The final episode of Yellowjackets season 3 features loads of big reveals in both timelines. It also gives us the answers we’ve been looking for since season 1—who is Antler Queen? Who is Pit Girl? Two major questions we’ve had for a really long time, and then, of course, more recently, what happened with Lottie, and who killed her? But this is not to say that we have nothing to look forward to; we still don’t know where the heck Walter came from and what his deal is. There are some new doors opening here with the whole Callie situation (we’ll get to it in a bit), and then, of course, there’s Melissa, who was basically around for all of 5 minutes, even though she made a huge impact. The episode is titled “Full Circle,” and I think this is in reference to Shauna and Mari in particular, and the fact that at the end of this episode, Shauna finally breaks down from everything that’s happened in the last 25 years. Maybe it’s like she’s finally come full circle.
Spoiler Alert
Who Gets Hunted In The Second Winter?
With the onset of winter, Hannah becomes completely assimilated into the group. On the other hand, Natalie has basically given up on life altogether, because she’s learned that Misty had the transponder and is basically to blame for everything. But all she can do is keep to herself and say nothing, because if we’ve learned anything in this show, it’s that Natalie is inherently a good person. It appears the girls have feasted on Kodi too, now that Hannah’s killed him and his head is hoisted at camp with arrows in it, like a prized possession. On the other hand, Van and Misty discuss if the phone’s started to work and if there’s progress, but it isn’t enough. At the same time, Akilah finds all the wild game dead, just like in her dream. Natalie says this is a sign for them to try to leave, but Lottie says it’s a sign to sacrifice one of their own. See, Coach, the guide, and the scientist were all enemies, so they weren’t really making sacrifices to the Wilderness. This time, they need to kill one of their own. After some thought, Shauna agrees and decides that the next day will be the hunt. Tai asks Van to rig the game by making Hannah the sacrifice. However, when it actually comes time to pick the cards, Shauna notices there’s something going on between Tai and Van and joins the line in between, making Mari the “game.”
Mari tries to steal the knife from Shauna before starting to run, leaving Shauna smiling in delight. Mari runs off after looking at Shauna and telling her she deserves everything that’s coming for her. Before they go off, Travis strips Shauna, looking seriously high, and he tells her that they’re not in their own reality. He talks about how his favorite thoughts are those from Jackie, but he also has Javi’s thoughts. It almost seems as if he’s saying that the ones they ate are in control. Mari takes her clothes off to make a scarecrow-looking thing as bait, but while trying to take off her pants, she unfortunately leaves her shoes behind, too. On the other hand, Shauna is super paranoid and thinks Tai is trying to save Mari and confronts her about the draw. Tai tells her to back off because she’s messing with the wrong person. At the same time, Natalie, completely out of the hunt, runs off to find the phone, buried in the snow. Hannah finds her and says she’s on her side and killed Kodi because that was her only way to survive. At the same time, Gen tells Tai that Van is hurt and she needs to come with her immediately, which makes Shauna even more paranoid. But, finally, she lets Tai go.
On the other hand, Akilah finds Lottie in the cave, basically offering up her life to the Wilderness. Lottie is making a promise to the Wilderness, to give it her all and not be afraid. However, Akilah is not on Lottie’s side anymore; in fact, she believes that Lottie’s been making her see things that aren’t even there. I mean, Akilah literally made her dream come true, so it wasn’t as profound a vision as they imagined. Akilah blames Lottie for everything, but Lottie says that even if they go home, the Wilderness will go back with them.
Mari ends up hurting her foot while running as she hears the girls come closer. Shauna notices the tracks and follows them, getting closer to the target. Mari crashes into Lottie on the way, not realizing where she’s run off to. At the same time, Melissa finds Shauna, hits her with a stick, and shoves her to the ground. She then strangles her with the same stick because all she wants is to be free of this misery, it seems. Melissa nearly kills Shauna, but a little after the horn is blown, she lets her go because she can’t kill someone just like that. Shauna calls her boring and leaves. On the other hand, Mari falls into the pit, but hey, at least she didn’t get shot or beaten to death by her “teammates.” Shauna asks the girls to get her out, remove the stakes, fill in the pit, and get ready for the feast. They drag Mari’s body and hang her by the feet on a tree, naked, like in a real hunt. Shauna tells Natalie to do the honors, and Natalie takes the knife and bleeds the girl dry. Except it’s not really Natalie, is it? Shauna says the Wilderness has made its choice and asks for Mari’s hair after it’s all done. She adds the hair in patches onto her cloak, almost like a trophy.
