Yellowjackets S2.08 — Belt soup

Spoilers below for Yellowjackets S2.08 — It Chooses

Tonight is the penultimate episode of the second season of Yellowjackets and it was definitely a setup for the finale next week. After season one, I thought they would do all of the wild and crazy cannibalism and cult stuff in season two, but they managed to save it mostly for the very end and, I assume, next season. If we don’t have it next season, though, I’m calling bullshit.

The plane crash timeline

Lottie is in bad shape after Shauna beat the ever living crap out of her at the end of the last episode. She’s potentially suffering from internal injuries, plus, she’s starving.

The rest of the girls either are also fully starving. We discover that the mouse is a skeleton and the dripping noise is an auditory turned visual hallucination of blood dripping down the walls. Tai is seeing visions of Sleepwalker Tai. In an effort to get some protein, they boil a leather belt. I assume it does not help.

Meanwhile, Coach Ben is putting some of the pieces together after Nat tells him she saw Javi bowing to the prayer tree. After checking out Javi’s pictures and fixing his crutches to be more snow friendly, he heads out to find the tree. When he arrives at the right one, it’s steaming. He moves some branches and finds a cave. He goes down and there’s warmth and a loooot of bones.

Lottie tells Misty that if she dies, they should use her body and not let it go to waste. Misty is not pleased about this and informs the others, who decide to take matters into their own hands. They draw cards with the knowledge that whoever draws the Queen of Hearts will be the sacrifice. Nat pulls the card and Shauna places Jackie’s necklace on her neck. I knew that necklace would mean “sacrifice” because the girl they are hunting in the first scene of the pilot is wearing it. Glad it’s back.

We know that Nat is not killed and eaten that day, though, so something has to happen. Shauna goes to slit her throat and then she’s tackled by Travis. A scuffle ensues and Nat runs. The girls start chasing her, whooping like warriors. Javi runs out and catches up with Nat, telling her that he knows where she can go.

Nat and Javi start running across the frozen lake and the girls are hot on their heels. Nat falls and Javi runs back to help her. As they continue across, the ice cracks and Javi falls through. Nat starts trying to help but Misty quickly runs over and tells her that if she lets him go, then they will let her go. Distraught, Nat pulls back and all of the girls watch as Javi drowns. Before he sinks too quickly, they pull him out and say, “The wilderness has chosen.”

The present timeline

Things are devolving pretty quickly in the present timeline, too.

At the center

Shauna returns from her phone call with Jeff and informs the other women that Adam’s body has been found. She tries to leave to go back to Jersey, but Van, who feels left out that she doesn’t know why this is upsetting them, throws her keys in the grass.

Lottie suggests they go inside and the secrets start pouring out. It comes out that:

• Tai hired Jessica, the “reporter”, to dig into all of the women and see if any of them could be bought.
• Misty then kidnapped and killed Jessica to “take care of the problem.”
• Shauna killed Adam and the other women helped her cover it up (obviously).
• Misty pretended to be an FBI agent with Walter to get information about where Nat went.
• Jeff and Randy were the real blackmailers.

As the women yell at one another and secrets pour out, Lottie tells everyone that sometimes talk therapy doesn’t work (yeah, this is coming from the woman who has been doing therapy with a hallucination). Instead, she starts pouring tea with her back to the room.

Lottie brings the tray to the table and tells everyone that they need to do what they did back in the wilderness: One of them needs to be given to the wilderness. She rattles off everyone’s issues (Tai killed the dog and almost her wife, Shauna is ruining her family, Misty killed Jessica, Nat tried to kill herself, and Van is…sad). The wilderness needs to choose one of them to take.

In Jersey

Meanwhile, in Jersey, Kevyn and Matt and a host of other cops visit Shauna’s house with a search warrant. Callie tries to intimidate Matt by filming him and continuing to pretend he slept with her, but he’s not biting. Instead, he tells her she’s just as psychotic as her mom. Rude!

In the kitchen, Kevyn is scaring poor baby Jeff with crime scene photos. He explains that the cuts were made cleanly and Shauna’s experience in the wilderness could have taught her to do that. Jeff holds up ok but he’s clearly not doing well. Later, he dreams that Shauna has electric knives for hands and kills him. He wakes up and finds Callie drinking a beer in the living room. He decides that this is the perfect time to tell her about the wilderness baby. Weird timing for this revelation but I guess it’s never a good time to find out that your mom had another baby while she was living a cannibal lifestyle in the woods.

Final comments and thoughts (all timelines)

• Walter gets a notification that they found Adam’s body and immediately puts down his cat puzzle pieces. He emails the police department that he has some information and begins packing a bag. I think he’s going to come to their rescue and throw the police off of their scent, but who knows?
• Is Travis really going to eat Javi? Will his hunger win out?
• The sacrifices are finally starting! I am assuming the meat as well as the love of sacrifices will nurse Lottie back to health and then she will take over as queen of the sacrifices.
• Is Coach Ben ever going to come back? If it was up to him, he’d probably stay in that hollowed out cave forever (and now that Javi is gone, who would even find him there?)

Originally published at http://lizziekreitman.wordpress.com on May 22, 2023.