), an undercover detective working with Kevyn on Adam's disappearance
Carlos Sanz as Coach Bill Martinez, the head coach of the Yellowjackets soccer team and Travis and Javi's father. He is killed in the plane crash and the remaining survivors discover his body impaled by a tree branch.
Tonya Cornelisse and Pearl Amanda Dickson as the adult and teenage versions of Allie Stevens. In high school, Allie is the only freshman on the Yellowjackets soccer team. Her leg is broken by Taissa during soccer practice, leaving her unable to participate in the tournament.
A young woman, dressed only in a nightgown, runs sobbing through a snow covered forest. She falls into a trap, and is dragged away by people wearing Yellowjackets t-shirts, animal furs, and masks. She is then slaughtered.
In 1996, a New Jersey girls' high-school soccer team, known as the Yellowjackets, achieves a place in a national tournament. During practice, Taissa tackles Allie, a freshman player she considers a liability, breaking Allie's leg and ruling her out of the tournament. At a party, Shauna tries to start a fight with Taissa, but team captain Jackie, Shauna's best friend, intervenes. Shauna secretly has sex with Jackie's boyfriend Jeff. On the day of the trip, the team boards a private plane that is routed over Canada due to a storm. The plane crashes, leaving the survivors stranded in the wilderness.
In 2021, Shauna and Jeff are married with a teenage daughter. Jessica Roberts, a fake journalist, offers Shauna a seven-figure book deal if she will reveal the details of what happened in the wilderness. Taissa poses with her wife and son for photographs as she launches her campaign for state senator. Misty is employed as a geriatric nurse. Natalie has completed rehab and decided to "reconnect with some old friends".
Misty uses her advanced knowledge of first aid to care for the injured after the plane crash. She saves the life of Ben Scott, the assistant coach, by amputating and cauterizing his mangled leg. Travis discovers his father's dead body impaled on a tree branch. Reveling in the attention and praise her survival skills bring her, Misty destroys the plane's emergency locator beacon after discovering it by chance.
In 2021, Shauna and Jeff's marriage therapist advises them to rekindle their relationship by exploring sexual fantasies. Shauna meets an intriguing stranger named Adam after she rear-ends his car. After Shauna and Jeff have sex, she sees a text message on his phone from a woman who is arranging to meet him the following day. Natalie holds Misty at gunpoint in an attempt to find out who sent her a postcard with an ominous symbol from their past. When it becomes clear that all the survivors have received the card, Misty and Natalie embark on a road trip to find Travis. Taissa is concerned about her son Sammy's disturbing drawings.
Three days following the plane crash, the survivors bury the deceased crash victims. Taissa convinces the group to hike towards a nearby lake. As tensions grow between them, the group discovers an abandoned cabin and finds a dead body in the attic which they later bury.
In 2021, Taissa's political opponent Phil Bathurst airs a campaign ad insinuating that she is a cannibal. Taissa's concerns for Sammy grow after he purposely hurts a child at a playground. Shauna follows her husband to a hotel, where she runs into Adam and spots Jeff with another woman. Shauna and Adam go to a hotel room together. Meanwhile, Misty and Natalie go to Travis's home but are arrested for breaking and entering. Later, they find his dead body at the ranch where he worked. His death appears to be a suicide but they believe someone has murdered him.
The group find a rifle with a plentiful supply of ammunition inside the cabin. Natalie and Travis prove to be best suited to handle the firearm. They bond as they hunt a deer and recover a keepsake ring from the buried body of Travis' father. In a flashback, it is revealed that Natalie's abusive father died in a gun discharge accident during an argument about Kevyn spending time in her bedroom. The rest of the group finds a functional propeller aircraft. Shauna bonds with Travis's younger brother Javi.
In 2021, Natalie meets Kevyn, now a police officer, and uses his affection for her to entice him to dig into Travis's murder. Taissa rejects an endorsement from a powerful potential donor when she tries to probe into her past. Shauna and Adam begin an intimate affair, enacting Shauna's missed teen fantasies, while Adam is shown to probe for personal information on her. Misty has an encounter with Jessica while shadowing Nat and Kevyn. Misty calls Shauna to tell her that Travis is dead.
