The Dollhouse
Episode 3 of Yellowjackets begins back in the forest. All our kids gather together and mourn the deceased. Laura leads the charge, with all the girls gathered and saying their goodbyes to those who have fallen. Among those include both pilots. Tai is the one who’s hit hardest by this though, reminded of moments in her past. She’s no stranger to death – or religion for that matter – as she was there when her grandmother passed. Now, we do see more of this later in the episode as her grandmother rants and raves about a man with no eyes in the mirror. She’s scared and that in turn makes a young Taissa see the same ghostly face in the mirror, witnessing this terrifying omen. When Tai checks her eyes at the funeral, it seems the old lady’s predictions were true, they’re just white. Anyway, back in the forest it has been three days and there has been no rescue yet. After destroying the flight recorder, it’s safe to say that help won’t be arriving for a while. Taissa comes bounding through the woods, excitedly chirping about a lake she’s found. Given they only have 2 days worth of water left, this seems like a logical place to move all their gear to. After a tactical vote, they all agree to leave. On the way, a severed carcass and strange growls in the distance seem to hint that a wolf are stalking the group. This would also fit with last episode’s visions of a wolf Tassia saw in Sammy’s room. Anyway, they do eventually make it to the lake and begin to let loose a little. While swimming, some of the kids notice reflective flashes in the sun. Halfway up the hill in the distance, something is glittering. The gang follow the light and find an abandoned hut. There’s canned food there but it’s not exactly edible, while Jackie sports a nasty cut on the side of her thigh. Trouble brews between Javi and Travis too, who wind up wrestling out by the hut, arguing about their father. Back in the present, shots are thrown at Tassia, as her campaign dealt a blow by a smear ad by her opposition, Phil. Sammy interrupts though, as Tai takes him out to the park. There, Tai receives a call from her team. They’ve found some incriminating details about Phil’s life, which she decides to use as collateral against him. However, Sammy ends up hitting another child in the face, breathing heavily. From the wild look in his eyes, Sammy looks possessed. Elsewhere, Shauna tries to find the best way to broach the subject of her husband’s cheating. Specifically she brings up 4pm, to see if he mentions Bianca. He doesn’t, of course, and claims he’s swamped at the store. This only causes more alarm bells to ring for Shauna. So naturally she follows him to a hotel, which seems to confirm the worst. In order to catch him red-handed, she follows him in, trying to learn what room he’s in. Adam shows up though and the pair end up talking once more. Shauna admits she’s trying to figure out if her husband is unfaithful… and that soon comes to fruition when she notices him talking to Bianca and walking past. Out on their road trip, Nat and Misty make it to a convenience store. There, she finds the severed wires from the flight recorder in her glove compartment. “I knew it,” She says through gritted teeth. Nat stays quiet for now, as the pair make it up to Travis’s place. They haven’t seen him for 25 years and after breaking into his house, Nat finds his old clothes. Now, it’s clear that the pair had something going on in the past and a polaroid of the two together only reinforces that. Checking his gear, Nat realizes he’s been working at Willow Brook Ranch. They don’t get much further than that though, as a sheriff shows, sees them breaking and entering, and hastily arrests the pair. With Nat’s call to Taissa a bust, Misty phones Kevin and manages to talk her way out of trouble. Back on the road again, the pair arrive at Willow Brook Ranch. When they get there, the duo find Travis has hung himself. Nat is adamant he was murdered. A note in his apartment seems to confirm this too, reading “Tel Nat she was right.”
The Episode Review
Yellowjackets shifts thee attention for its latest episodes to something more closely resembling death and what our destiny holds. There’s a lot of discussions here about passing away and whether it bee the opening funeral in the forest or the ominous shots of this strange ghost that can allegedly take eyes, it’s now becoming clear that everyone has some sort of dark past linked to losing someone or experiencing death firsthand. More intriguing than all of this though is Shauna. She froze while being asked about her past and what she regrets during episode 2, which seems to hint that she’s got a much larger role to play in this story going forward. However, the series has consistently managed to ask these questions in a clever way and kept things engaging right the way through its run-time. Yellowjackets has managed to tap into that same mystery and intrigue that made LOST such a formidable series back in the day. While I’m not about to go all hyperbole and claim “this is the next LOST” (hello mainstream media) this is a very solid mystery series that’s doing all the right things at the moment. Having said that, this was a slightly slower episode with a lot less reveals and more of a slow-paced character examination of Taissa. Let’s hope things pick back up moving forward.
