Previewing Yellowjackets: Season Two

 

You would have to go back to “We have to go back” for a final line of dialogue that got me so hyped for the next season as, “Who the fork is Lottie Matthews!?!?”  While we only had to wait seven months to figure out why Jack wanted to go back on Lost, it has been over fourteen months since the last episode of Yellowjackets where Nat’s banking buddy, who was looking into who exactly emptied Travis’s bank account, asked that question.   It only takes a short eight minutes into season two until we get our first look at adult Lottie in all her cult leader glory, though it is weird that her cultist refer to her as “Charlotte” (almost as weird as Lottie going from towering over Nat in high school to basically the same height in present day).  Do to their addiction to the color purple, her followers are occasionally referred to as “Purple People” and I cannot hear someone call them that and not think of the song Purple People Eater.  This cannot be a coincidence.

 

While it was not that much of a surprise when Simone Kessell (The Crossing) was cast as adult Lottie since her name was mentioned in the finale, it was really disappointing that a press release spoiled that Van, who almost died multiple times during the first season and will be played as an adult by Lauren Ambrose (Can’t Hardly Wait), made it out of the Canadian wilderness.  But unlike Lottie who we meet fairly quickly, it is a while before we see adult Van on screen, which manages to make the spoiler worse.  With the addition to the cast of the older version (and both younger version getting promoted to cast members) we do get and updated title sequence with more Lottie and Van, but thankfully the dearly departed Jackie and her throat slash / wink segment remains.

 

It does not take long to meet the other big casting news for the second season, Elijah Wood, in a The Ice Storm reunion with Christina Ricci, playing a fellow Citizen Detective alongside Ricci’s Misty.  Though, I do fear the longevity of anyone who crosses path with Misty, who is still a raving psychopath.  Early in the season, adult Misty makes a very inappropriate cookie while teen Misty gives another type of inappropriate present.  Of course, this is why Misty remains the most entertaining character on the show.

 

Those are not the only new faces this season.  Three of the background Yellowjackets are brought more to the forefront with a little more screen time and a couple lines of dialogue.  Of course all three are stuck together at the start of the episode before one starts spending a lot a time with Misty (again, I fear for anyone who spends too much time with Missy).  One of them seems like they are more of a theater kid than athlete, another I actually mistook for Laura Lee when I first saw her, and the third has to shoot to the top of the Who Is Pit Girl Power Rankings.  Oh, and it should be noted that Akilah has been recast, so that is not a fourth new Yellowjacket.

 

In 1996, it has been two month since Jackie was turned into a Popsicle and now resides in a meat locker because the ground is too cold to bury her.  I cannot confirm nor deny that my Encino Man theory is correct and she is thawed out in present day.  But I will say not much time has passed in current day. Now eight months into their Canadian adventure, everyone is starting to look rough (except for some reason Mari who is still looking really good) while cabin fever is setting in.  They even had to start burning porn for warmth.  But more disturbingly, there are also some creepy rituals that people are doing just to go outside.

 

In present day, we ended the season with Nat being kidnapped right after putting a shotgun in her mouth, Tai won her state senate race which may or may not have been aided by her (or someone else) cutting off the head of her dog and putting it on an alter in the basement, and Shauna murdered someone who seems like may have just been some random dude with a mysterious back tattoo and no digital footprint. 

 

While Shauna’s bored housewife routine was the least interesting part of the first season, it may end up being one of the more entertaining storylines this season.  Her daughter Callie, who gets more screen time in the first two episodes this season than maybe all of last season, is the big surprise of this season.  Obviously she is not as messed up as her mother who experienced extreme trauma at that age, but that girl is a little messed up too.  Then throw in Jeff, who we now know is actually kind of a good husband and a a big doofus.

 

Sure, the show sometimes stumbles under the weight of expectations after becoming a surprise hit in its first season and it is even more annoying this season that the show continues to lean into the supernatural without actually confirming nor deny the existence of some sort of supernatural element (what happens at the end of episode two will be extremely eye rolling if they want us to think what happens is just a coincidence), but you still have to be highly entertained whenever Misty does her Misty things.  While slow and plodding at times (each episode of the six I saw are very close to being an hour long), there is still always at least multiple highly entertaining things that happen each episode that will keep the Yellowjackets subreddit buzzing for a full week until the next episode.

Yellowjackets airs Sundays at 9:00 on Showtime, though episodes premiere on streaming the Friday before.