Yellowjackets Season 2 Recap: Who is the New Antler Queen?

Between the past and present timelines of Yellowjackets, a lot can happen in a season. Season 2 saw the surprising return of Lottie (Simone Kessell) in the present day as well as a cold and unrelenting winter for the Yellowjackets to survive in the past. From cannibalism to cultish behavior, there’s a lot to remember before season 3 returns on Valentine’s Day. 

Here’s everything you need to remember from Yellowjackets season 2.

The Wilderness 1996

Surviving the Winter

In the aftermath of Jackie’s (Ella Purnell) death and the harsh, snowy winter that followed, the surviving Yellowjackets find themselves holed up in the cabin, doing their best to stay warm and scavenge for food. Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) is not taking Jackie’s death well and talks to her body. 

Tai (Jasmin Savoy Brown) is sleepwalking, and Van (Liv Hewson) is doing her best to help her through it. Van decides to follow Tai in her sleep, noticing that she keeps coming across the mysterious symbol they found in the cabin, and the two finally find Javi (Luciano Leroux) and bring him back to the others.

Misty (Samantha Hanratty) bonds with Crystal (Nuha Jes Izman) over their shared love of musical theater and the two become close friends. At least until Misty confesses to Crystal that she destroyed the plane’s emergency transmitter after they crashed. Crystal gets upset and Misty tries to stop her from telling the others. During the confrontation, Misty forces Crystal off a cliff where she falls to her death, leaving Misty distraught and with yet another secret she’s forced to keep from the others.

Meanwhile, Lottie (Courtney Eaton) has become the group’s messiah, guiding them through the winter and urging them to listen to the wilderness in order for it to provide the food they need. And it does, in its own creepy cannibalistic way. When the group finally decides to dispose of Jackie’s body through cremation instead of waiting for the ground to thaw enough to bury her, she ends up perfectly barbecued instead of burned to a crisp. In a sort of hunger-induced fugue state the team eats her while Coach Ben (Steven Krueger) watches on in horror.

Shauna gives birth not terribly long after. She dreams of her son’s birth, and of the team eating afterwards, but soon wakes up and learns that he was stillborn. Rocked by the loss of her baby and of Jackie, Shauna takes her anger out on Lottie, beating her nearly to death.

A New Queen is Crowned

While Lottie is recovering, she urges the team to not let her body go to waste should she not survive. No one is too thrilled about letting their leader die, so eventually they decide to draw cards – whoever draws the Queen of Hearts will be the next sacrifice. Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) is the unlucky winner, and takes off running after Travis (Kevin Alves) shoves a knife-wielding Shauna out of the way. The Yellowjackets chase Natalie through the woods and out onto the ice. Javi, trying to help Natalie, ends up falling through the ice and drowning. The team lets him die to spare Natalie, and they feast on him instead. Lottie realizes that they don’t need her to communicate with the wilderness anymore, as this proves that they can all understand its call. She crowns Natalie as their new leader.

Burning Down the House

Coach Ben has been on the struggle bus this entire winter. From intense hallucinations of his boyfriend Paul to watching the girls succumb to cannibalism to a near suicide attempt, he is not doing well at all. And that is further proven when we see Ben set fire to the cabin with the girls still inside, taking their only shelter and refuge from the cold with him.

Present Day

The Wilderness Provides

While the Yellowjackets in the past deal with a harsh winter in the wilderness, the survivors in the present continue to feel their past catching up with them. After a car crash leaves her wife hospitalized, Tai (Tawny Cypress) reconnects with Van (Lauren Ambrose) and learns that she has terminal cancer.

With the help of Walter (Elijah Wood), who she finds on one of her citizen detective forums, Misty (Christina Ricci) tracks Natalie (Juliette Lewis) to Lottie’s compound. It was people from Lottie’s commune who kidnapped Natalie before her suicide attempt in an effort to save her. It turns out that Lottie has found solace in her community and is looking to reconnect with her friends.

However, Lottie isn’t as well as she thinks she is, nor are any of the others, really. Lottie has been hallucinating her therapist and ends up convincing herself that she and the others must offer up another sacrifice to the wilderness. The others play along, some more convincingly than others. Shauna draws the Queen of Hearts, seemingly marking her for sacrifice, but Callie intervenes, shooting Lottie in the shoulder to save her mom. When one of Lottie’s followers, Lisa (Nicole Maines) approaches the group with a gun to protect her, Misty charges toward her with a lethal dose of phenobarbital. But Natalie steps in her way, taking the injection herself and dying in Misty’s arms. Lottie is taken away again when all is said and done, but not before telling the others that the wilderness is pleased with their sacrifice and will reward them.

How to Get Away With Murder

Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) and Jeff (Warren Kole) try to cover up Adam’s death the best they can by burning evidence and doing their best to erase any trace that he and Shauna knew each other. However, the local cops don’t necessarily play fair, and Detective Matt Saracusa (John Reynolds) goes undercover and tries to get close to Callie (Sarah Desjardins) for information. When Callie finds out, she tries to help her mom convince Matt and Kevyn (Alex Wyndham) that her affair was with Randy, not Adam.

Unfortunately, Matt and Kevyn don’t really buy it and Kevyn ends up following the family out to Lottie’s compound after Walter emails them with promises of information. But instead of giving Kevyn information, Walter takes a page from Misty’s book and poisons him instead. With Jeff’s reluctant help, the two frame Kevyn for Adam’s murder, getting the police off of Shauna’s back and out of the family’s business, at least for now.

The first episode of Yellowjackets season 3 is available to stream on Paramount+ now. New episodes will premiere Fridays on Paramount+ and Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Showtime.

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