Caemeron Crain
The following recap contains spoilers for Yellowjackets S3E6, “Thanksgiving (Canada)” (written by Libby Hill & Emily St. James and directed by Pete Chatmon)
Let’s start in 2021, with Misty (Christina Ricci). After she arranges to have biological material from under Lottie’s (Simone Kessell) fingernails tested, Walter (Elijah Wood) makes a peace offering to Misty by having a limo driver give her Lottie’s trash. Herein, Misty finds a takeout box from the Bamboo Café, which she find suspicious because the restaurant has really bad ratings. Why would Lottie get food from some such a place?
You might be thinking it’s because her dad wanted to relive some old times while watching the new Scorsese, but, no, it turns out it’s because Lisa (Nicole Maines) is employed there as a delivery person. Hi, Lisa! It’s good to see you! Sorry these women ruined your life!
Lisa is rightly freaked out seeing Misty, which makes sense since Misty was trying to kill Lisa when she accidentally killed Natalie (Juliette Lewis), but ultimately agrees to share what she knows. It’s not much.
Lottie ordered food and gave Lisa a $50,000 tip, which no she did not question thank you very much. And we might further speculate that it was Lisa that Lottie was rehearsing an apology to the last time we saw Lottie alive in Yellowjackets. At least, that would make sense—she owes that girl an apology.
Regardless, Lisa also tells Misty that she saw Lottie talking to Tai (Tawny Cypress) on the day Lottie died, so I’m about ready to call it case closed that Tai killed Lottie. We already knew that she was in Manhattan, with the idea in her head that killing another person could help Van (Lauren Ambrose) get over her cancer, and I’d already been speculating that she’s been taken over by “the other one” for some time.
I think S3E6 at least confirms that, when Tai jolts awake pleading for Van’s help only to then become calm and ask her why she’s awake. I’m not sure what to make of Van answering a phone in a box that isn’t connected to anything to hear Tai asking for help earlier in the episode, but there’s also that.
Van is going through that box because Callie (Sarah Desjardins) has finally decided to hand over the cassette tape that was delivered to the Sadecki home once she hears that Lottie is dead. This leads Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) to finally realize that someone is threatening her (who isn’t Misty), so she takes the family to a motel and calls Van to ask if she has the ability to play a DAT tape.
She does, but when Shauna, Tai, and Van listen to the tape, it’s hard to know what we’re listening to. That is, until the end of the episode in the wilderness timeline, so I’ll return to that in just a bit. For the moment, we should note that Callie is going to hear this tape, along with the surrounding conversation, since Shauna was smart enough to find Callie’s phone in her bag, but not smart enough to fully delete the recording.
Back in 1997, “Thanksgiving (Canada)” revolves around Ben (Steven Krueger) begging Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) to kill him. The girls eventually learn that he hasn’t been eating, and, since they’ve been convinced by Akilah’s (Nia Sondaya) vision that he’s their bridge to civilization, force him to eat by shoving a tube down his throat. Good times.
Natalie ultimately can’t take Ben’s suffering, though, and she kills him against the wishes of the group as a whole, give or take a Travis (Kevin Alves). As Shauna (Sophie Nélisse), Tai (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and others yell at Natalie, Lottie (Courtney Eaton) declares Shauna the new leader of the group. And you thought you knew who the Antler Queen was!
Shauna (who, we should recall, definitely does not believe in the wilderness religion and was pissed about Ben being spared in the first place), moves quickly to restore the peace. They’re still a team, and they are going to honor what the wilderness has given them with a feast. Nat’s punishment is that she has to prepare it.
To be clear, that means cutting up Ben’s body so they can all eat him, and it’s worth noting that at present the group has plenty of food. That’s probably part of why Lottie feels like something is wrong with the whole event, but she doesn’t protest. Instead, she leans into it, scream-singing into the creaking sounds of the forest, and all of the girls join in.
This is what is on the DAT tape that was delivered to Shauna’s house in 2021, and we’re immediately given some suspects as to who may have recorded the tape in 1997. A man (Nelson Franklin) and woman (Ashley Sutton) approach as S3E6 comes to an end. He raises his hand and says, “Hello.” Then he notices Ben’s head on a platter and says, “What the f*ck?!” Cue credits.
We should note, however, that there is another figure whom Lottie sees just before this, whose silhouette makes him look like he’s a soldier or something. She thinks it might be Ben and she might be hallucinating, but this person is probably a better suspect when it comes to the DAT tape than the two who enter the Yellowjackets camp—those two are going to have to die.
We know that the team’s time in the wilderness will last into the coming winter, as this was established in the first episode of the series. Further, after hearing the tape in 2021, Van says that the only people who know about what’s recorded on it are “either us or dead.” So, it’s not looking good for our new friends out in the wilderness.
It will be an interesting twist if the Yellowjackets turn down this chance at a potential rescue, but I guess the fact that these strangers stumbled onto them doing some cannibalism that could not be excused by an appeal to survival is a bit of a wrinkle.
See you next week.
