10 Things About Yellowjackets Season 3 That Make No Sense

After 10 episodes of characters getting progressively more brutal and difficult to predict, Yellowjackets Season 3 came to an end. There were deaths, red herrings, and inexplicable Wilderness magic that was never defined. Through it all, there had been some hope.

Audience members understood that the girls would have to find rescue soon and, as they say, winter is coming. Some elements of the season worked, most notably in the finale when the Antler Queen was finally revealed. There had been many false starts about who would ultimately take on the mantle, and fans got their answer in the final episode. But for every Antler Queen, there was a mystifying plot point that viewers struggled to make sense of.

Van’s Death Was the Biggest Upset

Fans have been more than accustomed to deaths on Yellowjackets. Natalie’s demise in Season 2 was devastating, but this was the type of show that demanded sacrifices. The biggest death in Season 3, however, was arguably a bridge too far for the Yellowjackets community. Van had won over the hearts and minds of viewers since her first appearance as the soccer team goalie, but met her grisly end at the end of a knife in the present timeline.

The difference between Van’s death and, say, the death of Lottie some episodes earlier was that Van was the heart of the show. She represented the goodness that some of the girls still had and was the exception to many of the characters who had gone dark. Even more baffling was the decision to make her go out in the way she did. After an entire season of pushing the narrative to cure Van of her terminal cancer, she died in even worse circumstances. All of Van’s plot amounted to nothing as Yellowjackets took the best character from the series. Even worse, it destroyed her touching relationship with Tai, which was the one piece of hope for viewers.

Natalie’s Tenure as Queen Served No Purpose

The biggest reveal of Season 2 was who the Antler Queen would turn out to be. Or at least, that was what it seemed like when Natalie pulled that fateful card and earned the mantle of leader of the wilderness. With the girls (and Travis) starving in the cold, this seemed like the precursor to the cannibalism viewers had all been waiting to start in earnest. But when Season 3 arrived, this could not have been further from the truth.

The Yellowjackets survived the winter only to develop a utopia of sorts in the summer. They each built their own shelter and had even cultivated livestock to get them through the harsher months. For all her demons, Natalie created a welcoming community with the intent that they would somehow find rescue. All of these efforts were almost instantaneously reversed when the hive mind concluded that even though rescue was imminent, they had to stay and start eating people because something “didn’t feel right.” While the question of what they would tell people about their time in the woods is valid, the team reversed all of Natalie’s leadership in the course of a few episodes, even though it was going surprisingly well.

The Cabin Question Never Got An Answer

For the amount of time Yellowjackets spent on questioning who burnt down the cabin, the series got no satisfying answer. At the end of Season 2, it seemed pretty clear that Coach Ben lit the match to incinerate the team. After seeing them consume human flesh, it was obvious he was on borrowed time, and he had to get out of Dodge fast. But when the girls meet up with him in Season 3, he becomes adamant that he had nothing to do with it. He seemed more surprised than anyone that the girls had been put into danger.

This issue got confused even further when Ben later confessed to burning it down. But at that point in the series, Ben’s version of events wasn’t the most reliable. Imprisoned by the Yellowjackets because of what he supposedly did, Ben went on a hunger strike and slowly wasted away. He begged Natalie to mercy kill him, and to incentivize her to kill him, he walked back his claims of innocence. By the end of the season, the girls had entirely forgotten about their old homestead, which made the whole adventure that much more convoluted.

Misty’s Rift With Walter Was a Lot, Even For Her

Misty’s social awkwardness seemed to put a definitive stop to her having a personal life, but all that changed when she met Walter. A fellow citizen detective, the two bonded over the mystery of who killed Adam Martin. They seemed like a match made in true crime heaven. But at the start of the season, they broke apart. Reeling from being the cause of Natalie’s death, Misty put her in dangerous situations, and the only one to protect her was Walter. He noted that her so-called friends were never there when she needed them, causing Misty to lash out at him.

Down the line, Misty eventually seemed to consider Walter’s words and admitted that the Yellowjackets were not very good friends to her. But all the while, she continued to aim her vitriol at Walter. Though he always wanted to include her and even offer help when Lottie inexplicably died, she treated him with nothing but contempt. Walter was Misty’s one connection to a normal life, but she continued to treat him harshly. Misty would later stand her ground, putting her on the outs with Shauna, meaning she really had no one in the world when Walter would have happily come back to her.

The Wilderness’ Connection to Lottie Still Hasn’t Been Explained

Yellowjackets has gone back and forth about what the entity known as the Wilderness is really all about. There were some undoubtedly creepy and mystical happenings in the woods, but most of what appeared to be happening could be chalked up to interpretation — notably by Lottie. Detoxed from her medication, Lottie felt that she had a connection to this place and even saw visions. But when the time came to choose a leader, the Wilderness abandoned her.

