Yellowjackets Finale Recap: Is [Spoiler] Alive… and a Cult Leader?!

Another member of the Yellowjackets meets her end in the unrelenting wilderness during the show’s Season 1 finale… and somehow, that’s one of the less WTF?! plot developments that take place in the hour. (And on that note: Lottie’s gotta be alive, right? All that business at the end, and that phone call from Suzie?)

Let’s recap what goes down in “Sic Transit Gloria Mundi,” which translates as “Thus passes the glory of the world,” and make sure to check out our post mortem interview with showrunners Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, where we ask all of our burning questions — pink Converse, Biscuit (RIP!), that dude in the shadows and a lot more!

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THE MORNING AFTER | The sun rises on the Doomscoming aftermath, aka a lot of teenagers waking up, confused, on the forest floor. They mostly look bedraggled and freaked out. Jackie, whom you’ll recall was the sole sober person the night before, shows up and is pissed. Coach Ben (somewhat hilariously) informs her and everyone else that they were on ‘shrooms, courtesy of Misty. As the group turns on her, Misty protests that the hallucinogenics weren’t meant for everyone, just for Ben. And before they can process that info, a giant BEAR wanders into the space in front of the cabin.

Natalie is gone with the gun, which is highly unfortunate. But as the others crowd on the porch, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the beast, Lottie walks toward the bear, quietly asking Shauna for the knife. And when Lottie gets quite close, the hulking predator lies down in front of her like a golden retriever anticipating a Snausage. So she stabs the bear and kills it. “We won’t be hungry much longer” indeed! (Side note: The “Rump Shaker” L-cut here is a thing of beauty.)

BEAR WITH US | The girls carve up and cook the bear; at one point, Shauna goes to lick the bloody knife, and only stops because Akilah points out that doing so will make her sick. Inside, Tai notices Van is wearing the bone that Lottie gave her and starts to tease her about believing in whatever weirdness Lottie is spouting. But Van says she saw something inexplicable when she was “in between or something… something was out there with us.” Tai mocks her girflriend some more, saying, “Van, you believe that Sporty Spice is the most underrated Spice Girl. You believe that Scully is way too good for Mulder” but she doesn’t believe in supernatural hoohah. (Side note: Scully WAS way too good for Mulder. I KNEW I liked Van!) Van counters that maybe she does now, and will that be a problem? Tai, realizing that this is something that’s become important to her lady, hugs her and says they’ll have no problems. Still, she looks wary.

At dinner that night, Van asks Lottie how she knew they wouldn’t be hungry much longer, and she says she just knew. Then Van suggests a blessing before they eat; Lottie leads it, but Jackie doesn’t join in, and this is the spark that lights the conflagration that burns for the rest of the episode.

Shauna starts yelling at Jackie. Jackie tells everyone that Shauna’s baby is Jeff’s. Shauna counters that Jackie is a self-involved jerk who doesn’t care about anyone else and who doesn’t know much about the girl she calls her best friend. “I don’t even like soccer!” Shauna screams. “But you just get everything you want all the time like it’s nothing.” Jackie replies that Shauna is so jealous of her “you can barely breathe.” I loved this response from Shauna: “Are you quoting Beaches at me?!”

It gets worse. Shauna says she pities Jackie, calling her “tragic, boring and insecure,” and pointing out that high school was “the best your life was ever going to get.” Jackie is so offended, she orders Shauna out. But Shauna says maybe Jackie needs to leave, instead. Coach Ben tries to cool things down, but he’s quickly overruled, and Jackie heads outside for the night. “I don’t even know who you are anymore,” she says on her way out. “Maybe you never did,” Shauna shoots back.

Elsewhere, Natalie finds Travis in the woods and asks if he’s OK, but he’s very cold to her. “I finally got laid. I’m f–king great,” he says flatly, but she ignores his sarcasm. Later, he can’t find Javi — who hasn’t been seen since Shauna told him to run in that scary demon voice (which maybe was just the ‘shrooms but who even knows?) — and he’s very worried. Natalie offers to help and he refuses, but soon he’s crying and apologizing about sleeping with Jackie. “I didn’t want to,” he sobs. “I f—king love you, Natalie.” They hug and cry, and it’s very touching, but seriously: Where is Javi?!

THAT’S COLD | Outside the cabin, Jackie can’t get a fire started. But then Shauna goes out and apologizes, then brings Jackie inside, where the group wraps her in blankets in front of the fire. “We all love you Jackie,” they say, handing her hot chocolate. Wait… where did they get that treat? And, um, why is Laura Lee there? “It’s not as bad as you thought, is it?” the wannabe pilot asks Jackie, and yeah, it’s starting to be very clear that Jackie is no longer among the living. Then a man in the shadows at the back of the cabin says, “So glad you’re joining us. We’ve been waiting for you,” and it is CREEPY.

In the attic, Shauna wakes up abruptly; it’s so cold inside the cabin, she can see her breath. Outside, a blanket of snow covers the ground… and Jackie. Shauna runs outside and has to unearth her former BFF from underneath an inch or so: Jackie froze to death in her sleep. Shauna shakes the girl, crying and hysterically yelling at her to wake up.

The last glimpse of forest life we see for the season is of Lottie, who takes the bear’s heart and places it on the tree altar in the show. Misty and Van, who’ve accompanied her, kneel reverentially behind her as she puts down the organ. “Now let the darkness set us free,” she says in French.

