‘Yellowjackets’ Season 1 recap forward of Season 2

Buzz, buzz, buzzzzz. 

Our favourite soccer team-turned cannibalistic cult is again, and from what we have seen in Season 2’s trailer, issues are about to get even bloodier. If you have not spent the previous 12 months ceaselessly scrolling via Reddit threads nitpicking the 19 months a highschool soccer group spent stranded within the forest — we have got you coated. 

Forward of Yellowjackets Season 2 premiering this Friday on Showtime(Opens in a brand new tab), we have rounded up every thing that you must bear in mind from Season 1 together with teenage being pregnant, kidnappings, the making of a cult, and so, a lot, loss of life. 

1. Teenage Shauna is pregnant with Jeff’s child. 

Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) slept together with her finest buddy’s boyfriend.
Credit score: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME.

Above all else, even the cannibalism, Yellowjackets is a present about teenage ladies. And like several teen flick, there’s some drama in our favourite catastrophically chaotic camp. In Season 1, we study {that a} teenage Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) is sleeping together with her finest buddy Jackie’s (Ella Purnell) boyfriend, Jeff (Jack DePew). To make the betrayal worse, Shauna is pregnant with Jeff’s child. The ultimate cherry on prime of this abysmal sundae is that she’s stranded in the course of nowhere with little to no meals or medical help — and Jackie’s onto her. 

After studying Shauna’s diary, Jackie discovers the affair and calls her out in entrance of the group. Whereas Shauna’s child information first excited the ladies, particularly Jackie (who does not love delivering a child within the epicenter of a survival catastrophe?), issues get grim throughout this pivotal battle about Jeff. When Shauna tells Jackie to depart and nobody intervenes, Jackie storms out of the cabin and decides to sleep exterior…and everyone knows how that turned out. 

2. Jackie dies and issues begin getting bizarre. 

Vale Jackie (Ella Purnell).
Credit score: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME.

Proper after their rift, Jackie spends the night time exterior the cabin the place it is extraordinarily chilly. And the place nobody anticipated it might snow that night. The group wakes as much as a forest blanketed in snow, with the pitting realization that Jackie slept exterior in these situations slowly making its approach into everybody’s foresight. The group rushes exterior and finds Jackie tragically frozen to loss of life, however issues by some means handle to get even darker after that reveal.

As a part of their, let’s name it, mourning, Lottie (Courtney Eaton), Misty (Samantha Hanratty), and Van (Liv Hewson), sacrifice a bear coronary heart to the “wilderness” in a makeshift shrine that they’ve constructed. So as to add to the creeps, Lottie chillingly concludes the season declaring, “Shed blood my lovely buddies and let the darkness set us free.” Issues are actually formally in full swing at Camp Yellowjackets, with the ladies starting their journey to the cannibalistic cult we all know they later change into because of the opening of Season 1. If Lottie’s declaration is something to be taken actually, extra blood is about to be spilled. 

3. Travis mysteriously dies and leaves a cryptic observe. 

Natalie (Juliette Lewis) does not consider Travis’ loss of life occurred because it appeared.
Credit score: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME.

Steering away from the onslaught of cannibalism for a second, one other large plot level in Season 1 was Travis’ (Andres Soto) mysterious loss of life. We all know he was one of many few guys stranded with the ladies within the forest, and we all know that as a teen (Kevin Alves) he and Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) had a romance occurring each throughout their time within the woods and after it. Within the current day, Natalie (Juliette Lewis) is hellbent on discovering out how and why Travis actually died, refusing to consider the police’s opinion he died by suicide — she’s satisfied there’s one thing extra sinister at play. 

With the assistance of Misty (Christina Ricci), Natalie realizes there have been candle wax marks within the form of that dreaded image from the forest on the positioning the place Travis was discovered. You realize the one. The bizarre triangle, circle factor we’re all obsessive about. The image’s placement leads Natalie to consider that Travis was murdered or extra particularly, sacrificed. As well as, Travis cryptically left a observe studying “Inform Nat she was proper,” so as to add to the entire rabbit-hole surrounding his loss of life.

However by the season finale, we begin to get some solutions. As a part of her investigation, Natalie enlists the assistance of an outdated buddy, Kevyn Tan (Alex Wyndham), to look into Travis’ toxicology report (it was clear) and his financial institution accounts. Whereas Natalie does not handle to reply the cellphone name (we’re attending to why), we study that Lottie (who shall be performed by Simone Kessell in Season 2) withdrew all of Travis’ cash and emptied his checking account, implying that she had one thing to do along with his loss of life — and that she’s nonetheless alive. 