Lottie runs out of her Loxapine medication to combat schizophrenia. Relationships form between Taissa and Van as well as Natalie and Travis. The group holds a seance in the attic where Lottie appears to become possessed. Ben is poisoned by Misty but does not die. In order to get her to leave him alone, Ben deceives Misty by saying he has feelings for her. Shauna confirms Taissa's suspicion that she is pregnant.
In 2021, Taissa finds the word "spill" painted on the front door of her home. She confronts Sammy after discovering a container of paint in his room. Sammy denies doing so and blames "the lady in the tree". Later, with her political opponent attacks increasing, Taissa contemplates dropping out of the Senate race but decides not to. Shauna attends a Halloween party where her daughter Callie learns about Adam. The following day, Callie is unsuccessful in blackmailing Shauna. Natalie and Misty gain access to Kevyn's files, and they learn that a ritual was held where Travis was murdered. Natalie calls Taissa to her motel room, telling her what she has learned. They call Shauna to tell her but learn that Misty already informed her. Meanwhile, Misty watches them through a hidden camera.
In a flashback, Lottie distracts her parents seconds before the car traveling in front of them is involved in a fatal accident. Shauna tells Taissa that the baby is Jeff's, Jackie's then-boyfriend. With Taissa's assistance, Shauna tries to perform a self-induced abortion but is unable to go through with it. Lottie begins having hallucinations of a deer. She tells the religious Laura Lee that she is having visions and agrees to be baptized. Later, Natalie and Travis kill a maggot-infested deer. Laura concludes that Lottie is having premonitions.
In 2021, Natalie and Taissa tell Shauna what happened to Travis. Taissa's wife, Simone, makes an appointment with a child psychologist who says Sammy is under significant stress. Natalie and Kevyn develop feelings for one another and have sex. Misty kidnaps Jessica. Late at night, Taissa is revealed to be "the lady in the tree".
Taissa, Van, Misty, Akilah, and Mari agree to go on an expedition to find a way out of the wilderness. As they depart, Lottie tells Van that they will encounter a "river of blood" and "red smoke". While walking, the group finds a red-coloured river. Later, they are attacked by a pack of wolves. Taissa defends the group using a flare gun, but Van is severely wounded. Meanwhile, Shauna tells Jackie that she is pregnant but lies about who the father is. At night, Jackie reads Shauna's diary.
In 2021, Natalie, Shauna, and Taissa agree to pay $50,000 to a blackmailer. After spotting the blackmailer, the group chases them. The blackmailer falls into a box of glitter during the pursuit before getting away. Misty questions Jessica, believing her to be the blackmailer. Jessica reveals she was hired by Taissa to learn about the rest of the group. Back home, Shauna has sex with Adam. In the morning, they are almost caught by Jeff. Kevyn learns that Natalie used his gun but she does not tell him about the blackmailer.
After Van regains consciousness, the group returns to the cabin. Natalie and Travis cut off their relationship when he backs out during sex. Natalie talks to Ben, who offers relationship advice and reveals he is gay. Laura announces her desire to fly the abandoned plane out of the wilderness. Upon ascent, however, it explodes.
In 2021, Misty stops Natalie from relapsing and reveals the hidden camera in the process. Misty tells Natalie that someone withdrew all the money from Travis's bank account after he died. The next day, Natalie tries to get information out of Suzie, an acquaintance who works in a bank. After Suzie refuses to cooperate, Natalie resorts to blackmail. Taissa tells Simone about her condition in which she becomes an entirely different person at night. Fearing she will hurt Sammy, she begs Simone to leave her alone in the house for a while. Shauna discovers that someone took all of her journals and she finds glitter in her closet. After learning that Adam is not who he says he is, Shauna goes to his apartment to question him.
The group organizes a homecoming party, dubbed "Doomcoming". Everyone except Jackie unknowingly consumes hallucinogenic mushrooms. Jackie and Travis have sex despite Travis saying he still has feelings for Natalie. Ben and Natalie leave the party to talk alone; Misty follows them. After Natalie leaves to find Travis, Ben tells Misty that he is gay. The rest of the group, on a bad trip, decide to confront Jackie at the cabin leaving Javi alone in the woods. When the group finds Jackie and Travis, they lock Jackie in a closet and try to rape Travis. When he flees, the group chases while howling like wolves. After catching him, Lottie orders Shauna to slit his throat. Natalie arrives and stops her.
