WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for Yellowjackets' season 3 finale!After four years of waiting,Yellowjacketsfinallyconfirms which character is the notorious “pit girl” from the pilot episode. Back inYellowjackets’ series premiere, the teens’ eventual road to brutally hunting, killing, and cannibalizing each other in a ritualistic fashion was teased through brief glimpses to the end of their time in the wilderness. That gore kicked off withYellowjacketsshowing the death of “pit girl,” whose face is covered as she runs barefoot through the snowy woods, fatally falls into a pit with stakes at the bottom, and is later eaten by the other masked teens.
The mystery of pit girl’s identity carried on for three seasons, withYellowjackets’ past timelinefinally catching up to that fateful moment in the season 3 finale. InYellowjacketsseason 3’s ending, the context of pit girl’s death is explored more thoroughly, making her gory demise even more brutal than previously imagined. While there was plenty of debate and speculation about which character would end up being pit girl inYellowjackets, it turned out thatthe most popular theory about her identity was ultimately, and tragically, correct.
The Yellowjackets Theories Were Correct: Mari Is Pit Girl
Mari Draws The Queen Of Hearts Card In The Season 3 Finale
Since the end ofYellowjacketsseason 1, the biggest theory about who pit girl was speculated that she would turn out to be Mari. As the unfortunate events depicted inYellowjackets’ season 3 finale reveal,the theory about Mari being pit girl was correct. The idea that she would be pit girl was largely based around the fact that Mari most closely matched the physical description of pit girl seen from those brief pilot episode clips, and that she wasn’t among the knownpresent-dayYellowjacketssurvivors.
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To live up to the tragedy and weight of the teens’ moral corrosion and loss of humanity teased inYellowjackets’ pilot episode,pit girl had to be a character who audiences had already grown to know, recognize, and understand in season 1. Had pit girl turned out to be one of the backgroundYellowjacketscharactersfrom seasons 1 or 2 whose names were hardly even mentioned, the impact of her death arguably would have been cheapened. Meanwhile, Mari is someone whose name and identity audiences have gotten to know well throughout the past timeline sinceYellowjacketsseason 1.
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Of course,Yellowjacketsseason 3 has also been setting up Mari to become pit girlsince the premiere. For one,Mari previously fell into the pit (without stakes) back inYellowjacketsseason 3, episode 1after Coach Ben had cleared it out. She became “pit girl” before becoming the real Pit Girl. Additionally, season 3 opened with a scene of the teens chasing Mari through the woods, much like the hunt teased in the pilot, though for a game of “Capture the Bone” rather than the Yellowjackets’ sacrificial hunt. As such, that foreshadowing had consistently been there throughout season 3.
How Yellowjackets' Season 3 Finale Changes Pit Girl’s Death From The Pilot
There Was Much More Happening During The Hunt
Now thatYellowjacketshas finally revealed the full context of pit girl’s death, the interpretation and meaning of the teased scenes from the season 1 premiere have been altered. For instance, we know that it’s Van who peers down and finds Mari in the pit, withher reaction being more devastated and heartbroken, rather than the quietly satisfied and accepting response that seemed to be implied in the premiere. Furthermore, we know that each character didn’t just silently accept or embrace their roles in the hunt – “Natalie” bleeding and preparing the body was a punishment for betraying Shauna.
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The biggest new piece of context is that there were plenty of secretly smaller plans and betrayals going on behind the scenes during the hunt.Lottie and Akilah weren’t even at the hunt; instead, they went to the cavewhere Lottie had a conversation with the Wilderness embodied by theAntler Queen spirit. At the same time, Gen and Melissa came up with a plan to attempt to distract Shauna and some of the others from chasing after Mari, hoping to give her a better chance of survival due to their close friendship.
Mari/pit girl’s tragic death was what finally gave them the opportunity to return home.
Meanwhile,in the middle of the hunt, Natalie and Hannah devised a plan that appears to result in the teens finally getting rescued. Natalie and Hannah ended up switching outfits so the former could get away from Shauna. Natalie then secretly took the newly-fixed satellite phone to the top of a cliff where it was able to get a signal. After yelling into the phone hoping someone would hear her, a man finally responded beforeYellowjackets’ season 3 finale cut to the credits, indicating that Mari/pit girl’s tragic death was what finally gave them the opportunity to return home.
Additionally, we now know how Mari was chosen to be pit girl, and all the twists that had to happen for her to draw thedoomed Queen of Hearts card. It’s revealed thatVan figured out how to manipulate the card drawings when she was the dealer, which previously got her out of being chosen for certain chores around the “village.” However, Tai asked Van to do it again so that neither would be chosen to be hunted. Rather than rig the drawing to land on one of their fellow Yellowjackets, they manipulated the order so that Hannah would be chosen.
So far, Natalie and Mari are the only two characters who have been hunted after drawing the Queen of Hearts card.
However, the reigningAntler Queen Shaunacaught onto their plan during the drawing and moved her order to ruin it. As such, rather than Hannah drawing the Queen of Hearts card, it was Mari. Considering Shauna and Mari had a worsening feud throughoutYellowjacketsseason 3, she wasn’t too torn up about her former teammate being chosen to die instead of the wilderness’ new arrival.Mari being chosen to be pit girl therefore became a fitting representation of Shauna’s violent, ruthless reign as the wilderness’ Antler Queen.
Mari’s Brutal Murder Is Symbolic Of The Teens' Loss Of Humanity
Image via Paramount+
While at one point it seemed likeYellowjacketswas truly going to go withHannah being pit girl, that thankfully didn’t happen. Mari being pit girl is far more meaningful, withher death fully symbolizing the teens’ moral decay and descent into a sadistic, feral, inhuman state in the wilderness. Mari was a girl who the teens grew up with, were friends with, became close teammates with, grieved with, and survived with. Despite this, the Yellowjackets resorted to viciously hunting, killing, and eating her in the name of praising the powers of the Wilderness that may not even be real.
Yellowjacketsseason 4 has yet to be officially renewed by Showtime.
Before Mari, the deaths of those involved inYellowjackets’ plane crash weren’t as malicious or cruel.Jackie froze to deathwhen an unexpected blizzard arrived on the night she was banished outside the cabin, but it wasn’t purely anyone’s fault. While Misty was intimidating Crystal, she accidentally backed up over the edge of a cliff, but that wasn’t a cold-blooded murder. Javi accidentally fell to his death when walking over the frozen lake, with his demise being accepted as the wilderness’ sacrifice over Natalie, who was the one actually being hunted.
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The wildernessdeaths inYellowjacketsseason 3were Coach Ben, Edwin, and Kodiak, though the latter two were new strangers with whom the main characters had no personal connections. Coach Ben’s death was an act of mercy on behalf of Natalie, so his fate can’t be counted in the same category as Mari being hunted and forced to her death in the stake-lined pit.Mari’s death is arguably the true point of no return for the teens, and that ruthlessness will inevitably continue before their rescue inYellowjacketsseason 4.
