No Compass
Episode 7 of Yellowjackets begins with Taissa cleaning her hands rigorously, washing off all the mud. She also bandages her wrist after a particularly nasty cut. Glancing over, she receives another message from an impatient Nat telling her to hurry up. Taissa does eventually show, at around the same time as Shauna. They have the tracker but not sure whereabouts to hide it. The measly 50k is a little sparse in this large bag so they decide to fill it with a whole manner of random trinkets, including an empty crisp packet which they decide to place it in. Nat decides she’s the one who’s going to make the drop, telling the others to meet a couple of blocks over. After dumping the bag in the charity donation bins, the trio all gather and drink together, waiting for their blackmailer to show. The gear is moved but unfortunately Nat blows their cover and jumps in too early, cornering the truck driver. A foot-chase soon ensues when the real culprit steals the bag from the back, rushing through a department store. Just as he’s about to drive off, Nat sees red and contemplates shooting him dead. The others stop her, with the bullet ricocheting off the pavement, but apparently she wasn’t trying to kill him. Nat is more forthcoming with her feelings than the others in the aftermath of this. She’s quick to point that out to the others, referencing how she wears her emotions on her sleeve. Shauna and Tai are both going through their own messed up problems and as Nat so eloquently puts it “they’re just better at hiding it.” Misty eventually confronts Jessica down in the basement. Taking off her gag, she claims that Jessica killed Travis and is the one responsible for blackmailing and stalking them all. She chuckles at this incredulously and reveals the truth. Tai is the one who actually hired her to keep an eye on all the other survivors. She wanted to make sure no one else talked and messed up her campaign by spilling the beans about what they endured in the wilderness. Jessica also confirms that Travis was murdered… but she refuses to disclose how she knows unless Misty lets her go, using this nugget of info as leverage. She even suggests they team up together. Unfortunately Misty is a complete psycho and refuses to be swayed, determined to make the reporter talk – even if it’s doing so through torturous means. Thankfully it doesn’t get that far. Jessica eventually does reveal that Travis’s bank account was closed right after he died. This mean that someone other than him emptied his account. She deduces that whoever killed him also has that money. Back in the wilderness, the group gather together to try and figure out what to do next. Taissa is determined not to wait for winter and a lack of food; she’s going to hunt for civilization. She’s not allowed to take the gun though but Jackie does cave and allows her to take a flare gun instead. Just before she leaves, Tai cuts her locks and sports a brand new haircut. In private, Van decides to go with her. She feels compelled to at least try to find salvation, calling Tai their “fearless leader”. Tai’s bold decision also inspires several other girls and Travis, although he’s convinced to stay by Nat. When Travis and Nat do finally get some time alone though, he has trouble “performing”. He’s scared and as he starts to get uncomfortable and anxious, the whole sexually charged encounter falls flat. Eventually Travis leaves flustered, apologizing timidly. Lottie approaches Van just before the group leaves, telling her about her dreams. She’s seen visions of red smoke and a river of blood. Lottie eventually gives her a big hug and wishes her well. With this ominously hanging over them, the final group to head off compromises of last-minute Misty (who gives coach a big hug in a very awkward moment), Mari, Akilah, Tai and Van. Wolf howls that night are an ominous foreshadowed glimpse of what’s to come. They’re also motifs we’ve seen across Tai’s flashbacks in the present. Tai’s group do eventually come across the red river, just as Lottie foretold. Even worse, their compass begins to spiral out of control. Tai wants to press on but Van isn’t sure, claiming that the woods don’t want them to leave. Tai grows impatient and instead decides they should use the sun as a guide instead, reminding them that they’re losing daylight and need to continue forward. That night, the camp come under attack from wolves. Van is ravaged by a wolf, which Tai sees in all its horrific detail. She watches as her lover is dragged into the woods. She fires the flare gun and eventually beats the wolf to a bloody pulp before it can. Van meanwhile is left very much dead, with a gnarly chunk taken clean off her face. With the group fractured, Jackie decides to confront Shauna about what she’s hiding. She knows her best friend is keeping secrets and Shauna does eventually spill the truth, revealing that she’s pregnant. She lies though, claiming Randy knocked her up. She also claims it happened the night of Mari’s birthday party. But there’s a problem with that story. That’s the exact night that Jackie went back to give Randy a lift home, causing her to doubt the whole story. Sensing this, Shauna hides her journal but later that night Jackie finds it. Reading the passages out in the woods, she can hardly hide her emotion as she reads about Shauna’s dark truth.
The Episode Review
Yellowjackets returns this week with another chapter that reveals more about what happened out in the woods during the past flashbacks. The red river visions and the wolf attack finally come to the forefront of this chapter, leaving Tai at the front of this nightmare. She clearly feels incredibly guilty about this, haunted by the wolf attack that took the life of her lover. At the same time, the truth about Shauna’s betrayal is finally revealed and that’s almost certainly going to cause a whole world of trouble for our characters going forward. If Jackie and Shauna do end up falling out over this, it’s going to fracture the group and potentially leave them in different factions. Could this explain the hunters and hunted scene at the start of the season? We already know that these girls descend down a maniacal path later on during their time in the woods (given the frozen scenes) and this could be the catalyst that drives this to occur. Someone commented on the last episode recap we put up theorizing that Jeff is the blackmailer. After this episode I would have to agree. Seeing him come in flustered after a busy night of “working”, seems to reinforce that he’s involved in some way. He’s flown under the radar for large swathes of this show, under the façade of his alleged cheating, but it could well be a front that he’s working for someone else to get the money and blackmail the others. Either way though, this series is just starting to heat up and as we reach the business end of this season, everything is left wide open for where this one may go next. But what do you guys think? Are you enjoying this one? Let us know in the comments what you think will happen next and what your theories are!
