WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for Yellowjackets season 3, episode 8!With yet another survival reveal and the setup for another survivor to die,Yellowjacketsseason 3 is bringing the series to the point where it finally has to begin concluding the story that was set up by the pilot episode. Since the series premiere, the main goal ofYellowjackets’ past timelinehas been to show the teens’ dark descent as they desperately attempt to survive the wilderness. Meanwhile,the main goal of the present timeline has been to show the adult survivors’ dark descent as they desperately try to keep their actions from the wilderness a secret.
In the present timeline, each season seesYellowjackets’ adult survivors contend with potential blackmailers, stalkers, or their own fellow Yellowjackets threatening to expose or bring back their pasts. This has continued to involve the death of one survivor and the surprise reveal of another being alive each season, including Travis and Lottie in season 1, Natalie and Van in season 2, and now Lottie and Melissa in season 3. However,Yellowjacketsis now running out of survivors to shockingly kill and reveal in compelling ways, meaning season 4 must finally introduce the adults’ worst nightmare for its main story.
Yellowjackets Needs To Finally Have The Truth About The Wilderness Be Exposed In The Present Timeline
This Would Be The Most Compelling Direction To Take The Adults' Story
At this point, the mostcompelling direction forYellowjacketsto take in its present timeline is to finally have the survivors’ crimes and actions from the wilderness be exposed to the public. This has been their biggest fear sinceYellowjackets’ premiere, and they’ve gone to increasingly drastic and morally corrupted measures to ensure their secrets remain hidden. Killing Adam was just the beginning, with Travis, Jessica, Kevyn, Natalie, andLottie then being killedin the time since. Eventually, their cruel efforts to stop the truth from coming out and “please the wilderness” have to stop working.
Having their secrets finally come to light would giveYellowjacketsseason 4 a strong, fresh, engrossing new set of challenges and threats for its main characters.
Considering the main conflict of the present timeline is to keep their actions in the wilderness a secret,it’s inevitable that the truth will come out by the end of the series. Just like how Walter White’s crimes are uncovered inBreaking Bad, Mike Ross’ fake law degree is discovered inSuits, and Juliet finds out Shawn isn’t a psychic inPsych, the world has to eventually find out that theYellowjackets murdered and cannibalized each otheras teenagers in the Showtime series.
Yellowjackets Season 3’s New Survivor Reveal Continues One Of My Biggest Complaints About The Dual Timelines
With Yellowjackets season 3, episode 8’s confirmation of another survivor, the show continues an unbelievable trend for the present-day characters.
ByYellowjacketsseason 3, episode 8’s ending, the show has reached the point of exhausting its use of survival reveals, survivor deaths, and innocent people suffering as the primary source of conflicts in the present timeline. However, having their secrets finally come to light would giveYellowjacketsseason 4a strong, fresh, engrossing new set of challenges and threats for its main characters. We’ve seen how they respond to people who threaten to expose them, but we’ve never seen how they would respond to the entire world knowing the truth.
Melissa Has To Be The Final Surprise Survivor In Yellowjackets
There Can’t Be Any More Wild Card Survivors
Confirming a popular fan theory,Yellowjacketsseason 3, episode 8 revealed that Melissa survived the wilderness. This confirmation arrived after two previous survival twists, asYellowjackets’ season 1 finale confirmed that Lottie survived before season 2 disclosed that Van was also still alive in the present timeline. That meanseight characters fromYellowjackets' plane crash ultimately survived, though three of them (Travis, Natalie, and Lottie) are now dead as of episode 8. That number now doubles the four that were the focus of season 1 (Shauna, Tai, Misty, and Natalie), making any other surprise survivors very unlikely.
Hilary Swank
Jenna Burgess
As we reach the end ofYellowjacketsseason 3, there isn’t much narrative room for another survivor to be revealed. When Shauna, Tai, and Van were trying to figure out who sent the recording, they said that everyone else was dead, asthey believed that Melissa had diedalmost 25 years earlier. It would be too redundant forYellowjacketsto include yet another death fake-out for the adult survivors, soMelissa is very likely to be the last of the present-day Yellowjackets. With that, the show is now at the perfect point to move their story in a different direction.
The Yellowjackets Facing The Truth In The Present Timeline Would Be A Good Parallel To Their Post-Rescue Story
The Adults Would Be Directly Facing The Consequences Of The Teens' Decisions Post-Rescue
Time is winding down before the Yellowjackets are finally rescued and return home in the past timeline, which is expected to happen in season 4. Meanwhile,the dual timelines tend to mirror each other with their overall stories and character arcs, giving a hint as to what the present-day story could entail to parallel the teen narrative. If their rescue does happen next season, then while the teen survivors work to acclimate to their lives back home, get their stories straight, and deny what really happened in the wilderness, the adults could deal with those lies finally being exposed.
Yellowjacketsseason 4 has yet to be officially renewed by Showtime.
It would be extremely compelling to watch the teens in 1998 argue and decide on what to carefully reveal to the public, only for the adult timeline to see all of their desperate measures to maintain that facade go crashing down. We know that the teens’ effort to keep everything a secret ends up playing a major role in the adultYellowjacketscharacters’ guilt, trauma, brutality, and destructive coping mechanisms. Yet, their crimes finally being uncovered inYellowjackets’ present timeline couldexplore the irony of the truth finally setting them free and allowing them to move on.