In 2021, Shauna kills Adam after confirming that he is digging in her past. She remembers back home that Jeff has access to the safe where she keeps her journals. She questions him, and Jeff reveals he blackmailed the group because his furniture store was going out of business. The woman at the hotel was, in fact, a loan shark, and Jeff was not having an affair. Shauna tells Jeff that she killed Adam and they discuss their options. Shauna convinces Natalie and Taissa that Adam was the blackmailer. Natalie asks Misty to dispose of the body.
Van begins to believe Lottie has supernatural abilities. Lottie kills a bear that calmly walks in front of her. Travis and Natalie look for Javi, who disappeared after the "Doomcoming" party. Everyone eats while Jackie refuses. She angrily confronts the group for hurting Travis and reveals that she knows Jeff was cheating on her with Shauna, leading to a fight between the two. Jackie is ordered to sleep outside. The next day, to Shauna's horror, they see that it has snowed and Jackie has frozen to death. Lottie, Misty, and Van offer the bear's heart as a tribute to the wilderness.
In 2021, Shauna, Taissa, Natalie, and Misty clean up the murder scene. The group attends a 25-year high school reunion. Shauna confronts Jeff's friend Randy, who knows about the blackmail, and threatens to kill him if he tells anyone else. Callie learns of Adam's disappearance in the news. Simone finds the decapitated head of her dog, Sammy's doll, and what appears to be a human heart in a hidden room in the basement. Misty poisons Jessica, Taissa wins the Senate race, and a mysterious group kidnaps Natalie. Suzie tells Natalie in a voicemail that Lottie is responsible for emptying Travis' bank account.
Two months after Jackie's death, the group of survivors are struggling to make it through winter. Lottie has taken on a spiritual leader role. Natalie and Travis are unsuccessful in hunting food and locating a missing Javi. Meanwhile, a pregnant Shauna spends her time talking to Jackie's frozen corpse. During one visit, Jackie's ear rips off and Shauna later secretly eats it. Van ties her wrist to Taissa's at night to prevent her from sleepwalking. Misty, still ostracized after the mushroom incident, bonds with Crystal, a member of the JV girls team. Lottie talks Travis down from a panic attack with strange visions.
In the present day, Shauna and Jeff cover their involvement in Adam's murder by destroying his personal art studio and burning his identification, along with Shauna's journals. Callie uncovers the remains of Adam's charred ID. Simone warns Taissa to stay away from Sammy; Taissa later finds the altar she unknowingly constructed in the basement. Misty begins searching for Natalie's whereabouts and notices she was likely taken by force. She attempts to ward off a fellow Citizen Detective investigating Adam's disappearance. Natalie finds herself held hostage in a wellness commune run by Lottie and manages to confront her.
12
2
"Edible Complex"
Ben Semanoff
Jonathan Lisco
April 2, 2023 (2023-04-02)
N/A
Shauna continues to talk to Jackie's corpse, even to the point of dressing it up with makeup; Jackie's ghost taunts her about how hungry she is. Taissa insists that it is time to cremate Jackie and move on. Van saves Taissa from sleepwalking off a cliff; she recommends they talk to Lottie, but Taissa refuses. Natalie fakes Javi's death to Travis by smearing a pair of his shorts with her own blood. Jackie's body is burned on a pyre, but a deluge of snow slows the flame and cooks the body. Succumbing to their hunger, the team eats her corpse, while Coach Ben watches in horror.
In the present, Shauna is questioned by Kevyn about Adam's disappearance. Callie flirts with a man named Matt who, unbeknownst to her, is a detective working with Kevyn. The anonymous Citizen Detective locates Misty at her job and invites her to join him on Adam's case. Sammy visits Taissa unprompted, but when Simone arrives to pick him up, they cannot find him. Taissa and Simone are involved in a car accident after it is revealed Taissa had hallucinated Sammy's visit. Lottie tells Natalie about Travis's death, but Natalie suspects she is hiding the truth.
Taissa has no memory of eating Jackie and is horrified to learn she participated while in her fugue state. Natalie disposes of Jackie's remains at the crash site; she encounters a white moose, but it disappears as she tries to shoot it. A sleepwalking Taissa tells Van about "The One With No Eyes". Misty strengthens her bond with Crystal. A delirious Ben imagines life if he had stayed behind with his boyfriend Paul. The team throws Shauna a baby shower, but birds begin to fall from the sky when her nose bleeds on the symbol stitched into her blanket. Lottie suggests they are blessings from the woods.
