Editor’s note: All spoilers below! Proceed with caution.
Have you ever been so hungry that you feel you could eat anything? I’m sure we’ve all been there at some point. But could you ever eat your dead best friend’s ear? In a fit of desperation, that’s exactly what Shauna did. So now, for better or worse, Jackie will always be a part of her. This week’s episode opens up with Jackie confronting Shauna about her late-night snack. It’s a grim image as Shauna’s updated vision is now missing said ear. In an attempt to cover up her sin, Shauna braids Jackie’s hair to obscure the missing appendage and applies her makeup as best friends do until we’re quickly reminded that Jackie is actually still a frozen corpse.
Hopping over to the present day, Shauna’s daughter Callie seems to be going through a crisis. After discovering a charred piece of Adam’s license in the family’s grill, she knows her parents are hiding something; she’s just not entirely sure what. Feeling disconnected from the entire situation, she abruptly breaks up with her boyfriend and joins the land of the newly single. Senator-Elect Taissa Turner is doing everything she can not to fall asleep and bring out her inner demon. Unsure whether it’s just a case of severe sleepwalking or something far more sinister, but probably wishing for some Hypnocil right about now. It’s revealed in the past that Tai is still having problems sleepwalking through the forest, and one night is saved from the edge of a cliff by Van.
In the past, we also see tensions rise between Lottie and Nat. Nat is furious that Lottie is giving Travis false hope that Javi is still alive, Lottie insists that she’s telling the truth and he somehow will find his way back to the group. This is an inverse of what’s happening in the present as Lottie reveals that she’s had her people watching Nat ever since Travis’ suicide. This means throughout the first season, Lottie kept tabs on her while she was blissfully unaware. I can’t help but wonder what happened between these two women that caused Lottie to take such an interest in Nat.
Modern-day Misty receives a reply on her Reddit post asking for help with the motel security camera. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for her, it’s the mysterious Citizen Detective that’s been inquiring about Adam’s disappearance, bringing him closer to the Yellowjackets. In the past, Tai is mortified to find Jackie’s frozen body, all made up in the meat shed. She frantically calls out to Shauna, and the group decides to dispose of Jackie’s body somehow despite the ground being frozen solid.
Here’s where things start to get a bit messy in the modern era, Kevyn (Nat’s old flame, who just so happens to be a detective ) shows up at Shauna’s and begins asking her about Adam after finding texts between the two on Adam’s phone. While she claims it was nothing but a fender bender and light texting, Kevin reveals that he has pages and pages of text conversations between them. When it seems like she’s backed into a corner, Callie arrives home and causes a distraction to get Kevyn to leave—inadvertently involving herself in her parents’ misdeeds. Elsewhere Misty is at work and browsing the Citizen Detective subreddit when she notices a suspicious man touring the nursing home. It’s Elijah Wood in his first in-person appearance. We now have a body to match the voice!
Back at the Cabin, Nat and Travis have left for a hunting expedition. They decide to split up so Travis can search for Javi. While on her own, Nat takes a pair of Javi’s shorts and covers them in blood from a wound in an attempt to dissuade Travis from his effortless searches (a decision I’m sure she won’t come to regret later).
Jumping forward to the present, Lottie reveals what happened the night Travis died. After Travis and Nat go on a bit of a bender, she tells him, “We brought it back.” Terrified, Travis reaches out to Lottie, saying he needs to speak to “it.” He then sets up a crane to hang himself in hopes of summoning it while a terrified Lottie looks on with a plan to lower him before he dies. In a case of unfortunate timing (or supernatural forces), the button to the crane gets stuck, and Travis hangs until he dies. In the past, Lottie is haunted by a vision in the meat shed of various images, including one of Laura Lee?
In the present, Tai’s son Sammy arrives at her house unannounced, much to her surprise. After calling her estranged wife to pick him up, they’re horrified to learn he’s gone missing. This can’t be good. Elsewhere in the present, Callie meets a new boy, Jay, in a bar. They hit it off, and she is unaware that “Jay” is in fact Kevin’s partner, an undercover cop investigating Adam’s disappearance. Uh oh.
In the woods, the group decides to cremate Jackie, Viking style. Before the ceremony, Lottie gives Shauna Jackie’s locket. She then argues with Nat over Javi’s fate when Nat presents Travis with his bloodied shorts. Travis reluctantly accepts the shorts as proof he’s not coming back. Shauna gives Jackie a heartfelt eulogy, and they light her body on fire as a final goodbye. Travis makes a tearful goodbye to Javi and burns his shorts in the same fire. The Yellowjackets are letting go of the past and trying to move forward despite their losses.
In the present, Nat is haunted by visions of her, Travis, and a paramedic? It’s unclear, but I can’t help but feel this particular vision is a memory of vital importance, and something or someone is blocking it. In the past, Nat consoles Travis over his hard goodbye. Despite their rocky relationship and past issues, they kiss. This leads to them finally having sex after struggling with intimacy in the first season. During intercourse, Travis is subjected to visions of the forest and Lottie. Outside the cabin, an unknown force is traveling the forest Evil Dead style and shakes snow from a tree above Jackie’s funeral pyre, putting it out.
Tai and her wife are out looking for Sammy after his disappearance. While in the car, they receive a call from Sammy’s school asking when they’re going to pick him up, as he’s been there the last two hours. Realizing Tai imagined the whole encounter with Sammy, Simone insists that Tai get mental and medical help if she wants to save her family. In a flash, they’re in a horrific car accident, and the scene cuts to black.
The gang finds Jackie’s charred body. Shocked and unsure of what to do, the group shares a vision of them at a roman feast with tons of food and fancy clothing. We cut back and see them begin to rip apart and eat Jackie’s body as a horrified Coach Ben runs back inside, overcome with disbelief.
Wowwee, what a week it was for Yellowjackets. We finally got a little more insight into Travis’ untimely death, but as a consequence have more questions than ever before. What the hell did Nat mean by “We brought it back?” What the hell is “it” exactly? Why is everyone having visions? Are they a shared hallucination or something far more sinister? How long will Shauna be able to put on a ruse to keep the cops off her trail? What the hell is up with Tai’s situation? Yellowjackets seems to take the “hydra” approach to storytelling. Every time a head is cut off, two reappear in its place. I’m glad we finally closed the book on Jackie’s story, and I’m excited to see where the dark future for these characters goes.
