Spoiler Warning: Yellowjackets Seasons 1-3Yellowjackets followers love a great twist, a lot in order that there are complete message boards devoted to theorizing about Showtime’s hottest puzzle-box sequence. Premiering in 2021, Yellowjackets has stored viewers engaged with compelling characters and weird mysteries from the primary episode. The present is about between two timelines. The primary begins in 1996, when a aircraft crash leaves a women’ highschool soccer crew from New Jersey stranded within the Canadian wilderness. The second timeline picks up 25 years later, when the survivors of that crash will do something to maintain their secrets and techniques hidden.
With ritualistic ceremonies, cannibalism, a doubtlessly supernatural wilderness, and a basic Nineties soundtrack, Yellowjackets is nostalgic and unpredictable. Because of this, devoted followers have been guessing from the very starting what would possibly occur subsequent. Loads of the time, fan theories go nowhere, with the present taking a pointy left flip to shock audiences. Often, nevertheless, followers are spot on, predicting a number of the present’s wildest twists.
Shauna’s Husband Blackmailed the Yellowjackets
The primary season of Yellowjackets brings the grownup survivors collectively when it turns into clear that somebody is attempting to blackmail them concerning the issues they did within the wilderness. Initially, they believe each other, however the present goes out of its option to make everybody assume the blackmailer is a person named Adam (Peter Gadiot). Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) meets Adam early within the season once they get right into a fender-bender. After some flirtation, they start having an affair. His sudden look in Shauna’s life does coincide with the blackmail, however it seems that Adam is only a purple herring.
How a Critic Figured It Out
In “Doomcoming” (Season 1, Episode 9), Shauna finds out that her husband, Jeff (Warren Kole), is the one who has been blackmailing them. This twist served as a shock for many followers, however not for Vulture TV Critic Roxana Hadadi, who noticed it coming. “By the top of the episode [seven], with Jeff coming residence late and instantly having a shower, the blackmailer is fairly clearly him, proper,” wrote Hadadi. “We already know he’s mendacity about furnishings deliveries, and there’s no manner fixing a listing database takes that lengthy.” Hadadi was proper. Jeff wanted money, and he thought blackmailing Shauna’s pals was the quickest option to get it.
Reddit Thought Javi Went Underground
The youngest survivor of the aircraft crash is Travis’s (Kevin Alves) youthful brother, Javi (Luciano Leroux). Javi spends loads of time on the periphery of the crew’s choices earlier than disappearing into the woods following the drug-fueled occasions of “Doomcoming.” Travis spends months trying to find his brother, however with winter upon them, Javi’s survival appears unlikely. Then, a fan principle emerged on Reddit in 2023 suggesting in any other case. A consumer urged that Javi was possible dwelling underground, maybe in some outdated mining tunnels.
Javi’s Devastating Destiny on the Ice
This principle was corroborated in the course of the present’s second season when Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Van (Liv Hewson) discover Javi alone within the woods. Finally, Coach Ben (Steven Krueger) follows Javi’s drawings to the cave by which he had been hiding in the course of the harsh winter. Sadly, it’s the existence of this cave that in the end results in Javi’s demise. When the ravenous Yellowjackets mark Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) as a sacrifice to the wilderness, Javi tries to save lots of Natalie by telling her about a spot the place she will be able to disguise. He’s within the technique of main her to that cave when he falls by the ice and drowns.
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Reddit Noticed Lottie’s Dying Coming
Grownup Natalie’s (Juliette Lewis) demise on the finish of Season 2 proved that these writers aren’t afraid to kill off main characters, begging the query of who could be subsequent. On a present that has seen loads of demise, nobody feels significantly protected. Nevertheless, it stands to purpose that newer additions to the solid (similar to grownup variations of the teenagers) may be round for a bit longer. Alas, this was not the case for grownup Lottie (Simone Kessell).
Is Lottie’s Dying an Accident or Homicide?
“So foolish however i believe the subsequent yj to die within the current timeline will likely be Lottie,” wrote u/maximumdrive19 on a thread the place followers share a few of their wildest theories. The concept Lottie may be subsequent was posed on Feb. 27, 2025. Three days later, “12 Indignant Women and 1 Drunk Travis” (Season 3, episode 4) aired with a twist ending that confirmed grownup Lottie lifeless on the backside of a staircase. The Reddit consumer was proper that Kessell’s Lottie was subsequent. Whereas initially her fall is considered an accident, it’s shortly believed that Lottie was murdered.