In the present, Shauna and Jeff are carjacked, but Shauna disarms the perpetrator before he drives off. She tracks down the car at a scrapyard and intimidates the owner at gunpoint. Jeff attempts but fails to get Kevyn to back off from Shauna. With Simone in the hospital, Taissa is left to confront her fugue alter ego. Misty meets Walter, the Citizen Detective; the two interrogate Randy Walsh about Natalie's disappearance. Lottie introduces Natalie to her support group, but her hallucinations begin to return.
When part of the team begins to favour Lottie's mysticism over Natalie's hunting skills, the two girls compete by going on separate hunts. Lottie quickly becomes hypothermic and has a vision of Laura Lee and the team. Natalie finds the white moose encased under a frozen lake; she and the team try to pull it out, but it sinks. She and Lottie tentatively make amends. Meanwhile, Van makes a map of all of the strange symbols Taissa has found and estimates where the last one could be; they instead find a disoriented Javi and bring him back to camp.
In the present, Shauna, pressed by Callie, confesses the truth to her about Adam's death. Natalie bonds with Lisa, a cult member she had attacked earlier. Misty and Walter camp out at a bed and breakfast near Lottie's compound. Lottie's psychiatrist suggests she pay attention to her hallucinations. Taissa follows her fugue self's intuition and hitchhikes to a small town in Ohio, where she sees Van for the first time in years.
Lottie hosts meditation sessions for the team; they help Taissa with her sleepwalking, but Shauna fears she is losing Tai's support. Javi refuses to speak to the team, but tells Ben that his "friend" did not want him to return. Misty admits to Crystal that she destroyed the plane's emergency transmitter; when Crystal reacts coldly, Misty threatens her and accidentally backs her off the edge of a cliff. Shauna and Tai get caught in a snowstorm and use Lottie's meditation techniques to return to camp. Once inside, Shauna goes into labour.
In the present, Callie, realizing Matt is a policeman, tells him that Shauna was sleeping with Randy. Shauna stages a tryst in a motel room, but Kevyn and Matt uncover the ruse. Taissa tells Van her sleepwalking has returned, and Van offers her support. Misty and Walter find Natalie, who rebuffs them. Walter tells Misty his theories about Adam's case; she sends him away and goes back to Lottie's compound. Lottie helps Natalie recall the last time she saw Travis.
The Yellowjackets volunteer Misty to deliver Shauna's baby. Travis and Lottie create an altar and place offerings upon it. Shauna blacks out and gives birth to a baby boy. She has trouble breastfeeding due to her own starvation, but ultimately succeeds. Later that night, she hears chanting from downstairs and finds the team eating her baby. She then comes to, revealing that she had dreamed the previous events and her baby did not survive. Shauna holds her stillborn and grieves, insisting that she can still hear him crying.
In the present, Taissa notices Van's past due notices in the trashcan, but Van brushes it off. Misty calls Tai from Lottie's compound. Natalie and Lisa talk about forgiveness. Shauna and Callie are called to the police station for questioning; Shauna admits to her affair with Adam, while Callie falsely claims that Matt took her virginity. Jeff pushes Shauna to follow Tai and Van to Lottie. Shauna, Taissa, Van, Natalie, Misty, and Lottie all reunite at the compound.
Shauna buries her stillborn child and grieves for him and Jackie. The team sets out on a half-hearted mission to find Crystal, unaware of what happened to her earlier. Van admits to Taissa her doubts about survival. Misty goes to the spot where Crystal died, only to find that her body is now missing. She then talks Ben out of committing suicide. After Shauna punches Misty and accuses everyone of eating her baby, Lottie encourages Shauna to let out her pain on her; Shauna beats Lottie unconscious while the team looks on in shock.
In the present, everyone is assigned a form of therapy at Lottie's compound. Misty uses an isolation tank and talks to a human version of her bird Caligula; she later calls Walter and confirms his theories about Adam's disappearance. Taissa and Van share a kiss, but Van reveals that she has terminal cancer, and will be dead within months. Lottie realizes her psychiatrist is merely another hallucination. The women discuss what they might have repressed from their time in the wilderness and dance around a campfire. Jeff calls Shauna and reveals that the authorities have found Adam's body.
