The penultimate episode of Yellowjackets season 3 is titled “How The Story Ends,” yet it is just a temptress that keeps us on the edge of our seats waiting to know how this all ends. But, just as Van says, “What’s the fun in that?” We have to wait until the show is over to truly understand the meaning of all this, eh? Yellowjackets has now pulled a Game of Thrones by killing 3 of its main characters in the 3rd season. I don’t know what to do with myself now, will it really all end with just one survivor? That can’t be right, can it? Is it just me, or does this all feel like a big lie, especially having seen the last part of that episode? Anyway, with that said, let’s jump straight into everything that goes down in season 3, episode 9.
Spoiler Alert
What Happens To Kodi?
After Shauna tells the girls they can’t go, the team splits into two: those who believe Shauna’s right, and the rest who think she’s crazy (Nat included). Hannah and Kodi are kept in the animal pen, where they have to wait till Shauna and her gang figure out what to do with them. Kodi tries to walk away from it all, simply by saying he has the right to do so, but Shauna pulls her gun out. To be fair, he’s their only way out, so she doesn’t shoot, but he also thinks she’s too afraid to actually do it. Tai thinks they can survive another winter in the wild, but Van is certain they’ll run out of game soon, and they won’t have anything left to eat again. This is when Tai implies that she’s ready to play the card game anyway, i.e., she wants to hunt people.
Misty tells Shauna she’ll act as a double agent to find out what the other gang is thinking up. Shauna and Tai think it’s a good idea. In the middle of all of this, Travis is in his own world, planning on getting Lottie killed by leading her into a trap. He doesn’t want to believe in her “powers” because she kept them from getting rescued. But, to his shock, Lottie walks into the trap with no problem, and nothing happens. It’s almost as if she knew his plan all along. But she also tells him that all she wanted him to know was that Javi has been around this whole time. I guess Travis now believes in Lottie? On the other hand, Shauna sees Melissa laughing with Hannah and doesn’t like it, so she calls her a nothing in front of everybody. Melissa asks Shauna why she can’t just be nice, but Shauna tries to shoot her when she turns around to walk away. Melissa dares her to do it, but when she does shoot and the bullet grazes Melissa’s jacket, she ends up wetting herself. But man, what’s up with Shauna right now?
Meanwhile, Nat and Gen’s gang decide there’s another way to get out, and it’s by giving Hannah and Kodi a knife to help them escape. But Hannah has realized that there’s something strange about Kodi, that he might not be who he says he is. She asks him who Eric Chong is because she saw the name on his bag, but he claims it’s thrifted. However, it’s easy to tell he’s hiding something, and he might’ve been in a similar situation before. Nat and Gen secretly give Hannah the knife after scaring her a little bit. But, later at night, when it’s time to cut themselves loose, Hannah switches sides. Shauna knew something would be happening, so she’s prepared with her gun. Hannah tells Shauna she wants in and stabs Kodi in the eye (yikes). That’s their rescue done. I guess Hannah’s just a trapped woman who suddenly feels freed in a cannibalistic cult out in the middle of the woods.
Misty finds Van fidgeting with the transmitter phone that Hannah and Kodi had broken. It looks more like Hannah’s scientist boyfriend might’ve been right about the guy. After learning that Hannah’s sided with Shauna, Nat cries her heart out as the first snow falls. When she’s ready to go back, she finds Misty, but she’s got the transmitter with her. So, Misty can fix the phone? But will Nat blame Misty for everything they’ve been through this whole time? Maybe. This is going to change everything.
Who Dies: Melissa or Van?
Episode 9 of Yellowjackets season 3 begins with older Van in the hospital bed and younger Van talking to her almost as her nurse. Older Van wonders where Tai is, but younger Van essentially tells her she’s there to give her a message. Younger Van reminds older Van about the movie “Goonies” and tells her, “X marks the spot.” This is an important detail to remember, but basically, younger Van tells older Van that she needs to survive this, and she was never one to give up, so she should get up and get out of there. The next thing we know, older Van and Tai are leaving the hospital with Misty.