4. Natalie is kidnapped by a purple-clad group with a well-recognized image. 

Kidnapped!
Credit score: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME.

We do not know many particulars about Lottie’s present-day actions past her revealed connection to Travis, however we do know {that a} group of individuals in purple, sporting necklaces with the present’s notorious image, kidnapped Natalie by breaking into her resort room and forcefully taking her someplace we’re in all probability going to see loads of in Season 2. Are Lottie and the group related? From the trailer, it seems she may be some type of cult chief so…

Maybe Lottie’s revamped her transient stint as a teenage guru and made it her full time profession? I am already fearful of teenage Lottie, so one thing’s telling me that she’s solely gotten extra creepily prophetic as an grownup, and Natalie may be at risk. 

5. Taissa’s sleepwalking is simply getting worse.

Taissa (Tawny Cypress) has some *stuff* to determine.
Credit score: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME.

Including to Yellowjackets‘ staple creepiness is a sleepwalking Taissa (Tawny Cypress), whose situation is so excessive she virtually turns into a unique particular person at night time. In Season 1, Taissa’s unconscious nighttime wandering principally act as grounds for a double persona, the place “awake” Taissa cannot bear in mind something that “asleep” Taissa did. Whereas caught within the wilderness, Taissa’s sleepwalking (to date) has primarily been simply that, and within the extra excessive case, consuming dust. However as an grownup, her sleepwalking has change into extra sinister. 

To this point, we have discovered she’s been watching her son, Sammy (Aiden Stoxx), sleep at night time. And never by peacefully sitting by his mattress, however by crouching in a tree exterior his room. We additionally study by the season finale that she’s constructed a complete shrine of their basement that includes: her son’s favourite toy, a decapitated canine head (sure an actual canine, her household’s beloved pet Biscuit in truth), and a coronary heart that may very well be the canine’s or one thing else’s. All these sacrificial knick knacks are neatly positioned in entrance of, you guessed it, the identical image from the forest, Travis’ loss of life scene, and the individuals who kidnapped Natalie.

After Taissa’s spouse, Simone (Rukiya Bernard), finds the shrine, she packs up her stuff and leaves with their son — who might blame her? However one thing’s telling me that Taissa’s sleepwalking is simply going to worsen. We do not know why she’s doing it. She does not know why. And at this level it must be referred to as sleepmurdering. There’s additionally the enjoyable little imaginative and prescient she retains having of the person with no eyes, an apparition she first noticed on her grandmother’s loss of life mattress, and one thing that we nonetheless do not know is definitely actual or an exterior embodiment of internalized trauma. 

6. Jeff’s blackmailing fiasco, the Adam concern, and Shauna’s large mistake. 

Vale Adam (Peter Gadiot).
Credit score: SHOWTIME.

One other large Season 1 plot level to recollect is Natalie, Taissa, and Misty getting blackmailed by somebody who supposedly knew every thing about what went down within the forest. When the three are despatched cryptic postcards with the camp’s creepy image on it, they’re tasked with giving an related blackmailer $50,000 to remain quiet. Natalie and Taissa group up with Shauna to determine who the blackmailer is, and whereas their preliminary try fails, Shauna later finds out it was her husband Jeff (Warren Kole).

Jeff’s furnishings retailer was about to exit of enterprise, so he wanted the cash to maintain it going. Whereas Shauna reprimands him, there is a greater downside on her plate: Adam (Peter Gadiot). Having met after a fender bender, the 2 had been having an affair, however Shauna begins realizing Adam may be hiding an enormous secret. She will be able to’t discover his title anyplace on-line, and it appears like every thing he is informed her about his previous cannot really be backed up. Including to the suspicion is the truth that her diaries (with the entire Yellowjackets’ secrets and techniques) went lacking after Adam spent an evening in her room — we all know it is Jeff, however within the warmth of the paranoia Shauna begins suspecting that Adam may be the blackmailer.

So…she kills him. Shauna exhibits up at Adam’s condo, begins interrogating him, finds an unofficial tell-all e book on the Yellowjackets, places two and two collectively, and stabs him. With Misty’s experience and Taissa and Natalie’s assist, Shauna manages to scrub up the crime scene and eliminate her lover. After discovering out Jeff was the precise perpetrator, she lies to her former teammates and says it was Adam — validating her homicide and defending her husband. For a fleeting second evidently Shauna’s slippery slope is wrapped up, however we later discover out that Adam’s been reported lacking and the police are out to search out him. We will count on the Adam concern to prevail in Season 2, and odds are, Shauna’s in large bother. 

