Remember that electrifying moment that closed the last episode of Yellowjackets? The one when—after six(!) whole episodes apart—the old crew finally came back together again? Close your eyes and think about how thrilling that was, how much promise was contained in one powerful shot. Adult Lottie strode over to her old friends, in a fantastic aerial shot, revealing the mysterious cult symbol mowed into the land of her compound. There was suspense, there was excitement, and there was a hint that Yellowjackets Season 2 might actually be going somewhere. Hell, that it might be going anywhere.
Remember this moment as well as the disappointment you may feel. It will be a crucial bit of clarity to take with you.
Episode 7, “Burial,” comes on the heels of last week’s fantastic installment—particularly its haunting final shot, where Sophie Nélisse stares right into our eyes, pleading us to hear the cries from Teenage Shauna’s baby that would never come. Looking back, it almost feels like Nélisse was begging us viewers to hold on a little bit longer, making a silent pact with us that she would try her damnedest to exceed the material that she and the rest of the cast has been saddled with this season. While I certainly can’t fault Nélisse’s bold and courageous work, everything about “Burial” feels like an injustice to what she pulled off last week.
“Burial” is reminiscent of one of those bottle episodes of Buffy, which take place after a character has an intense bout of trauma or when we don’t realize the narrative is taking place within some demon’s spell until the end of the episode. “Burial” zigs here and zags there and does so with gleeful haste, without ever taking one second to catch its breath and hang out in the middle ground. There are fantasy musical sequences, hamfisted monologues, horrible green screens, and revelations that are so out of the blue that they land with humor, not emotional gravity.
Except that Buffy-like spell never wears off. These are all real moments, not some fever dream. It’s enough to put me on the edge of despondency, remembering how shows like Buffy used to craft an entire self-contained, gripping story arc in one episode’s time, while still fleshing out and contributing to the season’s overarching story. Those aims for the rafters weren’t always perfect, but they worked most of the time. Yellowjackets has yet to earn an episode this ludicrous; the show has to convince us that it has a clue as to where it’s headed first.
Back in the ’90s, the blizzard that began two weeks ago (or three days ago, in-universe) finally comes to a halt, which means that everyone can relieve their literal cabin fever and head outside for some fresh air. Shauna, still mourning the loss of her child, is reluctant to go anywhere—that is, until her teammates’ pestering prods her toward a small bout of motherly rage. Shauna tosses her baby’s blanket, still covered in her blood, into the fire and leaves to bury her son. “It’s you and me against the whole world,” she tells him, one last time.
We’re then subjected to a new, stranger version of Alanis Morisette’s alternate version of the theme song from a few weeks back. The first time this substitute theme appeared in an episode, it felt somewhat deliberate and had (loose) ties to the episode’s narrative. This time around, Morisette’s theme feels off, and there doesn’t seem to be much reason for its inclusion, other than the producers giving a slight nod to this episode being completely wacky.
With the group of surviving Yellowjackets reunited in the present day at Lottie’s compound, they decide to shirk playing catch-up and instead take part in the compound’s health treatments. Good! Seems like they all could use it. For some unexplained reason, no two women can choose the same treatment, so Shauna is left to take care of a goat all day, while Tai paints a barn with a makeup brush, Misty does a little sensory deprivation tank therapy, and Van gets blasted drunk—each to a result of variable watchability.
Shauna is less than thrilled about taking care of a goat, because—get this—she doesn’t want to be maternal! Huge shocker, after seeing that exact apathy play out in our faces over the last 16 episodes of this show. This moment is meant to underscore Shauna’s trauma from losing her child as a teenager, which we’re seeing play out in tandem during this episode. But by the time Shauna comes to that realization herself, the moment feels regrettably hollow. When Lottie tells her that her goat-watching won’t result in the goat’s eventual slaughter, like Shauna thought it would, Shauna begins to cry, spilling out her fear and suffering onto Lottie.