Yellowjackets‘ Most Brutal Moments (Well, At Least So Far)

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ADIOS, ADAM | And that’s just the flashbacks! In the present-day, Misty picks up industrial-strength cleaning supplies from the nursing home where she works (“the good stuff,” she excitedly tells Nat), and they drive to Adam’s apartment for Operation This Never Happened. Misty tasks Shauna with dismembering her dead lover, with Nat as an assistant, while she and Tai scrub the crime scene. “Do you still remember how to do that?” Natalie asks Shauna as she stands, with an electric carving knife, poised over the bathtub where they’ve put Adam’s body. “It’s just like riding a really gross, f–ked-up bike,” Shauna deadpans.

Natalie thinks that Adam had something to do with Travis’ death, but Shauna said the more likely possibility is that Travis actually killed himself. They’re all messed-up from their ordeal in the woods, she points out, and she herself has a hard time experiencing joy. Maybe, Shauna says knowingly, Travis couldn’t handle that anymore and just wanted out.

With the dismemberment done, Shauna hands a bag containing Adam’s head and hands over to Misty, who helpfully chirps that those body parts are the only ones that could really be used to identify him. She’ll get rid of them, and the rest of him will get buried in a remote area of a park.

But what is Misty going to do with Adam’s noggin, exactly? She heads to the funeral of one of her recently-passed patients and slips the incriminating bag into the casket just before it heads into the oven for cremation. And now it’s time for the reunion!

YOU GOTTA KEEP ‘EM SEPARATED | Shauna — wearing a different dress Jeff bought that is “a little more you,” per his note — and Tai show up at the event and take a moment before entering the gym. “How is it possible that this is the most scared I’ve been all day?” Shauna wonders. Then Natalie and Misty arrive, and they all strut in to The Offspring’s “Come Out and Play.” Yeah, it’s as badass as it sounds.

Some highlights (or maybe lowlights) from the evening: Allie hits on Jeff and brings up (again!) that she would’ve been on the plane if it weren’t for the injury cough that Tai inflicted cough. Kevin Tran finds Nat looking at a photo of Travis; she tells him that they were a lot alike. “Why, because we both loved you?” he wonders. Tai, Misty, Shauna and Nat do shots. Shauna threatens to kill Randy if he ever tells anyone about the blackmail scheme. Allie puts together a slide show about the ill-fated soccer team, then calls Class King Jeff up to dance with Shauna, who is standing in for Class Queen Jackie. As Seal’s “Kiss From a Rose” plays, they use the time to discuss what’s become of Adam’s body — “but I think the less you know about it, the better,” she says. Jeff reassures her that he thinks everything is going to be all right.

MISTY MAINTAINS THE UPPER HAND | The next morning, Misty relates her adventures to Jessica but still is hesitant to release her. What if she goes to the police? Jessica points out that she’s a fixer: “I clean up messes for the rich and the powerful.” And as such, she’s done and seen LOTS of stuff that she shouldn’t; she assures Misty that she’s got no plan to involve the authorities.

Misty unlocks her, wondering when their public relations blitz to tell Misty’s survivor story will begin. Jessica says she’ll talk to some contacts at “big lit agencies,” which sounds as wishy-washy as it clearly is. They have a little back-and-forth about how Misty threw out Jessica’s cigarettes because they’re bad for her. Misty grudgingly fishes them out of the garbage for her former captive, then bids her adieu.

While driving away, Jessica lights up and soon starts feeling woozy. As we get a flashback to Misty injecting the cigarettes with some kind of drug, Jessica realizes what’s happened. Her car slowly careens up onto the sidewalk and stops as she passes out.

‘WHO THE F—K IS LOTTIE MATTHEWS?’ | The good news? Against all odds and predictions, Tai wins her state senate run. The bad news? As Simone goes to the house to pick up a few things, she heads to the basement and notices something weird about a grate in the wall. Upon closer inspection, there’s blood on the floor and in the crawlspace behind the grate. And then Simone CRAWLS IN THERE WHY SIMONE WHY? And finds an altar featuring: candles, Sammy’s creepy doll, Biscuit’s bloody head (!) and heart (!!), and one of the wilderness symbols painted in blood or red paint on the wall. She, understandably, screams.

At the Sadecki household, Jeff and Shauna watch Dateline and seem to be having a great time hanging out on the couch. When Callie comes home, she’s weirded out to see her folks getting along so well, but she eventually joins them… just in time to see a news report about Adam and how he’s gone missing. Oops.

And at Natalie’s motel, she seems to have come to accept that Travis’ death was a suicide and nothing more. She cleans up, sits on the bed and prepares to kill herself with the shotgun. And for the second time this season, someone busts in the door and stops her from doing something stupid. But this time, it’s not the friendly — if frenzied — Misty. A group of four people, one of them wearing one of the wilderness symbols on a necklace, swoop in and grab her, then load her into a van and take off. Nat’s old sponsor, Suzie, happens to call at that exact moment and leave a panicked voicemail: “What the hell have you gotten me into? Look, I did what you asked. I dug into Travis’ bank account and found out who emptied it. I think someone is following me. Who the f–k is Lottie Matthews?”

And that’s the season! Grade the finale and the season as a whole via the polls below, then hit the comments with your thoughts, theories and predictions for Season 2!