On the other hand, Melissa does end up eating her own skin, but then she spits it out on Shauna to make a run for it. Melissa drives off in her car, which has barely enough gas to get her anywhere. Luckily for her, Van essentially knew this would happen, and just where the road has an “X” sign, Tai, Van, and Misty find Melissa trying to get out of her car. Tai drives in reverse and stops in front of Melissa before running out of their car and tackling her to the floor. So, Van, Misty, and Tai take Melissa to her home. Misty is still not sure if it’s Shauna or Melissa who killed Lottie, so she decides to go do her own investigation with Walter. Also, Misty admits she never told Shauna the freezer door was broken because she thought it would teach her a lesson. But the rest was a mix of coincidences. Plus it’s Shauna’s mess, so she doesn’t really want to help anyway.
Misty goes to see Walter, who gets her on a helicopter to take her back to his place. There, while he’s making her a chocolate martini, she acts on her plan of figuring out if Shauna might really be Lottie’s killer. She’s been suspicious for a bit, after the whole Melissa thing, I suppose, so she thinks just DNA evidence isn’t proof enough, which is what she tells Walter. He is, of course, ready to jump on every opportunity to insult the “Yellowjackets,” but man, this guy is shady. Anyway, Misty sends him back in the house to get her some chocolate shavings while she looks through his phone. Whatever she finds shocks her to the core, and by the time Walter is back out with her martini, she’s gone.
On the other hand, Jeff finds Callie rolling a joint when he comes to tell her that he’s made the deal with the Joels. He’s shocked to see the weed at first, but Callie tells him she knows Shauna steals her weed. The next thing we know, Jeff and Callie are smoking up together. Callie asks her dad if he meant everything he said to the Joels about her mom. He says to her that marriage is hard and he’s lonely with Shauna, but that he didn’t mean the stuff he told the Joels, even crying in front of Callie (yikes).
When Van, Tai, and Melissa get back home, they tie Melissa up and put her in front of the fireplace. Big mistake, because Melissa turns the flue of the fireplace off. They accidentally tell her about Adam, too, and Van goes outside to the car for a bit to get her oxygen. At this time, Tai and Shauna go unconscious from the poison in the air while Melissa tries to crawl her way out of the house. Van saves Tai, but not only from the house. Remember that phone from Van’s house, from which she heard Tai crying for help? Well, now, when Van gives Tai oxygen, Tai gets a phone call in her head from Van telling her to breathe. In this dream state, the two Tais fight each other, but the one who wakes up is the original Tai, not the psychopath Tai, so Van truly saved her. Van also saves Shauna and then returns to the house to untie Melissa’s hands.
Van tells Melissa that she has cancer, and she thinks if she kills her, she could survive, because that’s what the Wilderness wanted. Melissa reminds Van that she isn’t that kind of person, and if she lets her live, she’d know that that’s not how it works. Van tries really hard to drive the knife through Melissa, but she stops in the last moment and rolls off from over her. Van’s still holding the knife in her hand, and Melissa grabs it, driving it straight through Van’s chest, killing her!
At the end of Yellowjackets episode 9, older and younger Van sit in the plane, just as Nat did when she died. Van watches everything that’s happening in the real world play out on a screen. Tai finds Van and tries to will her back to life, but she is, of course, already gone. Older Van asks younger Van why she sent her there when she knew she’d just end up dying. Younger Van says it’s because she had to be a hero, and that meant saving the rest of the girls. With Van dead, now there are 4 girls left. What does this mean for the “Yellowjackets?”
I think having seen what Melissa did proves that she definitely meant harm sending Shauna those tapes, but is there still a chance Shauna had something to do with Lottie’s death? Shauna still believes the Wilderness stuff for sure. Why else would she make Melissa “eat her own arm?” Additionally, Melissa really hates Shauna, but do we know that she felt the same way about Lottie and the rest of the gang? Back in the day, it was Van who helped Melissa back when she wet herself? So, why? Because she still believes. Also, what did Misty see on Walter’s phone, and how did he kill Lottie? I’m only half joking, but this man is certainly sus.
