Yellowjackets’ stars Christina Ricci and Melanie Lynskey dive deep into every jaw-dropping moment from Seasons 1 and 2—because let’s be real, a lot has happened. From the brutal plane crash and eerie wilderness survival tactics (hello, Antler Queen!) to shocking betrayals, cult-like rituals, and that Season 2 finale cliffhanger, they’re covering it all.
Shauna’s (Lynskey) secrets keep piling up, Misty (Ricci) is as terrifying as ever, and the past continues to haunt the present in ways no one saw coming. This is the ultimate refresher before we head back into the woods. Watch now—if you dare.
Shauna’s (Lynskey) secrets keep piling up, Misty (Ricci) is as terrifying as ever, and the past continues to haunt the present in ways no one saw coming. This is the ultimate refresher before we head back into the woods. Watch now—if you dare.
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00:00The pilot we shot in 2019 and we both have small children so let's just preface this with that.
00:09There's a lot going on.
00:10There's so much going on.
00:11So much has happened since then.
00:13Hi we're the cast of Yellow Jackets and we're going to catch you up on seasons one and two.
00:18Previously on Yellow Jackets.
00:21It opens in New Jersey following these teenagers getting ready to go to high school and then we
00:27find out they're all members of the soccer team.
00:30And the girls are about to go to nationals because they're very good soccer players.
00:34So good.
00:35Yeah.
00:35What is your character?
00:36A fullback?
00:37Midfield?
00:38Oh my god.
00:39Oh sorry.
00:40Yeah so they go to get on this plane and go to nationals and then the plane crashes
00:46somewhere out in the woods.
00:48Do we know specifically that it's northern Canada?
00:51I don't know.
00:52Anyway it's like northern Canada.
00:55Way out in the woods and it's 1996 so you know no cell phones.
00:59Coach Ben loses his leg.
01:02He's crushed and then Misty cuts it off for him.
01:10That whole scene.
01:11Oh my gosh.
01:11The whole aftermath thing was really really incredible.
01:13I love that episode.
01:14Episode two.
01:15Yeah it was really like fun.
01:17It felt very MTV and like jazzy.
01:20And they were all so good.
01:21They're so good.
01:22The casting is very very good.
01:24Every single person.
01:26Everybody who crashed in the wilderness and survived the plane crash because a couple of
01:30people died.
01:31My character is Shawna.
01:32She's played by Sophie Nelise in the Teen Timeline.
01:36Shawna is living in New Jersey.
01:38She's kind of like a wife and a mom.
01:40She's married to Jeff.
01:42Jeff!
01:42There you go Jeff.
01:43I love Jeff.
01:44I love Jeff.
01:45Jeff runs a furniture store and he's doing very well.
01:49And that's kind of-
01:50Is he though?
01:51Shh.
01:53No he's not doing so well with his furniture store.
01:56Jeff as it turns out is Jackie's boyfriend from episode one.
02:02You discover in episode one that Shawna's been having like a secret affair with her
02:06best friend's boyfriend.
02:07And we have a daughter whose name is Callie and she's played by Sarah Desjardins.
02:12My character's Misty and she's played by Samantha Hanratty in the Teen Timeline.
02:18And there's also Natalie who as an adult is played by Juliette Lewis and as a teen
02:23is played by Sophie Thatcher.
02:25There's Thaisa who as an adult is played by Tawny Cypress and as a teen is played by
02:29Jasmine Savoy Brown.
02:31Thaisa in the present day is a very high powered lawyer who's running for state senator.
02:37Van.
02:37Van of course who's played by Liv Hewson and Lauren Ambrose as an adult.
02:44Lottie.
02:44Lottie of course who is played by Courtney Eaton as a teen and Simone Kessel as an adult.
02:52Laura Lee.
02:52There's a character Laura Lee.
02:54That's right with her teddy bear.
02:55Yeah Jane Widdop.
02:56She was so great.
02:57She was really great.
02:58The men coach who had brought his two sons with him.
