Since its debut in 2021, Yellowjackets has been a delightfully dark watch. Taking inspiration from Lord of the Flies, the Donner Party, and the Andes flight disaster, the show is executive produced by acclaimed filmmaker Karyn Kusama (Jennifer’s Body). Viewers who haven’t watched Yellowjackets Season 1 probably know it as “that show about teen cannibals” — and while, yes, that’s certainly an element of the team’s survival story, it isn’t the only disquieting circumstance on offer. In fact, the series contends with several disparate genres, mashing them up effortlessly, all while alternating between two timelines — one set in 1996, and one set in the present.
In the past, the Yellowjackets, a New Jersey high school girls’ soccer team, boards a plane bound for a national tournament in Seattle. And then their plane crashes in a desolate part of the Canadian wilderness, stranding the surviving teammates for 19 (long) months. In the present, the now-adult former soccer players contend with the enduring traumas and secrets that followed them home from the woods. The members of the sizable cast of characters, both their teen and adult selves, are all equally absorbing. The first season garnered an impressive 7 Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series and two acting nominations — one for the always-committed Melanie Lynskey (The Last of Us), and another for the incredibly committed Christina Ricci (Wednesday).
The rest of the adult cast includes Tawny Cypress (House of Cards) and Juliette Lewis (Natural Born Killers), and, as of this season, Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under; Servant) and Simone Kessell (Pine Gap). In the present, the core group — the quietly dark Shauna (Lynskey); the trying-so-hard-to-be-put-together Taissa (Cypress); the devil-may-care Natalie (Lewis), and the ever-unhinged Misty (Ricci) — contends with blackmail. Clearly, the world knows some of their story, but not every stone has been unturned publicly.
What helps Yellowjackets stand out, though, is that the younger ensemble match their adult counterparts expertly. Not just in terms of matching looks and mannerisms, but in terms of intensity. What makes the show gel, with its clash of genres and tones, is that the past and present are equally compelling. Both hold a similar weight. Yes, viewers know (for the most part) who survives the wilderness, the cults, and cannibalism, but that doesn’t dull the 1996 stakes — namely, the mystery of how it all plays out.
What Happened At The End Of Yellowjackets Season 1?
In the finale of Season 1, Van (Liv Hewson; Ambrose) starts to believe that teammate Lottie (Courtney Eaton; Kessell) has occult powers. It’s hard to fault Van for this line of thinking: a bear, completely unbothered, walks up to Lottie, and she kills it. Meanwhile, team captain Jackie (Ella Purnell), who’s proven herself a not-so-convincing leader off the pitch, confronts the team about their actions at the Doomcoming party — a kind of perverse homecoming complete with creepy masks and hallucinogenic mushrooms. At one point, the group tries to assault Travis, one of the few men who’s been stranded with them; Lottie, who fashions herself a prophet, even tells Shauna (Sophie Nélisse; Lynskey), Jackie’s ex-best friend, to slit Travis’ throat.
It’s edge-of-your-seat chilling — only topped by Jackie’s fate. In the finale, she decides to sleep outside after confronting the group about their Doomcoming behavior, and freezes to death. The following day, Lottie, Van, and the ever-suspicious Misty (Sammi Hanratty; Ricci) offer up the bear’s heart to the woods as a kind of tribute. In the present, the survivors — Shauna, Taissa, Natalie, and Misty — clean up a murder scene, and then stop by their 25-year high school reunion.
While Taissa is busy winning the senate race she’s been contending with (amid all the blackmail), her wife finds Taissa’s incredibly disturbing altar hidden in the basement, complete with the head of the family dog, their son’s doll, and, seemingly, a human heart. Natalie (Sophie Thatcher; Lewis), meanwhile, is kidnapped by unknown assailants, leaving Misty alone — again.
What Happens In Yellowjackets Season 2, Episode 1?
It’s that blend of high-stakes, stinging violence and bizarrely mundane (but still very tense) scenarios that give Yellowjackets its distinct shape. In some ways, the series recalls Orphan Black or even Killing Eve, though it's decidedly darker than both. And the Yellowjackets Season 2 premiere is evidence of these defining strengths. A flash-forward kicks off the Season 2’s first episode, "Friends, Romans, Countrymen,” showing viewers a glimpse of the teammates’ homecoming. Sharon Van Etten’s “Seventeen” swells as Lottie is subjected to electroshock therapy. Years later, Lottie, now something of a cult leader, encourages her purple-robed followers to engage with their most elemental, primal selves.
Lottie isn’t the only one who’s unable to shake what she discovered about herself in the wilderness. Taissa finds her senate seat, marriage, and relationship with her son threatened after her wife, Simone, discovers the altar in her basement. Viewers learn that Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown; Cypress) slipped into these sorts of spells while stranded in the woods, too. Van, her then-girlfriend, even shackles the two of them together in the attic of the team’s cabin in order to quell her violent sleepwalking behaviors. Ultimately, this leads to Taissa unknowingly hurting Van in her sleep — something Van claims she can handle.
In the ‘90s, a guilt-ridden Shauna spends much of her time in a shack, speaking to Jackie’s frozen corpse; in the present, she and her husband, Jeff (Warren Kole), sloppily cover up a murder. Shauna also shares with Jeff that she’s embracing what she once thought marked her as strange. And, speaking of strange, Misty is on her own in both timelines. In the past, she’s still ostracized for introducing hallucinogenic mushrooms at the Doomcoming party; in the present, she’s trying to track down the kidnapped Natalie, who’s being held hostage in Lottie’s commune.
The episode takes its title from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar — though it’s only a part of the famous quote. The full line reads: “Friends, Romans, countrymen — lend me your ears.” It’s part of a eulogy Antony delivers at Caesar’s funeral. “The evil that men do lives after them,” he continues. “The good is oft interrèd with their bones.” A lot can be pulled from Yellowjackets’ allusion to this well-known line. The title, “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” is incomplete; many folks know what comes next in this phrase. In a way, it parallels teen Shauna’s journey in the Season 2 premiere — quite literally.
Early on, viewers saw the way present-day Shauna felt drawn to something more primal; she kills a rabbit in her well-manicured front lawn, and skins it with artful precision. She’s satisfying a craving. While visiting Jackie’s corpse, Shauna accidentally breaks off her dead best friend’s frozen ear, and pockets it. At the episode’s end, Shauna secretly eats Jackie’s ear. It’s a startling moment, even if it’s been very clearly telegraphed since the Showtime series’ pilot.
But that’s part of what makes Yellowjackets so satisfying. It’s a slow-burn to reach these big, looming moments, but everything in between is just as alluring. If Episode 1 of Season 2 is any indication, fans have a lot to look forward to this season — even if they have to look away sometimes. Unlike other shows attempting to juggle multiple timelines, tones, genres, and central characters, Yellowjackets never bites off more than it can chew, and always knows how to satiate viewers’ Sunday-night TV appetites.
The remaining 7 episodes of Yellowjackets Season 2 will air on Sundays at 9 pm ET on Showtime through May 14. Showtime streaming and on-demand subscribers can watch new episodes on Fridays, two days ahead of the network premiere.