Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Yellowjackets Season 3 Episode 6.
Yellowjackets Season 3 has been noticeably slower than the preceding seasons. On the one hand, lots is happening, but on the other, things are moving a heck of a lot slower than in prior installments. This all changes with Episode 6, titled “Thanksgiving (Canada).” While the previous five episodes were still fascinating and always kept us glued, there was always something missing from it. This week amps up every aspect and finally digs into the story from every angle, every character, and every possible storyline, giving us a juicy and irresistible installment filled with returning characters, shocking reveals, and perhaps the most shocking twist of all.
The Sadeckis Take a Trip in ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Episode 6
Episode 6 picks up directly after the events of Episode 5, so Jeff (Warren Kole) is waiting up for Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) when she comes walking in the door after a long day of being a citizen detective with Walter (Elijah Wood). Jeff has no idea about Lottie’s (Simone Kessell) death, and so Shauna has to break the news to him, including her suspicions that Lottie was actually murdered — with her reasoning being that “disgraced cult members don’t just fall down the stairs and die.” Unbeknownst to her and Jeff, Callie (Sarah Desjardins) overhears them and is visibly shaken by the news that Lottie has died. The moment allows us to circle back to the first episode of the season, when Callie found the cassette that was delivered to Shauna. She gives it to her parents and says that although she hasn’t listened to it, she thinks it could have something to do with Lottie’s death. This is an immediate red flag for Shauna; first the brakes on her van, then the freezer incident, and now the cassette: Someone is trying to kill her.
In an attempt to stay safe from harm, the Sadeckis pack up and head to a hotel called the Jolly Hitcher, Once they’re settled, Jeff asks Shauna how bad this is, if it’s anything like the stuff that was in her journals, but Shauna hasn’t even listened to the cassette yet, so she doesn’t know. Whatever it is, Jeff says, it can’t be good, and that someone definitely has it out for her since they even know where she lives. Shauna assures Jeff she won’t let anyone hurt him or Callie, and then feigns hunger-induced dizziness to get him out of the room so she can make a phone call to Van (Lauren Ambrose), who’s currently indulging in massages at a separate hotel with Taissa (Tawny Cypress). Naturally, Van has a way to play the cassette, which is actually a DAT tape. Van says she has a DAT player somewhere and can bring it over later in the week, but Shauna stresses the emergency aspect and asks her to track the player down sooner rather than later.
What’s On the Tape in ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Episode 6?
After Van finds the DAT player, she and Taissa meet Shauna at the Jolly Hitcher, and they waste no time listening to it in the car. We only get to hear a brief clip, which contains audio of the girls screaming ferally like they’ve done on multiple occasions, most often when they’re engaging in a hunt for a wilderness sacrifice. We have no idea where the tape is from, but Van says that the only people who know about it are either them or dead, and they’ve already ruled out Misty (Christina Ricci) as a possibility. They don’t have much more time to speculate, though, because Shauna soon finds Callie’s phone in her purse, and discovers that Callie has set it to record their conversation the entire time. She deletes the recording and leaves a bewildered Tai and Van behind as she heads back inside.
Shauna gives Callie trouble for recording the conversation, but Callie says she has a right to know what’s coming for them. Shauna doesn’t agree and says she’s just a child, but Callie throws that remark back at her and points out she’s the same age Shauna was out in the wilderness. This hits a little too close to home for Shauna, and she sends Callie out of the room. Unbeknownst to Shauna, Callie recovers the voice memo from her phone’s recently deleted folder, meaning she’ll be able to listen in on everything anyway.
Which Tai Is It, Anyway, in ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3?
It’s no secret that Taissa has not been herself this season, but it all comes to a head in Episode 6. After she gets off the phone with Shauna about the DAT tape, Van discovers that Taissa has ordered extravagant room service, complete with lobster. Van rushes the hotel staff out of the room and calls Taissa out — Shauna is breaking down, Lottie is dead, and here Tai is, focusing on self-care. Taissa explains that she feels like everything is falling apart. She’s lost her family, her career, not to mention Lottie and Nat, and to top it all off, the love of her life is battling cancer. She can’t fix any of it, so she just wants to feel good for the moment. Van sympathizes but says that their friend sounded really scared, so they need to do something about that.
