REVIEW: Yellowjackets Season 2, Episode 1 – “Friends, Romans, Countrymen”

Yellowjackets Season 2 Episode 1 marks the popular Showtime series’ return with even greater tension. In this season premiere, we’re plunged straight back into the overbearing darkness that permeates through the series, following the shocking conclusion of season one which resulted in Jackie’s (Ella Purnell) untimely death. Created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, Yellowjackets doubles down on the bleak and uneasy tone of its debut, with even greater stakes as the flashbacks throw us and the characters into the depths of winter. One of the greatest elements of the series from the start has been its ability to marry both timelines in a way that is seamless in its transitions while also allowing the mystery of what happened to not take the bulk of the story’s worth. We know what happens—we saw it at the start of the show. What we want to know and what the writers are having fun indulging in is peeling back the layers that make us understand why. 

Yellowjackets Season 2 Episode 1 wastes little time catching viewers up on what has taken place while also bringing us up to speed on what we’ve missed in the two months the characters in the past have endured the frigid wilderness blanketed by snow. Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) and Travis (Kevin Alves) are mapping out the area while keeping a lookout for Travis’s younger brother, Javi (Luciano Leroux). Before they leave, they drink a concoction made by Lottie (Courtney Eaton) seasoned with a drop of her blood. Natalie argues it doesn’t actually do anything, but Lottie points out they haven’t died on one of their excursions yet, so why abandon the ritual?

It’s a strong way to reestablish the characters in the flashbacks. Young and resilient as they are susceptible to the comfort of routine and ritual the episode telegraphs how easy it will be for their ecosystem to further implode in on itself. One of the more interesting sequences of the episode follows a brief moment of the teenagers, clearly having just been rescued, boarding a plane while being mobbed by press and onlookers. Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) is near feral while Lottie turns to the crowd and screams. Perhaps things won’t get as mystical as the story suggests, and maybe Lottie doesn’t possess any real special powers, but she already has them drinking her blood out of the palm of her hands. 

As was also the case in season one, the flashbacks with the teenage versions of the characters remain much more interesting. While the actresses set in the present day are phenomenal and it’s an intriguing peak into their shared trauma, the flashbacks are a bevy of intriguing and surreal storylines. There’s still plenty to enjoy, however, especially as Natalie (Juliette Lewis) is reunited with adult Lottie (Simone Kessell), or Misty’s (Christina Ricci) continued and unhinged plight to find the former. Even Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) and Jeff (Warren Kole) have ignited a spark of passion, albeit undermining their intelligence as they fall into a fit of passion at an active crime scene. 

Shauna in the past versus her in the present is such a fascinating character build as the former is at her breaking point while Lynskey has a knack for making the most vengeful and angry characters seem composed. Flashback Shauna is communicating with Jackie’s ghost, revealed to be her corpse in a blink and you miss it switch that’s unsettling despite being prepared for the reveal. 

The episode ends with a sucker punch, as we see Shauna and Jeff’s daughter discover Adam’s (Peter Gadiot) license that failed to burn away, his picture still clear. Shauna’s demons are no longer reserved for a select few. And, in the past, we see what looks like Shauna about to consume the ear that broke from Jackie’s frozen body. An act of hunger or an act of vicious rebellion against a ghost who taunts and belittles her, it doesn’t matter. It’s possibly the most shocking thing a character has done so far in this series, and that’s without any bloodshed at all.

Yellowjackets Season 2 Episode 1 is both a reminder of the series’ inherent pull as well as a testament to an incredible cast of characters and tightly woven writing. No moment feels tacked on, with every adding a block to the path of chaos the characters are walking.

 Yellowjackets Season 2 Episode 1 is streaming now on Showtime and airs on Showtime network March 26th.

Allyson Johnson

Allyson Johnson is co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of InBetweenDrafts. Former Editor-in-Chief at TheYoungFolks, she is a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics and the Boston Online Film Critics Association. Her writing has also appeared at CambridgeDay, ThePlaylist, Pajiba, VagueVisages, RogerEbert, TheBostonGlobe, Inverse, Bustle, her Substack, and every scrap of paper within her reach.