#Yellowjackets theories

[therealantlerqueen]

[homosexualslug]

genuinely think this is going to be the thesis of the show, BTW

[alicentsgf]

i just have... thoughts. constant thoughts.

[disgracedaantt]

ok wait. hallucination/dream jackie actually brings up a great point! shauna is possibly the worst communicator out of the yellowjackets! she deceives, she lies, she covers things up and then gets mad when people don't know what she wants. like girl, jackie had NO idea that you didn't want to be called shipman. she didn't know you liked jeff, she didn't know you resented her or how inferior she made you feel because you never fucking told her! the crux of like 99% of jackieshaunas issues stems from the fact that shauna is incapable of communicating issues before they bubble over into fits of rage! which shauna knows! because when she told jackie she was bothered by the dress/randi hookup thing in season 1 jackie immediately dropped it! COMMUNICATE SHAUNA!!! pls for the sake of literally everyone COMMUNICATE!

[lambswrathblog]

people like to say that jackie wasn't meant to live in the wilderness or that she wouldn't accept the killing/cannibalism that happens during winter but i actually think the opposite.

S1E2 jackie is willing to let van, her friend and teammate, burn to death screaming "help me! help me! i can't breathe!"

it's not for revenge, or something that jackie does out of anger, but none of the violence during winter is either. jackie's willing to let van die if that's the price to make sure that shauna will live. "for the record, i was trying to save you. i thought that..."

S1E6 jackie watches shauna feeling dizzy, almost passing out "whoa. hey, hey, hey. you okay?" and it's all very simple "yeah, i'm just hungry."

she gives shauna her last piece of meat. it's the only food jackie has and she gives it to shauna with a smile on her face. we know jackie is just as hungry as shauna, this scene literally starts with jackie talking about just how hungry she is, but it doesn't matter anymore when it comes to taking care of shauna. "you need it more than me. here. just take it."

still on S1E6, natalie and travis (the hunters, the ones in charge of bringing the meat) make their relationship public to the others, after coming back from a hunt empty-handed. that's the first time we see jackie being actually angry and agressive "is this why we don't have any food? 'cause you've been too busy running for mayor of pound town?" and "i guess we shouldn't be surprised. nat's always down for a good time, right?"

this scene happens two minutes after the one where jackie watches as shauna almost passes out from hunger (and jackie's not even wrong because nat and travis do spend some time making out instead of looking for food). the show is sending a clear message here that jackie is just as capable as the other girls to be agressive and angry and do violent things, not for her own survival but for shauna's.

S1E7 "you're obviously hiding something from me, and it's making me feel crazy!" and "are you really gonna keep something from me out here? what did i do? when did you stop wanting me to be your best friend?" again shows how much jackie cares about shauna, to a point of feeling jealous when she thinks shauna is trying to replace her with taissa.

the famous "you lost your virginity without telling me." is followed by a "don't worry, we're gonna get through this together." when shauna reveals she's pregnant. you can see jackie isn't mad because she "wants to have full control of shauna's life", as shauna herself believes. jackie is hurt by shauna not telling her because jackie always tells shauna everything, from what we can see from the pilot until the finale of season 1.

still on S1E7, after "when did this happen? how could i possibly have missed it?" shauna says "i have a life outside of you, you know?" and we can see jackie's expression is similar to the one in the pilot episode.

(S1E1 "i just thought you'd want to know somebody asked about you." and "shauna, just wear the red dress i gave you. the boob dress." which leads to "maybe i don't wanna wear the red dress and i sure as hell don't want to hook up with randy fucking walsh!")

in the pilot we can see how much shauna is misunderstanding jackie's actions. while jackie thinks she's being kind and helping shauna, trying to make her happy, shauna seems to be thinking "what? so jackie thinks i'm so pathetic that she needs to sell me disgusting randy fucking walsh so i won't be by myself? what, she thinks i can't find my own boyfriends?"

after shauna's outburst, the audience can see jackie's expression (confused, hurt) but shauna's too busy, looking for something to wear for the party, to see it too. later, jackie is the one to ask "are-are we cool?" as if she's the one who did something wrong.

on S1E7 it's similar ("when did this happen? how could i possibly have missed it?" / "i have a life outside of you, you know?")

jackie blames herself for not paying enough attention to shauna, for missing such an important moment in her best friend's life. but shauna thinks jackie means something different, like "how could shauna shipman find someone to have sex with without my help? how could she possibly lose her virginity before i did?"

and, once again, in S1E7 the audience can see jackie's expression (confused, hurt) but shauna's too busy looking away, stuck inside her own head, to notice what's right in front of her.

