Yellowjackets

Shauna, Misty, Nat, Van, Taissa and Lottie (plus Travis, who later died under circumstances that have yet to be exposed) looked set to die, but they were ...

For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to [The Radio Times Podcast](https://www.radiotimes.com/audio/podcasts/). Shauna's behaviour is both poignant and unsettling, with some of her teammates expressing concern about her troubling new past-time. Fast-forward to the season's end and we discovered what became of Jackie. The pair locked horns during a vicious confrontation, with both of them hurling cruel insults at one another before Jackie took herself outside to sleep, unable to bear Shauna's company any longer. [Yellowjackets](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/yellowjackets-season-2-release-date/). [Film](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/) hub for more news, interviews and features, or find something to watch now with our [TV Guide](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/tv-listings/) and [Streaming Guide](https://www.radiotimes.com/streaming-guide/). [subscribe now](http://radiotimes.com/magazine-subscription?utm_term=evergreen-article). [Succession creator plays down talk of spin-offs](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/succession-creator-talk-spin-offs-newsupdate/) [Penn Badgley on his role in Netflix's You: "It does take a toll"](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/penn-badgley-you-interview/) [terms and conditions](https://www.immediate.co.uk/terms-and-conditions/) and [privacy policy](https://policies.immediate.co.uk/privacy/). [learn more](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/commercial-links-on-radiotimes-com/)) [Yellowjackets](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/yellowjackets-season-2-release-date/) football team miraculously managed to make it out of their season 1 ordeal in one piece. [Subscribe to Radio Times magazine and get 12 issues for £1](https://www.radiotimes.com/magazine-subscription/?utm_term=evergreen-article)

Adult Lottie has entered the building. Lottie dressed in furs standing outside in the snow surrounded by forest. By. Abby Robinson.

For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to [The Radio Times Podcast](https://www.radiotimes.com/audio/podcasts/). "Right now, there is a version of you that knows exactly who you really are and what you really want. During that time, she was housed in a psychiatric hospital. Along with her fellow survivors she was hurried onto a plane, the press clamouring for photos and comments as we learnt that the investigation into the crash had entered its preliminary stage. With Sharon Van Etten's Seventeen ringing out "I used to feel free, or was it just a dream?" "The truth is, nobody can help you," she said. As a result, Lottie had been experiencing visions, but fans of the show were divided on what was fuelling her second sight. "We just don't know what else to do. Was it merely a symptom of malnourishment and dehydration? And there is nothing more painful than hiding that self." Or was it evidence of supernatural capabilities? [Yellowjackets season 2](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/yellowjackets-season-2-release-date/), we learn what happened to Lottie after she miraculously made it out of the wilderness in one piece.

As Taissa Turner, Tawny Cypress was the core cast member (alongside Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, and Christina Ricci) whose post-traumatic aftereffects ...

Tai is Type A both in the past and present, but young Tai allows for love in her life, she allows for caring. How do you approach the conflict between wanting to put it behind you and maybe craving to go back on some level? In the flashbacks, Tai has a leadership role amongst the Yellowjackets. But she doesn’t take a leadership role when dealing with the fallout that's occurring in the present. I just put my faith in the creators and in the editors of the show. Jaz and I did a lot of character work in the first season, just nailing the character down. The show cuts between her and the altar, but I didn't know that at the time. I just have to play the character and put one foot in front of the other. There's a long way to go with the whole Lottie story, especially in the flashbacks. So we've got a long, long way to go to get the whole story. I have very little information, and I have a lot of questions. She opens the series as a lawyer running for New Jersey state senate; she had a well-appointed home, a photo-op-ready wife and son, and all the bounty of a high-achiever with an unrelenting drive to succeed.

Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Van (Liv Hewson)—the latter consistently the cheeriest, most down-to-earth member of the bunch—play hand soccer and, at night, ...

