For the two seasons it has been on the air, “Yellowjackets” has operated under a specific storytelling philosophy: twice the timelines, twice the fun. By “fun,” we mean, of course, opportunities for twists, betrayals, and bloodshed. Nowhere was this more evident than in the Season 2 finale.
The 1996 timeline ends with a bang, with Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) deemed the new antler queen and the Yellowjackets’ cabin going up in flames. Things don’t fare too much better in the present day. The Yellowjackets’ reunion at Lottie’s (Simone Kessell) compound takes a turn for the sinister when the women devolve back to their wilderness roots. In a shocking conclusion, Misty (Christina Ricci) accidentally plunges a lethally dosed syringe into Natalie (Juliette Lewis).
Juliette Lewis has stayed relatively mum on her character’s fate since the episode premiered back in May. At the 75th Emmy Awards red carpet, the actress told The Hollywood Reporter her thoughts on the finale. “I thought they wrapped up the characters really beautifully, and I just love good writing, so I was happy to be a part of it,” Lewis said. “And I’ll miss my cast. Such a good group of girls, I love them so much. They’re going to do amazing.”
In “Yellowjackets,” there’s a fine line between the dead and the living, with the former group often popping up post-mortem, and Lewis indicated that she wouldn’t rule out a cameo from beyond the grave. “I don’t know anything,” she continued, “but I think that’s a good idea. We’ll see what happens.”
A visit from Natalie would reaffirm Yellowjacket’s ghostly themes
If Juliette Lewis’ Natalie were to return in Season 3, it wouldn’t be a huge stretch for “Yellowjackets.” The time-jumping format allows for a certain amount of narrative freedom not afforded to other shows. In Season 2 we got ghostly visits from Jackie (Ella Purnell), whose chilly corpse haunted Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) in the aftermath of her death. In another instance, Lottie has visions of the dearly departed Laura Lee (Jane Widdop).From the beginning of “Yellowjackets,” co-creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson have used visions and time jumps to anticipate events in the future — something that executive producer Karyn Kusama confirmed in the same piece for The Hollywood Reporter. “Something … that Ashley and Bart had always thought about from the pilot, was that mysterious moment when Natalie hallucinates Misty at the kegger in the woods,” said Kusama, who also directed the Season 2 finale. “That was always this time-defying flash-forward to the notion that Misty was always going to be kind of an angel of death for Natalie.”
For Kusama, a visit from Natalie in Season 3 would certainly be in Lyle and Nickerson’s wheelhouse. “What I’ve learned about Ashley and Bart and [showrunner] Jonathan [Lisco] is that they are kind of a never-say-never group,” she continued. “I find they’re always super open to imagining things if it drives the story into an interesting place.”
