Yellowjackets burst onto the scene in 2021 with perfect reviews and a cast list of kick-ass actors longer than you’re arm. It picked up a few Emmy nominations, left us with a lot of questions and now we’re more than ready for season 2. But it’s been a couple of years between seasons, so if you need a recap of what happened in Yellowjackets season 1 and where we left everyone, keep reading.
Spoilers for Yellowjackets season 1 ahead.
What is Yellowjackets about?
Yellowjackets follows an all-girls soccer team in the 1990s after their plane crash lands in the Canadian wilderness and the survivors are forced to undertake extreme, and sometimes supernatural, measures to survive.
Flash forward 25 years and the survivors of the plane crash are now living normal lives and have kept secret exactly what happened to them. Until it starts to catch up with them.
The series is a survival thriller full of twists and turns that is perfect for fans of The Wilds or Lost.
Yellowjackets season 1 recap
Shauna
Last we saw Shauna (Sophie Nelisse) in the past timeline, she and her best friend Jackie (Ella Purnell) had a massive fight after Jackie reveals she knew Shauna was cheating on her with her boyfriend, Jeff, who is also the father of her unborn baby. Jackie then proceeded to berate the rest of the group for scaring Travis while on mushrooms and decided to sleep outside, where she froze to death overnight.
In the present timeline, we find Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) covering for Jeff’s crimes, who is now her husband. A question throughout the first season was about the identity of the person who had been blackmailing the surviving Yellowjackets. Shauna thought it may have been Adam, a man she was having an affair. So she killed him, only to learn it was Jeff who was blackmailing them for money due to his store going out of business.
Shauna ended up covering for Jeff by telling her friends that Adam was the blackmailer and they helped her dispose of the body. Shauna’s daughter Callie also knows about her mother’s affair with Adam and has her suspicions after she learns on the news that he is missing.
Natalie
Throughout the season teenage Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) struck up a romance with Travis, the Coach’s son, and was helping him to look for his missing brother, Javi, who hadn’t been seen since the Doomcoming party.
In the present, Natalie (Juliette Lewis) is unravelling the mystery behind Travis’ death. At the end of the season, she is kidnapped by an unknown group and it’s revealed that Lottie was tied to Travis’ murder.
Misty
In the wilderness, Misty (Sophie Hanratty) is the outcast of the group. She develops a crush on Coach Ben but is shot down after he reveals he is gay. She is also one of the first to follow Lottie, believing she has some sort of supernatural powers.
In the present timeline, Misty (Christina Ricci) locks up Jessica, the reporter who has been questioning her, only to let her go, albeit with some poisoned cigarettes, which results in Jessica having a car crash.
Taissa
Taissa is played by Jasmin Savoy Brown in the past, but a lot of her more significant plot points take place in the present, where she’s played by Tawny Cypress.
In modern-day, Taissa (Tawny Cypress) is a cutthroat politician running for senate and she hires the reporter, Jessica, to look into her fellow Yellowjackets to try and determine if any of them have spilled the beans about the truth of their past. She’s also dealing with a strange condition that seemingly leads her to have blackouts and bouts of animalistic violence, which drives a wedge between her and her wife and son.
At the end of the season, Taissa wins the senate race but her wife discovers a strange altar beneath their house where Taissa has seemingly sacrificed their family dog.
Lottie
After experiencing strange supernatural visions throughout the season, it was revealed in the finale that Lottie (Courtney Eaton) is the antler queen teased at the beginning of the series. In the finale, Lottie exhibits some otherworldly powers after a bear allows her to walk up to it and kill it. She then carves out its heart and offers it to the forest.
In the finale we learn that Lottie is alive in the present and is the one who has kidnapped Natalie.
Van
Van (Liv Hewson) had a bit of a rollercoaster ride during season 1 of Yellowjackets. She starts dating Taissa, is mauled by wolves and then becomes one of the first followers in Lottie’s supernatural cult.
It’s unclear as yet exactly what happened to Van but we know that she survived the wilderness and will be played by Lauren Ambrose in season 2.
Find out where it all goes from here when Yellowjackets season 2 begins on March 24 on Paramount+.
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