Yellowjackets Season 3 Episode 4 Review: An Unexpected Death

This review contains spoilers for Yellowjackets season 3 episode 4.

As the name of episode 4 suggests, “12 Angry Girls and 1 Drunk Travis” is centered on the trial of Coach Scott (Steven Krueger) as he desperately tries to plead his case to the Yellowjackets (and Travis). This episode of Yellowjackets might not be quite as supernaturally scary as last week’s episode, but it’s still a strong installment with plenty of chilling moments, including the first of the Yellowjackets to die this season.

In the past, Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) insists that they give Coach Scott a trial and let him plead his case rather than get the revenge Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) seems hell bent on getting. Tai (Jasmin Savoy Brown) is pretty eager to run the prosecution, while Misty (Samantha Hanratty) is kind of forced into the role of Coach Scott’s defense. As the leader, Natalie is presiding as judge for the trial, and for the first time we see her wear an antler crown and white gown eerily reminiscent of the garb we see the antler queen wear in the series premiere.

While we don’t know whether or not Natalie is still the queen by the time another winter comes around, this trial seems like it could be the first iteration of the tribunal gathering in that episode. Even though we don’t see much else from the past in this episode, apart from the trial, the young Yellowjackets and Steven Krueger once again bring their A game. As the Yellowjackets themselves question whether or not Coach Scott actually burned down the cabin, there’s enough reasonable doubt that it’s not hard for us to start to wonder too.

But even though Coach Scott makes an incredibly compelling case for himself, Shauna is able to pressure enough of the others to change their votes to guilty that the prosecution gets the two-thirds majority needed to convict Coach Scott. His fate has been left for the next episode, but with Shauna gaining power and influence over the others, he might not be alive for much longer.

Even Lottie (Courtney Eaton) and Travis (Kevin Alves) feel the pull to listen to Shauna, as though the Wilderness is urging them to choose her as their next leader. Natalie is still in charge for now, but now that everyone knows she saw Coach Scott leave and knew where he was hiding, her days as the Antler Queen are likely numbered.

Meanwhile, in the present, Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) is convinced that someone is out to get her, even though the mechanic she brings her van to insists that the brakes went out due to a faulty part and not sabotage. And she might be onto something. While she and Jeff (Warren Kole) are volunteering at the nursing home Misty works at, she ends up locked in the freezer.

Jeff believes that the family needs to put as much good karma back into the world as they can to make up for all of the blood on their hands and the secrets they’ve been hiding. It’s his idea to volunteer, and Shauna agrees, begrudgingly. However, it seems like the mysterious forces at work might not be karma, but rather the will of the Wilderness. Shauna drew the Queen of Hearts last season, and this could be the Wilderness’ way of telling her to step up and find some sacrifices or else she’ll be the next sacrifice.

She sees Jackie (Ella Purnell) in the freezer with her, which could yet again just be her trauma manifesting. But it could also be the Wilderness trying to find a way to get to her. Thankfully Randy (Jeff Holman)

Tai (Tawny Cypress) and Van (Lauren Ambrose) take a trip into the city, wanting to see if they could find a victim suitable for the Wilderness to take. Tai is convinced that if they give the Wilderness another sacrifice, that Van will continue to get better and they’ll have more time together. They buy a deck of cards, leave the Queen of Hearts on the sidewalk, and wait for someone to pick it up. A random guy finally does, and they go so far as to follow him to his apartment, where they find the door unlocked, before Van shows her hesitation and convinces Tai to not go through with it. They instead have the date in Central Park that they always wanted.

Lottie’s (Simone Kessell) actions are a bit more of a mystery in this episode. We see her leaving a bank wearing a fur coat, after which she takes a call from Tai dismissing her questions about the Wilderness. We then see her later on, seemingly practicing an apology in front of a mirror. After that, the next time we see her she’s dead at the foot of some creepy stairs lined with melted candles, not too dissimilar to how Travis was found dead in some sort of ritual circle in season one. Misty (Christina Ricci) finds a picture of Lottie’s body on her Citizen Detectives forum after Walter texts asking about it, and that’s where the episode ends.

After decades of TV shows taking a stab at trial episodes, and decades of lawyer shows in general, it’s hard to make an episode centered on a trial fresh and exciting. Even if that trial is being conducted by a group of teens in the middle of nowhere. Yellowjackets may not have reinvented the wheel with their take on a trial, but the episode did use the medium to give us valuable insight into the mental state of the Yellowjackets in the past, both individually and as a collective. Up until this point, we’ve only really seen them interact in small groups. Through the trial, we get to see what alliances have been forming and where there are rifts between teammates.

This episode is all about foreshadowing, connecting dots, and setting up another big mystery. And while these are all things that Yellowjackets episodes have done before, “12 Angry Girls and 1 Drunk Travis” still manages to keep us engaged and on the edge of our seats, eager to see what may befall these survivors next, in the past and in the present.

The first four episodes of Yellowjackets season 3 are 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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