The Yellowjackets struggle with hallucinations and paranoia. Coach Ben discovers Javi survived by living in a cave hidden underneath a tree. Lottie, grievously injured from Shauna's attack, tells the team not to waste her body if she is to die. Taissa suggests they must find another way to survive, which culminates in the survivors drawing cards to determine who will be killed. Natalie draws the Queen of Hearts, but before Shauna can sacrifice her, Travis pushes Shauna out of the way; Natalie escapes the cabin and is chased through the woods. Javi, trying to help her, falls through the frozen lake; the Yellowjackets let him drown, leaving Natalie spared.
In the present, the police obtain a search warrant for the Sadeckis' house, and Kevyn and Matt question Jeff. Later, Jeff reveals the truth about Shauna's stillborn child to Callie. Walter emails the police, telling them he has information about Adam's disappearance, before leaving for Lottie's compound. In Lottie's "Sharing Shack" Shauna admits that Jeff was the blackmailer instead of Adam, Taissa reveals she hired Jessica Roberts to investigate the survivors, and Misty reveals the truth of the reporter's death. Lottie insists the wilderness is demanding a sacrifice, and presents a choice of six cups, with one containing phenobarbital, to the women.
The girls return Javi's body to the cabin, where they dismember and begin to cook him. Lottie is alarmed by the team's decision to hunt each other, but Misty tells the team that Lottie approves. Coach Ben informs Natalie of Javi's hiding spot, but she tells him that he no longer belongs among them as he is a good person. Lottie tells the group that the wilderness no longer needs her as their leader because they can all communicate with it now, and declares Natalie to be the new leader. While the Yellowjackets are sleeping, the cabin is lit on fire, forcing them to evacuate and leaving them stranded with no shelter.
In the present, the women agree to proceed with Lottie's ritual, but secretly plan to botch the ritual and have Lottie committed. Walter lethally poisons Kevyn at the compound and works with Jeff to frame him for a conspiracy, ending the investigation surrounding Adam Martin. Shauna draws the Queen of Hearts during the ritual and is chased by the others. Callie shoots Lottie in the shoulder to protect her mother, and Taissa and Van reveal that they called off the crisis team they contacted for Lottie. When Lisa arrives with a gun, Misty charges towards her with a phenobarbital injection, but Natalie jumps in the way and takes the injection, dying in Misty's arms. Lottie is taken away by EMTs, but tells the women that the wilderness is pleased with their sacrifice and will reward them.
Production
Development
The idea for the series was largely influenced by the Donner Party (1846–1847) and the Andes flight disaster (1972), both true stories about people who resorted to cannibalism to survive.[28] In August 2017, Warner Bros. Pictures announced an all-female film adaptation of William Golding's Lord of the Flies, a novel about a young group of boys stranded on an island.[29]Ashley Lyle read the announcement and found that a lot of people were skeptical that young girls could descend into the same barbarism as young boys. With that thought in mind, she conceived the idea for the series with her husband Bart Nickerson as a "metaphor for teenage hierarchy" and placed a large part of the series in New Jersey, the state they both grew up in. The title, Yellowjackets, came up on a Google search for sports team names; Lyle said it was a "perfect fit thematically" as yellowjackets are "very dependent on a queen and the dynamics of the hive are very specific".[30] Lyle and Nickerson are also credited as showrunners alongside Jonathan Lisco, who was brought to the series by executive producer Karyn Kusama.[28][31] Lyle added, "I just wanted to tell what felt like a very real story about teenage girls."[32]
Lyle and Nickerson pitched the series with a 35-minute presentation, which included talks about the first season's ending and a five-season storyline. The series was originally going to take place in the 1970s and the 1990s, but both time periods were moved two decades forward to make the setting more familiar to viewers.[33] Nickerson said the use of two timelines allowed for the studying of interpersonal dynamics and how trauma can affect one's life.[34]HBO was a contender to purchase the series but ultimately rejected it, in part due to its similarities with Euphoria, one of its own properties.[30] Lyle says the smartest question she heard during the pre-production phase was from HBO's Francesca Orsi and David Levine, who asked, "What are you trying to say with this show?" In his answer, Nickerson said the show was going to deconstruct the "organizing principles of a society". Yellowjackets was eventually sold to The Mark Gordon Company, a production company owned by Entertainment One. The project was then pitched to Gary Levine, president of entertainment for Showtime Networks, who was immediately on board.[33] On May 9, 2018, Showtime announced it had acquired the rights to the series.[35]
