#I really really really really hope this doesn’t show up in any Yellowjackets tags

[lotties-ashwagandha]

CHRISTMAS WITH THE YELLOWJACKETS (headcanons)

SHAUNA

will forget to wrap your gifts until the very last minute and then spends hours wrapping , chugs a whole pot of coffee in preparation as if she bleeds espresso

her gifts are very thoughtful tho she gives the best christmas presents. shes perceptive to things you like and want, even if you don’t tell her she’ll notice if you’re eyeing something in a store while you’re out and will get it for you when you’re not looking

she can’t be fucked w christmas cookies though she’ll buy some at the store and plate them up all pretty and tell everyone she made them herself

anyway. she is passionate about the christmas tree (why does that sound dirty?) she needs the ornaments to be all in the right place and the lights to be equally distributed or else everything’s coming off and she’s putting it back on the right way

LOTTIE

NEEDS the entire wellness center to be decorated or else her seasonal depression makes her want to be chasing bitches through the woods with knives (again)

from the 5 exact same fics in the lottie tag i think we’ve all established that she can’t bake cookies even though she tries exceedingly hard

she buys all the seasonal coffee creamers that are all the fucked flavors , you’ll get in the fridge and be faced with “gingerbread candy cane sugar cookie mcgriddle subway sandwich taissa’s fresh farmed dirt” flavored coffee creamer

i can also see her getting hyperfixated on those “christmas baking championship” series , you don’t watch the show but you know everyone who’s eliminated each week by name

TAISSA

prepares a whole pot of dirt for the two of you

“I got this bucket of dirt from outside the boxing gym, it really packs a punch”

i’ll never not make fun of this bitch for eating dirt I’m sorry

anyway she probably hides your christmas presents but forgets where she hides them and then she has a little easter egg hunt for everything she bought you

you’ll be doing spring cleaning a few months later and be like oh my god look at _____ i told you i wanted this for christmas have you been hiding it???? and she’s like oh

she also has the BEST christmas songs playlist , possibly even better than van’s

VAN

if she buys you clothes they’ll be thrifted and she has this whole thing about how she doesn’t support fast fashion and at this point you’ve stopped asking for clothes bc girl keeps giving you dusty ass 60s shit and not the good kind

has old copies of all the good vintage christmas movies tho and you have movie nights with popcorn and blankets

she has a favorite peppermint scented candle that she always lights when you’re doing something christmassy, baking cookies or watching movies or whatever it may be

decorates the shop for christmas ‼️ and you help her and it’s absolutely gorgeous , she plays christmas carols all day during work

NATALIE

will probably buy you some rlly expensive alcohol tbh and you guys party like hell for christmas

will also get you something sentimental tho and act like it’s nothing when it’s everything

she’d be less into christmas than you but would be down to use it as an occasion to get lit, give you gifts, and tell you she loves you

and sex . just saying

MISTY

now LISTEN this girl goes all out

caligula has a miniature christmas tree in his cage and she reads the christmas carol to him every year

she really enjoys those little 5-7 minute vintage disney christmas shorts and will make you watch them with her because she thinks they’re so cute and funny

chip and dale reminds her of her and nat

she’s obviously chip in her mind and nat is dale

anyway

she’ll also hand make your presents, not all of them but I can definitely see her crocheting you something or smthn like that

in any case I’m going to bed my loves im exhausted and writing this before christmas bc i probably wont be active on christmas but MERRY CHRISTMAS i hope you all enjoy the holidays, thank you for reading and supporting <3

[docholligay]

Ep 9: The descent

Hello! This is about up to Episode 9 of Yellowjackets, and ONLY episode 9 of Yellowjackets. I have not seen beyond the ninth episode, at all, and know NOTHING about this show. Please do not spoil it for me.  Things that are spoilery in nature, for me, include: saying things like  “Just wait!!” confirming or denying anything I put forward, outside information about the cast interviews or creator statements, leading questions like “Do you think “blank moment” means anything?” etc. Remember  that Y’ALL HAVE SEEN THE SHOW AND I HAVE NOT. This informs the way you  talk about things relating to the show. Just be really careful is all  I’m asking. Also: If there is LITERALLY any stance I  could take on this show or character that would make you upset, please  just fucking block the tag

If you WOULD like to discuss the show and my takes on it, the Discord is right here! I don’t go there, so it’s a great place to get every emotion out.

