REVIEW: ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Episode 3 — “Them’s the Brakes”

This review discusses some spoilers from Yellowjackets Season 3 Episode 3. 

Things aren’t looking good for Coach Ben (Steven Krueger) in Yellowjackets Season 3 Episode 3. Ben gets a decent amount of focus in an otherwise uneven episode, and once again, the past storyline excels. The unevenness of the present storyline with the adult versions of these characters isn’t because they’re the focus. It’s due to how the adult versions of the characters are written and, in some cases, performed that let the series down. Despite their wealth of potential and the strong actresses involved, Yellowjackets often fumbles when we’re ripped back into the present.

The biggest foul of Yellowjackets Season 3 Episode 3 is who it focuses on in the present, with adult Lottie and, more frustratingly, Callie getting ample limelight. Simone Kessel continues to be a weak link in casting. Lottie is meant to play the role of victim while only just barely withholding her venomous bite. Kessel leans too hard on that victim aspect, bypassing restraint. Courtney Eaton, who plays teenage Lottie, understands the nuances of her character and how her perceived vulnerability gives way to a darker edge.

We see it in her interactions with Travis (Kevin Alves) and how she pushes forward against him when others try to hold her back, lest she add to his suffering. She’s meek only when it benefits her. Like the more rage-fueled Shauna, she is out there to survive.

But the real drawback of Lottie’s story in the present is the inclusion of Callie (Sarah Desjardins). Callie is the least interesting character in the series, and Desjardins is another of the weakest actresses in a series with a high-quality caliber of performances on its roster. The bonding feels vacant, even if it leads to a tremendous moment from Melanie Lynskey as Shauna. Because for all Shauna’s anger, it’s rare to see her scared. But seeing Callie with Jackie’s (Ella Parnell) necklace hanging from her neck, once a harbinger of death and despair, sends her over the edge.

Melanie Lynskey delivers a powerful performance in Yellowjackets Season 3 Episode 3.

Lynskey’s fear and rage are palpable, and she yanks the necklace away and shuns Lottie from their home. Lottie tries to defend the move by saying that the necklace never meant what Shauna thought it did, but it’s too late. It also seems like another one of Lottie’s convenient lies because, of course, the necklace held some meaning, worn by the ‘pit girl’ and Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) when it first looked like she’d be sacrificed before Javi’s death. It might not wield any actual power, but the emotional weight behind it is immense. The emotional weight of it simply belonging to Jackie and seeing it on her daughter adds conviction and validation to Shauna’s reaction.

It’s a shame that Shauna’s response is the only real interesting aspect of the present-day storyline in Yellowjackets Season 3 Episode 3. There are intriguing moments, but none truly shake us as her fear does. We feel for Misty (Christina Ricci), who finally realizes just how terrible her “friends” are and how right Walter (Elijah Wood) was in calling them out for ignoring her. And truly, Misty is a terrible enemy to have, and Shauna and Co should know this.

Even Tai’s (Tawny Cypress) and Van’s (Lauren Ambrose) storyline lacks, if only because it takes such a heavy edit to Tai’s character. Tai, who was once so skeptical of the mysticism of their experience in the woods, is beyond ready to commit herself to that mysterious force now. Sure, she’s driven by Van learning that her cancer is no longer progressing — who wouldn’t see it as a miracle? But should we write off the server’s death as a necessary sacrifice that saved Van? It’s all too convoluted and rushed.

However, mysticism is given much more weight in Yellowjackets Season 3 Episode 3. However, before that magic happens, there’s Ben. Ben who seems too good and too normal to survive this world. He waves away Mari’s advances, telling her he’s gay before telling her to knock it off. Yet he feeds her and doesn’t want her to suffer. In a powerful sequence, he talks about how ordinary he is. He likes frozen burritos and has seen Dave Matthew’s live multiple times despite not being a huge fan. He wasn’t meant for this.

In a rare moment of compassion, Mari shares experiencing the loss of a family member. She thinks that, maybe, there are two versions of reality. Maybe what they’re experiencing isn’t real, and out there, somewhere, there’s another version of them with happy endings and no pain and trauma to war and wade through constantly.

Coach Ben casts a tragic figure, longing for his past ordinary life.

It doesn’t matter, however, because Ben releases Mari, and even though she promises not to lead the other girls to him, she falters under their scrutiny. They find and enter his hiding spot, but they face a horrendous, otherworldly experience first while trying to enact justice. In one of the series’ trippier, fan theory-inspiring sequences to date, Shauna (Sophie Nélisse), Van (Liv Hewson), and Akilah (Nia Sondaya) experience deep hallucinations.

The sequence allows for some of the more dynamic direction of the season, playing with space and corner-of-your-eye frights as Shauna and Akilah disappear from the cave before Van submerges into her dream. In it, she sits in front of a fire in their cabin before it burns. Akilah speaks with a talking llama that expunges cryptic messages about how “everything with teeth bites” before saying, “It’s going to do what it wants.”

The meaning is left vague, though there’s plenty to interpret. Despite the expectations of teenagers and the assumptions of girlhood, the Yellowjackets team has proved themselves ruthless. And their teeth are just as ferocious as any other living, wild thing. “It” is likely the wildernesses, unencumbered by the wills of humans. It will take whatever it pleases. The force of nature is a key feature in their dreams turned nightmares. In her dream, Van gets stuck in the cabin as it goes up in flames. Akilah is dragged beneath the earth. Shauna drowns while trying to reach the shore where a toddler sits.

Fire, earth, and water all prove too formidable until they sink beneath into a shared dream experience. Their mutual hallucinations plant them in an otherworldly classroom where Jackie sits, Queen Bee, until the end. Shauna bleeds out, a haunting face from Tai’s nightmares appears, and while we’re left struggling to realize what on earth is going on, they awaken. Ben has saved Van, saying there’s a toxic, poisonous gas in the cave, only for him to be found immediately by Natalie and the barrel of her gun as she demands he come with them.

Yellowjackets Season 3 Episode 3 is half fantastic. The drama with the teenage characters and their fever dream experience that forces the world-building to expand with clear, furious delight makes for an intense, declarative episode. It’s a shame that, as always, the adult storyline can’t keep up. The storyline in the past is so good that it almost makes us overlook the fact that, once again, it’s introducing more questions before answering anyway. With strong visuals and foreboding direction, Season 3 Episode 3 provides more to mull over.

Yellowjackets Season 3 Episode 3 is available now on Paramount+.

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