Everybody Believed the Women Would Eat Coach Ben
Because the aircraft crash’s solely grownup survivor, it is truly shocking that Coach Ben (Steven Krueger) made it so long as he did. Ben was gravely injured within the crash, however teen Misty (Samantha Hanratty) was capable of lower his leg off under the knee and cauterize the wound to forestall an infection. At first, Ben’s presence among the many surviving youngsters appeared to offer a way of order and luxury. He teaches them how you can hunt for meals and even offers Travis condoms when it appears like issues may be getting severe between Travis and Natalie. Over time, nevertheless, Ben’s authority over the youngsters wanes as their cult-like habits intensifies.
The Parallels to Greek Mythology
Some followers argue that Ben’s demise was inevitable. In a single Reddit thread from 2024, theorists examine the soccer crew’s expertise within the woods to Greek mythology, likening the wilderness to the underworld. On this rationalization, Ben is seen as a stand-in for King Pentheus, a personality from the Greek play The Bacchae by Euripides. King Pentheus bans the worship of Dionysus, god of wine, vegetation, and fertility. Pentheus is subsequently pushed mad and murdered by the ladies of Thebes.
Yellowjackets followers theorized previous to the beginning of Season 3 that Ben was Pentheus refusing the facility of the wilderness (Dionysus) and so the soccer crew (like the ladies of Thebes) would seize and kill him. The crew does seize him. They do kill him, even when Natalie is attempting to grant him mercy. Additionally it is price noting that Ben by no means took half in cannibalism, which viewers imagine is an indicator that the wilderness wouldn’t permit him to stay.
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Darkish Fan Concept Predicted Hiker’s Destiny
There’s a principle on Reddit from 2023 that’s partially right, with the primary half of it being disproven within the Season 3 finale. On this principle, u/womencool666 posits that “pit lady” won’t be one of many Yellowjackets in any respect. Whereas the identification of “pit lady” is revealed to be Mari (Alexa Barajas) on the finish of Season 3, this consumer does go on to counsel that maybe hikers come throughout the stranded teenagers and are subsequently murdered. “It appears unlikely however i hold attempting to consider the explanation why nobody is prepared to inform the story of what occurred [before they were rescued]” writes the theorist, “and killing an harmless outsider appears fairly unhealthy.”
The Hikers Have been Learning Frogs
Positive sufficient, life within the wilderness takes a stunning flip in “Croak” (Season 3, Episode 7) when teenage Lottie (Courtney Eaton) kills one of many frog scientists who come across their campsite throughout a ritualistic feast. Within the aftermath, the Yellowjackets take the remaining scientist and her wilderness information as prisoners. The ladies are divided on what to do subsequent, with some involved concerning the impression Lottie’s actions could have as soon as they’re rescued.
Hilary Swank Would Play Grownup Melissa
One of many issues Yellowjackets does so effectively is solid beloved Nineties and early 2000s stars to play grownup variations of the youngsters. When Lauren Ambrose got here onboard as grownup Van in Season 2, followers have been buzzing. So, when it was introduced in 2024 that Oscar-winner Hilary Swank could be becoming a member of the present for Season 3, viewers instantly began theorizing about who she would play. By the top of Season 2, there have been solely a handful of characters within the wilderness timeline whose fates had but to be decided.
The Twist Behind Melissa’s Return
Even earlier than the romantic relationship between teen Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) and teenage Melissa (Jenna Burgess) emerged as a serious storyline in Season 3, followers have been speculating on Reddit that Swank would play the grownup model of Melissa. This principle was confirmed in “A Regular, Boring Life” (Season 3, Episode 8).
It seems that the frog scientist the lady captured within the wilderness had a daughter named Alex. When grownup Shauna sneaks into Alex’s residence, she comes nose to nose with grownup Melissa. It seems that Melissa faked her personal demise as soon as they have been rescued, altering her title to Kelly and transferring out of city. She went to search out Hannah’s (Ashley Sutton) daughter and by accident fell in love along with her. Whereas some viewers are nonetheless unconvinced that Melissa is telling the reality about who she is and the place she’s been, guessing that Swank could be entering into her footwear earlier than the season even began was a formidable prediction.
Yellowjackets
- Launch Date
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November 14, 2021
- Community
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Showtime, Paramount+ with Showtime
- Showrunner
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Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, Jonathan Lisco