03:01Travis and Harvey.
03:02That's right.
03:03Flash forward.
03:04So some of the characters adult character gets a postcard with a symbol that they're
03:10familiar with from the wilderness.
03:12To what does it mean?
03:13Natalie's back in town and Natalie is looking for grown up Travis because they were in a
03:20relationship on and off for years and now she'd like to find him that she's gotten out
03:25of rehab.
03:25So then Misty offers to help Natalie find Travis because now Misty knows where everyone
03:31is basically and they go up to find Travis but Travis has hung himself in a nearby barn
03:38where he works.
03:39And so then that propels those two on to trying to find Travis's murder because Natalie
03:49refuses to believe that he has killed himself and they find like under his body where he's
03:54like hanging from a crane they find like places where candles used to be so it looks very
04:01much like a ritual that they are familiar with.
04:04Okay so Shauna gets into a car accident that was not her fault and that's what I strongly
04:10believe and the person in the other car is like a young local artist named Adam Martin
04:17and then he sort of like takes an interest and she's like what's going on but then they
04:23meet up and then they just have this kind of chemistry and they start having an affair.
04:28She's a bit of a reckless person and she thinks that Jeff is having an affair to be
04:34fair so she thinks that he's already doing it so why shouldn't she?
04:40Justified, it's a justified affair.
04:42Very justified, no problems with that.
04:45No.
04:45Callie discovers them at the Halloween party.
04:49Woah.
04:50That's the problem with dating increment right?
04:52Yeah they're going to go to the same party.
04:54Teenage daughter is just going to get messy.
04:56You don't want to do that.
04:58Try to have an affair with an older person who's going to be at different parties than
05:02your child is at.
05:04That's what I would advise.
05:06So she made a mistake there.
05:08Probably going to the Halloween party.
05:10It was also a mistake.
05:12Who wants to do that?
05:14They went to Brooklyn.
05:16All the way to Brooklyn from New Jersey.
05:1810pm or something.
05:20It's late.
05:23No thank you.
05:25I'm not going to have an affair.
05:27I don't want to do all that.
05:29It seems like so much work.
05:31What a nightmare.
05:33Anyway so Shauna did that and Callie's a little bit of a tricky little one and she thinks
05:35she's going to blackmail Shauna and Shauna's like oh you don't know who you're messing with.
05:39Have you ever heard of mutually assured destruction?
05:43There's some interesting dynamics there.
05:45Mother daughter dynamics that I enjoy playing with Sarah.
05:49Back in the wilderness.
05:51Shauna finds out that she's pregnant
05:53and it's Jeff's.
05:55The attempted abortion scene
05:57is very upsetting.
05:59Especially now.
06:01Especially now. Really difficult to watch.
06:03Really heartbreaking and
06:05both Jasmine and Sophie
06:07who were in that scene did such a beautiful job.
06:09It was really really
06:11tricky. It's just awful to think of
06:13anyone having to go through that.
06:15That was one of the
06:17hardest and most beautiful
06:19scenes in the show.
06:21A scene where you really see the depths
06:23of these actors' talent
06:25and what they can do.
06:27I just feel like Sophie's just
06:29limitless emotion.
06:31I don't want to die.
06:33It's so crazy.
06:35And then she's just like.
06:37She does some crazy thing.
06:39She's so nonchalant about it.
06:41But yeah it was a really tragic scene
06:43and Shauna kind of panicked at the last
06:45minute and they
06:48stopped it and she remained
06:50pregnant and it's just all a horrible
06:52tragic situation.
06:54I honestly don't know if Shauna
06:56was planning on telling Jackie the truth.
06:58She lied about
07:00who the father was
07:02and said it was Randy.
07:04I would have chosen someone else.
07:06She's a stranger.
07:08Yeah.
07:10She is schizophrenic
07:12and she runs out
07:14of her medication.
