WARNING: The following contains SPOILERS for Yellowjackets season 2.In an interview about season 3,Yellowjacketsco-creator Ashley Lyle confessed they’re slowly working to bridge the 25-year gap between the show’s two timelines, including finally exploring what happened after the girls were rescued. Notably, what distinguishesYellowjacketsfrom similar survival stories likeLord of the Fliesor Prime Video’sThe Wildsis its usage of a past and present timeline. Not only does the show develop what the all-girls soccer team underwent after being stranded in the Ontario wilderness, butYellowjacketsseason 2 endingcontinued to reveal the effects of that traumatic experience on the now-adult survivors.
Creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson built the show with that two-timeline concept in mind, and had, since day one, enough material from both storylines to last five seasons. While most of season 1 and 2 coverstheYellowjacketscharacters' survival efforts after their plane crashes, that may soon change. The past timeline, starting in 1996, has explained roughly 10 out of the 19 months the group spent in the wild. In contrast, the present timeline, starting in 2021, has presented approximately only two months —leaving a giant gap between the two storylines that season 3 will begin to bridge.
Yellowjackets Season 3’s “Merging” Timelines Could Mean The Rescue Comes Into Focus
Yellowjackets Season 3’s Rescue Storyline Would Connect The Two Versions Of The Characters
Yellowjacketsis poised to explain more mysteries in season 3. For its first 2 seasons, theYellowjacketscreators intentionally withheld some events that happened in the wilderness and shortly after the survivors' rescue, expanding the mystery of how the characters became who they are in the present. In an interview withVanity Fair, Ashley Lyle confessed season 3 “is really when we start bringing those pieces together,” confirming the show will answer its “big questions.” Notably,there is a wide gap between the two versions of the characters, which can be bridged by delving into their transition back into civilization.
Yellowjackets Season 3’s “Clear Answers” Hint Has To Connect To The Pit Girl, Right?
Yellowjackets co-creator Ashley Lyle has teased “clear answers” to two major questions in season 3, one of which could be the pit girl’s identity.
As its last episodes finally built up to a large portion of what Shauna, Natalie, Taissa, Missy, Lottie, and Van did and suffered in that cruel winter, their actions and behaviors as adults started to make sense — mainly as we saw the teens surrender to ritualistic cannibalism as a way to honor the supernatural forces of the wild. Future seasons of the showneed to respond to how the youths dealt with this once they were rescued. This could also explain whether the supernatural aspects were hallucinations or a real presence that followed them back home.
Why It Makes Sense For Yellowjackets Season 3 To Feature The Rescue Timeline
Yellowjackets Season 2 Set Up The Rescue Timeline And The Mysteries It Solves
Yellowjacketsseason 2 teased a glimpse into the rescue timeline by quickly showing the group getting off of a plane where many media outlets waited for their return. Although nothing else was shown regarding how the rescue came to be, or which other characters got back,the short clip perfectly sets up the Yellowjackets' return and what it might look like. Lyle, for her part, confirmed season 3 will play off of the show’s fractured structure to explore this:
For each of these pairings and for each of these characters, the merging, or the overlapping of the past and present, happens in a very different way. It’s very specific to the characters.
If the show previously only showed bits and pieces of the unseen timelines for specific characters,Yellowjacketsseason 3will begin to attach all of their puzzle pieces. Notably, season 2 gave flashbacks to Lottie’s childhood and her experience post-rescue, as she was subjected to harsh psychiatric treatments. This revelation starkly contrasted with Lottie’s seemingly composed and charming adult version,provoking a lingering curiosity about what Shauna, Natalie, Taissa, Missy, and Van experienced after being rescued.
Yellowjacketsseason 3 will come out in early 2025.
While the adult characters inYellowjacketsare well-developed now, it is still not entirely clear how they came to be. Shauna’s marriage to Jeff, Van’s estrangement from the group, Taissa’s prolonged ritualistic sleepwalking and even Natalie and Jay’s friendship over the years are all character elements that demand further exploration.Yellowjacketsseason 3’s focus onthe rescue storyline should begin to answer disparities between past and presentversions of the protagonists, successfully showing the extent of what they’ve been through.
Yellowjackets
Cast
Yellowjackets is a television series exploring the survival ordeal of a high school girls' soccer team stranded in the remote wilderness after a plane crash. It interweaves psychological horror and coming-of-age themes, simultaneously depicting their harrowing transformation and its lasting impact on their lives 25 years later.
