Doomcoming
Episode 9 of Yellowjackets begins with Shauna confronting Adam, demanding to know who he is. She calls him out for blackmail, demanding her missing journals back. The code for the safe was actually the flight number too, something that Shauna immediately points out when she finds a whole stack of books about Flight 2525 in his drawer. Shauna immediately grabs a knife. As flashes of the past bleed through, Shauna is entranced, refusing to listen to Adam’s pleas. She stabs him with that knife, watching as he bleeds out on the floor. When Shauna heads home, she asks Jeff about the glitter in the closet. Hands on hips, he shakes his head before finally admitting that he’s responsible. His actions link back to the store, he’s being run out of business from his competitors so he decided to blackmail the other Yellowjackets. Specifically he wanted to go after Taissa, determined to rustle up enough cash to try and pay for the store and prevent it going under. Even worse, Jeff took out a loan from loan sharks. He’s paid them back (apparently) but the store is still in jeopardy. It’s here Shauna opens up and admits that she stabbed Adam. Originally she thought he was blackmailing her, and calls out his affair with Bianca. Only, it turns out Jeff wasn’t having an affair. Bianca was the name of the loan shark he had to pay back. He was never actually having an affair, which leaves Shauna shocked – and reeling when Jeff is incredulous to her confession. As they contemplate their choices, Jeff decides to go to the cops and take the blame for stabbing Adam. Shauna reminds Jeff that this goes deeper than that. The blackmail would eventually get out and even worse, his best friend, Randy, actually knows about what happened to the Yellowjackets too. If this incriminating news broke out, it would cause devastation for their relationship. Secrets have defined their relationship this whole time and now, it seems like the only way to salvage what they have is to embrace it. Jeff decides they should let the other girls believe that Adam was the blackmailer. Back in the wilderness, Jackie’s doom and gloom attitude eventually leads to the girls all agreeing to party, at least as a way of trying to stave off the incoming hunger and disaster they’re going to endure. Jackie is convinced they’re all going to die anyway and decides they should celebrate “Doomcoming”, their own variation of Homecoming. They even have some fermented berries that may have turned into alcohol too. Alone in he woods, Jackie continues to dance around the truth. She knows what happened with Shauna, and decides to try and win over Travis, which will almost certainly cause drama with Nat. “Gosh, I wouldn’t want to compete with you over a boy Shauna,” Jackie says to her friend, but the implications here goes right over Shauna’s head. What else goes unnoticed is Misty sneaking off into the woods, picking up mushrooms she’s had stashed away and leaving them, wrapped in a cloth, next to the kettle instead. When she leaves them unattended, the others find them, “you’ve been holding out on us!” Misty can only smile thinly as it seems she had other ideas for this. The Doomcoming soon gets underway, and everyone shows up dressed to impress. Tai stands by Van’s side, making makeshift masks for them both so they fit in together. Misty watches as everyone starts to eat the food, quite clearly laced with mushrooms. Lottie organizes a silent tribute to Laura, eventually humming while staring at the dancing flames in the campfire. The rest of the girls all start joining in and singing too, which leads to them all dancing together. In the wake of all this, Jackie asks Travis to dance, which obviously riles up Nat. So naturally she takes Coach away so they can drink together. When they leave, Jackie tries it on with Travis inside. Travis rejects her and asks about Natalie, eventually admitting that he’s in love with her. This is the final straw for Jackie, who admits outright to Travis what happened between Jeff and Shauna. Her pain is enough for Travis to begin kissing her. It’s unclear whether this is solely out of pity, but when Jackie mentions feelings like a shell of the person she once was, this is what sparks him into action. With the mushrooms taking full effect, the girls all decide to check on Jackie and Travis. However, en-route they hear wolves in the distance and decide to start howling back at them. They immediately enter the room but Travis is under the influence of mushrooms and not thinking straight. The girls turn on Jackie and lock her in the storage room. As they do, they all turn their attention to Travis and begin kissing him. It’s pretty uncomfortable stuff and Travis eventually runs away from them. In the woods, Misty finds out Coach Ben is gay and immediately spirals while Natalie hurries back to the cabin where she finds Jackie calling for help in the locked room. After letting him out, the cries from the girls echo through the woods as they chase Travis. With Lottie in control, she stuffs a pine-cone in Travis’ mouth and leaves it to Shauna to cut the head off this guy. Shauna though, sees a stag in his place. Thankfully, Natalie and Jackie both show up just in time to save him. Back in the present, Jeff sits down and talks to Shauna about her traumatic experiences in the wild. He’s known this entire time what happened between them and even through the affair and all the hardships they’ve had together, Jeff still wants to support her and be by her side. After this chat, Shauna rings Tai, who in turn rings Nat. She mentions finding the blackmailer, as she decides to press ahead with her original story about Adam being the blackmailer. Eventually Nat and Tai show up, with Shauna showing off the planted bag and concocting a story about the pair having a scuffle. She also shows her journals from the woods, pretending Adam stole them from her. The thing is, Nat has contacts and she’s still waiting for the bank teller to confirm more about the fund transfer. This will almost certainly materialize in the coming chapters. Unsure what else to do, Nat has an idea to call on Misty to help them move the body and clean up the crime scene. The thing is, Jessica has a way of manipulating her and despite being chained up, convinces Misty to open up and admit the truth about what happened out in the woods. At least in view of the whole public anyway. Nat shows up at her door and throws a spanner in the works though. She apologizes before getting straight to the point – she wants her help in moving Adam’s body.
The Episode Review
So the truth about Jeff and Adam gets out, with the latter apparently not linked to the wild after all. It turns out he’s been looking into the flight for himself, especially if those books are anything to go by. Whether there ever was any real feelings between him and Shauna is left up for debate but it certainly leaves a lot of answers for us. Nowhere else is that more evident than the reveal with Jeff. We finally understand exactly what he’s been hiding, including the loan sharks and the blackmail for Taissa. It turns out this wasn’t nefariously linked to the wilderness after all, and he’s actually genuinely been worried about his business. Those “late nights” at the office were clearly meetings with Bianca to give back the money he initially loaned. Jeff’s dedication to Shauna, even through her having an affair and cheating on him, is pretty admirable too, if a little foolhardy. Meanwhile, there’s extra revelations from the time in the wild and those moments involving Travis were incredibly uncomfortable. Travis is lucky he got up when he did because honestly, this looked to be bordering on rape. Whether the girls would have actually gone that far or not though, we’ll never know. However, there is a nice bit of foreshadowing here involving the girls flying off the deep-end, and this helps to set up what should be a very dramatic season finale next week. Either way though, Yellowjackets continues to deliver the goods, with an enthralling chapter that sets the scene beautifully for next week’s finale.
