This Yellowjackets Season 2 Episode 1, "Friends, Romans, and Countrymen," recap has spoilers.
Many have described Showtime's Yellowjackets as "surprising," but how surprised is it really? It's a high school survivalist drama grafted onto a thriller with cannibalism and suggestions of occult horror growing off it in all directions. There's something for everyone, and the Showtime seal of quality.
It's a rough ride, but it's also about how a high-school girls' soccer team that crashed into the Canadian wilderness is being forced to live both in the unfamiliar terrain and the hostile surroundings, but it's also about how the survivors, 25 years later, are being extorted for the truth of what really happened in the forest. Yellowjackets does not always do it very well in the Season 2 premiere, "Friends, Romans, Countrymen."
Season 2 Episode 1 of Yellowjackets Recap
Even the opening scene here is engulfed in weirdness, with Natalie and Travis going out to hunt for food and Javi, with the blood-ritual blessing of Lottie, who's Wiccan wonders certainly don't work, but provide a glimmer of possibility in a harsh and unforgiving landscape. But drinking blood isn't all that hopeful either.
Lottie is seen shortly after being rescued, unable to speak or reassimilate into civilized society. We see her receiving electroshock therapy. We see her receiving supernatural "gifts" with her placing a hand on someone's chest many times in a row.
She has evolved into something quite unmistakably a cult leader in the present day.
Adult Lottie is a public figure with enough influence to enlist the support of a small community and operate on a pretty vastly distributed compound, where she performs rituals involving naked men, shallow graves, and animal masks, and to which she has Natalie delivered as a captive. She starts by implying that Travis has a message for her.
Travis is dead, obviously, but in flashbacks we see him hyper-fixating on the survival of his little brother, Javi, and we also see how Lottie supported that position, despite how unlikely it was, enforcing Natalie's pride.
Shauna discovers a photograph of herself in Adam's private collection, which might indicate her connection to him. And she is correct: Adam's art studio is stuffed with huge paintings of her that they have to slaughter with turpentine.
The strange thing about this is that Shauna takes Jeff with her. He's not entirely OK with his wife being the muse of another guy, but he falls for Shauna putting a sexy fantasy spin on the whole thing. Yellowjackets is a terrific game; blending the darkly humorous with the horrifying.
Shauna is unable to process Jackie's death and keeps having long-running conversations with her frozen corpse, which at one point breaks down and its frigid ear snaps off, thereby giving off an amusingly comic quality.
Shauna and Jeff have a little barbecue — removing the sausages as a cover for the fall — where they burn the remaining remains of Adam's existence, including his wallet and ID. What they don't realize, though, is that their daughter Callie is actually suspicious enough of them to scrap through the ashes of the barbecue and find Adam's conveniently unburnt photo ID.
Taissa's future in "Friends, Romans, and Countrymen" is in jeopardy, especially after Simone discovered a secret ritual chamber in the basement that contained a heart, a missing doll of their son, Sammy, and the severed head of their dog.
Let's hope so!
Season 2 Episode 1 of Yellowjackets: What Happened?
Shauna remembers carrying Jackie's severed ear around for the whole episode. Upon discovering the now-defrosted little lobe, she does what any starving person would do: pop it into her mouth. Yum!
Season 2 Episode 1, "Friends, Romans, and Countrymen," is now available on Showtime.
- Yellowjackets Season 2 Episode 2 Release Date
- Yellowjackets Season 2 Episode 2 Recap