after reading shauna's journals at the end of S1E7 to look for some answers, we can see that jackie stops eating ("jax, you have to eat." / "why? what does it matter as this point?") and, instead of fighting shauna, instead of screaming at her, jackie pretends she doesn't know anything and tries to push shauna to say something ("what if this is it, shauna? everything we did, everything we didn't do. all the mistakes that we made, it's, like, permanent." / "what mistakes did you make? everybody loved you.")

jackie scoffs after shauna says "everybody loved you." because it really doesn't seem like it is true. all the yellowjackets make fun of jackie behind her back from episode 3, all of the girls turn their backs on jackie when she's the one who was being lied to, jackie's boyfriend (the one who said he loved her the day before the crash, the one who made jackie feel guilty for not saying i love you back) was cheating on her and, worst of all, the "best friend i've ever had" sees jackie as "so obsessed with yourself, i'm surprised you're aware other people even exist." and not just that but also "you tell me what to wear, what to do, who to hook up with. i don't even like soccer!" shauna literally blames jackie for being stuck in the wilderness, probably something that she also wrote on her journal.

"did i force you to live in my shadow, shauna?" when, to the audience, it seems more like jackie is shauna's puppy, always willing to drop everything for her, without shauna even having to ask.

"i'm sure everyone back home is so fucking sad to be losing their perfect little princess, but they'll never know how tragic and boring and insecure you really are. or how high school was the best your life was ever gonna get." and it hurts because, even if it wasn't true, shauna says everything like she means it, because she does. it comes from a place so deep inside her, a place of years and years staying quiet while feeling mad at jackie for things that weren't even true to begin with. shauna doesn't miss a second, she screams and she insults and she snaps at jackie the way we know shauna always dreamed of doing.

but jackie isn't actually mean, she doesn't hate shauna, she doesn't look down on shauna the way shauna does to her, so jackie doesn't actually have anything to say aside from "how could you?" she has to quote beaches so she'll have something to say.

i truly think that if shauna opened up to jackie and told her the truth, about jeff and about how shauna truly feels, how jackie makes shauna feel like i believe jackie would be really hurt and mad at first but, eventually, she'd forgive shauna.

if shauna hadn't broken jackie's heart, if jackie hadn't given up and stopped eaten, i do believe that jackie would not only be willing to cannibalize someone but i think she'd be the one to think about it first.

if jackie and javi, i don't know, were walking to clean the shit bucket or something and javi fell into the lake i do believe jackie would let him die.

the same way jackie was willing to let van burn to death if that meant shauna was safe, jackie would let javi drown if that meant shauna would survive the winter.

[ghostcaterwaul]

I know there’s probably a billion posts about this already but what theories does everyone have about the cabin fire?

I personally like to believe it was a complete accident. People have brought up that the fireplace was always lit and the chimney probably hadn’t been properly cleaned and that could be what started it.

I prefer this theory because it makes it all the more heartbreaking. It would mean they turned on Coach Ben for nothing.

What are everyone else’s thoughts?

[artificialroux]

travis repeating "it's okay, it's okay" to the duck the same way he repeated that to javi when he realized neither of them pulled the queen card.

[chicken-wayng]

I'll always be wondering who this party animal thinks she is wearing Jackie's death sweater... Also who she is

[moonagedaydreamsofrhiannon]

Perhaps the wilderness in Yellowjackets is not just a symbol of death. Perhaps it is also—in its own way—freedom.

In the wilderness, Lottie didn’t have to hide her visions for fear of being called crazy. She was exalted as a leader and a prophet. But when she returned, they called her crazy and locked her up.

In the wilderness, Misty didn’t have to be ashamed of her intensity and eccentricity. She was helpful, she was needed, she was important. But when she returned, they called her a freak and exiled her once again.

In the wilderness, Tai didn’t have to pretend to be something she’s not. Her other self was not a weakness but a strength, it gave her power, and kept her alive. But when she returned she had to suppress her urges and hide her other self, or lose everything.

In the wilderness, Shauna didn’t have to be small, and hide the fire inside her. She was angry, and violent, and powerful. But when she returned, she was forced back into a supporting role, forced to contain her darkness and her drive in order to fit a role she never wanted to play.

In the wilderness, Travis didn’t have to put on an act to fit the societal expectations of masculinity. He was feminine, and emotional, and soft—not the man of the group, but just another Yellowjacket in the hive. But when he returned, he was forced back into the cage—back into the closet—isolated, hardened, closed off and separated from the girls once more.

In the wilderness, Natalie didn’t have to feel guilty for surviving. She was the hunter, the provider, and the gun in her hands made her a savior, and a leader, not a killer. But when she returned, she was a killer once again, haunted by guilt, and outcast by society for the things she did to stay alive.

The wilderness gave them the freedom to be their truest and most authentic selves, but the cost was the blood spilled. The cost was their old selves. The cost was a place in the world upon their return.