Please thank @sailorsunspot and @moonlight-frittata for backing this odd way of doing a liveblog, and remember my tip jar is always open

Man, this is such an evocative part of the episode, and I almost feel unequal to the task of saying something about it. 

I love that there is no real blame to be had for this. Misty had the mushrooms, of course, but it was never her intention to drug everyone in camp. She was absolutely going to drug coach Ben, so I guess there’s that, but it wasn’t her fault, and nor is it the fault of the cook, who had no idea that they were those kind of mushrooms, only thinking that it would be a delightful addition to the stew. 

The reason for this is because the show doesn’t want us making this into an event with a wrong doer, it wants to use this to talk about the girls and the way the show is heading. 

There’s a definite quasi-Roman bent to the whole thing here with Travis. Travis, the boy who has seen them in every aspect here. Seen them in their nakedness, in who they are when they are separated from society, and I think it’s not for nothing that we shift from this sort of sexual sharing of Travis, this erotic consumption, the way he becomes community property, to a very literal calling him the stag Diana and the hunt thing going on, where they pursue him like hunting hounds. 

THIS is the whole reason it was so careful earlier to tell us that they were in fact still very much human because it needs us to know that this is coming out of something that already exists in the girls. Nothing has been lost here, just enhanced, and these girls are hungry and they are predators, and it is speaking to the wildness of women, that terrifying truth that so few people can live with. 

The whole of Lottie’s “Something’s coming” thing is of course the wildness and how it moves to control and own and kill through the girls, but also, I would argue that it can’t bring out something that’s not in them. It would be easy to say. “Oh this was all because of the evil whatever in the woods” but I think this was always inside of them. THey are soccer players, and they hunt in packs, and I think this spoke a lot to that level of power in the group, maybe that’s even why this whatever in the woods thing that I certainly hope the show has plans for took them in the first place. Violence isn’t a part of doing shrooms, really. What it did was allowed them to see themselves as part of this wilderness, this forest, that cries out for blood. 

Important social shift for this moment with Jackie being told she doens’t matter, the one-time leader of them, the domesticated one more than all of them, the one who cannot adapt to 

The wild and so will be slain by it. And of course it’s Lottie who says this, and of course it’s Lottie who calls for Travis’ death, because Lottie is going to be their leader now, their spiritual guide, a girl who lost her light in the darkness and does not understand that she herself is no lighthouse but a bonfire. 

But it was Shauna who was ready to make the cut. Shauna who was willing to kill, and maybe it’s always been her.

[docholligay]

Misc: Ep 2

Hello! This is about up to Episode 2 of Yellowjackets, and ONLY episode 2 of Yellowjackets. I have not seen beyond the second episode, at all, and know NOTHING about this show. Please do not spoil it for me.  Things that are spoilery in nature, for me, include: saying things like  “Just wait!!” confirming or denying anything I put forward, outside information about the cast interviews or creator statements, leading questions like “Do you think “blank moment” means anything?” etc. Remember  that Y’ALL HAVE SEEN THE SHOW AND I HAVE NOT. This informs the way you  talk about things relating to the show. Just be really careful is all  I’m asking. Also: If there is LITERALLY any stance I  could take on this show or character that would make you upset, please  just fucking block the tag

If you WOULD like to discuss the show and my takes on it, the Discord is right here! I don’t go there, so it’s a great place to get every emotion out.

Please thank @sailorsunspot and @moonlight-frittata for backing this odd way of doing a liveblog, and remember my tip jar is always open

Full credit to the pilots for flying all the way to the scene of the crash, as they say, like you’re supposed to as a pilot. 

The crash scene is anxiety-producingly well done.

How DID Van get out, anyhow? I hope we find out. 

I find it interesting that Shauna tries to dodge responsibility in the car crash, when it is…absolutely her fault. I wonder if that’s going to materialize into things from the wild. 

Also, back to Misty, my god, that “you think I’m ugly” thing. Boy, Misty doesn’t GET that she is, at core, unlikeable, does she? She doesn’t get that the problem is not outside of her control. It IS her. 