07:16I'm not sure if it's her schizophrenia
07:18or if she's actually having visions
07:20and if they're not alone
07:22out there. The cabin is haunted
07:24because they find a cabin
07:26an abandoned one with a dead body in it.
07:28So they're doing a seance.
07:30Lottie's all screwed up.
07:32She starts speaking French. Courtney did such a good job.
07:34She really did. She starts speaking French
07:36and then she starts slamming her head
07:38against the glass and Jackie
07:40has been studying French in high school
07:42and her high school French tells us that
07:44she said something ominous.
07:46But I can't remember what it is.
07:48I smell blood.
07:50Or else. Or else what Lottie?
07:52Flash forward. Shauna, Natalie
07:54and Thaisa agree to pay
07:56$50,000 to the blackmailer
07:58and arrange a meeting
08:00with this blackmailer and then try to
08:02sort of capture him
08:04but he runs away
08:06and
08:08that's all a big mess.
08:10Got any more good ideas?
08:13We look for an asshole covered in glitter.
08:15Back in the wilderness.
08:17Young Thaisa gathers support
08:19to leave their cabin and hike back
08:21to civilization. Oh yeah, I forgot about this.
08:23But that doesn't go well. Right, right.
08:25Because Bayonne gets attacked by wolves.
08:27Oh yeah. That's terrible.
08:29It's bad. Yeah, they come back.
08:31They have to come back because of the wolves.
08:33Natalie and Travis start having their
08:35affair when they're out in the wilderness
08:37and she's having lots of trouble
08:39with Travis. He's kind of being a jerk.
08:42I made a mistake.
08:44Well apparently so did I.
08:46She goes to Coach Ben
08:48to seek advice from him
08:50and Misty
08:52is also really, like she's
08:54caretaking Coach Ben so she starts
08:56developing feelings
08:58for him but he's
09:00gay as he reveals
09:02to Natalie.
09:04Yeah, he and Natalie get quite close. It's a really lovely
09:06relationship and we love Stephen Kruger.
09:08I love Stephen Kruger.
09:11I love the two of them, Stephen Kruger and Sophie Thatcher.
09:13All those scenes, I could watch them forever.
09:15Doom Coming is a great
09:17fun episode.
09:19The girls decide to throw a
09:21party. Like Homecoming.
09:23Yeah, like Homecoming but
09:25Doom Coming. Spooky. Is that when
09:27you, Misty? Yes, she's been gathering
09:29magic mushrooms but
09:31Mari takes her mushrooms
09:33and accuses her of withholding food
09:35and then puts it in everybody's soup.
09:37Yeah, so then everybody's just
09:39tripping and crazy and this
09:41is where a hunt happens
09:43where they all get a bit feral.
09:45They start attacking Travis.
09:47Yeah, poor Travis.
09:49Although he was a jerk.
09:51He was a jerk. Kevin
09:53the actor who plays Travis isn't a jerk.
09:55No, Kevin's not a jerk. Kevin's lovely.
09:57Jackie and Shauna's
09:59resentment builds up.
10:01This is very sad.
10:03They have a huge fight and they both were amazing.
10:05Oh, Ella Purnell.
10:07What a great actor.
10:09Go on, get out!
10:11No, I can't be around you. I can't
10:13even f***ing look at you right now.
10:15That sounds like your problem.
10:17So maybe you should leave.
10:19But then unfortunately
10:21it snows, gets very
10:23very cold
10:25and there's a lovely sequence
10:27where Jackie is kind of
10:29invited to her
10:31death and then the next day she's
10:33dead.
10:35Back in the present day
10:37what Misty is doing while you guys
10:39are paying off the blackmailer
10:41is this
10:43reporter Jessica Roberts has been
10:45nosing around and
10:47Misty decides that she's a threat to the
10:49other Yellow Jackets and so Misty kidnaps
10:51her and keeps her in a basement
10:53until she can figure out who
10:55hired her, why she's there
10:57all this stuff and she finally
10:59kind of realizes that she's not a threat
11:01and so she poisons her
11:03with her pack of cigarettes and lets her go
11:05and Jessica Roberts dies
11:07pretty quickly from fentanyl
11:09poisoning in her car.
