‘Yellowjackets’ Season 2, Episode 3 recap: ‘I think this stuff is for bisexuals and goths’

In RuPaul’s Drag Race, when a contestant starts to spill their tragic backstory, you know they are not long for this world. If we suddenly get an extended peek into the personal life or past trauma of a certain queen after radio silence on them for the previous episodes of the season, that almost surely means they are on their way out the door sooner rather than later as the producers work to unload all of the emotionally resonant storyline they have.

I was reminded of this universally acknowledged truth of reality TV while watching the opening of this week’s excellent third episode of Yellowjackets’ second season, which sees a flashback to Coach Ben’s (Steven Krueger) life before the crash with his boyfriend Paul. Have we really learned anything about Ben’s life outside of his closeted-ness until now? Nope. And the extended dive this episode takes into his emotional psyche—including a hallucination of what would’ve happened had he chosen to stay with Paul and not get on the plane—is giving Drag Race mirror moment in that I don’t think our dear one-footed coach is long for this world. Certainly not with his cabinmates, who seem pretty chill about having just eaten their teammate. A sashay away for coach Ben is likely on the horizon. 

But I’m getting ahead of myself. This third episode, appropriately titled “Digestif,” is a pitch-perfect palette cleanser for last week’s horror-driven wild ride, and leans heavily into some of Yellowjackets’ strongest aspects: namely its bitter humour and the twisty mystery at its core. “Digestif” has everything fans want: Elijah Wood, one-liners about bisexuals, Tori Amos needle-drops, the world’s worst baby shower and the eye-widening “holy shit” moments the series does best. 

After last week’s shocking climactic payoff to the long tease of cannibalism, it’s no surprise this episode grapples with the repercussions of what happened. The team is surprisingly chill with their barbequed-Jackie feast, save for Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown) who didn’t remember participating due to another dissociative episode (Liv Hewson’s Van has to bluntly remind her in horrific details: “Taissa, we ate her … Tai, you ate her face”). 

The matter of disposing of Jackie’s bones—since Misty’s proposition of making broth apparently was rejected—falls to Nat, who treks them out to the makeshift tomb that is the fallen plane. There, she has a startling experience of her own, as a pure-white moose charges the plane … but it may not actually be there. (Side note: this is validation for every other Canadian who knows that moose are actually the last thing you want to encounter in the woods! Give me the choice of fighting a bear or a moose and I’ll choose the bear any day—moose are scary!)

Back at the cabin, the team decides to throw Shauna a baby shower at Lottie’s suggestion, since that’s the logical thing to do after eating your friend. And after assurances from Lottie to Shauna that she won’t hurt the baby (just ask the actresses, who continue to reiterate that THEY WON’T EAT THE BABY), the weirdest baby shower ever happens in the middle of the woods. Shauna’s gifts include a pee tent from Van, a blanket with the mysterious symbol from Lottie and a rendition of Sally Field’s monologue about her dead daughter in Steel Magnolias from, you guessed it, Misty, who is really living in her theatre-kid era. The latter is yet another bit of unhinged catharsis and camp that perfectly straddles the line between bizarre, emotive and metaphorical. 

But it’s the blanket that causes the greatest stir, as an argument breaks out between the girls over whether the symbol—which, remember, they first encountered around a dead man’s corpse in the attic—is a force of good or evil. As things reach their peak, the group is interrupted by banging from above. A trip outside reveals dozens of dead fallen birds, an almost biblical sight. The group delivers the birds to Lottie’s feet, which is definitely a totally normal thing to do.

In the present day, Jeff (Warren Kole) and Shauna (Melanie Lynskey)’s storyline gets the spotlight, where the couple is still grappling with the Adam problem. Lysnkey has rightfully garnered heaps of praise for her simmering, complex portrayal of Shauna, and this episode is truly an exhibition of her firing on all cylinders. A conversation over lunch prompts some all-time series one-liner highlights—her line-reading of “this stuff is for bisexuals and goths” when discussing Jeff’s reaction to strawberry lube should go straight into her Emmy submission. As should a later scene, where Shauna confronts a carjacking operation to retrieve the family minivan, and describes in detail to the car thief what it’s like to peel human skin from flesh. Lynskey never misses—truly, my notes for this scene are just “MELANIE LYNSKEY QUEEN” over and over—but this episode in particular is a series highlight for her work as Shauna.