There wqas no way I could make this into its own post, but let’s all note that the symbol was there when the girls crashed, so whatever it is about has something to do with where they are not them (or both I guess) leading to some light hope that there genuinely is a paranormal component to all this. I would be DELIGHTED if there was some kind of almost…synthesis, like the horrors are real but the horrors are also turning us horrible instead of just being victiims. I think that would be very exciting. CLEARLY, it’s something they end up taking for themselves, and that’s what leads to the postcard. 

I am not surprised that Jessica is not a real reporter, and so, does she work for whoever is sending the postcards? WHo is trying to draw out this stopry? I actually would not be shocked if it ended up being one of Taissa’s political rivals, maybe. Juicy as fuck story. 

I am somewhat relvied that we seem to be leaning into the whole “No, please don’t think nat is cool and the only ‘real one’ she is also a huge fuckup who can’t get it right and not in a neat way’ I’m not FULLY relieved but feeling much more chill about it. I was right so far to have faith. 

Speaking of, so we’re doing a Nat/Travis thing huh? The idea that a solid chunk of these girls would be gay according to my knowledge of soccer teams aside, I wonder if they don’t all just take turns with Travis as “only available boy” 

LOVED the fucking imagery of the Yellowjackets banner over the dead body. Just, great. This idea of pride and tribalism and it all comes to simply cover tragedy, what a brilliant summation. 

WHY DOES LOTTIE ONLY HAVE FIVE DAYS OF PILLS ARE YOUR PARENTS STUPID THAT WON’T EVEN COVER A FLIGHT DELAY

[docholligay]

Episode 2.1: Lottie

Hello! This is about up to Season 2, Episode 1 of Yellowjackets, and ONLY that of Yellowjackets. I have not seen beyond this spot, at all, and know NOTHING about this show. Please do not spoil it for me.  Things that are spoilery in nature, for me, include: saying things like  “Just wait!!” confirming or denying anything I put forward, outside information about the cast interviews or creator statements, leading questions like “Do you think “blank moment” means anything?” etc. Remember  that Y’ALL HAVE SEEN THE SHOW AND I HAVE NOT. This informs the way you  talk about things relating to the show. Just be really careful is all  I’m asking. Also: If there is LITERALLY any stance I  could take on this show or character that would make you upset, please  just fucking block the tag

If you WOULD like to discuss the show and my takes on it, the Discord is right here! I don’t go there, so it’s a great place to get every emotion out.

Please thank @sailorsunspot and @moonlight-frittata for backing this odd way of doing a liveblog, and remember my tip jar is always open

Here’s a non-helpful, non-analytical observation: I do not like Lottie. She’s a grifter who believes her own grift, and while I suppose that should give her some slack with me, all it does is make me think of a Charismatic Christian preacher. Because that’s what she is! I’m using this in the theological sense, not in a “Christian with an inspirational leadership style” sense. And I’m giving her all the good faith i would someone controlling what the group does and says under the banner of Heaven. 

ANYWAY LOTTIE’S RUNNING A CULT I GUESS. Again, much like Shauna eating Jackie’s ear, this is not something that shocks me all that much. Lottie believes she is God’s favorite, and she sort of is, because she is willing to give the wilderness what it wants. I really, really, really hope they have a good answer for why the wilderness let them go, because if they don’t, having established SO SO HARD that it is nature, it is this place, that’s not letting them go (physically. They never leave mentally. This is why Lottie is up to the same damn shit) there has to be a realy fucking good reason it relents. And one of the ideas I floated only to myself was that Lottie was going to destroy herself to free them, befcause whatever this thing is has such a hold on her. Clearly this is incorrect, which I’m not mad about, I just have a concern about this plot point. 

I’m fascinated by the the way Lottie uses basic therapeutic techniques to be made out to be this sort of godlike entity. I’m not being a hater! I think if no one has ever considered the healing power of taking a fucking breath, it can be that way. Congratulations, your time in therapy was helpful. 

Also I disagree so so much about there not being false hope. I also want Lottie to say a lot fucking less. I CANNOT BELIEVE I AM NAT BUT HERE WE ARE. (also: I have a message for you from Travis. Master manipulation. Is it true? Doesn’t actually matter) 

And, like being in a religious cult, no one can say anything against her in the wild. Lottie is their leader now, they abandoned to the cold, pretty literally, the leader who worked in the 90s in teen New Jersey for the mystic, and what does that say about the rationality of people? I mean, Taissa thinks Lottie is out of her fucking mind and is the only one brave enough to say so, but its pointing out the backside of, ‘We all have to stick together”. Which is that we all have to stick together. If you get too proud, you’ll die. 