When we were formulating and developing the idea we always saw this as a multi-season story and our goal in the first season is to very much answer certain questions, because I personally get very irritated with shows that drag everything on forever and don't give you any answers. So, we wanted to answer some questions and ask some new ones, so that is hopefully what we accomplished over the course of this season. — Ashley Lyle[36]
On December 16, 2021, after the first five episodes aired, the series was renewed for a second season. Levine said they had "not heard the pitch for season 2, the writers' room has not even come together yet, they are going to come together in January. I'm sure Ashley, Bart, and Jonathan have some loose ideas but they hadn't fleshed out their ideas and they certainly haven't conveyed them to us."[37] On February 9, 2022, Levine said the creators had "always given us hints about things to come, but we haven't done a long-range plan. We wanted to make the first season count. We've all buried ourselves in that first season and worked hard to make it the success it was. They [last week] went into the writer's room and with Jonathan Lisco to start to unearth what can happen in season two. I love that they have some general idea of a five-year arc, but we take it one season at a time and get very granular about making it satisfying."[38] By May 2022, the writers were stated to be in the initial stage of writing the scripts.[39] On December 15, 2022, three months ahead of the second-season premiere, Showtime renewed the series for a third season.[5] Writing began on May 1, 2023, but halted the next day in accordance with the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike.[40][41] In June 2023, series co-creator Ashley Lyle confirmed that a bonus episode would air between the second and third season.[42]
Casting
Season 1
The pilot episode wasn't written with any actresses in mind, and auditions were held in Los Angeles. "We decided pretty early on we weren't going to get overly focused on a physical match," Lyle mentioned. As a result, some cast members had to dye their hair and wear contact lenses to match the physical characteristics of their counterparts.[34]Melanie Lynskey was the first person to join the cast. Lyle said the role of Shauna was "the trickiest to cast" because they "wanted to find an actress who could embody somebody who is really trying to figure out who they are, which is kind of a tricky internal thing to express through her acting". Lynskey questioned the showrunners and extracted as much information as she could about her character's past and the five-season storyline to improve her performance.[43][44][45] For the role of Natalie, Nickerson said they searched for "someone who was really free-spirited and unique who could play both a sort of wildness and a vulnerability". Though most of the auditions were held in-person, Sophie Thatcher submitted a self-recorded audition tape and was cast as Natalie before Juliette Lewis, who portrays the character's adult counterpart.[36] When asked if the group's survival would depend on their gender, Thatcher replied, "I think naturally, especially at such a young age, women are more emotionally intelligent. So to turn into that cannibalistic mindset ... it maybe took them longer just because I think women are smarter than men. But I think that's it. Besides that, there's no difference. They're going to go batshit crazy."[46]
Nickerson said it was vital to find two actresses who could portray Misty with "a deep kind of humanity that could make it feel lived in and real"; the role was eventually given to Sammi Hanratty and Christina Ricci.[36] On joining the cast, Hanratty said she originally auditioned for the role of Natalie before being brought back four times to audition for the role of Misty: "I'm not gonna lie, I was so crushed [when I didn't get Natalie] because I loved the project. They said they would keep me in mind. Then, I think it was about a week later that I got the audition for Misty, which was so exciting. Because I was like, 'Oh, this girl is interesting as can be." To give her another chance, Lyle and Nickerson wrote a scene specifically for the casting process in which Misty confronts a teacher over cheating. After Hanratty was brought back, Lyle said "It was immediate. As soon as she read that scene for us, we said, 'OK, she is Misty.'"[47] Hanratty described the auditions as being "really intense". She did not meet any of her co-stars until the table read for the pilot. When asked if she was treated differently when in costume, she added, "I don't think we've talked about this, but I was seeing a therapist while I was in Canada, and that was something that we discussed. I was definitely treated differently ... I got more self-conscious, and my walk even changed a bit. I just felt like a bigger target, you know, as a person."[48]
