How “Yellowjackets” Season 3 Brings Human Sacrifice into the Modern Age [Spoilers]

WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Season 3 of Yellowjackets. 

Yellowjackets has always worn its cannibalism on its sleeve. The series opens with a disturbing sequence in which masked hunters chase a barefoot girl through the snowy woods then string her dead body up to butcher and eat. For two seasons, the teenage survivors of a devastating plane crash have adjusted to life in the mountains of Northern Canada, trying to placate the mysterious entity that seems to guide their collective fates. They have eaten human flesh, but only out of necessity and most deaths thus far have been accidental.

But everything changes in season three. 

The premiere episode opens with a pagan ritual that kicks off a season-long arc toward intentional human sacrifice. While audiences have been mostly consumed with the action-packed ‘97 timeline and the newly revealed Antler Queen, an equally ominous plot line hides in the present day story. After reconnecting with the deity she met while stranded in the wild, adult Taissa (Tawny Cypress) attempts to cure her girlfriend’s cancer by sacrificing humans to this savage god. By recreating the group’s deadly hunts, she’s brought the practice of sacrificial murder back with her into the modern world. 

Season three concludes with the shocking “Full Circle,” an episode that gives brutal context to that introductory hunt while causing viewers to reflect on the winding path towards this gruesome act of cannibalism. In season one, former team captain Jackie (Ella Purnell) accidentally dies in the winter’s first snowfall and a failed attempt to burn her remains results in an intoxicating roasted corpse. Guided by their noses and insatiable hunger, the starving Yellowjackets indulge in a feast, tearing into Jackie’s flesh in the middle of the night. Season two ends with Javi (Luciano Leroux) drowning in the frozen lake and the girls making similar use of his body. 

When Travis (Kevin Alves) understandably balks at the thought of eating his own younger brother, Van (Liv Hewson) puts a positive spin on the gruesome act. She claims that Javi’s body will allow them all to keep going for another day. She is glad to be alive and will gratefully trade his survival for hers. Travis reluctantly agrees with her brutal logic and honors his brother’s unwilling sacrifice by biting into Javi’s raw heart. Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) similarly consumes Jackie’s body after months of trying to alleviate her guilt through imagined conversations with her best friend’s corpse. Noticing that her ear has fallen off, the heavily pregnant teen saves the piece of discarded flesh and eventually pops it in her mouth. It’s a precursor to the gruesome feast in which they will all consume the teenager’s body.

Though both deaths are accidental, they’re preceded by a ritual known as the hunt. Season one ends with a drug-fueled chase through the moonlit woods after a celebratory “Doomscoming” dance. Tripping on mushrooms, the girls chase Travis into the night, howling at the moon and imagining themselves to be wolves in pursuit of a stag. They’re just moments away from slitting his throat when Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) intervenes to save his life. However, this hunt directly leads to the group confrontation which leaves Jackie frozen under inches of snow. The impromptu hunt has concluded with a sacrifice though not the one the girls intended. 

This bloodthirsty ritual recurs further into the winter when food has once again grown scarce. Faced with losing their injured leader, the group decides to draw cards as a way of choosing a victim to kill and eat. When Natalie draws the Queen of Hearts, she steps into the circle prepared to die. But this time, it’s Travis who interferes. Nat races into the night while her teammates indulge their baser instincts and howl at the moon in hot pursuit. In an act of protective dehumanization, they revert to an animalistic form and work together to capture their prey. But again the Wilderness makes a different choice. As they race across the frozen lake, Javi falls through the thin ice and begs for help. The girls watch as he drowns, planning to drag his corpse back to camp where Shauna will butcher and cook his flesh.

This second, more intentional hunt sets a precedent for human sacrifice. Season three adds variation to the ritual as Coach Scott (Steven Krueger) and an intruding outdoorsman named Kodiak (Joel McHale) both die in similar fashion. The details of each hunt vary along with their timelines, but key elements remain the same. Each time the hunt begins, the girls align themselves with a similar intention: to kill targeted prey in order to benefit the group. And regardless of the designated victim, once the girls initiate a hunt, the Wilderness intervenes to choose its offering.

Playing out in dual timelines, each episode weaves back and forth through time. Events in 1996-97 are juxtaposed with the characters’ older counterparts struggling to accept what they did to survive. When we first meet the adult Yellowjackets, they’re living disparate lives under the shadow of extreme trauma. As bizarre circumstances draw them together, they realize that their woodland god has followed them back to civilization. Lottie (Simone Kessell) in particular has been bombarded with ominous visions of her violent past and suggests they make another sacrifice. Hoping to appease their disturbed friend, adults Tai, Van (Lauren Ambrose), Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), Natalie (Juliette Lewis), and Misty (Christina Ricci) suggest a hunt, planning to go through the motions of this dangerous ritual. 