It seemed to indicate that the Wilderness followed no laws, but Season 3 went on to confuse this narrative. Lottie continued to have visions and commune with the strange spirit, only for it to go over the line. Travis rightfully determined that Lottie was a danger for her fanatical rhetoric and decided to trap her. He built the infamous pit to kill her, but when she stepped over the trap cover, she did not fall through to her demise. That honor was left to the Pit Girl, who was revealed in the Season 3 finale. The Wilderness was never fully explained and always seemed vague. Lottie went from being vaguely connected to the elements to being outright magical in a scene that offered no explanation.

Shauna’s Motivations Were All Over the Place

Like many characters in Season 3, Shauna was a ship out at sea. Natalie’s death in Season 2 made many characters adrift with no clear motivation until mid-way through the season. The season finale seemed to indicate that this was Shauna’s villain origin story, but getting there was a confusing endeavor. Her obsession with someone trying to kill her, the phone in the bathroom, and tanking Jeff’s business were not connected in any way and seemed to indicate that she was losing her mind.

It was especially difficult to understand what her final plan was after learning about the tape that proved the cannibalism that went on when they were stranded. Shauna went to the home of the person at the center of the tape — Hannah’s daughter. The woman the girls had indoctrinated into their wilderness cult in the ’90s had a child, and Shauna seemed to be afraid that the daughter would learn what happened back then. But it was unclear what exactly Shauna’s plan was when she got there. As soon as she found that Melissa was married to the woman, that plan went out the window. Perhaps Shauna was struggling under the weight of her instincts trying to break free, but that was not made clear when she started chomping on Melissa’s arm.

Melissa’s Story Came Out of Nowhere

For a season that advertised the casting of Hilary Swank early on, it took some time for Melissa to show up. In fact, the adult version of the character only appeared in two episodes. The audience was introduced to the fact that Melissa had allegedly died by suicide after returning home, but Shauna was shocked to learn that she had actually married Hannah’s daughter — who, of course, had no idea who she really was. For most of her time, Melissa put on a good show of wanting nothing to do with the Yellowjackets and only having the best of intentions about sending Shauna the threatening tape.

The penultimate episode discredited this when Melissa inexplicably killed Van. It seemed that she was still married to the idea of the Wilderness, but fans got no answers. Melissa appeared in the final episodes just to disappear with no explanation. Like Shauna, Melissa’s storyline came out of nowhere and didn’t connect with anything else that was going on.

Shauna Became Too Powerful Too Quickly

Shauna’s trajectory towards the antagonist of the series was one aspect of Season 3 that was exemplary. She started as a typical hurtful teenage girl and, through trauma and the crucible of the Wilderness, became a true monster. Her crowning as the Antler Queen was a natural progression of the show. But while her donning the crown was a satisfying season finale, her more villainous tendencies tested what audiences were willing to believe.

Small things such as her treatment of Melissa and her viciousness towards Coach Ben could be explained as the darkness of the Wilderness, but when she took on leadership, she became too capable too quickly. Shauna had an almost magical ability to intuit what was going on around her. She almost immediately figured out that Van and Taissa were stacking the deck for the card draw. Seemingly everywhere at once, she was always there to bust up the prisoners, Coach Ben and Hannah. These abilities made her a tense presence in the series, but made her more capable than a high schooler should be.

There Was No Real Reason For the Yellowjackets to Stay Stranded

Dramatic irony is present in every episode of Yellowjackets. Viewers knew that the main characters would make it out of the Wilderness, so any threat that happened to him in the past would amount to nothing. One other drawback was knowing how long they were stranded. There was no question that the team would be spending another winter there, meaning that any hope of rescue would not come to fruition.

When Kodi and Hannah pushed for rescue, it was obvious nothing would ever come of this. But the reason behind keeping the team in the wilderness was weak at best and, at worst, made no sense. Shauna had clearly lost her connection with reality and preferred her status in the wild. But Tai did not have this excuse. She only insisted that they stay because she had a bad vibe about leaving. Tai was one of the more logical people on the series, so her subscribing to feelings instead of logic wasn’t in line with her character.

Dark Tai Was Never the Threat the Series Framed Her As

Dark Tai had been a looming threat over Yellowjackets that never had any escalation or resolution. Though it was clear throughout the season she was taking over the Tai that fans knew, she never did anything heinous. Her only aim was to save Van, and the sacrifices she proposed often happened accidentally. Even worse, Van’s death was centered around the need to bring neutral Tai back. But the stakes were never high enough for Van’s death to be worth the result.