According to Nickerson, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Tawny Cypress were cast as Taissa because they were both able to portray her with a "level of dynamic strength" as well as "vulnerability and fragility". Ella Purnell portrays Jackie, a character who proved difficult to cast. Lyle said the character was supposed to be a stereotypical popular girl with "little cracks of that façade". She explained, "I think that her insecurity, her vulnerabilities needed to be on display pretty early on or you'd end up hating her and that was sort of the opposite of what we wanted the audience to feel."[36] Lynskey, Cypress, and Brown were announced as series regulars in October 2019,[49][50] with Lewis, Ricci, Purnell, Hanratty, Thatcher, and Sophie Nélisse, joining the cast in November.[51][52] The following month, Ava Allan, Courtney Eaton, and Liv Hewson were cast in recurring roles.[53] In June 2021, it was reported Warren Kole, Peter Gadiot, Keeya King, Alex Wyndham, Sarah Desjardins, Kevin Alves, and Alexa Barajas would also star.[54][55]
Season 2
Casting for the second season began in mid-2022. In August 2022, Lauren Ambrose and Simone Kessell joined the cast to play the adult versions of Van and Lottie; their roles were also upped from recurring to series regulars.[56][57]Elijah Wood and Nuha Jes Izman were also added to the cast in season-long recurring guest roles,[58][59] while Kevin Alves's role as teenage Travis was upped from recurring to series regular.[60] Wood plays Walter, "new citizen detective who is not represented by a younger self on the show".[61]Jason Ritter, who is married to Melanie Lynskey, guest stars in one episode of the second season.[62]
In January 2023, Variety reported that Keeya King, who played teen Akilah in season one, had exited the series. Her role was recast with Nia Sondaya. Nicole Maines was cast as Lisa, an associate of adult Lottie attempting to recover from past trauma. Additionally, François Arnaud guest-stars in four episodes portraying Paul. His character is described as "a New York writer and secret boyfriend of Coach Scott (Steven Kreuger) who reminds Coach Scott of what might have been".[63]
Filming
The pilot was greenlit in September 2019 and shot in Los Angeles in November.[64][65] According to location manager Jimmie Lee, several scenes from the pilot were filmed on top of the ski slopes on Mammoth Mountain.[66] The rehab scenes were shot in a mansion located at 26848 Pacific Coast Highway, while a number of scenes set in the high school were filmed in and around John Marshall High School in Los Feliz, Los Angeles.[67] In an interview, Lynskey said the masturbation scene from the pilot represented her character's lack of boundaries.[68] In the pilot's opening scene, a flash-forward shows a group covered in fur clothing. Hanratty was the only cast member present while the scene was shot and the other characters were played by stunt coordinators. Hanratty says the writers have not told the cast which characters appear in that scene: "We all have our theories on who that is too, and we have a group chat in our cast where we try to come up with theories ourselves of what's going on and who we think is who."[69]
In December 2020, Showtime gave Yellowjackets a series order.[70] Filming restarted in Vancouver on May 3, 2021, and concluded in early October, with the young and older cast taking weekly turns to shoot their scenes.[71] Aside from Vancouver, other filming locations included the Panther Paintball & Airsoft Sports Park in Surrey, which was used as the site of the plane crash, and The Bridge Studios in Burnaby.[65] The plane crash scene took two days to shoot.[68] The orgy scene from episode nine was organized with intimacy coordinator Katherine Kadler. Eaton described it as "uncomfortable scene to shoot" due to its depiction of sexual assault.[72] In an interview, Lynskey said Cypress, Ricci, and Lewis stood up for her after she was body shamed by a crew member, with Lewis writing a letter to the producers on her behalf.[45] In November 2021, Purnell summarized the timeline of the production: "Here's how it went; we shot the pilot, we took like a year and a half off in COVID and then we went to Canada and shot the whole season in six months. We were in this super intense immersive bubble. We wrapped three weeks ago and now I'm doing a press junket. It's been crazy."[73]
Filming for the second season began in August 2022, with the first episode directed by Daisy von Scherler Mayer.[74] In early February 2023, the cast of the 1990s timeline of the series completed filming their scenes.[75]
Music
The music for the pilot was composed by Theodore Shapiro. The rest of the first season was scored by Craig Wedren and Anna Waronker, members of the rock bands Shudder to Think and That Dog, respectively.[76] Wedren was invited to the series by Kusama after the series was picked up and Shapiro was unable to return. The main theme song, "No Return", was written and performed by Wedren and Waronker, who said they "aimed to channel our off-kilter '90s roots into something that felt like 'then', but could only have been made now, just like the show".[77] Lyle and Nickerson were initially hesitant with the idea of featuring a theme song due to their growing rarity in the mainstream but were eventually convinced otherwise.[3] "Mother Mother" by Tracy Bonham was used as the temp music for the theme, which first appears in episode three and features the sounds of a Farfisa organ.[3][78] According to Wedren, "The producers really, really encouraged us to go out on multiple limbs and really be experimental and try stuff, which is such a rare direction to get."[3] Lakeshore Records made "No Return" available to stream and download on January 6, 2022.[79] A soundtrack album was also released on Spotify.[80] On March 9, 2023 Florence and the Machine released a cover of No Doubt's "Just a Girl" as a single to promote the second season.[81] The fourth and seventh episodes of season featured a cover of the show's theme song by Alanis Morissette, which was released as a single on April 14, 2023.[82][83]