- I say this in full awareness that our 1996 survivors are primed to begin engaging in cannibalism and full on wilderness worship: Is there a single character on this series right now in more danger than Taissa’s new dog Steve? - The introduction of previously-unseen survivor Crystal is a little confusing (we really never saw these girls before?) but certainly bodes well for the show’s dedication to darkly ironic creep-out comedy. But especially in the wilderness, where both the physical horror and emotional toll of survival are already leveling up, Yellowjackets doesn’t miss a step in planting the audience right back in that claustrophobic yet all-too-expansive world. Shauna’s daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins) knows her mom is covering up his death, but doesn’t seem quite yet attuned to exactly what Shauna Shipman is capable of (although Callie’s end-of-episode discovery of Adam’s charred drivers license in her family barbecue pit might turn the tables on that). Speaking of years down the line: When we last saw grown-up Natalie (Juliette Lewis) in season one, she was being tossed into a van by a collective of unidentified, purple-suited people ostensibly working for Lottie, and wearing talismans with that vaguely malevolent symbol: the same one scratched into the cabin floor and the same one that appeared to form the candle formation Travis died hanging above. But in a move that draws sympathy and disgust from her compatriots in equal measure, she prefers to play them out in the meat shed with the frozen, preserved dead body of her once best friend, Jackie (Ella Purnell), who Shauna hallucinates lengthy heart-to-hearts with. Although Nat tries to escape like a bat at the hell when given a chance, Lottie stops her—or more accurately, Nat stops herself. - In the wilderness, how are everybody’s teeth still kind of good? Lottie’s cult is also news to a devastated Misty (Christina Ricci), who refuses to believe Nat would just abandon a bestie like that. (Adult Taissa, living single and without her son Sammy since her wife Simone found their dog Biscuit’s head on a basement altar, may be the only adult counterpart truly faring worse than her teen self.) Shauna (Sophie Nélisse), too, has resorted to brain games like M*A*S*H to stay entertained. It’s pitch black out, but Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) and Travis (Kevin Alves) are up, preparing to head out to hunt. There is no more frolicking in the lake, cheering each other on at target practice, or sleeping off shrooms and berry hooch in stained homecoming dresses under the stars.

What happened to Jackie's body, and how did Shauna cope with how things were left between them?

As so much of the show is open to interpretation, at first you can't help but wonder whether these sequences are all in Shauna's head. She's having a hard time processing Jackie's death, and is two months deep into conversation with her near-perfectly preserved corpse. Well Taissa did previously warn the group that the impending temperature drop would make dying feel like falling asleep, and Jackie's creepy-as-hell dream sequence certainly illustrated that. Jackie's death was written on the wall – and not just because the show's flash-forwards had already revealed it. Jackie had the hardest time in the wilderness. Instead her death was eerily peaceful.

They're nearly out of food, Javi (Luciano Leroux) remains missing after fleeing during “Doomcoming,” and, most concerningly, Shauna has started talking to ...

The moment is like a twisted version of Communion: Overcome with grief for someone she both loved and hated, Shauna eats Jackie’s ear in hopes of keeping their connection, and her sense of self, alive. Realizing that she hasn’t yet allayed Taissa’s doubts, Van uses the blood from her mouth to write a message on Taissa’s arm: I love you. It’s no accident that it’s impossible to tell where Shauna ends and Jackie begins in these scenes: Jackie may be dead, but the two are still entwined, locked in a power struggle that secretly sustains them. The reality check sends Shauna spiraling, and she shoves Jackie’s corpse to the ground, ripping her ear off in the process. Back in the cabin, Shauna pulls Jackie’s detached ear out of her pocket and takes a big bite. It was Shauna who suggested Jackie leave the cabin after their fight, during which she exposed Jackie’s insecurities and flaws for all to see.

Showtime's drama about a group of high school girls stranded in the remote Canadian wilderness after a plane crash – and their lives as adults 25 years later – ...

Subsisting on a bear that Lottie (Courtney Eaton) killed in Season 1, tensions are high and the psychological effects of starvation and isolation are starting to appear. In one scene in Episode 2 that will have "Yellowjackets" fans buzzing, the young ensemble cast works seamlessly in one of the most intense, affecting and all-consuming scenes I've ever watched on TV. Every scene she's in is a must-watch, and there aren't nearly enough, at least in the first six episodes made available for review. The narrative jumps back and forth in time between the girls' first winter in the wilderness in 1996 and the present, with a sprinkling of illuminating scenes set elsewhere in the timeline. The new season adds layers to the foundation built in Season 1: New characters, new perils and more ambitious stories. And the second season reaches the heights of the first, with a negligible bump here or there.

