The first two episodes of Yellowjackets Season 3 are out now on Paramount+ and I have deeply mixed feelings. Season 1 remains one of my favorite seasons of television in the past decade. I had high hopes for Season 2, which was a huge mistake. I should have guarded my expectations, because Season 2 pretty much dropped every possible ball.
By the end of the second season, I felt mostly contempt for the vast majority of characters. I enjoyed how morally complex they all were in the first season. But they were just nasty, unpleasant sociopaths in the second. What few characters clung to their humanity (and didn’t lose points for acting like idiots) were tainted simply by association.
Just as bad, while the modern-day storyline was really compelling in Season 1, it dragged out endlessly in Season 2, and ended in one of the most ludicrous, silly, mind-blowingly stupid ways imaginable. So I come to Season 3 with skepticism and with that lingering bad taste in my mouth. Because after two episodes that were, in some ways, definitely much better than the final episodes of Season 2, I still don’t like any of these people. Spoilers ahead.
So who do I like? I mean, I guess young Natalie is okay, but I don’t like that she took on the leadership role at the end of Season 2. It doesn’t fit her character at all. I like young Travis still. Both young and old Misty are entertaining. Coach Ben is going insane, but he’s alright. And that’s about it. Old Shauna has her moments (she eviscerates some young hoteliers that she and her husband Jeff go to dinner with) but I don’t really like her, and young Shauna is awful. I can’t stand her at all anymore. Seriously, if I didn’t know she survived the past timeline, I’d be rooting for them to eat her at this point.
I don’t like young or old Lottie or young or old Van or young or old Taissa. All of these characters have worn out their welcome. Lottie had so much promise as a fascinating, mystical character but that was blown in Season 2 and now I just really don’t care. Taissa had such a fascinating modern-day storyline in Season 1, but again that was pretty much shot to pieces last season and now I just find her incredibly entitled and full of crap. Van’s okay, I guess, especially young Van. Everything in the modern storyline outside of Misty getting drunk (twice, though the second time involved benadryl) has been super boring. I really don’t know what the point of the modern storyline even is anymore. It was great in Season 1 but now it feels superfluous, especially with Juliette Lewis gone (she apparently really hated her role and didn’t want to be on the show so they killed her off in the most absurd way). Lottie’s cult was so intriguing at the end of Season 1 and then . . . it just ended up being a pretty milquetoast self-help retreat. Exciting stuff!
There’s still some fun stuff going on in the wilderness. Coach Ben has found a pit filled with supplies. The girls have built a new village and are raising ducks, while Lottie pressures Travis to take hallucinogenic mushrooms so that he can tap into “it” and seew what “it” wants. Are we going to actually learn something about what “it” is this season? Because there was a whole lot of beating around that bush last season, that’s for sure. The trees scream at one point and all the girls hear it and this time they’re not on drugs, so it sure seems like the show is leaning back into the supernatural. That’s a good thing, especially after Season 2 seemed to steer the other way. Coach Ben also captures Mari after she runs off from the camp when she and Angry Shauna have an argument. She dislocates her leg in the pit and he rescues her and then ties her up and blindfolds her and takes her back to his cave where she hears him babbling to himself. He also gives her hot chocolate, so that’s nice.
In the modern-day storyline, it feels like every story is just treading water. Taissa and Van dine-and-dash and this leads to their server having a heart attack when he chases them. They’re having sex while his corpse is on the pavement. Is it the mysterious “it” at work here, or just bad luck? How will Taissa manage to lie and make all the worst choices around this tragic event? And while some of the Misty stuff was fun, having Callie drug her with benadryl (which somehow *instantly* knocks her out) was a little weird. Honestly, having Misty babysit was a little weird. Isn’t Shauna just inviting two of the craziest Yellowjackets into her home instead of one?
I just don’t know that I care enough anymore for any of it to matter, which is incredibly sad to admit because I was just so excited about this show at first. I watched Season 1 three times and then I got everyone I knew to watch it and I wrote about it and championed it here at Forbes. I pointed to it constantly when discussing how great the characters were and what a great example of strong, complex female characters this show had to offer, a genuine alternative to all the “girlboss” nonsense we see these days. I adored the spooky score and the 90s’ vibes. Now? I feel like we’re spinning in circles. Yellowjackets has lost not only that deliciously frightening sense of mystery and creepiness that kept the story humming, but also the humanity that made its characters so compelling to watch.
Did the show’s creators really have five seasons mapped out? It doesn’t seem that way to me. Maybe Season 3 will recton a lot of the big mistakes of Season 2, but the question remains: Will it be too little, too late?
New episodes drop each Thursday evening on Paramount+, and I’ll be diving into each one as we go, hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.
Prove me wrong, Yellowjackets. Please, prove me wrong.
