‘Yellowjackets’ Season 2, Episode 1 recap: Wish you were ear

Buzz buzz, bitches—we’re back. With the mournful crooning of Sharon Van Etten’s “Seventeen”—a pitch-perfect needle drop in a show known for them—the long-anticipated second season of Showtime’s breakout hit Yellowjackets roared back into the cultural conversation this weekend. And if this first episode is any indication of what’s to come, expect to ear a lot about it in the coming weeks.

Premiering in late 2021 to little initial fanfare—but a rapid ascension to buzzy culture zeitgeist—the first season of Yellowjackets was an honest-to-goodness original hit. The series about a 1996 high school girls’ champion soccer team stranded in the woods after a plane crash—and the surviving present-day adults grappling with what happened— garnered a wave of awards attention, with seven Emmy nominations and inspiring a rabid fan base to tune in every week to unpack its ever-expanding nesting doll of mysteries. 

Yellowjackets was renewed for a second season halfway through its initial run, and a third just a few months ago. But with the eyes of the world on it now, and expectations running high, can Yellowjackets Season 2 live up to the lofty standard set by the excellent rookie run? 

It’s hard to understate the refreshing phenomenon of the series while it was originally airing last year. Bookended by standout episodes directed by Karyn Kusama (Jennifer’s Body) and Eduardo Sánchez (The Blair Witch Project), the show was a perfect tonal synthesis of both iconic properties. It turns out mixing spooky unexplained shit in the woods with teen girl emotional stakes is a recipe for success—it makes literal what Amanda Seyfried’s character Needy says in Jennifer’s Body’s opener: “Hell is a teenage girl.” 

In Season 1, Yellowjackets thrived on centring beloved actresses from the ’90s like Melanie Lynskey, Christina Ricci, Tawny Cypress and Juliette Lewis in the present-day storyline, alongside pitch-perfect casting of their teenage selves in the ’90s storyline. And its beating heart was the central relationship between Shauna (played by Sophie Nélisse in the ’90s and Lynskey in the present day) and Ella Purnell’s Jackie—along with its frigidly heartbreaking conclusion in the Season 1 finale.

Though the 1996 timeline jumps ahead two months into the snowy winter, Season 2 of Yellowjackets picks up right where its acclaimed first season left off with all of the hits: Nat and Travis are still hunting for food and Travis’s missing brother Javi, Shauna is casually chatting with Jackie’s corpse out in the meat shed, Taissa is still eating dirt and Lottie is still doing weird witchy shit. Classic Yellowjackets. 

Season 1 ended with the tease that Lottie, who descended into antler queen cult-leader vibes in the ’90s storyline, was not only alive in the present day, but a key player in a plot to kidnap Nat. This premiere picks up that thread with Lottie in the past having Nat and Travis drink her blood before embarking on a quest, in the present (Simone Kessell) as some sort of New Age cult leader espousing personal responsibility, and, most interestingly, in a brief, newly introduced timeline showing the immediate aftermath of the girls’ rescue, obviously suffering from the mental toll the experience took on her. 

By the episode’s end, it’s confirmed that she and her acolytes kidnapped Nat (Lewis) in the present day, who spends most of the premiere strapped to a bed before escaping and running into Lottie. Elsewhere, Ricci’s Misty puts her citizen detective skills to use trying to track down Nat and to keep Shauna’s (Lynskey) nose clean after she killed her mysterious artist fling Adam. Throughout all of this, Ricci continues to bring levity to some pretty dour proceedings with truly great one-liners, including a threat to stake out a stubborn motel worker: “I have two days off of work, an abnormally large bladder and the latest Nora Roberts novel in my purse.” 

Taissa (Cypress), meanwhile, is reeling from her surprise election win, the disappearance of the family dog and the realization that she’s not as okay as she thought she was. In a rapid-fire mania, she picks up a new dog—a Yorkie named Steve!—and then goes to show her son at school, where she’s confronted by her wife Simone. This leads to Taissa discovering her own creepy dead dog basement shrine (which, understandably, Simone is pretty upset about!) and a promise to Steve that she will “do better” with him.

In the ’90s storyline, Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Van (Liv Hewson) are still loved-up, with the latter spending the nights locked up with Tai to prevent her from escaping for episodes of dirt-eating in the woods. But there’s still some otherworldly urge Tai can’t control, as evidenced when she unknowingly chomps down on Van’s lip when kissing. This leads to a charmingly macabre declaration of love, with Van scrawling “I love you” on Tai’s arm with her own blood. Gals being pals!

