The pilot episode of Yellowjackets hooked us immediately: a girl is hunted and ritualistically eaten in the snow. The first season, which premiered in 2021, spent 10 brilliant episodes showing us how a high school soccer team got to that horrifying point, exploring the trauma of both surviving a plane crash and living with the secret as adults. The show’s brilliance lies in its two equally disturbing timelines.
1996: Descent into Savagery
The Yellowjackets high school soccer team crash-lands in the deep Canadian wilderness on their way to nationals. Their fight for survival quickly becomes a rapid, frightening slide into something primal. The girls’ descent from civilization to savagery was defined by several key moments. Equipment manager Misty Quigley intentionally prolonged their isolation by destroying the plane’s black box and transponder, eager to maintain her newfound, essential role as the group’s medical hero. As food and sanity ran out, Lottie Matthews—whose schizophrenia medication was gone—began having visions and ritually sacrificed a bear, setting the stage for the group’s future wilderness cult. This shift was cemented during “Doomcoming,” when Misty laced the stew with hallucinogenic mushrooms, leading to a mass psychotic break where the hungry, hysterical group nearly killed teammate Travis. Finally, after a huge fight with Shauna, captain Jackie was kicked out of the cabin and froze to death overnight in the season’s first snowstorm. This defining tragedy likely gave the group their first grim food source.
The Present: The Scars of Survival
Twenty-five years later, the adult survivors are desperately trying (and failing) to bury their terrifying secret. Shauna is a cynical, unfulfilled housewife; Natalie struggles with sobriety; Misty is a terrifyingly cheerful, manipulative caregiver; and Taissa is a rising political star haunted by her own dissociative trauma and sleepwalking. The women were forced back together when they received cryptic postcards demanding $50,000. Shauna mistakenly suspected her new lover, Adam, of being the blackmailer, leading to his accidental murder and the women’s collective disposal of his body. The true culprit was later revealed to be Jeff, Shauna’s husband, attempting a desperate, clumsy scheme to pay off business debts. In the most shocking reveal, Taissa’s wife found a gruesome altar in their basement—complete with the severed head of their family dog, Biscuit—suggesting Taissa’s political success is tied to a brutal, ritualistic alter-ego.
Terrifying Cliffhangers
The season finale delivered massive reveals, cementing the presence of a supernatural element and setting the stage for more horror. Natalie’s investigation into who cleared out Travis’s bank account before his death led to one name: Lottie Matthews, confirming she is alive. In the final seconds, Natalie was kidnapped from her motel room by a group wearing medallions with the mysterious wilderness symbol. This confirmed Lottie is running a present-day cult that is now actively seeking the former Yellowjackets. Season 1 masterfully balanced high school drama with gritty horror and deep psychological trauma. The question is no longer if they ate each other, but why the power of the wilderness hasn’t stopped following them.
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