Yellowjackets have finally returned for its third season after a two year hiatus and it is needless to say that the series has a lot of work to do. After a mixed second season, the series had a big uphill battle to get back into the groove that was seen in the first season after they wrote themselves quite a corner. And based upon the first two episodes, it feels like they haven’t climbed themselves out of the pit yet.
There is no doubt that the teen/wilderness arc is still the best part of the show as it is the only narrative that feels whole and has an ultimate endgame. Spring has finally arrived for the Yellowjackets and they are not just surviving, but thriving in the wilderness (yes, I am aware this was a narrative shortcut to fast track them to spring instead of showing how they survived the cabin fire, but it still works). However, despite the warmth of spring, everything is not fine and dandy. Tensions are still high and alliances are being formed as their madness begins reaching a boiling point. So it is clear where that storyline is going to go, so I don’t have any complaints so far.
However, the same can’t be stated for the survivors 25-years-later as it feels more lost than ever. It is very clear that they have hit the narrative reset button as they have abandoned many plot points they set up in the second season, such as Nats death, the pedo cop murder cover-up, the Adam Martin murder, Tai’s family, etc. However, it is clear that the showrunners still have no idea what to do with the survivor’s arc and are just giving them busy work as no narrative has been clearly being set up. Which is mind boggling because they had a compelling narrative for them in the first season that they could have returned to.
It was very clear that in season one, the survivors arc was going to be a narrative about the destruction that is caused when you don’t confront your grief and trauma. How these survivors are willing to burn everything to the ground, including themselves, in order to lock their trauma away from everyone. This compelling narrative was sadly abandoned in season two, and from the looks of it, this narrative appears to be dead in season three, as the series is more focused on showing the audience how quirky its characters are.
Let’s have a sleepover with a mentally unstable woman and treat her like family, even though she wanted to kill you a few weeks ago. Let’s abandon my family and go be with an old flame and be menaces to society. The adult narrative in the first two episodes makes no sense and outside of the narrative surrounding Christina Ricci’s Misty, I completely have checked out of the adult narrative only two episodes in. Which would be a shame, because I don’t want to see an ensemble as talented as this one be completely wasted by incompetent writers.
Overall, the third season of Yellowjackets is not off to a very strong start as it feels like the showrunners and writers have not learned anything from their mistakes in season two. However, there are still eight episodes left in the season so there is plenty of room for the series to find its groove again. The acting, direction and overall filmmaking is still incredibly strong, however, I have a feeling this season will ultimately make or break this show. We shall see what happens in the coming weeks.
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