Maybe the wilderness did not destroy them; it simply changed them into something new, something irrevocably different, something that would never—could never—fit back inside the narrow box of their old lives, and because they could no longer fit, society called them broken.

The wilderness freed them, but it never let them go. Because once you’ve tasted flesh and blood, once you’ve stared death in the face and overcame, once you’ve been to the very brink and seen the true depth of your own capacity for violence, once all the former markers of morality and success have become meaningless, in a world where survival at all costs is the only law, how can you ever go back to a world ruled by pointless, hollow, conventions? Once you’ve shed every remnant of your humanity, once you’ve run with the wolves, and howled at the moon, and become one with the ancient wild gods, how can you ever be a human again? Once you’ve had a taste of complete freedom, how can you ever be satisfied with a fake, insignificant, half-life, made up entirely of half-truths and haunting?

[ohwolfling]

Unfortunately, I gotta hand it to her...

Misty (Samantha Hanratty) has been dotted with red flags since before the crash. She's always been positioned as an outsider, as she isn’t even on the Yellowjackets team officially. Instead, she serves as an assistant to Coach Ben Scott (Steven Krueger). Think of Coach Ben as patient zero of Misty’s test run of weaponized Munchausen's by proxy. Cutting off Ben’s leg saves his life, but for me, Misty’s ability to do it is no less shocking. I couldn't process her competent amputation skills without remembering the scene where Misty watches a rat drown in her family pool. Her relationship with Ben evolves to reflect the duality of Misty: capable, but overwhelmed with a desperation to be needed.

from I'm Calling It: Misty Is Going To Be 'Yellowjackets' Final Girl on Collider (pls read in full, bbs)

[dustyd00dles]

Lottie's position on the soccer field is center back (#5). In soccer, the Center Back is a defensive role, yet they quietly control the whole field. They control both defensive wingers on either side of them and guide the midfielders during an attack on the defensive side.

Many of the girls positions equate to their narrative role, but Lottie's fascinates me the most. She quietly controls the narrative, just like the soccer fields

[therealantlerqueen]

[mike-wachowski]

okay so i think genuinely that the carbon monoxide poisoning shared hallucination has to do with Van, Akilah, and Shauna, and their various places in the wilderness/ways in which the wilderness is attached to them:

WITH AKILAH: the wilderness fed her berries that she gorged on and took her to animals, it even came and spoke to her in the form of the llama (presumably a creature akilah would view as cuddly, soft, nonthreatening, not a sheep but not a wolf, either) it gave her advice. everything that has teeth bites. and when the dream took her to the classroom, it pulled her through the dirt slowly. the wilderness has been frequently compared to the ground itself throughout the show; even Misty said "thank dirt" jokingly as a way to thank the wilderness. I think akilah getting pulled into the dirt was exactly that: the wilderness pulling her into it's embrace. Maybe travis was right, maybe the wilderness is talking to akilah, maybe it has a favorite.

in the classroom, the slap bracelet adheres harmlessly to akilah's wrist- the wilderness's loving embrace. it doesn't want to harm akilah, but it will have her eventually, one way or another.

WITH VAN: the wilderness took her back to the cabin. it put a roof over her head, gave her a cozy chair, and a warm fire. but after a moment of rest, van was trapped in like she was in the plane, stuck and burning. it also isn't remiss to me how van goes to the cabin pre-decay, how everything looks upkept, im not sure if this is an allusion to the ways that van is stuck in the past or something else. i think that is the gist of it though; the wilderness is van's home, and she is trapped there, trying to escape but always opening doors that lead right back to it.

in the classroom, when van tries the slap bracelet, it scratches her but not enough to maim or kill: i think this maybe means that the wilderness can't hurt van, won't hurt van, but van isn't as unkillable as she seems. She can still be hurt and killed, but not by the wilderness- maybe something else will end up being her demise.

WITH SHAUNA: i find it so fascinating that in shauna's vision she is in the lake, very similarly to how lottie was during her baptism scene, and she's dragged down to the bottom of the water as lottie was too. but, of course, the obvious: shauna's pursuit of the things she cannot have. shauna, constantly swimming towards the shore, chasing after her son, who she lost, trying to bring back jackie, trying to grapple for power in the group. shauna is in such a unique position because she has never once in the course of what we've seen give in to or believe in the wilderness, except to hunt (and maybe for shauna, the hunt is something more selfish), and it almost seems in this moment, the wilderness is punishing her for it,

because the slap bracelet completely rejects her. it tries to kill her. wraps arounf her neck and chokes her, cuts through her skin. obviously we know in the moment that thats actually because shauna was choking on the gas in the cave, but what if it's an indication of a bitter future for shauna? if shauna tries to steal the crown from natalie and name herself queen, i think this moment tells us explicity how the wilderness will react. firm rejection. the wilderness did not pick shauna. doesn't even seem to like her, really. and why should it? shauna doesn't believe in it, doesn't play by it's rules.