Yellowjackets has finally returned with its highly-anticipated Season 2, and the first episode wastes no time diving in headfirst.

Simone (Rukiya Bernard) freaks out and drags Sammy away from Taissa, declaring that she knows about the “thing” in the basement and that Taissa needs to step down from her recently-won Senate position and get help, or she’ll go to the press. Meanwhile, Misty is dead set on finding Natalie and heads over to the motel she was staying at in Season 1, demanding information from the man working the front desk. She’s devastated by what she finds, and it’s clear she has no recollection of doing any of it, so what exactly is going on with her subconscious? Later, she is committed to an institution in Switzerland and uses her calming powers to help her roommate during what is seemingly a panic attack. After her parents take her to a doctor, she is then given shock therapy to try and help bring her back to herself. Natalie charges in to stop it and then finally confronts Lottie — but things aren’t so simple because Lottie has a message for Natalie from none other than Travis, which begs the question: what exactly does Lottie know about Travis’ death? [the effects of a brutal Canadian winter](https://collider.com/yellowjackets-season-2-images/), and the team finds themselves in the direst of situations. (If there’s one thing about Misty, she is always going to commit 100%.) She’s even been downvoting Adam Martin theories on a Reddit-like true crime page for citizen detectives. She offers to teach Misty how to sing, sparking the beginning of a friendship for the two that will surely be interesting to see play out. We of course have to catch up with Misty, too, and it seems that even two months later, the team is still holding a grudge over the mushroom incident. [Yellowjackets](https://collider.com/tag/yellowjackets/) has finally returned with its [highly-anticipated second season](https://collider.com/yellowjackets-season-2-review/), and it wastes no time diving in head first. It isn’t just meat that is being saved and kept cold; the team has also been keeping Jackie's (Ella Purnell) body propped up in their meat shed.

The 'Yellowjackets' star reveals what it's like being a meme, how his character's changed, and his forgotten Marvel role.

The Wilds was filmed in New Zealand, that's the biggest memory I have, just tooling around New Zealand and exploring that country. But you looked at the size of the sets and the star power ... I think that this kind of show hits a nerve and finds popularity because it's adolescent. I think that's where it gets interesting, and where the fun is in Season 2. Jeff’s like a Labrador who just wants to be a show dog. I think once Episode 7 rolled around in Season 1, I was able to root Jeff with some of those scenes, like the visiting Jackie's parents with Shauna, that lent a lot of insight into the character. Yellowjackets is a bit more of a pastiche than The Wilds was. It was important to be specific, it shed light on what each personality was, and you could tell that they had a healthy sense of humor that they could inject even into dark material. He already kind of knew that, it's just a shame that she might be reconstituting into that person. So as I saw it, reading the script was kind of like Jeff reading Shauna’s journal. That honest, real building of a fan base is very satisfying, because you know it's sincere. It validates how good the show is, because there wasn't a lot of gloss to pump it up and make it something that it wasn't to get attention.

Nuha Jes Izman, Samantha Hanratty, Alexa Barajas, Sophie Nélisse, Courtney Eaton, Nia Sondaya, ...

If “Yellowjackets” can be credited with navigating that balance in its As for others unmoved by the slow pace of revelations in the twin-track drama, the first four episodes offer little hope of reaching a clear destination anytime soon. The narrative flashes back and forth between their plight and the same group (or rather, the survivors) a quarter-century later, each harboring secrets and in some instances emotional wounds regarding what transpired.

At first, the new season of Showtime's hit “Yellowjackets” concerned me. The first couple episodes of this season don't quite have the buzz of last year, ...