11:11Do you feel like this is the first time Misty
11:13has held someone captive in the basement?
11:15No, that's why she was all ready to go.
11:17That's why it was prepared.
11:19That's why she had her murder suit.
11:21Yeah, she's got all the supplies.
11:29So Natalie's kidnapped.
11:31Kidnapped by the purple people.
11:33Gone to the end.
11:35What is it, a wellness center or a cult?
11:37What do you guys think?
11:39That's for the audience to decide.
11:41That is for the audience to decide
11:43whether it's a cult or a wellness center
11:45but it is run by Adult Lottie
11:47who's played by Simone Kessel
11:49who I adore.
11:51And she has kidnapped
11:53Natalie and
11:55taken her there
11:57and Misty discovers that
11:59Natalie's missing
12:01and decides to look for her
12:03and somehow, I don't know how
12:05Walter gets involved. How does she meet Walter?
12:07He's at the nursing home.
12:09Oh right, he's on the citizen detective forum
12:11and he also comes to the nursing
12:13home and then he leaves her notes
12:15and stuff and has information
12:17about Natalie
12:19and so they team up
12:21to investigate
12:23Natalie's disappearance.
12:25We're here to rescue you.
12:27You were kidnapped, right?
12:29No! Yes, technically
12:31I was but it's no big deal, okay?
12:33Walter played by Elijah Woods
12:35who's one of my very best friends.
12:37They're on a text chain and have been
12:39for ten years. We text every single day.
12:41Every single day.
12:43Not today though. No, not today. Is he okay?
12:45I don't know. We'll find out.
12:47Find out in a minute. So at the end of season
12:49one, Adam's body is discovered
12:51and Jeff and Shawna
12:53decide to go to his art studio
12:55to cover up evidence.
12:57To me, that's not a good idea to go to
12:59your deceased lover's art
13:01studio who you killed
13:03accidentally in a trauma
13:05panic, not murdered.
13:07Thank you, Reddit.
13:09Yeah, you helped with that. You were so helpful.
13:11Thank you. The most helpful.
13:13MVP. Who died?
13:15I was so pregnant when we shot that.
13:17I couldn't bend down. What a trooper.
13:19They were like, you need to pick that up off the floor and I was like, it's not
13:21going to happen. So heavily pregnant
13:23and working so hard.
13:25So they get to his art studio
13:27and it's covered with pictures of
13:29Shawna, which was weird for me
13:31to see. So many
13:33pictures of me. And then they have sex
13:35in there, because why not?
13:37The documents. Personal documents.
13:39They burn on their barbecue
13:41and a tree really caught fire
13:43when we did that. Scary for a minute.
13:45And then Kelly finds a piece of his ID
13:47because it didn't burn properly. So then Kelly has
13:49more information. She's like, oh my god, what are my parents
13:51doing? They're crazy. Back in the wilderness.
13:53Tell them what you've been up to with Jackie.
13:55She's
13:57talking.
13:59Talking? Shawna's been braiding
14:01Jackie's hair. She's been doing her
14:03f***ing makeup. Holy Christ.
14:05They decide they're going to burn her body
14:07and just, you know, on a funeral pyre
14:09and then the snow
14:11comes and puts it out so she doesn't
14:13burn fully. She just cooks and
14:15it smells like cooked meat
14:17and the girls go nuts
14:19and eat her.
14:21So this whole time, Thaisa has been
14:23experiencing sleepwalking
14:25and sort of leaving her body
14:27and like something else taking over.
14:29And to
14:31fight this, when they go to bed
14:33they start tying themselves to each
14:35other so that Van
14:37can prevent her from sleepwalking
14:39because she goes off once and by the time Van
14:41grabs her she's like on the edge of a cliff about to
14:43fall off. Yeah, it's all, it's very
14:45scary and very crazy. And
14:47while she's sleepwalking she discovers
14:49symbols carved into
14:51trees around the
14:53woods where they are. Mysterious symbols.