Tai jokes that Shauna is afraid of a DAT tape, and asks who even uses those anymore, to which Van muses about weird garage bands and intense birders before pausing. Her face drops, and she tells Tai they’ve got to leave right now. We later cut to Van in the basement of Tai’s house looking through boxes containing her belongings, and she eventually finds the DAT player. However, when she finds it, the electricity flickers, and the phone in the box also begins to ring. Confused, and a little frightened, Van picks it up. The voice is distorted, but it’s a voice she knows all too well: it’s Tai, and she’s asking for help. Suddenly, the physical Tai comes down the stairs, and Van stares at her in fear, unsure what is going on now, but putting it aside in order to help Shauna.
Later that night, when they’re in bed, Taissa is asleep and Van is googling how long DAT tapes can last outdoors, when all of a sudden Taissa shoots straight up in bed. She’s panicked and out of breath and begs Van to help her — but just as quickly as she says it, her face softens, and she sinks back down into the pillows, asking Van why she’s still awake. Now it’s clear to Van that Tai isn’t Tai anymore and ”Other Tai” has taken over; it’s just a matter of how to save Tai from herself before it’s too late.
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Lisa Returns in ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3
After the competition between Walter, Shauna, and Misty in Episode 5 to investigate Lottie’s death, Walter apologizes to Misty and gives her a peace offering: Lottie’s trash. He says he couldn’t make sense of anything from it, but maybe she can. Misty unearths takeout containers from a place called Bamboo Café, and when she looks up the name, she finds that it is the most un-Lottie restaurant ever with a 2.5 rating, a C from the health department, and no vegetarian options, so there must be some other reason Lottie went there. Misty takes it upon herself to investigate and spots Lisa (Nicole Maines), one of the former members of Lottie’s cult, delivering takeout from the restaurant.
Misty follows Lisa and attempts to speak to her, but Lisa is scared of her — and rightfully so, considering the syringe that killed Natalie was meant for her initially. Misty accuses Lisa of killing Lottie, but Lisa points out that not everyone turns their trauma into murder like Misty does. She does, however, tell Misty everything she knows — including that the last time she saw Lottie, she ordered a bunch of food and gave Lisa a $50,000 tip in an envelope that simply said “I’m sorry.” Misty says that such a large tip is suspicious, but Lisa admits that after all the bad things that happened to her, she’s learned to take the good things when they come. Lisa also tells Misty that if she still can’t believe Lottie fell down the stairs then maybe she should check with her own friends — specifically Taissa, because she met with Lottie the day she died. Misty doesn’t believe her, but Lisa says she saw them together right outside the restaurant.
Coach Scott Says Goodbye in ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3
After having his Achilles tendon cut at the end of the previous episode, Coach Scott (Steven Krueger) is not doing well. Sure, his life has been spared, but at what cost? He’s being kept in a pen with animals, and he’s only being kept alive because Akilah (Nia Sondaya) had a vision that he’s their bridge home; otherwise, he’d be dead. That’s no life, and he tells Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) as much when she brings him breakfast. He also begs her to kill him, or at least bring him a weapon so he can do it himself. He even tries goading her on by claiming he lit the cabin on fire in the hopes it will make her mad enough to kill him, but she doesn’t believe him. Every time she brings him food, he pleads for death, and it gets to the point where she refuses to bring him his meals because she can’t handle it.
