Yellowjackets Season 3

Streaming on: Paramount+

Episodes watched: 4 of 10

By the end of Yellowjackets Season 2, things were looking bleak for the girls. In 1998 their coach burned down their only shelter, leaving them freezing in the wilderness – in 2021, Nat (Juliette Lewis) died and Lottie (Simone Kessell) was committed. But in Season 3, things are looking up: in the past, it’s the Summer Solstice and the gang are thriving under young Nat’s (Sophie Thatcher) leadership. In the present, Van (Lauren Ambrose), Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), Misty (Christina Ricci) and Taissa (Tawny Cypress) find some semblance of normalcy. But, as is the Yellowjackets way, the calm is short-lived – and by Episode 4, bodies are piling up again.

Season 3’s biggest challenge is keeping the lives of the women in the present intersecting. Without blackmailers, an unravelling Nat or a dead body in need of disposal, there’s little to keep them together – as we’re regularly reminded, absolutely nobody but quirky fellow citizen detective Walter (Elijah Wood) would willingly hang out with Ricci’s oddball outsider Misty.

In the wilderness, Sophie Nélisse proves the MVP. She plays the deeply traumatised Shauna as a bubbling cauldron of rage...

But giving the characters a break from their shared turmoil leads to some sincerely lovely moments that increase our affection for each of the remaining crew of reformed cannibals. Taissa cares for Van as she battles terminal cancer, Shauna bonds with her himbo husband Jeff (Warren Kole) and deliciously spiky teenage daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins), and even Misty is a more sympathetic figure as she mourns her “best friend” Nat and battles with guilt from her role in Nat’s untimely demise. Her bizarre romance with Walter continues to be a show highlight, acting as a nightmare version of a romcom where two of the world’s most unsettling people are clearly soulmates, but can’t quite get on the same page.

In the wilderness, Sophie Nélisse proves the MVP. She plays the deeply traumatised Shauna as a bubbling cauldron of rage who, despite being surrounded by flourishing teammates in ornate antler headpieces who have found comfort in spirituality and community, sees the horrors that surround them for what they truly are. We are aware, just as she is, that this story does not have a happy ending. Nat may be a beloved leader in their youth, but decades later she will die an undignified death, and have a sparsely attended funeral where even her own mother will barely have a kind word to say about her. Even before that, as foretold in the opening sequence of Season 1, winter will return for those in the earlier timeline. They will freeze, and starve, and more of their friends will be feasted upon.

While the start of this third season is slow, all the ingredients that make Yellowjackets such a special show are there – including banging ’90s indie-rock needle drops, grisly plot-twists, and complicated women making truly deranged choices.