But now that this is a five-season story, it makes sense the entire arc of “Yellowjackets” would add a few more players to the team. [Sammi Hanratty](/cast-and-crew/sammi-hanratty))—but it’s only half of “Yellowjackets.” In the present day, last season ended with Nat ( [Juliette Lewis](/cast-and-crew/juliette-lewis)) being kidnapped, and it turns out that a cult run by Lottie (Kessell) is to blame. Meanwhile, Taissa (Tawny Cypress) struggles to hold on to her sanity in increasingly surreal arcs that almost play out like “Twin Peaks.” As Tai battles with reality, Shauna ( [Melanie Lynskey](/cast-and-crew/melanie-lynskey)) struggles to cover up the death of Adam and hold her family together. Of course, the main drama of the flashbacks this year centers on the life that Shauna ( [Sophie Nelisse](/cast-and-crew/sophie-nelisse)) is about to bring into this world. One of the things that works so well about “Yellowjackets” is that the writers allow their characters to be increasingly weird. Its first couple episodes don’t quite have the buzz of last year, in part because of how the storytelling seems like it’s cleaning up a few things from the Emmy-nominated first season but also because it’s reasonable to worry that this show doesn’t quite know where it’s going.

The mystery thriller is more interested in illustrating its protagonists' profound psychic wounds, whether or not they're paranormal in nature.

In at least one respect, the creative team is listening and responding to its fans, or at least is on the same wavelength as they are. In the closing stretch of Season 1, it was heavily implied Lottie was involved in the death of Natalie’s ex, Travis (Andres Soto); many viewers took this to mean that she never renounced the role of Antler Queen, the ceremonial position she assumed in the woods. Given the cleverness of Yellowjackets’ casting—most of the adults are played by actresses who rose to fame in the 1990s, when they were around the same age as their characters’ younger selves—the show attracted almost as many theories about who would come onboard as what they would do once there. In Season 2, Yellowjackets is committed to keeping its questions open. Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) has to cover up her ex-lover’s killing, though at least she’s being helped out by her husband. Instead, it’s used as an accent to enhance the paranoia and tension among an increasingly desperate group of kids. Instead, Yellowjackets keeps its eyes on the prize: illustrating its protagonists’ profound psychic wounds, whether or not they’re paranormal in nature. By toggling between a girls’ soccer team stranded in the Canadian wilderness and their middle-aged selves, the series asked us to speculate on what happened and why. In its hotly anticipated second season, premiering Friday, Yellowjackets lets the mystery be. Some teammates, led by Lottie, start to believe their plane didn’t crash entirely by accident; they’re supported by eerie events like the spontaneous combustion of a small aircraft and the docile surrender of a bear to be slaughtered for meat. But it was also a reminder that those answers, even if they arrived, could never be as interesting as the ambiguity around them. [anticlimactic](https://www.theringer.com/tv/2022/1/16/22887056/yellowjackets-season-1-finale-shauna-jackie-lottie), at least to those expecting anything more lurid than best friends lashing out from a place of wounded pride.

SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from “Friends, Romans, Countrymen,” the Season 2 premiere of “Yellowjackets,” now streaming on Showtime.

But you could also wait and see what they’re actually going to have to face, and the choices that they’re going to have to make. We talked about how, from the moment it goes in her pocket, she is acutely aware of its presence, and is just feeling this impulse and this instinct, and whether you can blame it on the pregnancy and a weird craving, a weird urge — or is it her grief? I think what’s so perfect is, as Jonathan and Bart are saying, to us the ear is this baby step toward the cannibalism — but also being this metaphor for the intensity of those female friendships. And the Tori Amos of it all — why was “Cornflake Girl” the song you chose for that scene? Like, they’re just so overwhelmed with cuteness and affection that they actually want to destroy the thing that is the object of that. Part of her is genuinely terrified of the consequences, and of losing her family and her freedom. This idea of wanting to destroy that which you love — there’s almost a part of me that’s starting to create this theory that those aren’t actually opposing views. And so that part of how she is coping with and reacting to the consequences of her actions is really bifurcated. I literally want to consume this person, because I love them so much — but I also want them no longer to exist in a way. I think there was an expectation that we were setting up Lottie as the quote unquote Big Bad, and we don’t see any of our characters as functioning in that way. Then you see her upon getting rescued, when you realize that it’s not all OK, when she screams when she gets to the top of the stairs. Nickerson: One of the challenges of introducing another present-day character is they’re a season behind in terms of the audience engagement, so we were really wanting to put her on an equal footing.

