“Yellowjackets” destroys both tiger and nest in shocking second season finale

When “Yellow Jackets” aired its pilot episode in 2021, its use of a dual timeline to introduce the series’ main characters as young adults and then as adults left viewers worried about the safety of the survivors.

In the episodes leading up to the end of Chapter 2, we understand the literal and figurative ways in which we should be concerned. Witnessing most of the Yellow Jackets of the 90s sacrificed the virtues created for the youth, trapped in the remote Canadian wilderness for 19 months – both outside and inside – to allow the adults to live themselves, unconsciously, but perhaps they will understand somewhere. There will come a day when it will be very difficult to push away the feelings of inadequacy.

The gift of youth feels like death as an opportunity. The curse of adulthood is living long enough to make death an inevitability. So in this way, when the teenager Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) dies, she stands next to the adult (Juliet Lewis) and says, “This is where we are, we’ve been here for years.” It’s not meant to be sad or scary. It is presented as the final sentence of a self-written story, believing that something as trivial as “wilderness” might have other plans for death. Especially for a loved one.

We knew a big gut punch was coming, and Natalie wanted it the most from one of the elite yellow jackets who could have died in this final, but she deserved it in spades. Unable to get past her own survival mechanisms, she sees forgiveness as a “good idea” that she can’t seek for herself, if not insignificant, compared to others.

No one else even thought to bother.

Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) — saved from going to prison after murdering Adam (Peter Gadiot) and then maintaining her responsibility to everyone in her life — shows no remorse for her crimes in her youth or in the wilderness as an adult on her suburban New Jersey hunting ranch. She stays out of jail only because the wife’s new boyfriend (shudder) Walter Tattersall (Elijah Wood) is interested in cleaning her up for no other reason than to spend some good citizen detective time with the woman he wants. If she knew how this was all going to shake out, she’d kill herself with glee. With a double top smothered nugget (RIP) and a drop of strawberry lube, she gives her own daughter to Callie (Sarah Desjardins), a jealous eye, in what reads like, what, she grows up to be a savior. Instead of killing people out of desperation, fear or abduction to relieve domestic boredom?

Sophie Nellie as Teen Shauna (Kylie Schwerman/SHOWTIME)

Tawny Cypress, who plays the grown-up Tysa, has been warning through the press that many people will be angry after watching this episode, and she’s right. Her character — like Shauna, Misty (who was a favorite of mine), Van (Lauren Ambrose), and Lottie (Simon Kessel) — deserves more than a death in the wilderness.

The champion returns home, saved only by necessity and fed up with more honor than the phone after the “Queen of the Antlers” finds her crown too difficult. And sure, Natalie really did a number on Travis (Kevin Alves and Andres Soto) and made Javi (Luciano Leroux) die to save her own ass, but everyone makes mistakes, and at least she felt bad for them.

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From any part of this series to this day, he left the “storytelling” and “he” who chased Lottie (until it became difficult) and said that it is in everyone is nothing but a tool used to spread deception. .

“You know there isn’t, right?” Shauna tells the dreaded Queen of Hearts at Lottie’s curtain call ceremony as she runs away from her former teammates before returning (for now) to the nut house.

“Is there a difference?”

The answer to that is yes and no.

Whether or not there is a supernatural woo-woo who follows these ladies home from the woods and wants them to do bad things in his name (I look back and say this will change) – “his” don’s suffer the consequences. People do. So that’s the difference.

In this finale, the outcome of a narrative that began with Lottie and infiltrated the hearts and minds of the group—not to mention a plane crash—was Natalie’s death. And the rest of the characters do whatever they can to make themselves feel better (killing people, killing dogs and family members, etc.) and quickly recover from the loss. Because of this, Loti will be melted, once. You are completely medicated again.

Goodbye, Sunshine Honey Safety Community.

Goodbye, Desert Hut, is sending smoke into the dark Canadian sky, up and over the city, from a bonfire started by Ben (Steven Kruger).

And goodbye, Natalie. Gone too soon. some time.

Quick Bites:

• Kevin Tan (Alex Windham) and Matt Sarakesa (John Reynolds) were the least interesting narrative devices this season. ACAB I’m glad Kevin is dead. It was an ad for Jeff (Warren Cole), and it served him right to receive a cup of cocoa from someone who sang a song about clowns.
• Travis taking a nibble out of his brother’s carved heart was goofy. And it’s very sad.
• Callie shoots Lottie in the arm and Lottie is like “Oh, hi!”
• Shauna writes in her journal about the wilderness not choosing to take over for Lottie and then not bringing her best friend, who she killed and ate, into the mix. I am angry with you. Don’t talk to me for a year. Longer, if these writers go on strike.
• “I thought he wanted what was best for us, now I’m not so sure” – Lottie, a woman who is completely full of life.
• Ben steals matches and axes from several teenagers, burns down their only shelter and flees into the night. The first course in the next season’s menu is to go ahead with the high-calorie butter meat.
• Lisa (Nicole Maines) I hope her f***ing fish comes back.
• In relation to the above, there is a very sad new message on the Sunshine Honey hotline.
• “I’m a lifelong asthmatic” – Walter
• The implication is that Van’s cancer is magically cured because Natalie is given to the starving “wilderness.” . . . all right
• Did anyone notice how once in this episode Shauna hugs the girl or otherwise approaches her daughter to comfort her? Thank you for saving her life.
• The use of Nouvelle Vague’s cover of Echo and the Bunnymen’s “Killing Moon” at the scene where everyone pays tribute to Natalie in the cabin was great.