In the present day, Shauna, alongside her “there’s no book club?!” husband Jeff (Warren Kole), tries to hide the evidence of Adam’s death while avoiding snooping from their teen daughter Callie. Lynskey and Kole’s dynamic as a suburban couple on the edge continues just as strongly as in the first season, from their attempts to burn evidence in the family barbeque, to a trip to Adam’s art studio that descends into angry sex, capped off by Jeff headbanging to Papa Roach in his car.

It’s clear that Adam will not go away that easily, despite being chopped up into many pieces. Between Shauna’s daughter finding a shard of his ID in the barbeque, to an ominous message-board post from Elijah Wood’s still unseen citizen detective curious about the case, his presence hangs heavy over the proceedings. 

Also lingering over the episode is Jackie, whom we last saw freezing to death while sleeping outside in the ’90s storyline, the result of a petty fight with Shauna. Despite her character’s death, Purnell is a welcome return as ’90s Shauna is obviously working through the trauma of causing her friend’s death. With the two-month time jump, we’re told Shauna has been keeping Jackie in the meat shed and regularly conversing with her, shown in heartbreaking fashion as the shot switches between a lively and sassy Purnell and her obvious deep-frozen corpse. 

The guilt of Jackie’s death hangs over everyone, but particularly Shauna. During one imaginary conversation, Shauna Van Gogh’s Jackie’s corpse, accidentally knocking a frozen ear off when the body falls over. She tries frantically to reattach it before ultimately slipping it into her coat pocket. 

It wouldn’t be Yellowjackets without a visceral gut punch—yes, even more visceral than talking to your dead best friend’s corpse—to leave us hanging. Even though I knew it was coming the moment she slipped it into her pocket earlier in the episode, the final moments showing Shauna popping Jackie’s ear into her mouth like a chicken nugget truly made me gasp, and served as a reminder that the show is not afraid to go there. 

After the team’s descent into cannibalism was teased way back in Season 1’s first episode, we now know when that starts—the big question is … what comes next? 

Other thoughts from the hive

🐝 Hi everyone! I’m Xtra senior editor Mel Woods, and I’m absolutely thrilled to dive into the blood and snow and teen girl feelings of Yellowjackets Season 2 with you. I jumped into Season 1 around the time Episode 4 was airing, and it reignited the Tumblr fan blogger that’s lain dormant in my heart for a decade. I’ve been obsessed ever since, and can’t wait to unravel this mystery with you. 

🐝 Christina Ricci is truly a treasure. “The only thing you should ever say to the police is ‘I want my lawyer’—that’s why I put it on the cookie,” is instantly an all-timer.

🐝 The Mazzy Star Nonstop Banger Musical Direction Award: The use of Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You” was a standout of many fantastic needle drops from music supervisor Jen Malone in the first season, so every week we’ll highlight the best musical moment of the episode. For the premiere, it has to go to that gasp-worthy ending moment set to Tori Amos’s “Cornflake Girl,” though definitely there’s an honourable mention for Jeff headbanging to Papa Roach after fiery sex with Shauna in Adam’s art studio. 

🐝 Speaking of the art studio, what I would give for my job to be the artist the show commissioned to paint a bunch of portraits of Melanie Lynskey to hang up there. 

🐝 When the show first released the image of a group of animal-mask-wearing figures peering into a hole, many fans speculated who of the team each could be. Turns out, they’re just Lottie’s acolytes in the present day. But still, I am looking forward to more “antlers in the woods” chic in the ’90s storyline. 

🐝 In the ’90s, Misty is still banned from soup duty after, you know, giving everyone psychedelics that made them almost descend into a spooky woods orgy. Probably makes sense!

🐝 This is the first time we’re regularly recapping a show other than Drag Race in quite a while around here, so we’d love to hear your thoughts. Are you Team Lottie? Would you eat your best friend’s ear? Does Caligula deserve more screen time? And where do you think this is all going? Let us know in the comments down below, or tag us at @xtramagazine on Twitter and Instagram.

New episodes of Yellowjackets are available streaming in Canada and the U.S. on Fridays, and air live on Showtime Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET.