A simple question stymies the twist at the conclusion of this episode: When did the Yellowjackets stop trying to get home? It’s summer and food is now plentiful. They have improved their collective tracking skills, and they are more familiar with the layout of the woods. It feels like they tried to feed the cabin fire as a signal and, when that didn’t pan out, resigned themselves to a lifetime of snacking on each other in the wild.
We have literally not heard one peep about a rescue or escape plan in the wilderness timeline for the entirety of season three. So, when Akilah excitedly chatters that she saw Ben as the bridge home in a cave vision, it kind of comes as a shock that they’d want to go home at all. Obviously, we know that some of the survivors get rescued, but no one seems to be actively seeking a way out. The group can build an entire mini-society out of sticks and stones, but they can’t get it together to plan a search party? C’mon now.
Here we are at the halfway point of season three, and it’s worth taking stock of what’s happened so far. In the present-day story line, there’s a mystery person (probably Melissa) stalking Shauna and trying to kill her, or at least frighten her. This mystery person is likely also the person who killed Lottie, right? Misty, Walter, and Shauna are all on the case. In a nonsensical twist, Shauna and Walter have teamed up. They both want to get back at Misty for different reasons, and both Walter and Shauna are definitely suspects in the case.
When Shauna catches Walter tailing her, she stops short, causing him to rear-end her. Shauna’s van is fully a character in this series, and as a suburban mom who lives out of her car 50 percent of the time, I’m kind of loving that depiction. The two murderers point fingers at one another, then end up teaming up to go fool Lottie’s poor elderly father. They’re there when Misty shows up to do the same thing. Now, Lottie’s dad is flirting with dementia and seems to be going in and out of lucidity. And all three of these assholes are taking advantage of him by traipsing around his apartment and stealing information about his daughter. Mr. Matthews wants Lottie’s death ruled as an accident to spare himself more pain, but the citizen detectives want to find out more. Walter hacks into the internet and Lottie’s phone while Shauna mopes around, and Misty snoops in Lottie’s pockets and drawers for evidence. Yes, Lottie was definitely murdered, but the fact that everyone is just running roughshod through this impaired man’s home leaves a sour taste.
There’s a sweet beat where Shauna sits in Lottie’s room, and Mr. Matthews mistakes her for Lottie. At first, he expresses frustration over not understanding her mental health issues, but then he softens into a portrait of a loving dad who just wants to connect with his daughter. Shauna allows this connection to happen, recalling her love for Lottie and her love for her own distant daughter. It feels like Yellowjackets keeps wanting to say something about the parental bond between teens and parents, specifically the gaps in mutual understanding and respect, but they’re constantly scratching the surface with superficial moments instead of daring to tackle thorny themes head-on. This is one of the fundamental differences between the introspective and insightful tone of the first season of this show and the casual almost messy construction of the current season. It’s clear that the writers and showrunners are capable of more, so it’s been frustrating to watch them drop the ball.
Meanwhile, Van and Tai have abandoned both of their jobs and are sort of just flitting through life. Van feels generally guilty about stuff, and Tai’s only concern other than keeping Van alive is seeing her son Sammy. When Simone finally gives her a chance to do so (at Sammy’s request), Sammy asks her if she’s still his mom, then walks away. It feels like another throwaway parent-child moment, but I guess it could also indicate that “Bad” or “Other” Tai has taken over Tai’s body somehow, and Sammy has sensed this. Maybe? Who knows.
What’s been going on in the wilderness over the past five episodes? Well, not much. The group has been hearing an insane shrieking noise, they found Ben in his poison gas cave, and they sentenced him to death. It’s been interesting but not necessarily riveting. This week, the focus is on how the group is going to execute Ben. An increasingly awful Shauna wants to burn him alive, but the rest of the group rejects that idea. Props to Sophie Nélisse and her commitment to making teen Shauna a true monster, because I really and truly despise her at this point, and my animosity for the character is even bleeding over into the adult timeline. (I thought my adoration for Melanie Lynskey had no limits — I even had sympathy for her apocalypse warlord character on The Last of Us! — but this season is testing me.) Nélisse delivers an effective performance, bringing to life the deplorable character that the writers have constructed on the page, but with no other overtly sympathetic characters surrounding Shauna, it’s nearly impossible to get an emotional hold on the bigger picture.
Well. There’s one sympathetic character. And his name is Ben. The cat-and-mouse game with Ben has been going on for an excruciatingly long time. I’m glad he’s still alive because I adore him, but given what happens at the end of this episode, I’m very afraid of what’s going to become of him. Would I love for Ben to be alive in the present timeline? Yes, very much so. Do I want to watch Shauna and Melissa continue to slash him to pieces, barely keeping him alive, in order to exact their revenge while still technically keeping their good luck charm in the land of the living? No, I absolutely do not.
The Yellowjackets draw cards to see who is going to shoot Ben at close range, and Tai gets the king of hearts, or the “suicide king.” (This makes no sense because Ben isn’t committing suicide; he’s being murdered in cold blood by a group of teenage girls, but sure. It sounds cool, at least.) Tai is nervous, so Van decides it would be good to summon “the other one” to do the shooting, and they try to get her to come out by fucking up against a tree. Van taking charge is pretty hot, but the sex doesn’t work, and Tai is left nervously holding the gun at Ben’s execution.
Misty goes to bring Ben dinner, and there’s a sweet moment where she says goodbye. She apologizes for not winning the trial, laments the loss of her first “boyfriend,” then hugs him. In a heartbreaking beat, Ben closes his eyes, giving in to the hug — perhaps because he hasn’t been touched in a long time, or perhaps because he knows this is the last bit of kindness he’ll know in this world. Then, the firing squad arrives. He tries to resist as they carry him off, then he tries to appeal to their sense of humanity, but no one is swayed. At the very last second, “Other” Tai comes out and tells Van it’ll be okay as she aims to kill. But wait! Akilah, Travis, and Lottie are back from the caves! They tackle Tai and Ben, stopping the execution because of Akilah’s vision. Lottie and Akilah breathlessly tell the group that Ben is their bridge home, and no one questions this for even a second, probably because they were all waiting for a way out of this madness anyway.
The group puts Ben back in the animal pen, and he believes that he’s safe. That is until sadistic Shauna and her sidekick Melissa arrive. Ben screams and futilely kicks with his one leg as the two teens approach him. Calling back to an interaction earlier in the episode, Shauna tells Melissa that she shouldn’t be scared of the “bad parts” of her and encourages her to attack Ben herself. So she does, hobbling his one good leg by slicing into his Achilles tendon. After pulling their Annie Wilkes stunt, they celebrate like megalomaniacs as their captive screams into the night. Some teens swap class rings to solidify their relationship, but Melissa and Shauna seal the deal by mutilating their soccer coach. They didn’t kill Ben, but I’m betting he’s going to wish he were dead very soon.
