Season one of Yellowjackets ended with Jackie’s death and Shauna’s being filled with the pain and guilt of losing her best friend. In season two, we get to watch Shauna deal with the trauma of Jackie’s death in her own way. The girls did not bury Jackie for a while, which explains Shauna’s hallucinations. She imagines Jackie and herself conversing about their uncomfortable truths. This was Shauna’s way to deal with the tragedy and get rid of the guilt. The entire group grappled with the onset of winter, and things would only get worse for them. With Javi nowhere to be found, Travis is worried about his missing brother. He can only hope Javi will come back and is not engulfed by the wilderness. Nat and Travis were assigned to hunt and bring back as much meat as possible. And the duo was doing their best in that winter, which was only going to get worse.
Twenty-five years later, Nat realizes she was kidnapped by Lottie Matthews. Lottie Mathews is now a spiritual leader who runs a commune that helps people recover from severe mental and physical pain. She also wants to help Nat with the loss of Travis. Nat had tried to kill herself in her pursuit of being with Travis. Lottie reveals that she had met Travis, who kept saying Natalie was right after all. Lottie is curious to know what she conveyed to Travis that changed his mind. Travis and Nat were very much in love, but the last time they met, the two parted on bad terms, so much so that Travis had to change his name. Nat is trying to recollect her exact words, and she suspects those statements were made under the influence of narcotics.
Adult Shauna is an extension of what young Shauna became when she was in the wilderness. Shauna is getting rid of every piece of evidence that exists that would link her to the disappearance and murder of Adam Martin. That would include the paintings he made of her and locked away in his storage. Jeff manages to destroy the paintings along with Adam’s last proof of identity to save his wife some jail time. The young Shauna is still haunted by Jackie, and she cannot seem to get over her death. She maintained a journal to process her thoughts. Taissa offers to cremate Jackie so that Shauna does not spiral. In the meantime, Shauna also ends up eating Jackie’s ear, either out of sheer hunger or her hormones were kicking in. The girls cremate Jackie, but in the middle of the night, as all of them find Jackie’s body charred, the girls follow Shauna’s orders to eat up Jackie. The girls had been hungry since the onset of winter, and it triggered their wild side and brought out the cannibals in them.
The adult Taissa is struggling with her deteriorating mental health now that her wife and her son have left her. The senator-elect seems to be in denial about the situation, even though Simone was clear about her threats to go to the media about Taissa’s condition. She hallucinates plenty of stuff around her, but still, she does not take the initiative to approach a psychiatrist. Unfortunately, Taissa and Simone meet with a car accident. Simone suffers grave injuries, and this accident yet again accelerates her hallucinations. Was it her other personality that caused this accident, unknown to Taissa, so that Simone could never go to the media? This question was not answered by the makers of Yellowjackets . The young Taissa sleepwalks as her other personality, and it was only Vanessa who could bring Taissa under control. Vanessa and Taissa followed their sleepwalk trails and found the mysterious symbols on the trees, but they did not know what they meant.
During one of their expeditions, they sensed someone following them, and it happened to be Javi. The boy is brought back to the cabin, but he remained silent for days, and never revealed where he was all this time. The adult Taissa goes to meet Vanessa in the hope that she will be able to provide some assistance now that her old problems are resurfacing. Vanessa is in no mood to help her because she is going through her troubles. Vanessa has been diagnosed with cancer, and she would rather be with herself than talk about what happened in the past.
The young Shauna, who was heavily pregnant at that point, had plenty of issues with Lottie and the way she was influencing the rest of the group. Shauna, Taissa, and Nat never believed in Lottie’s behavior and visions. Shauna’s trauma, coupled with the adverse winter, led to the girl going into early labor. Misty mustered up the courage to help Shauna with the delivery. Adding to Shauna’s sorrow, her child was stillborn. Her pain quadrupled her anger and frustration, which she projected onto Lottie, whom she beat black and blue just to let out her rage.
Currently, Misty uses her persuasion and research skills to conclude that Nat was taken away by a group of people wearing purple clothes. Misty, who is a citizen detective, is helped by another fellow citizen detective named Walter. Walter was keen to know more about Adam Martin, but Misty managed to distract him from helping her find Nat and the commune she had joined. Misty and Walter seem to share similar interests in solving closed criminal cases. Thanks to their findings, Misty can locate Nat, and she is shocked to see Lottie is the one running the show. Nat is trying her level best to understand what Lottie is up to now that she has a cult leader-like persona.