Mari (Alexa Barajas) eventually takes on the responsibility of bringing Coach his meals, but when she arrives she finds flies buzzing all around him and smells something putrid. His face is sunken, and he looks weak and ill. She realizes that he’s been stashing his food away, uneaten, and has about a week’s worth of rotten food sitting next to him. He’s on a hunger strike because he just wants to die. Lottie (Courtney Eaton) is vehemently against the idea, because they’re still holding onto what Akilah saw in her vision. Later that day, Misty (Samantha Hanratty) and several other members of the team show up in face coverings and hold Coach down, shoving a tube down his throat and pouring food in it so he has no choice but to swallow. It’s brutal to watch, and when Natalie goes in to check on him, he’s coughing up blood.
This image clearly lingers with Natalie, and we cut to her lying in her hut later on that night, tears in her eyes. Finally, she gets up, picking up a knife, and heads to where they’re keeping Coach Scott. When Travis (Kevin Alves) intercepts her, Natalie says that she has to do this, and Travis sympathizes, telling her he’ll keep watch but to be quick because the sun is rising soon. As soon as Coach sees the knife in Natalie’s hand, he knows what she’s there to do and simply says, “Please.” She struggles to follow through, so Coach scoots closer and thanks her just before she plunges the knife into his chest. He lets out one big gasp and dies peacefully, letting go of all the pain and suffering he’s been holding onto.
The Hierarchy of Power Shifts in ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Episode 6
The team is awake and morning has dawned when Natalie comes stumbling out of Coach’s enclosure, hands covered in blood. Misty is devastated, calling Nat a murderer, and rushes to Coach’s side, arranging his body as if he were being laid to rest in proper fashion. Meanwhile, the rest of the team screams at Natalie for mercy killing him. She stands firm that it was the right thing to do, because he’d been suffering. Melissa (Jenna Burgess) simply tells her to shut up, while Gen (Vanessa Prasad) shoves her to the ground, and Van (Liv Hewson) shouts that it wasn’t her decision to make. Tai (Jasmin Savoy Brown) suggests they have another trial, but Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) says there’s no need — Nat is guilty, and she confessed. All they need now is to decide what to do with her. Lottie suggests that Shauna lead them going forward.
It takes a moment for this to sink in, but when it does, Shauna actually makes her first ruling rather easily. Instead of being completely cruel, she says that they always honor those who die, so tonight, they will honor Coach Scott, and they will give the wilderness what it wants. As for Natalie’s punishment? She’ll be the one to prepare the feast. It’s a similarly ruthless moment to the Shauna we’ve been seeing this season, as she walks Nat through preparing Coach’s body, but she softens just slightly when she covers his face with a piece of cloth so Nat doesn’t have to look at him as she does it.
As the team has their feast to honor Coach that night, Lottie mutters that it’s all wrong, and this isn’t how it’s supposed to happen. A little earlier in the episode, she had gone to pray by the trees, begging for the wilderness to talk to her and listen to her, and it seems like it’s listening because she starts hearing whispering and laughing — only no one is doing either of those things. Lottie suddenly lets out a loud scream, which causes the wilderness to join in, in the same taunting screeches that we’ve heard all season. She encourages everyone else to join her, and it makes the wilderness sounds even louder and more chaotic.
Just then, however, Lottie sees a figure just on the edge of camp. She briefly thinks it’s Coach, but that’s not possible. Suddenly, she freezes, and so does everyone else, because it’s people they’ve never seen before. It’s civilization, a way out. Hope. Before anything can be said, the man standing before them notices Coach Scott’s head on the table and screams, and the credits roll. Is this truly their saving grace? Was killing Coach Scott their way home, or will the Yellowjackets have to kill again to protect their secret?
New episodes of Yellowjackets Season 3 premiere Fridays on Showtime.
Yellowjackets
Episode 6 of Yellowjackets Season 3 sees the return of a familiar face, the merciful death of a major character, and a jaw-dropping twist.
- Release Date
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November 14, 2021
- Network
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Showtime, Paramount+ with Showtime
- The team is not alone in the wilderness after all.
- Coach Scott is given a merciful ending by Natalie’s hand.
- Taissa’s storyline is finally picking up.
- We finally dig into the cassette tape from Episode 1.
- Shauna is crowned the new leader.
