9 Wild "Yellowjackets" Theories To Blow Your Mind And Give You, Uh, Food For Thought
If you've been on Twitter, Reddit, or really any internet forum lately, you will probably have seen some Yellowjackets chatter, which will almost certainly include fan theories about just what TF is going on.
Showtime / Via giphy.com
For the uninitiated, Yellowjackets is a Showtime drama about a high-school soccer team in the '90s that survives a plane crash and ends up marooned in the Canadian wilderness. The show follows the survivors of the crash as adults after they were rescued while also showing what they had to do in order to survive.
Showtime / Via giphy.com
Anyway, there are a LOT of fan theories floating around about what Season 1's end game is. Here are some of my favorites! (Obvs major spoilers ahead.)
1.Maybe the Yellowjackets AREN'T cannibals?
Showtime / Via giphy.com
When we first meet the surviving Yellowjackets in Episode 1, they're chasing after someone, who they *appear* to eat, implying the girls have become cannibals out of a sense of survival. But what if they AREN'T? Reddit user u/AshTronomy42 posits: "OK, they’re probably cannibals. Maybe the cannibalism isn’t the worst secret though. We never actually saw them do anything but slit the throat and drain the blood of the unfortunate victim we see in the first episode. While this is also the first step to preparing game, it could just be another ‘red’ herring. This would explain the ritualistic elements of chasing the sacrifice through the forest in the opening of the pilot. Not to eat, but sacrificial blood to the land for providing sustenance."
2.Jackie isn't dead.
The first episode would have us believe that Jackie (Ella Purnell) was the one who got eaten by the rest of the girls. Also, we haven't met an adult version of Jackie, implying that she never made it out of the woods. BUT! Lots of fans aren't convinced that Jackie is actually dead, for a number of convincing reasons, the biggest one being the diary kept in her parents' house, shown to us in the present day. Jackie's diary references movies that came out after the plane crash in 1996. And that's not the sort of detail a finely tuned show like Yellowjackets would overlook, you know? Where is Jackie, really? Is she a time traveller?
3.Adam = Javi?
One of the most prevailing theories is that the older Shauna's (Melanie Lynskey) sexy younger love interest, who calls himself Adam (Peter Gadiot), is actually grown-up Javi (Luciano Leroux). Not so hard to believe, since Javi is only a few years younger than Shauna when they crash. We don't know what happens to him, but we know that Javi has demonstrated an interest in art. As does Adam, who has a tattoo of a mountain range resembling the geometric shapes as a mysterious symbol that keeps popping up in the show.
4.Shauna's baby is going to get eaten.
Showtime / Via giphy.com
As we learn from the 1996 timeline, teenage Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) is pregnant, and the father is Jackie's boyfriend, Jeff, whom adult Shauna marries after the girls are rescued. We have no idea what happens to the pregnancy though, other than that Shauna considers (then backs out of) attempting an at-home abortion in the woods. According to Reddit user u/cool-name-pending, Shauna's baby is going to get eaten. "She's been dreaming that she's giving birth to food, and then eating it? This is foreshadowing 101. Whether they will be forced to kill and eat the baby (due to starvation), or the baby dies naturally and they eat it, that baby is getting consumed."
5.Lottie = Antler Queen?
Showtime / Via giphy.com
Vulture's Roxana Hadadi thinks Lottie, who has visions, must be the Antler Queen we meet in Episode 1. "I’m going with Lottie (Courtney Eaton)," Hadadi writes. "We’ve gotten a sense of her maybe-clairvoyance throughout the season, and yes, I believe she was genuinely possessed by the spirit of the cabin’s original owner, the dead French Canadian guy. She was the first to notice the flashing light from the cabin, she notices the carvings in the trees, and she has that trippy, Romeo + Juliet–esque candlelit walk during her baptism. I think Lottie’s connection with the spooky elevates her upward — and maybe her doom. No adult Lottie yet, remember."
6.Did the wolf attack really happen?
Showtime / Via giphy.com
Reddit user u/bellsbeach has an interesting theory about why the wolf attack in Episode 7 wasn't real: "For one, Misty isn't wearing her glasses while looking completely normal, in the second shot, when she tells Tai, 'Van is over there; go help her.' She looks like the 'usual' Misty,' with her glasses on, in the first and third shot of the 'attack' when they are fighting off the wolves with torches that were precisely ready for such an attack. There are no sign of the torches or a dead wolf when the scene is over. Van is away from the group sleeping and gets attacked. Tai is high up in a tree with the deer bone and flare gun... Every time Tai sees a wolf, granted as an adult that we have seen, it's in her head. She runs outside in her present day house and nothing is there."
7.Shauna's husband, Jeff, is the one blackmailing the grown-up Yellowjackets.
Hadadi also thinks Shauna's husband, Jeff (Warren Cole), has to be the one blackmailing the group: "All signs now lead to Shauna’s dopey husband, who obviously is not doing inventory at all hours of the night and who clearly was responsible for the glitter in Shauna’s closet. (I think the timing between when the guy who blackmailed the Yellowjackets fled in that modern silver car and when Adam showed up to Shauna’s house in his older pickup truck is too tight to put the blame on Adam.) Plus Jeff knows Taissa, he knows Misty, he knows Nat, and he knows what will rile them."
8.Who is the man with no eyes?
Early in Season 1, we learn that Taissa (Tawny Cypress) and her grandmother have seen a Man With No Eyes, and he shows up in the woods during the opening credits. As the show plays out, Taissa (both teenage and adult versions) experiences periods where she sleepwalks, winding up in trees and eating dirt. Is the man with no eyes a hallucination, or a real boogeyman? A lot of you on Reddit are leaning toward it being a stress/trauma response.
9.Is Callie actually Jackie's baby???
OK, this one is pretty out there, but redditor u/chelbro1024 says it could be why Shauna has such a crappy/strained relationship with her teenage daughter, Callie (Sarah Desjardins): "I think Callie is somehow Jackie's baby. This birth certificate in Shauna’s safe, notarized, along with their strange dynamic make and think Shauna isn’t her 'real' mom. Also, how into Callie Jackie’s parents are.
Jackie survives the wilderness, makes amends with Jeff when they get home, and she gets pregnant. Jackie is now either institutionalized, missing, or dead. Shauna and Jeff got together when Callie was a baby and just lied to her about her mom. She found out, and now her and Jackie are working together to blackmail the group of cannibals."
