Christina Ricci and Elijah Wood in Yellowjackets Season 2.KAILEY SCHWERMAN/SHOWTIME
If the first season of Yellowjackets hinted at cannibalism, the second digs right in. Within the first few episodes, this Emmy-nominated psychological horror story of survival and trauma relishes in showing just how dark teen girls can get when pushed to the brink. Then, it pushes them even further.
In 2021, Yellowjackets introduced the girls from a 1996 high-school soccer team whose plane crashed in the Canadian Rockies, stranding them for 19 months. The show then jumped back and forth to the present day, where four of the known survivors dealt with their grief as adults. In Season 2, that thread continues and expands, as Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), Taissa (Tawny Cypress), Natalie (Juliette Lewis) and Misty (Christina Ricci) reunite with two other women, Lottie (Simone Kessell) and Van (Lauren Ambrose), whose survival status was previously unknown.
Meanwhile, back in 1996, winter has arrived. The team is trapped, starved and dealing with the fallout of a teammate’s death from the first season finale, all while preparing for the imminent arrival of Shauna’s baby. It’s a darker tone with less optimism and fewer wins as the survivors are forced to look inward at who they really are now that winter is here.
“This season is really about the point of no return,” says Ashley Lyle, who co-created the series with her husband, Bart Nickerson. “Winter comes in full force so it becomes more interior, both literally and figuratively for our characters. They’re now completely isolated, but also trapped with one another in a way they weren’t before. There’s no escape from the weather, there’s no escape from the elements, and there’s no escape from one another.”
That isolation increases the show’s psychological horror, serving as the device that pushes these characters beyond physical survival and into emotional endurance. Coping mechanisms come into play as things grow more dire, and the team realizes this is their new reality. As a result, the magical realism (which kicked into gear with the psilocybin-laced soup in Season 1′s penultimate “Doomcoming” episode), becomes central to the storytelling.
“There’s no outside perspective, so if you’re rendering the subjective experience of starving people having to eat their friend, you’re limited if you tie yourself strictly to realism,” explains co-showrunner Jonathan Lisco. “Using genre or some sort of heightened fantasy conceit allows us to draw that experience in a truer way.”
“Dreaming is a crucial part of our neurological function. It’s how we store memory, it’s how we process and how, to some extent, we engage with our subconscious,” Lyle adds. “A lot of what we’re doing this season is trying to bring the interior world of our characters to life in a dynamic way.”
As in the first season, those surreal elements are grounded in reality with logical explanations, but they also instigate division – especially as more girls begin to believe in Lottie (Courtney Eaton) and her supernatural connection to the wilderness. That sparks conversation about different approaches to spirituality and religion, while probing the idea of connection and estrangement. Those explorations then bleed into the present-day storyline, as the survivors learn what Lottie has been up to and reunite with her in a surprising location.
“I’m interested in people’s psyches and how much you’re willing to accept the worst parts of yourself,” Nickerson says. “Whether you integrate that into who you are willingly or unwillingly, and whether you continue to deflect and push those things about you away.”
To further study that side of trauma and grief, the show adds a third timeline in Season 2: the immediate aftermath of rescue. In doing so, Yellowjackets poses yet another question about the dark side of humanity: Does the real trauma stem from the plane crash, or is it also based in the rescue, as these girls are forced back into the constraints of society after shedding them to survive?
“There’s a reckoning in Season 2 where they have to figure out whether they can actually live with what they’ve done, and whether or not that’s okay,” Lisco says.
“There is the trauma of re-entry and going through this experience that marks you as different forever,” Nickerson adds. “The only people who could even come close to fathoming that are the other people who were there with you. To come back and realize that being ‘saved’ is better, but it’s not perfect – in some ways getting rescued was a furtherance of the trauma they’ve experienced for the past year and a half.”
But as much as the second season leans into those gruesome and dark elements, Yellowjackets still manages a killer ‘90s-inspired soundtrack, moments of comedic relief and the mystery-solving components that fans have glommed onto since the premiere.
For example, as real-life Reddit chats fire up with theories and clues, onscreen a present-day Misty relies on her “citizen detective” community (and new guest star Elijah Wood) for help. Meanwhile, Shauna’s marriage to Jeff (Warren Kole) continues to earn chuckles and Natalie is … well, Natalie, but without a shotgun.
Those moments are as much for the creators as they are a love letter to the fans that made Yellowjackets a watercooler-worthy series – one that American broadcaster Showtime has already greenlit for a third season.
“We ourselves are big true crime fans. We’re also huge television fans,” Lyle says. “The idea of a community of like-minded souls who get a little too obsessive is something that we can deeply relate to.”
In other words, Lyle might be down for a Yellowjackets viewing party. Just don’t ask her to bring the snacks.
Yellowjackets streams Friday, March 24 on Crave.
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