Whoever gets the “flashback-within-a-flashback,” so to speak, is our focus character for the week. It’s more of a Möbius strip bending back into itself.Īfter all, Yellowjackets rather expertly uses time to establish that subtle focus on individual characters episode-to-episode - and not in a linear fashion. Yellowjackets isn’t shaped like a square. And the story development still largely feels so connected and even enmeshed, even if on the surface it seems like the adult versions of the characters are in their own little corners. But I wouldn’t say last week’s episode was Taissa’s Episode and this one is Nat’s Episode.
We’ve seen the lengths she’ll go to in order to be around Nat.) Structurally, the past few episodes of Yellowjackets have checked in with all of these characters, spinning threads between their past and present selves while also spotlighting one in particular. She actually does want to be tethered in some way. (Misty is definitely a bit of a different case than the other three. They can never really be rid of each other.
And yet, they keep being thrown back together. They’re trying to live lives completely severed from what happened to them. There’s all that happening on the teen side of things, and then there’s the present, where each of these characters - Taissa, Shauna, Nat, and Misty - exist on their own now. So yes, back to the crafting of an ensemble narrative. The risk of groupthink in this case is explicitly lethal. It looks like a distinctly communal ritual. It doesn’t look like an every-person-for-themselves scenario. That cannibalism sequence from the pilot doesn’t look like a bunch of individuals making individual choices. Because we’ve seen the places they go together. Working together might have a dangerous side to it, too. They must adopt a collectivist mindset.Īnd yet. It still fucks you up when they’re gone.”īut before we get into all that meat of the episode, I want reiterate this point: To survive, the Yellowjackets must work together. Travis says his dad never even liked him, and Nat offers this: “It doesn’t matter how shitty they are. They only speak this Dad Baggage in brief confessions. And it isn’t until they connect over the damage their dads have done to them that they finally are able to work together. Nat also knows they’re only going to get shit done if they work together. But Nat knows the specific ways he’s hurting. He doesn’t deserve this offering from her - he’s a sexist dick all episode. She takes out a knife and cuts through bone to get him the ring. And when he can’t go through with it, puking as he digs up his decaying dad, Nat steps in and does it for him. He’s focused on getting a ring back from his dead dad’s buried corpse to try to assuage some of Javi’s grief. They’re acting as individuals - Travis in particular. When Travis and Nat team up as hunting partners after being the only two to pass Ben’s prescribed two-round shooting challenge, they’re out of sync. Surviving will require more cohesion, more cooperation. They’re all processing at different speeds and in different ways. But they’re also their own people with their own baggage. The teens find themselves having to fight to survive - together. the collective is baked into its premise. That’s especially crucial on this show, because the mere concept of the individual vs. Yellowjackets has so far excelled at striking the right balance between making these episodes still feel like they’re exploring the collective ensemble while also shining a spotlight on specific people week-to-week. Also, find my thoughts on the main title sequence, which was introduced last week, at the end of this recap!Įnsemble shows can be tricky in the sense that you want to let viewers spend a little time with every character but also manage to dig deep into each of those characters as individuals.
Catch up on past recaps, and feel free to drop any theories in the comments below. Pour yourself a chocolate martini or pop your favorite mixtape in your cassette player! It’s time for some dangerous activities like letting hormonal teenagers with zero firearm training hunt live animals and also playing mini golf while drunk on cheap vodka.