14:55And it's that same symbol
14:57right? Yeah, from the postcards.
14:59There's a very devastating episode
15:01where Shawna goes into labour
15:03and
15:05it's very interesting when you see the dynamics
15:07of all the team
15:09people who are helping. Coach just
15:11checks out completely. Doesn't
15:13want to help. I just pressed play
15:15on a video. Which sort of
15:17turns everyone against him a little bit. He's
15:19really suffering. Shawna
15:21obviously is having
15:23the worst time of her life.
15:25She's in labour in the wilderness
15:27it's incredibly painful.
15:29She's very, very scared.
15:31Things are not going very well.
15:33Then there's a sequence where she
15:35is trying to feed the baby
15:37having a very hard time feeding the baby
15:39and she's very
15:41upset and then finally the baby starts
15:43eating and she's like, oh my god, thank god.
15:47And then she sees them all eating the baby
15:49and then it turns out that the whole thing was just
15:51a dream. In fact, the baby was
15:53not alive
15:55when it was born and
15:57she's really heartbroken.
15:59It's so sad.
16:01I didn't think I was going to cry but I just
16:03think about Sophie doing that and it's so amazing.
16:05It's really sad.
16:07It's really sad. It was difficult to read
16:09let alone watch. Oh god, I know.
16:11We didn't make it.
16:15No.
16:17No.
16:19No.
16:21No, he was alive.
16:23No, he was alive. I held him.
16:25Flash forward.
16:27Thaisa, in the present day,
16:29she really starts to go off the rails.
16:31She realizes that the sleepwalking
16:33is happening again in her
16:35adult life and she
16:37has this person, she becomes
16:39another Thai. So she leaves her body and another Thai
16:41comes. Other Thai has done horrible things like
16:43behead a dog and
16:45is scaring her child.
16:47So the second one,
16:49she kind of goes nuts. Her wife leaves her
16:51and she goes off
16:53looking for Van. And finds Van.
16:55And finds Van.
16:57And then Lottie
16:59is obsessed
17:01with the idea that all these terrible things are happening
17:03and their lives are falling apart and they're falling apart
17:05as adults because the wilderness is still with them
17:07and it's not satisfied and needs more.
17:09It wants another sacrifice from them.
17:11And so it convinces them to
17:13be a part of this
17:15crazy hunt, reenactment
17:17of the hunts of
17:19Days of Yore. And they do the
17:21card thing and Shana pulls
17:23the queen, which means that we all have
17:25to hunt and kill her.
17:27And then one of Lottie's acolytes
17:29shows up and tries to defend
17:31her with a rifle.
17:33Callie shows up.
17:35Callie shows up. She's got a gun.
17:37And then Misty's like, okay, I'm gonna
17:39protect everybody by
17:41poisoning Lisa, the acolyte,
17:43with this syringe of fentanyl I
17:45happen to have in my pocket. And as
17:47she's running over, Natalie
17:49who's formed a
17:51bond with Lisa and
17:53loves her and feels for her, decides
17:55to step in front of her and take the syringe
17:57instead.
17:59Because she always felt, oh,
18:01because she should have died instead
18:03of Javi in the wilderness.
18:05He's running away from everybody in the hunt
18:07and he falls through
18:09the ice and she allows him to
18:11die so that she won't be hunted and
18:13killed. And so in this moment, it's like
18:15she's making up for that in her past.
18:17But basically, so she causes Misty
18:19to accidentally kill her
18:21and that's upsetting for everyone.
18:23Oh!
18:25No!
18:27No! No!
18:29Natalie! God, good job.
18:31Thanks. That's everything you need to know
18:33about Season 1 or Season 2 or at least
18:35everything that we can remember.
18:37I would recommend watching the show
18:39and then on Valentine's Day, you can watch
18:41two episodes of Season 3.
18:43Yeah.