Caemeron Crain
The following recap contains spoilers for Yellowjackets S3E7, “Croak” (written by Alisha Brophy & Ameni Rosza and directed by Jennifer Morrison
Yellowjackets S3E7 begins by flashing back to three days prior to the events that ended S3E6. It turns out that Hannah (Ashley Sutton) and Edwin (Nelson Franklin) are frog researchers, and Kodiak (Joel McHale) is their guide. The frogs also provide an explanation for the screeching sounds we have been hearing throughout Season 3. Apparently the Arctic Banshee frog only comes out once every seven years to have a wild frog orgy and make that noise.
From what I can tell, this is not a frog that exists in the real world (though there appears to be a Banshee frog in Dungeons & Dragons), but within the context of Yellowjackets it is a rare species that has never been recorded before. A research team has been to the area previously, and they left the supplies that Ben (Steven Krueger) found earlier in Season 3, but it does not seem that they provided directions as to where to find these, unless locating them is just not a top priority for this current team. It’s kind of weird if they don’t know the location.
Regardless, as they bunker down in a tent during a rain storm, Kodiak pulls out a joint and they all get high. This leads to some joking about trying to call Miss Cleo with their sat phone and some horseplay, which leads to Kodiak’s foot breaking the phone’s antenna. Edwin wonders the next day if there is any chance that Kodiak did that on purpose, and I don’t think we should drop that entirely as a question.
Ultimately, Edwin smells barbecue—do our girls have spices?—and insists on investigating the source. This leads to what we saw at the end of “Thanksgiving (Canada),” with Edwin noticing Coach Ben’s head on a platter, and we carry forward from there. I will note that in the scene in S3E6 Kodiak did not appear to be with Edwin and Hannah, but he definitely is in S3E7.
The most likely explanation is that the shot is just from a slightly different angle, but I can’t entirely shake the feeling that there could be more to this. Before Edwin and Hannah enter the camp in S3E6, Lottie (Courtney Eaton) sees a figure moving through the woods, and I want to say that this is Kodiak, but I’m not sure. There is just enough visual inconsistency to make me wonder if someone else is out there, or if we should be reading into the parallel between how Lottie sees this figure and how Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) “saw” Misty (Samantha Hanratty) back in the pilot. That was foreshadowing Nat’s death, and the death of Lottie (Simone Kessell) is central to Yellowjackets Season 3…
Poor Edwin quickly takes an ax to the back of his skull, delivered by Lottie, who says that “it” doesn’t want these people to be there. Hannah and Kodiak proceed to run (like you do), and the Yellowjackets chase them. Already, we can feel the schism to come in terms of the potential these strangers bring to get the team home.
Kodiak fires an arrow back at the girls as they pursue him and hits Melissa (Jenna Burgess) in the shoulder, but she’s still alive at the end of the episode, as are Kodiak and Hannah.
They split up when Hannah wants to go back to their camp, suggesting that maybe she can fix the sat phone, which Kodiak thinks is a very stupid idea. And, indeed, Hannah doesn’t make it there. She hides behind a log and records a message for her daughter on the DAT tape (which also recorded the sound of Edwin’s murder), and hides that tape in a hole in the ground before surrendering herself.
Van (Liv Hewson) and Tai (Jasmin Savoy Brown) do find the frog team’s camp, and the broken sat phone. Tai tries to look at the bright side in terms of getting new supplies, but Van notes they don’t need those supplies. They need to go home.
Is there any chance that the sat phone could be fixed? I’m not an expert in this area, by any means, but I do think it might be worth a shot. I think it would be a matter of reestablishing a connection between the broken parts of the antenna. It’s not likely to work, though, since we know the Yellowjackets won’t be rescued for at least another month or two.
Was it actually just Canadian Thanksgiving? That would make it October 1997. I think the plane crashed in May 1996, so we are getting close to 18 months. Still, we know from the pilot that they’ll be out there until there’s snow on the ground.
Akilah (Nia Sondaya), Travis (Kevin Alves), and Misty hatch a plan to lead Kodiak towards the cliff, and split up in order to carry it out. That means that it’s only Akilah and Travis who ultimately corner Kodiak, who slips off the cliff but catches himself on a tree root. Travis helps him up, because Travis wants to go home, and that’s the last we see of this group in “Croak.” I wonder if Travis and Akilah might take Kodiak to the caves instead of back to camp, or something like that.
Hannah is brought back to the Yellowjackets camp, with some first aid supplies in hand to help with Melissa’s wound, and that’s where we leave the story in the 1997 timeline.
In 2021, Tai (Tawny Cypress) mentions that Melissa and Gen (Vanessa Prasad) got pretty close to Hannah, which implies that she’ll be sticking around with the group for some period of time. However, Van (Lauren Ambrose) replies by noting that Gen and Melissa are both dead, and the research Callie (Sarah Desjardins) shares with Jeff (Warren Kole) confirms that Hannah will die in the wilderness.
But, since she now knows that Hannah had a daughter, Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) has decided to track that daughter down, and is apparently convinced that this is who has been threatening her. Never mind that it would be incredibly obvious to leave a tape that points directly at yourself to the extent that this would only make sense if it’s a trap. Shauna doesn’t seem to be as smart as she used to.
She’s heading to Richmond, VA and Van, Tai, and Misty (Christina Ricci) insist on coming along. On the way, Misty gets a call from Walter (Elijah Wood), who informs her that he’s matched the DNA of the skin she found under Lottie’s fingernails to Shauna, so Misty jumps to the conclusion that Shauna killed Lottie. Previously, she had suspected Tai, so I’m also inclined to feel like Misty’s not being as smart as she has been in the past.
Maybe Shauna killed Lottie, though I’m not sure her motivation for doing so would make sense to me in the present context. Tai would make more sense, since she’s been taken over by her alter ego for whatever period of time, but I continue to think it must just be someone else, or that it perhaps actually was an accident. I’m a little troubled that I don’t care as much as I feel like I should, since Lottie has always been one of my favorite characters. The show has just not invested me in this mystery.
There’s also the fact that Yellowjackets seems bent on playing with the idea that these women doing murder helps Van’s cancer. I find that offensive, but however we think about explanations Van’s cancer does seem to have gotten worse again. She spits up blood in Shauna’s van, which leads the group to take her to the hospital. She has a vision of her younger self setting her bed on fire, and it does seem like Van may be on death’s door.
Shauna isn’t too concerned, though, as she ditches the others and heads to Virginia. As S3E7 ends, she’s pulled up outside of the house of Hannah’s daughter, so we’ll have to wait until next week for their confrontation.
See you then.