Elsewhere, Misty (Christina Ricci) has finally connected with Elijah Wood’s Walter in a delightful meeting of unhinged nerds. The citizen-detective duo pose as the FBI and interrogate Randy, who had been staying at the same motel as Nat, about her disappearance. Though because of Misty knowing Randy, her half of the interrogation hilariously comes via earpiece from the bathroom of Walter’s boat, and both Ricci and Wood mine the humour out of playing bad cop on the edge. While Misty turns down Walter’s offer to stick around for a soda, more is to come from this pair. 

The adult Taissa only appears briefly, seemingly unharmed by the car accident, but grappling with Simone in critical condition, and her own grasp of reality on the edge of collapse as well—shown in her apparently drawing the symbol on Simone’s hand and a creepy mirror vision. In the ’90s storyline, Van accompanies her on a dissociative sleepwalk, where she explains that she’s following “the man with no eyes,” but only when “she”—assumedly being Taissa’s conscious self—lets her. (Also, still no sign of Lauren Ambrose’s much-teased adult Van.) 

Who is he? It’s a question teased also in Nat and Lottie’s present-day storyline, as the former still finds herself wandering the latter’s cult, including a tour of the beehive where Lottie explains the bees’ life cycle in terms that may ring familiar.

“In winter, they cluster around the queen and vibrate to keep her warm; when a new queen hatches, the first thing she does is sting all the other unborn queens to death … it’s simply what has to be done. Otherwise they starve; we all do.”

Is it a bit heavy-handed, considering the other half of this show is about bees (or, should I say, Yellowjackets) in the winter trying to keep warm who also just killed and ate a potential “queen”? Sure. But the analogy still resonates, particularly intercut with scenes from the ’90s storyline as the group comes together following the whole “eating Jackie” thing. And it gives a further glimpse into how conscious Lottie is both in the present and the past to her role as a so-called “queen”—as well as what she must do to remain in that role. 

But, that may be in flux as we see at the end of the episode when Lottie has a vision of checking the hives only to find all of the bees dead and the combs filled with blood. In the vision, she hears a voice ominously warn: “Il veut du sang.” He wants blood. Perhaps the wilderness really is back.

Who is he? What other “unborn queens” could be killed in the ’90s storyline the weeks to come? Is Coach Ben’s time to sashay away upon us? And is strawberry lube just for bisexuals and goths? Yellowjackets continues to ask the important questions! 

Other thoughts from the hive:

🐝 The start of this week’s episode post-Jackie-eating prompted a chat between me and my partner about if we would eat each other in a survival situation. She’s firmly in the “yes” camp—her words were, “I think I’d be very sad, but also so, so hungry”—whereas I’m not so sure. It’s lovely to think of countless other couples having the exact same discussion along with us every week. 

🐝 The roast-Jackie corpse was apparently a practical effect composed of jackfruit and rice paper, which, as someone who eats a lot of vegan meals using those two ingredients, hits a bit too close to home for my liking! Never going to crunch on rice paper again without thinking of human skin.

🐝 The Mazzy Star Nonstop Banger Award: While we get another stellar Tori Amos track to end the episode, it’s gotta be Veruca Salt’s “Seether” as Misty approaches Walter’s boat. We love a riot grrrl moment! 

🐝 Lottie is pretty adamant that Shauna’s baby is a “he.” Could he be connected to the mysterious “he” whom Taissa is following, and who “wants blood” in the message to present-day Lottie?

🐝 Ben’s one-earring-wearing boyfriend Paul (François Arnaud) is kind of a cutie. I’m selfishly hoping he makes a present-day appearance as a world-weary silver fox. 

🐝 ”This stuff is for bisexuals and goths” is also a great way to describe this show, let’s be real.

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. EDT.