Being in the cabin right now is basically being in fucking Puritan Massachusetts in the winter. Maybe less survivable. HOPE YOU’RE ON BOARD WITH ALL THIS WEIRD GOD SHIT. 

Actually, going back to both my “I expected Lottie to sacrifice herself to save everyone” and also “The idea of trauma as an anointment,” so, Lottie has that scar on her forehead from the crash, and the look of it, the style of it, is very much in keeping with a traditional anointment with oil, in a number of religious communities. So by the crash itself, Lottie was chosen. Did the wilderness maybe even bring the plane down? She has been chosen by God, and she communicates with God, and God communicates with her. She is visibility the anointed one. Great, okay, so, what if, then, i’m not wrong about Lottie sacrificing herself? But what if that sacrifice was giving up her body in a way that I hadn’t imagined, of letting a God come into her body? This might be the “I love a possession narrative” talking, but what if it let them walk out because it got to walk out? 

This would explain other than Lottie’s just being crazy, why she doesn’t speak at first, why she just wanders around the house. It would also explain why Lottie now has a cult in the middle of the woods, near a lake. Going home, of sorts. I don’t know, this is just an idea I’m floating.

[docholligay]

Jackie’s fading leadership: Ep 2

Hello! This is about up to Episode 2 of Yellowjackets, and ONLY episode 2 of Yellowjackets. I have not seen beyond the second episode, at all, and know NOTHING about this show. Please do not spoil it for me.  Things that are spoilery in nature, for me, include: saying things like  “Just wait!!” confirming or denying anything I put forward, outside information about the cast interviews or creator statements, leading questions like “Do you think “blank moment” means anything?” etc. Remember  that Y’ALL HAVE SEEN THE SHOW AND I HAVE NOT. This informs the way you  talk about things relating to the show. Just be really careful is all  I’m asking. Also: If there is LITERALLY any stance I  could take on this show or character that would make you upset, please  just fucking block the tag

If you WOULD like to discuss the show and my takes on it, the Discord is right here! I don’t go there, so it’s a great place to get every emotion out.

Please thank @sailorsunspot and @moonlight-frittata for backing this odd way of doing a liveblog, and remember my tip jar is always open!

So I had a lot of critical things to say about Jackie’s leadership style in the essays from the first episode, and that is in fact going to continue here. Because much as Misty is made for this particular time, Jackie was made for a very much peacetime sort of rule. She lacks the strength to make tough choices and live with them, which is all these next months are going to be. 

I am not convinced she made the wrong choice with Van. If I were Jackie, I’m not sure I would make a different choice. I mean, dragging Shauna’s Xanaxed ass out of there absolutely was the correct choice, whether or not she decided to help Van herself. 

The problem ISN’T the choice Jackie made. It was an inevitable one, and essentially a no-win situation. The problem is her inability to stand behind it. 

In no way would I expect Van to like me, help me, or piss on me if I was on fire, ever again, but I hope, I think, I could turn to her and say, “Listen, was I supposed to die with you? Let Shauna die with you? I couldn’t get you out. The fire was spreading. I made a choice, and you can hate me forever, but I did the math based on what I had in front of me, and three people dead instead of one seemed obvious” Especially when Van is sniping at me! Like, “Okay, did you go in there and go grab that girl that was on fire? Cause, that’s where I was at in the moment, hero of the Canadian Wild. Can it.” 

But Jackie was never EVER going to say something like that, because she doesn’t have the backbone to stand behind a difficult and necessary choice. That’s why she never would have frozen out Allie, even though it’s not the most stupid idea I’ve ever heard. The ability to make painful, shitty decisions and put your name to them is not something Jackie has. 

“She hates me now” Oh my god, Jackie, come on! What a weak take. People do not have to like you in order to respect you and listen to you. 

This is why, and this is sort of a side note to the post, I think we’re going to see the rise of Taissa as a leadership figure. Tai can be a bit of a jackass, and she’s iron, but also…she’s iron. She has the courage of her fucking convictions, which is about 80% of what I ask.