A premiere for the series was held on November 10, 2021, at the Hollywood Legion Post 43 in Los Angeles.[84]Yellowjackets debuted on Showtime on November 14.[85] The second season premiered on March 26, 2023, and the episodes became available two days earlier to stream for Showtime subscribers.[4]In January 2024, it was reported that the third season will not premiere until 2025.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 76 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The website's consensus reads: "A genre mashup that blends smoothly, Yellowjackets presents an absorbing mystery with plenty of sting."[87]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 78 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[88]
The first six out of ten episodes of the first season were given to critics to review ahead of the series premiere. Entertainment Weekly's Kristen Baldwin graded the show with a B+ and gave praise to the performances and its story:
Yellowjackets maintains an intriguing tonal balance in early episodes. The survival timeline is pure horror, all steadily increasing dread and glimpses of grotesque violence. It helps that the flashback cast is strong enough to carry an entire drama on their own; standouts Brown, Thatcher, and Nélisse are particularly adept at delivering performances that feel distinct and yet authentically echo the personas of their adult counterparts.[94]
Candice Frederick from TheWrap found the storyline to be a bit complicated:
Yellowjackets can feel tiresome with the sheer frequency of all those flashbacks, and the fact that it dabbles in too many genres when it could settle on its solid mystery thriller elements. But when it commits to its chilling suspense, the show is utterly fascinating to watch. Even more, it finds compelling ways to explore issues like trauma and the façades we build for ourselves that carry from youth through adulthood—elevating what would otherwise be a much flatter genre piece.[2]
Many of its influences already overlap, and thus work together well. The ones that don't can at times combine to create something that feels new and potent, but at others make it feel like the stew could have done with fewer ingredients.[91]
Season 2
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 167 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "Having already made a startling first impression, Yellowjackets coils itself in a second season preparing for the long haul—thankfully, its superb performances and mesmeric ambience are fine substitutes for fast answers."[89] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 77 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[90]
Yellowjackets is the second-most streamed series in Showtime's history behind Dexter: New Blood.[97][98] According to Showtime, the penultimate episode of the first season was watched by 1.41million viewers across all platforms,[99] while the season finale (the first episode to not air after an episode of Dexter: New Blood) brought 1.3million viewers across all platforms. Yellowjackets averaged more than 5million weekly viewers, the highest for a freshman series on the network since Billions in 2016.[98] In January 2022, Vulture's Alison Willmore and Kathryn VanArendonk discussed Showtime's decision to release episodes weekly instead of launching the entire season on the same day, noting the positive word-of-mouth and time given to a viewer to theorize: "In an era when shows and movies seem to barely manage to break through before being pushed aside by whatever's new, and when Netflix is so dominant that other platforms have to really fight for attention at all, Yellowjackets has sustained a conversation all while airing on Showtime."[100]
Season 1
Viewership and ratings per episode of Yellowjackets
On a 2023 episode of Celebrity Family Feud, the elder Yellowjackets competed against the younger ones. The teams were Christina Ricci, Lauren Ambrose, Tawny Cypress, Melanie Lynskey, and Warren Kole against Samantha Hanratty, Courtney Eaton, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Nélisse, and co-creator Ashley Lyle.[130]
Notes
^The opening theme is first shown in the third episode of the first season.[3]
^The first episode was released by Showtime for free on November 6, 2021.[9]
^ abcNominees: Cameron Brent Johnson, Katherine Kearns, Jonathan Lisco, Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, Liz Phang, Ameni Rozsa, Sarah L. Thompson, Chantelle M. Well
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