“I’ve always kept my daughter, Callie, at arm’s length,” Shauna admits. “I think just out of fear that she would die…or maybe that she was never even real to begin with. I tried to tell myself it’s okay, that I’m safe to think of her as mine and just be her mom. I think something is broken, Lottie.” Lynskey is, of course, as wonderful as ever here. But this moment of clarity feels woefully unearned, plopped into the episode for the sake of it mirroring Teen Shauna’s arc. Two hours of running after a goat was really enough to give Shauna this major bout of lucidity? I don’t buy it. The writers haven’t given us enough sympathetic material to work with, when it comes to Adult Shauna’s relationship with Callie. On top of that, these feelings of regret and dread would be much more potent if they were left to be read in-between the lines, seen in Shauna’s behavior, instead of written into the script quite so literally, simply to tie up her arc.
Elsewhere, it’s time for Adult Misty’s sensory deprivation treatment, so cue the most cloying and obnoxious sequence in Yellowjackets’ existence thus far. Misty’s therapy triggers an absurd musical theater performance inside her head, complete with visions of her beau Walter, and someone dressed as a life-size version of her parrot, Caligula, hopping about like he’s in The Nutcracker. This scene then goes one step further, with Misty chatting with Caligula’s dream actor, guest star John Cameron Mitchell (in an unfortunate one-two punch of bad material, between this and City on Fire). Caligula reassures Misty that she’s doing the right thing in life, and that she’s not a murderer. Aw!
This scene, again, is meant to convey its character’s whacked-out state of mind, as cutesy as it is reprehensible. But for an already genuinely strange show, Yellowjackets fumbles the bag here. I wanted to throw things at my television and stare each writer in the face, asking them why they thought it was okay to have this extended fantasy number instead of an actual plot or reasonable character development. This hallucinatory lunacy does nothing to enhance the backstory it’s set against—where Teenage Misty saves Coach Ben from suicide (on a sound stage that looks so terribly fake that it could be on the set of Barney). Teenage Misty is very much struggling with her conscience, and that battle is far more compelling than Yellowjackets’ constant ineptitude when it comes to Adult Misty’s storyline in Season 2.
It’s really no fault of any of these actors, who are all doing their best to sell the inane material they’re being strapped with (to varying success, but still). Ten minutes later, for instance, and entirely out of nowhere, Adult Van clumsily lets us know that she’s … dying of cancer? And has months to live?! This episode feels distinctly like the writers burrowed into the depths of Wattpad and pulled out the most fatuous fanfiction they could find, turning it into a script. I’d also like to remind everyone, once more, that while this is going on, Adult Taissa is supposedly a newly elected state Senator. No one’s out looking for her? No one’s wondering where the hell she is? Is anyone watching her son, while Taissa’s wife fights for her god damn life on a hospital ventilator?! I feel like I’m on acid.
And then, by some miracle, the episode closes out with some coherent writing. The group of adult Yellowjackets come back together after their day of therapeutic realizations and catch up over a bottle of tequila, in a montage set to Florence + The Machine’s “Free.” It’s sweet, and genuinely gratifying, to watch them reminisce. It also comes with a nice undercurrent of volatility, suggesting that anything could happen when these women are discussing the darkness that lived alongside them, all those years ago.Yellowjackets is irrefutably stronger when all of its lead characters are together, yet the show keeps pulling them apart, actively working against its own success. It’s completely baffling.
If there is a God, this season of Yellowjackets will follow this respectable ending and close out with a narratively steady final two episodes. But my hopes have been almost entirely dashed at this point. I’m bracing for impact, instead of welcoming what’s next. I never thought we’d be at this point, and I’m sincerely sad that we are. I feel like Teenage Lottie does at the end of this episode, after she asks Shauna to take out her anger by punching Lottie senselessly. I’ve been beaten to a pulp by Season 2. Unfortunately, I think Yellowjackets’ denouement will be more akin to Teenage Shauna, icing its knuckles and gearing up for more punches.