[docholligay]

Misc Ep 1

Hello! This is about the pilot of Yellowjackets, and ONLY the pilot of Yellowjackets. I have not seen beyond the first episode, at all, and know NOTHING about this show. Please do not spoil it for me.  Things that are spoilery in nature, for me, include: saying things like  “Just wait!!” confirming or denying anything I put forward, outside  information about the cast interviews or creator statements, leading  questions like “Do you think “blank moment” means anything?” etc. Remember  that Y’ALL HAVE SEEN THE SHOW AND I HAVE NOT. This informs the way you  talk about things relating to the show. Just be really careful is all  I’m asking. Also: If there is LITERALLY any stance I  could take on this show or character that would make you upset, please  just fucking block the tag

If you WOULD like to discuss the show and my takes on it, the Discord is right here! I don’t go there, so it’s a great place to get every emotion out.

Please thank @sailorsunspot and @moonlight-frittata for backing this odd way of doing a liveblog, and remember my tip jar is always open!

I think the expectation is that you’ll be more interested in the whole idea that these girls end up hunting each other for sport or ritual or whjatever, and, the first episode seems to imply, fucking eating each other. I do think that’s great, and all, as a consequence ofd things, but what I’m mostly into is something that, luckily, at least in this pilot, the show seems into as well: How do these girls become this thing? How does a human being break down? What is it about fear that brings forth ritual, how does ritual sometimes cover or cleanse violence, what is it about humanity that needs ritual as a way of getting both closer to and further from our actions? 

We know this from the get-go. We’re shown this before we get to know any of the girls, before we get to know any of the girls, before we get to reflect on how nice and normal and accomplished we are. It’s not interested in rubbernefcking at normal people becoming something difficult, becoming something that bridges the gap between the new world of a sort of sterilized tribalism, and an old world very obvious and, daresay more honest, level of violence and tribalism. We’ll see if I still feel like that’s part of the discussion in a few episodes. Everything is hard to tell from a pilot.

How do i feel about Natalie? I’m not sure, I don’t really know enough about her. I have a couple mild worries, but I don’t actually have a BASIS for those, when I think about it. All I have is vague vibes, and it’s absolutely unfair to judge something off of a vibe I have based on OTHER narratives. So, I reserve judgement. I definitely want her goddamn Porsche and rifle, that’s for sure. The show, I think, I hope, wants to tell us something with her story. That she percieves a threat and jumps to violence--we see that in the flashback with her, as well. Natalie’s first impulse is to strike. This is not new and this is not news, and maybe, takoing this back to Shauna, it’s showing how MANY of them have never managed to move forward from the person they were while they were a Yellowjacket. 

I had a girl like Laura Lee on cheer squad, and it may not surprise you to know we had a contentious relationship at best, as I often took to sighing and snapping gum while she led prayer. 

Misty. Misty! I was so fucking sure when we saw her in the pep rally we were going to get all that dumb bullshit about how everyone is SO MEAN to the poor nerdy one blah blah wah wah. But no! It’s much more realistic than that. They just don’t want to be friends with her. They ignore her. I love that moment when Nat sees her and then she disappears, because she’s not an entity to them, she’s just a fucking ghost. She’s a nothing. The show takes pains to show that she DOESN’T fucking know how to act socially. She’s the kind of cruel where she would happily sit and watch a rat struggle and drown. When she’s an adult, she’s bitter and vindictive to people who try her. Even a sick old woman. She’s not a nice or good person, and I love so much that the show is like, IMMEDIATELY when we see her as an adult, “If you were looking for an innocent little gumdrop rainbow sad nerd, Misty ain’t it” and that actually will give me space to LIKE Misty. 

So much of the team dynamic feels so authentically like whoever was writing this did time on a high school girls’ sports team, because this is genuinely one of the only things I’ve ever seen that reminds me of cheer, which was far far more “Tell Cersei. I want her to know it was me” than everyone holding hands and gay kissing and doing it each other’s makeup (It was also that though. Life is complicated) I love that they get into an absolutely bitter fight the night before they leave at the bonfire. Truly enjoyed it. (Tag yourself, I’m Van grabbing another beer before we all have to talk about our feelings.) 

By the by, that whole huge it out bullshit in a secluded part of the party is definitely a shade toward their time in the woods, and Jackie’s approach and i know I basically already went into it, ut I definitely have to mention it again. 

Double by the by: Putting a pin in the whole “best things about each other” for the end of the seasons and I’m hoping someone reminds me because I think we will come BACK to these qualities and see them either revealed or destroyed.