When Shauna pulls the infamous card, she becomes the target of a modern hunt. But decades removed from her time in the forest, she assumes it’s all a farce until her friends pull on their animal masks. Once again they give chase through the woods, succumbing to their feral instincts. This time it’s Natalie who becomes the sacrifice, securing the group’s continued survival. In the aftermath, Lottie utters a phrase dragged from their time in the woods that brings intention to this modern variation. “It is pleased.” she notes, referring to the Wilderness god she’s tried so hard to understand. The remaining Yellowjackets carry on, mourning their friend and returning to their lives, but it’s clear something has fundamentally shifted. The deity they worshiped in the wild is now wreaking havoc on their modern lives.

Midway through season two, Tai reconnects with her former love only to learn that Van is dying of cancer. But the two women put their lives on hold and vow to share Van’s remaining time on earth. During a lavish and romantic dinner, the high school sweethearts decide to dine and dash, hoping to reclaim the youth that was stolen by their time in the forest. But a waiter follows the carefree lovers as they run through busy streets, inadvertently recreating a ritual hunt. The unfortunate man dies of a heart attack as Van and Tai slip out of sight, unaware of the carnage left in their wake. A subsequent trip to the doctor reveals that Van’s cancer has miraculously begun to heal itself. They have accidentally traded a stranger’s life for an extension of her health and safety. 

Unwilling to watch her girlfriend die, Tai decides to feed others to this mysterious god and convinces Van to recreate the inciting ritual. Tai draws the Queen of Hearts from a deck of cards and leaves it on the sidewalk of a busy street, watching from a nearby cafe to see who the Wilderness will choose. After a series of false alarms, someone finally picks up the card. Van and Tai follow this doomed man back to his apartment, beginning the hunt once again. They may not be wearing masks or howling at the moon, but they are following prey with intent to kill. 

However, Van stops short of cold-blooded murder. She will not allow Tai to enter this stranger’s apartment and kill an innocent person on her behalf. But once the hunt has begun, it must end with a sacrifice. Later episodes will reveal that across town, the mysterious Wilderness god guides Lottie to a dark alley and a clandestine meeting that will leave her dead at the foot of the stairs. The Wilderness has chosen once again and Lottie has been fed to her beloved god.

Though she does not immediately connect these events, Tai becomes obsessed with finding another offering to trade for Van’s continued health. On a road trip turned ritual hunt, Van begins vomiting blood and must be admitted to a rural ER. Refusing to accept a dismal diagnosis Tai frantically searches the hospital for a life to trade. Not bothering with cards this time, she locates a man suffering from terminal heart disease and approaches his bed with a pillow in hand. But like Van, she cannot follow through and screams her frustration in his face. This seems to trigger a cardiac event that may buy Van a little more time. Elsewhere in the hospital, Van has visions of her younger self explaining that she did not cheat death by surviving the crash, but has lived this long by trading a series of lives for her own. This brutal truth harkens back to her long-ago conversation with Travis in which she insists that Javi’s sacrifice will allow them to live for one more day. 

Checking out of the hospital, Van, Tai, and Misty follow the path of Shauna’s rage. Though unaware of the circumstances, they join their teammate in hunting down a potential blackmailer who turns out to be Melissa (Hilary Swank), a Yellowjacket they previously believed to be dead. After an extensive confrontation and truly spectacular acts of violence, Van prepares to kill Shauna’s inexplicable nemesis. Approaching with a knife, she’s finally decided to make a sacrifice on her own behalf. But again Van is unable to complete the act and the Wilderness takes the decision out of her hands. Melissa grabs the weapon and plunges it into Van’s stomach, leaving her to bleed to death on the living room floor. Once begun, the hunt requires a death and this time it’s Van who succumbs to its violent demands. 

Devastated, Tai has no choice but to accept this outcome. Moments before burying the love of her life, she cuts open Van’s chest, removes her heart, and takes a bite—mirroring Travis’ and Shauna’s strange acts of devotion. The season finale reveals that as teens, Tai and Van tried to guide fate’s hand by stacking the deck and choosing who will draw the dreaded Queen. But they have now learned a devastating truth: those who live by the sacrificial sword will eventually die by its violence themselves. Van seems shocked that her story would end so abruptly, but this is the cost of her deadly game. Each hunt has incurred a debt to her present life and now it’s Van’s turn to sacrifice. Her Wilderness god is hungry once again and not even the trappings of her modern life can control who the pagan deity will choose to take. 

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