Melanie Lynskey and Sophie Nélisse as Shauna · Tawny Cypress and Jasmin Savoy Brown as Taissa · Christina Ricci and Sammi Hanratty as Misty · Juliette Lewis and ...

Where have I seen Sammi Hanratty before? Where have I seen Tawny Cypress before? Who is teen Van? For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to [The Radio Times Podcast](https://www.radiotimes.com/audio/podcasts/). She appears to be running her own cult and had Nat kidnapped in the season 1 finale. She falls in love with Taissa and is almost killed by a wolf, but miraculously manages to survive. Who is teen Misty Misty? Jackie was the captain of the girls' football team and one of the most popular students at school. While stranded in the wildness, she also begins sleepwalking and eating dirt, which continues in the present day. She's also known for Heavenly Creatures with Kate Winslet, Hulu's Candy, HBO comedy-drama Togetherness, The Informant with Matt Damon, [Netflix](http://www.radiotimes.com/netflix)'s I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore, Away We Go starring John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, and comedy Two and a Half Men. Shauna had an affair with an artist called Adam, who she murdered due to her belief that he was the one blackmailing her. [Yellowjackets](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/yellowjackets-season-2-release-date/), it's the cast.

Music supervisor Nora Felder on why Tori Amos' hit song "Cornflake Girl" was the perfect song for "Yellowjackets."

As “Last Resort” emphasizes one’s emotions of coming to the end of one’s rope, and it seems pretty perfect as a physical outlet to what Jeff would listen to and turn to during moments of despair. In the context of this opening use in “Yellowjackets,” these teenagers are experiencing a far crueler existence than that of their former average high school life back in Wiskayok New Jersey. It’s a fitting tune to where the girls and these characters are. Sharon Van Etten’s “Seventeen” features prominently in the first episode. Jeff seems to have been internalizing a lot of the events that happened last season, many of which are out of his control. Tori Amos definitely felt like an artist that could be in the wheelhouse of this show and had not been used in Season 1 of the series. What made Papa Roach’s “Last Resort” the right song for him? I’ve always felt that the meanings behind Tori Amos’ lyrics tend to be multi-layered, which adds to their fascination. We agreed that moments that weren’t coming from within the world of the characters could be stamped musically with music from any era, just as a song from yesterday can accent a current moment. “Yellowjackets” co-creator Ashley Lyle told Variety that she’s been a fan of Amos’ “since middle school,” and had wanted to feature her music on the show. We also agreed that it could be the reverse case with a current song resonating with past events, and that’s what audiences hear this season. Teen Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) has a hard time saying goodbye to Jackie (Ella Purnell), who froze to death in the Season 1 finale, after the two best friends had a fight, and Jackie spent the night outside in a snit.

"Yellowjackets" actor Warren Kole admits he had never heard Papa Roach's "Last Resort" until Jeff's car scene.

In the garage scene, it’s a moment where he’s feeling very alone,” “It allows him to let go of this pressure valve because he’s so in over his head and he absolutely knows it,” he says. “He doesn’t know what to do, so he’s gonna regress a little bit and have this moment.” I think he knows that she’s out of his league and that is a big source of the attraction.” He’s listened to it a hundred times and picks out the drum solo.” And he’s helping to cover up the murder of Adam (Peter Gadiot), with whom Shauna was having an affair.

'Yellowjackets': Simone Kessell Explains Why Adult Lottie Buries A Man Alive In The Premiere.