7. Misty kills Jessica the “journalist.” 

Misty gonna Misty.
Credit score: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME.

Workforce Yellowjackets’ physique rely does not finish there. Together with Shauna’s homicide of Adam, Misty’s additionally performed an enormous killing that may hang-out her in Season 2. To make sure her election marketing campaign ran clean, Taissa employed a pseudo-journalist (who’s really an investigator), Jessica Roberts (Rekha Sharma), to see if any of the ladies would communicate up about their time within the wilderness when provided a hefty sum of money. Whereas everybody proves loyal, Misty’s allegiance takes an excessive flip when she kidnaps Jessica and retains her hostage. 

Misty’s kidnapping rapidly turns into a twisted mattress and breakfast, and he or she finally decides to let Jessica go, however not earlier than lacing her cigarettes with fentanyl. Whereas driving, Jessica takes a puff and instantly crashes her automotive — with Misty killing her below the guise of a drug-induced automotive crash. Certain Misty’s plan appears hermetic and Jessica’s confirmed useless, however on this planet of Yellowjackets nobody is ever actually secure. 

8. Javi is lacking. 

The place’d Javi go?
Credit score: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME.

Many issues went down within the Yellowjackets’ distinctive, wilderness-exclusive homecoming, however amidst the collective shroom journey and everybody fairly actually shedding their shit, Javi (Luciano Leroux) went lacking. Watching the group principally go feral from the sidelines, Javi flees when immediately Shauna chillingly warns him to run. 

Javi runs away into the depths of the forest, and he nonetheless hasn’t returned. Some assume he is useless, however Travis is hellbent on discovering his youthful brother. Whether or not or not Javi remains to be alive goes to be an enormous query mark looming over Season 2, the place we’ll hopefully get some solutions. 

9. Relaxation in peace Laura Lee. 

Vale Laura Lee (Jane Widdop).
Credit score: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME.

Laura Lee (Jane Widdop) was the primary Yellowjacket to die within the wilderness — and she’s going to at all times be remembered. When the ladies discover an deserted plane (presumably belonging to “useless hunter man” who owned the cabin they now inhabit), Laura Lee decides to amp up her aviator data and browse the aircraft’s handbook. With purely theoretical classes below her belt, she decides to fly the plane to attempt to discover assist. 

In an explosive second (pun meant) of euphoria and hope, the aircraft takes flight and Laura Lee manages to fly for a bit, however the aircraft spontaneously combusts midair. The Yellowjackets haven’t solely misplaced their first teammate, however they’ve additionally misplaced what might have been their solely approach out. Laura Lee’s loss of life was a turning level within the present and the group’s time within the wilderness, with the aftermath seeing the looming darkness emboldening their perception that one thing within the forest does not need them to depart. 

10. Lottie is our Antler Aueen, however our Pit Woman stays a thriller.

Credit score: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME.

Everybody remembers Yellowjackets‘ opening scene. A mysterious woman runs via the woods, and falls right into a pit touchdown on picket spikes. Her physique is picked up by a gaggle of youngsters sporting the creepiest potential clothes, from fur masks to antler crowns — with one sporting pink Converse. Dubbed the “Antler Queen” and “Pit Woman” by followers, Yellowjackets‘ first episode previews the ladies’ future within the woods as clearly a cannibalistic cult — however who precisely are the Antler Queen and Pit Woman? 

Throughout their homecoming, Lottie wears the antler crown we see within the pilot and her conduct to date, from her visions to her sacrifices to the ladies finally pinning her as a messiah, closely confirms that she’s the Antler Queen. However the id of the Pit Woman nonetheless stays unanswered. We all know she’s sporting Jackie’s necklace, however we additionally know that Jackie’s useless. The Pit Woman might have been considered one of Jackie’s nearer buddies, or the necklace might have been utilized by the ladies to mark their subsequent sufferer — or extra crassly, meal. Whereas our Antler Queen might have a reputation, our Pit Woman nonetheless stays a thriller, however by the seems of Season 2’s trailer we may be getting nearer to our solutions. 

Winter is formally in full swing at Camp Yellowjackets, and Lottie’s premonitions do not look promising. It is time to buckle up and prepare for one more wild season that includes our favourite football-playing, wilderness-surviving, cult-worshipping ladies. 

Yellowjackets begins streaming March 24 on Showtime.(Opens in a brand new tab)