Nat is not sure what Lottie wants from her, as she is unable to recall what she told Travis. Lottie repeatedly mentions that Travis knew Nat was right, which he had happened to mention on the night he killed himself. Through a session of hypnosis with Lottie, Nat reveals what she had told Travis; the darkness from the wilderness followed them. Travis could sense that her words had come true years later, which pushed him to commit suicide. Lottie believes there is an entity in them called IT that made them do unspeakable things during their long stay in the forest, and it probably followed them back to civilization. Though Lottie claims to be okay after years of stints with psychiatric treatment in Switzerland, the kind of talks she is indulging in makes Nat wonder if Lottie is fully treated. The young Nat as well remained far away from Lottie and her talk because she was always a pragmatic person and believed in what she saw.
Misty gets to the commune and gets Shauna, Vanessa, and Taissa to visit this place because Nat is here, and it would be better if they could come to see what Lottie is up to. Shauna is put through interrogation regarding Adam Martin’s disappearance. Kevin, the investigative officer who happens to be Shauna’s friend from school as well, tries to tighten the screws on her to make her confess. Shauna was close to confessing, but she did not do it for the sake of her family. To avoid any suspicion befalling her, Jeff pushes Shauna to head to the commune upstate to meet Misty, Nat, and Lottie. As everyone descends to meet Lottie, plenty of uncomfortable truths come out, and it is interesting to watch Lottie once again spiral over something called “IT,” which she claims is the reason behind what is happening to them, and all of them congregate at her property.
Back in the cabin, Lottie was recovering from injuries caused by Shauna; the girls decided to sacrifice one of them. One of them would be the food they require, and it would be for survival. Nat is chosen to be the one, but she is rescued by Travis and Javi. But in that bid to help Nat, Javi freezes to death, making him the chosen one. With utmost pain and adversity, all of them indulge in the flesh of his body, including Travis. This cannibalism was brought on by the increased hunger caused by plummeting temperatures, which reduced their hunting expeditions. Nat was chosen as the leader by Lottie because she believes Nat’s power cut through the wilderness’s power and let her survive the ordeal.
The women are trying to figure out Lottie’s conviction in this theory, but sadly, nobody is willing to buy it, including Taissa, who is grappling with mental health issues. Shauna inadvertently reveals that it was Jeff who blackmailed them for money, and she can understand if anybody in the group right now is livid and wants to get rid of him. Jeff, on the other hand, is cornered by Kevin and Matt as Shauna is made a prime suspect in Adam Martin’s death after his body is discovered. Jeff and Callie hurry up to the commune to probably pick up Shauna. Unbeknownst to them, Kevin and Matt follow the two to get a hold of Shauna.
Lottie’s hallucinations take control of her and make things worse for the rest of them. Lottie makes the women play an absurd version of Russian roulette to decide who will be chosen by the wilderness to leave this world. None of the women want to be a part of this charade anymore because all of them have moved on. Shauna, to get themselves out of there and pave the way for Lottie’s deteriorating mental health, plans an elaborate hoax to make sure Lottie is sent back to the psychiatric hospital. Things went awry when Shauna was chosen to be killed, which led to plenty of confusion and confrontation caused by Lisa, Lottie’s loyal member, and Callie. Nat, in a bid to save Lisa, is stabbed by Misty with her poisoned injection. Nat passes away instantly, and though there is looming sadness over her death, one could be happy to realize that she is now with Travis, the love of her life. Shauna, Misty, Taissa, Van, and Lottie are in shock, and Lottie is sent to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. Things between the women at the commune got chaotic and unpleasant. Their state of mind is uncertain that would be by the third season of Yellowjackets.
Season 2 of Yellowjackets concludes with the cabin where the girls lived back in the forest was set on fire, and all of them barely manage to escape the arson. It is not sure who started the fire or if it was just nature’s freak occurrence that destroyed the only home they had in this wilderness. A lot of questions remain unanswered, and it would be interesting to know if season three would tie up all the knots of every subplot that was introduced. The antler queen’s origin, Nat being the leader in the cabin after Lottie, Taissa’s worsening mental health condition and its causes, coach Scott’s memories, and finally, their rescue operation. All of these would be the crux of Yellowjackets, and hopefully, there would be a definite conclusion to this gripping tale of survival.