In the end, Shauna is dressed as the Antler Queen as Hannah places Mari’s flesh in front of her. Shauna says they should never forget what they’ve done there before taking a bite. Once the feast is over and morning has come, Shauna confronts Natalie and asks if she messed with the hunt. Maybe she thinks Melissa and Natalie were working together; I’m not exactly sure, but Natalie doesn’t reply. This is when Shauna removes her mask and finds out it’s been Hannah this whole time.
What Happened To Lottie?
We seamlessly go from the 90s timeline to the present day, where we finally get to see Lottie’s vision when she died. In this vision, both young and old Lottie meet after young Lottie dreams of being in the cave and screaming at the antler queen. I’m not sure if this implies that young Lottie and old Lottie interacted back in the day or if old Lottie is just imagining all of this before she’s finally gone. Lottie doesn’t end up on the plane again when she’s dead. Instead, she meets young Lottie in the morgue and asks her if she “missed it.” Young Lottie talks about a promise and meeting a “her.” This “her” could refer to the Wilderness itself or the identity that Lottie’s given the Wilderness. At first, I thought it could mean Callie, but we see that when she met Callie, she wanted to take her to something, or maybe someone?
Tai and Shauna decide to bury Van in the forest and drive there. Tai doesn’t let Shauna touch Van, buries her alone, and then eats her heart, saying she’ll “remember” all of her and everything they’ve been through. On the other hand, Misty finds Callie at school and directly confronts her about the tape and Lottie’s death. It doesn’t take much at all for Callie to confess (hence Shauna’s matching DNA). She says she wanted to see Lottie because the tape went missing after she left. Lottie took Callie into the basement as soon as she showed up because she knew she’d come. Callie recalls the candles and how Lottie said she was just like her mom, and it seems Lottie implied that Callie might be their queen because she is the baby of the Wilderness. I guess, since Callie is Shauna’s baby, Lottie thinks she’s a replacement for the baby that died in the woods. Stressed out, Callie pushed Lottie away as she tried to drag her into the candlelit basement. Unfortunately, we didn’t know what Lottie was planning with her, but it was probably some sort of ritual, right?
Misty tells Callie to tell her dad everything because it should help ease the pain. When Callie does tell Jeff, she also asks him if she’s as “crazy” as her mom. Guess she doesn’t want to be close to her anymore. Anyway, Jeff tells her that she’s not “crazy” and that he should’ve protected her from Shauna a long time ago. But this is his opportunity, so he takes Callie and leaves so they can get some much-needed space from Shauna. Of course, Shauna immediately goes to Misty to find out where her daughter and husband are, and Misty tells her that Callie killed Lottie. This freaks Shauna out. It seems Misty’s finally decided to give up on whatever glimmer of friendship she thought she and Shauna shared, because she shoos her off and says she should’ve listened to Walter.
What Is Shauna Reclaiming?
A little later, Tai and Misty meet up and decide to team up against Shauna because they don’t want her to be the last one standing. Tai’s always been on Shauna’s side, but Shauna’s made a few too many mistakes for it not to seem like she’s the one at fault for everything that’s gone down, which also means Van’s death and Natalie’s death. They basically decide to start a war against Shauna, but what about Melissa? Tai is also reminded that Shauna was the one who had the most fun back in the wilderness and thrived on killing her own friends. Also, Walter’s just sat outside in a car watching these two, so I don’t know if Misty’s taken him back as a friend or if he’s just followed her because he’s evil.
At home, Shauna finally gets a message from Jeff saying that they are safe but need some space from her. This finally affects Shauna, and she breaks down for what seems like the first time. But this isn’t her giving up or feeling bad that she couldn’t keep her family together. I think it’s more like she needs to get out all of her pent-up anger so she can prepare herself for what’s next. Shauna then finds the letter that came with the tape, and it looks like Melissa was trying to threaten her by saying she’ll expose her, but for what, I’m not sure yet. It’s not like anyone knew she was alive, so she could’ve just kept going, but Melissa wanted to get to Shauna, and she is the one who killed Van, so maybe she just wants to kill everybody else for safety. Shauna then writes another journal entry. This time, she talks about how she thinks they’d forgotten most of what happened in the Wilderness because they wanted to forget how much they enjoyed it all. Now, Shauna reminds herself that she was a warrior back then, a queen that everybody was afraid of, not a mom or wife (huh, who knew she didn’t love it, eh?).
At the end of Yellowjackets episode 10, in the 90s timeline, Natalie is by herself at the top of a hill, trying her best to make the phone work. She tries everything she can until finally, someone answers, saying they can hear her. It’s nearly time; the “Yellowjackets” will be found.