I think it symbolizes that it’s in all of us. I said, ‘does she really believe this?’ And he said, ‘she absolutely wants to heal and take care of people.’ So I was like, ‘okay, so why does she have a gold Rolex?’ She likes fine things. I was very much taken with her intensity and I thought, ‘okay, how can I take this to another level as a woman?’ It was so wonderful to do the work because the showrunners really let me go with it. I really wanted to bring her in with this love and light. There’s this great scene coming up in episode two where Natalie says, ‘is that what you were trying to do when your purple fucks jumped me?’ We see Natalie and Lottie walking through the compound and you see the world of Lottie come into effect. The past is then reflected in the present. I was working on a TV show down in New Zealand at the time, and I couldn’t access it, so I had to go online and find out as much as I could without seeing the show. And at the end of some of them, I would have extras come up and shake my hand or hold me or hug me. Somebody else on the cast said to me, ‘what happens at your community, at your compound?’ And I was like, ‘look, it’s just one of the many treatments we offer.’ That’s such a fun scene. I just saw you kicking ass in the premiere episode of Netflix’s The Night Agent. KESSELL I think Lottie does have healing powers in the sense that she’s been through so much and learned so much along her way. I’m trained in stage combat, so that was so much fun.

Creator Jesse Armstrong and stars Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook (who debuted her baby bump), Kieran Culkin, Nicholas Braun, Alan Ruck, Matthew Macfadyen ...

Spotify and Hulu hosted an evening celebration for original docuseries RapCaviar Presents in West Hollywood on Thursday. The HBO doc, centered on singer/songwriter Jason Isbell, premiered in L.A. The Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment presented Radiance, a celebratory fundraiser event that honored cultural creators and power brokers in the Asian and Pacific Islander community in L.A. Guests included Stacey Abrams, Awkwafina and KLUTCH Sports Group’s Rich Paul. Saturday included a surprise guest appearance from Kenan Thompson, reuniting with Kel Mitchell for an All That panel following the announcement of the Good Burger film sequel. EndoFound co-founders Tamer Seckin, MD and Padma Lakshmi were also in attendance. The Grammy Museum, in conjunction with the Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective, celebrated the music of MGM+ series Godfather of Harlem on Wednesday with a screening of the season three finale followed by a conversation with executive music producer Swizz Beatz, music supervisor Stephanie Diaz-Matos, and executive producers and co-creators Chris Brancato and Paul Eckstein. Honorees included Ming-Na Wen, Tati Gabrielle, Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja, Dana Ledoux Miller, Shirley Kurata, Georgia Lee and Priya Satiani. On Monday, Netflix hosted a private screening and dinner for the first Greek Netflix original series Maestro in Blue at the Bay Theater in the Pacific Palisades. Creator Jesse Armstrong and stars Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook (who debuted her baby bump), Kieran Culkin, Nicholas Braun, Alan Ruck, Matthew Macfadyen, J. De Bethune and Swizz Beatz marked the release of DBD Season 2 with a launch party at the new WatchBox lounge in West Hollywood on Sunday, along with support from Alicia Keys and LL Cool J. Smith-Cameron and Alexander Skarsgård walked the carpet for the fourth and final season of the HBO hit drama on Monday in NYC.

Yellowjackets, Showtime's hit thriller about the survivors of a mid-'90s disaster in which a girls' soccer team was stranded in the wilderness, has returned ...

[Kessell herself argues](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/01/meet-yellowjackets-antler-queen-lottie-25-years-later) that she’s playing a character that genuinely wants to help the present-day survivors heal. The introduction of present-day Lottie will doubtless reignite speculation if she really is the Antler Queen, but at the same time, Yellowjackets writers seem laying it on a bit too thick for that to be the answer. “Friends, Romans, Countrymen,” as the premiere is called, moves as quickly as it can in its introduction to the many plates Yellowjackets has left spinning in midair since last year. And then there’s a new layer added: a brief flash a little bit further to the Yellowjackets’ lives immediately post-rescue, mostly focusing on Lottie and her difficulty reintegrating back into normal life. [both good and less so](https://www.polygon.com/22884210/yellowjackets-season-1-finale-questions)), what’s most remarkable about the season 2 premiere is that it just feels like… Showtime’s psychological thriller about a high school girls’ soccer team stranded in the wilderness in the mid-’90s, and what became of the survivors, had it all: multiple timelines, psychological horror, suburban comedy, and, of course, the dreadful knowledge that many of the girls who survived to the present day probably had a dark cultlike dalliance with cannibalism.