and lottie playing teacher in that scene. we know she feels cut off from the wilderness, and i think in this moment were seeing the reflection of her "pupilage". we know she's already set her sights on akilah but maybe in the future we'll see lottie trying to force van and shauna to commune with the wilderness as well.

and dont get me started on jackie. jackie still in her mean girl persona, judging everyone's reactions to the bracelet, the wilderness itself personified. she tells van that happens sometimes when she cries out from the pain like van is embarrassing for reacting, like she should've known all along what would happen if she took the bracelet. and we cant ignore that jackie's hair is noticeably longer, like time has passed for her, like she's changed too.

anyways, im so excited to see where this goes throughout the season. i love this show.

[anyfire]

still thinking about the two realities conversation between mari and ben and how it works into the ongoing "debate" on whether or not the supernatural stuff is real, or if it's all just happening in their heads. to me the show is at its best when it's saying two things at once, ie "we brought it back with us". "it" being It, but also "it" being trauma. like, "two versions of reality" is an inherently supernatural statement. but it's also a very real one.

it comes after ben detailing his life as a "completely normal guy" before the crash, and how in a world where the crash never happened or he never got on the plane, he would still be that guy. we've already seen glimpses of what that life could have looked like when ben dissociates, and we see it for the girls when lottie hallucinates the shopping mall. we also see versions of "different realities" in jackie's death dream, as well as the dream shauna has after giving birth. and all of these visions and dreams become more warped/horrifying the longer they continue -- cabin guy in jackie's dream, ben's final vision being in the cabin with paul leaving, the snow coming down on lottie in the middle of the food court, and finally the rest of the team eating shauna's baby. the other reality, the "bad" one, the one infected by the wilderness and everything that's come about because of it, just "hiding, or waiting".

mari also talks about watching a cartoon in the hospital room when her cousin dies, and going out into the waiting room afterwards where the same cartoon is playing. to me, those are two different realities as well. but the world where her cousin just died next to her and the world where she's just in a hospital waiting room, as if it never happened, are tethered. sometimes only your world ends, and for everyone else it's just another day. we also see THIS echoed in the adult lives of all the survivors. they're paranoid, misunderstood, violent, strange. they're utterly disconnected from everyone but each other. the world ended for them, but it didn't for anyone else. they came back, but they can't ever really leave.

there's a reality where shauna really did go outside and get jackie. there's a reality where the team really is eating chinese food in a shopping mall food court. there's a reality where none of them survived the plane crash to begin with. there's a reality where jackie drinks hot chocolate. there's a reality where MARI drinks hot chocolate. there's allie's reality, where she was SUPPOSED to be on the plane that day. maybe theres a reality where they take a bus instead. but all of them, in one way or another, are real.

i don't know, i just really love it. i love how it plays into the ideas of fate and regret and doom and self fulfilling prophecies and how it reinforces the one true "villain" in the show being the plane crash itself, because all the tragedy that comes about because of it would never have happened. it's a conversation about "what if's" just as much as it's a conversation about the dream realm and the visions and all the other freaky shit going on out there. 10/10.

[sapphicides]

although i doubt that this theory will end up being true, i’ve always loved the idea of the antler queen being some kind of supernatural entity/mass hallucination shared by the girls at the height of their insanity in the wilderness. what i mean by this is not that they’re all literally seeing this figure, but that they all feel its presence and worship it like a god. they offer pieces of their hair to it so they can keep it happy, in exchange for blessing or protection. their shared belief in the wilderness as a concept keeps them grounded out there, and maybe it manifests in the form of the “antler queen”

of course, this conflicts with what direction the show is going in, though. the draw of the queen card coupled with natalie being referred to as “my queen” by shauna implies that the antler queen will likely end up being a person (my bets are on shauna if we’re being realistic), but that doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be a living person. the girls who have already died out there haunt the narrative, with jackie in particular being honored as a “guide” by lottie in 3x01. in many ways, her death represented the loss of any remnants of civilization the girls had left in them, and her haunting them represents the mark the wilderness left and continued to leave on them

all that is to say, if the antler queen does end up being a supernatural being (or a mass hallucination that they interpret as being a supernatural being), i want it to be jackie. i want her character to come full circle; from being assigned the role of leader, to being dethroned as they descended into the throes of the wilderness, to becoming their leader yet again in death. i want her to serve as a symbol for what they’ve lost and what they eventually become, an ever-present reminder of the horrors they partook in. i want her to enact one last form of revenge by guiding them into further derangement, just to disappear when they need her most. i want jackie taylor to be the antler queen

i doubt she will be. but it would be so fucking cool if she was