Warning: this text comprises large spoilers for “Yellowjackets.”
On the newest “Yellowjackets,” the teenage solid — caught within the wilderness and the ’90s — held a trial for Coach Ben (Steven Krueger), accused of torching their cabin final season. Within the 2021 timeline, Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) was as soon as extra haunted by the late Jackie (Ella Purnell) whereas Tai (Tawny Cypress) and Van (Lauren Ambrose) examined if the Wilderness is hungry for an additional commerce of lives.
General, the previous storyline (as regular) appeared like the upper stakes one — till the episode’s closing moments, when Misty (Christina Ricci) sees the newest publish on her Citizen Detective message board. Lottie (Simone Kessell) is useless, mendacity on the backside of a stairwell. Simply to persuade any doubters, the digital camera lingers on her nonetheless physique to indicate, sure, she actually is useless.
This twist has obtained the “Yellowjackets” hive all riled up, and never precisely as a result of they’re singing its praises. “I get they wanna make daring strikes however killing Lottie so early within the season is kinda … dumb?” one X person wrote. Others have stated all the pieces from crying their eyes out, critiquing the writing, and even giving up on the present altogether. Kessell herself, talking to Selection, did not appear too satisfied by the choice both and outright referred to as Lottie’s demise “untimely.”
“I used to be fairly brokenhearted, as a result of it felt prefer it had come to an finish simply once I felt Lottie was coming into her personal. I used to be excited that season 3 would take her someplace attention-grabbing, and sadly, they simply determined that storyline was now not.”
As Kessell notes, Lottie’s loss of life will certainly drive Misty to analyze and the suspect listing is lengthy: Tai, Shauna, Walter, the thriller stalker, and perhaps extra. However in attempting to get the story operating, “Yellowjackets” has shot itself within the foot.
Yellowjackets has failed Lottie Matthews
After season 1 of “Yellowjackets,” it is felt just like the writers have not fairly gotten a grip on Lottie’s character. The ending of “12 Offended Ladies and 1 Drunk Travis” is the stumbling finish of that.
The primary season of “Yellowjackets” set Lottie (Courtney Eaton) up as a villain. We have recognized from the start that the previous storyline will finally see the Yellowjackets apply not solely survival cannibalism, however neo-paganism, searching one another like animals, and blood sacrifice. The mentally sick Lottie (having run out of her treatment) was the primary one to recommend the Wilderness itself had a will and provided premonitions from it. The ladies, determined for steerage, clung onto her as a frontrunner. It is no shock many pegged Lottie because the eventual “antler queen.”
“Yellowjackets” season 1 finale “Sic Transit Gloria Mundi” ended with Natalie (Juliette Lewis) being kidnapped by cultists. Their chief? An unseen however still-alive Lottie, who had additionally emptied the late Travis’ (Andres Soto) financial institution accounts. The final scene returned to the Wilderness, the place the teenage Lottie positioned a bear coronary heart on an altar, praying to her forest god: “Shed blood my stunning pals, and let the darkness set us free.” Sinister.
In the course of the watch for season 2, everybody anticipated Lottie’s reintroduction to amp up the horror within the 2021 timeline. Was she nonetheless practising the brutal blood rituals the Yellowjackets dreamt up within the Wilderness? Had she murdered Travis? How had she introduced others over into her cult? How far did her attain unfold?
Then, “Yellowjackets” season 2 didn’t dwell as much as these terrifying expectations. The writers evidently determined to pivot and wrote Lottie as a surprisingly sympathetic character. She wasn’t a cult chief per se, extra an eccentric wellness guru with good intentions. Travis’ loss of life was a contrived accident. Even previously storyline, Lottie’s character shifted; all of a sudden, she wasn’t main the ladies into darkness, it was her followers misinterpreting her message and dragging her with them.
Even rewatching “Yellowjackets” season 1, Lottie would not really feel fairly so scary anymore and that season’s authentic stress deflates. I’ve learn hypothesis the writers pulled again on evil Lottie as a result of they’d realized they might be equating her sickness with evil — but when so, they did not have to write down her as an sick individual within the first place.
Yellowjackets did not inform Lottie’s full story
Lottie’s loss of life feels additional galling as a result of the present simply made an analogous mistake by killing off Natalie within the season 2 finale, “Storytelling.” That ended the present’s sophomore season on a bitter observe for a lot of, and Lottie’s loss of life is a refreshment of that bitter style. There’s been rumors that Natalie’s untimely loss of life was as a result of Juliette Lewis needed to depart the collection; Lewis herself hasn’t explicitly confirmed this, however she has stated about leaving “Yellowjackets,” “I feel I am good for a collection for 2 seasons.” However even when that was the case with Lewis, it undoubtedly wasn’t right here! Simone Kessell thinks there was extra story to inform with Lottie, and he or she’s proper.
Again in “Storytelling,” Lottie turned enamored with Shauna’s daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins). Lottie, as soon as extra a fervent believer within the Wilderness, appeared to need to indoctrinate Callie if not one thing even worse. Effectively, that story has gone up like a popped balloon, with no decision or catharsis. The previous storyline too appears to be returning to the extra sinister Lottie from season 1, so taking her off the desk within the grownup timeline now could be a puzzling determination.
Normally, the 2021 storyline in “Yellowjackets” season 3 feels prefer it’s attempting to recapture the spark of season 1 and so is falling again on outdated plot beats. Somebody, who is aware of the Yellowjackets’ secrets and techniques, is as soon as extra stalking them within the shadows. Travis’ loss of life was a driving thriller in season 1, now Lottie’s loss of life might be one in season 3.
I have been harsh throughout this text, so I’ll stress that I’ve largely been liking “Yellowjackets” season 3. However sadly, taking out Lottie provides an enormous asterisk to that enjoyment.
“Yellowjackets” is streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime.