‘Yellowjackets’ Season 2 review: Our favorite messed-up cannibals return — with even more bite

yellow jacket Season 1 was just an amuse bouche.

Showtime’s excellent kickoff to the addictive series hinted at cannibalism and ritual sacrifice, but only season 2 gives us a true understanding of what happened to Yellowjacket in the Wilderness. This season takes a deep dive into the supernatural hauntings that plagued the stranded football team and the darkness that continues 25 years later.

Given the show’s glowing reception and multi-season renewals, it’s clear yellow jacket Creators Ashley Lyle and Burt Nickerson have more room to play. Get ready for more genres, more characters, and a bigger stylistic shift. Some of these swings do not have a fully solidified landing, yellow jacket Season 2 is an irresistibly harrowing watch with new mysteries, jaw-dropping scares, and a consistently incredible cast.

The Yellowjackets face serious consequences in Season 2.

yellow jacket The aftermath of the 1996 plane crash and the lives of survivors 25 years later. At the start of the season, both of these timelines will be picked up in a common thread with Yellowjacket facing the brutal consequences of Season 1’s action.

For the young Yellowjackets, this means mourning the loss of Jackie (Ella Purnell), who froze to death after her teammates banished her. Nellisse’s disturbing coping mechanism sends shockwaves through the entire team.

Now Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) also finds herself in a bit of hot water as the police investigate the disappearance of her ex-lover (and murder victim) Adam (Peter Gadiot). notice. Instead of looking to the rest of her four Yellowjacket cores like Misty (Christina Ricci), Taissa (Tawney Cypress), and Natalie (Juliette Lewis), she’s shunned her husband Jeff (Warren Cole) for help.

For most of the six episodes sent to critics for review, yellow jacket Now keep core 4 separate. Taissa considers the horrifying effects of sleepwalking — remember her sacrificial dog altar? — in a storyline that leads her to her ex Van (Lauren Ambrose). Kidnapped, Natalie finds herself staying in a community run by Lottie (Simone Kessel). Misty, who won’t leave her friends hanging, teams up with her fellow citizen detective Walter (Elijah Wood) to track her down.

The sheer amount of plot can feel overstuffed at times, but these branching storylines deepen the cast of characters in some exciting ways. It’s fun to see what life throws at them. But it’s equally rewarding to see Jeff expand the role, along with his and Shauna’s daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins). Shauna and Jeff’s murder cover-up yielded some of the darkest and funniest moments of the season, with Lynskey once again peeling back the layers of Shauna’s housewife appearance to reveal something darker and more reckless. I can.

Wood’s Walter is also welcomed into the cast as a potential friend to Misty.The two are a match made in heaven, from their skills as citizen detectives to their love of musicals. Both of which are public threats, would you dare ship them?

yellow jacket Season 2 leans heavily into the supernatural. Many thanks to Lottie.

season 1 yellow jacket It teased us with strange symbols, a man without eyes, and Taissa’s terrifying sleepwalking self. Please. For now, yellow jacket It seems content to turn up the horror dial. Mysterious dead birds and loose-jawed apparitions are all on the docket this season, along with rivers of blood and flesh-ripping gore. By the end of the season, it may not be the worst transgression our Yellowjacket has committed.

The season’s biggest supernatural element is young Lottie’s (Courtney Eaton) connection to the wilderness. After killing a bear and sacrificing its heart in the season 1 finale, Lottie became a spiritual leader of sorts for the Yellowjackets. perform bloody rituals to celebrate the endeavors of the Wilderness and encourage team members to cultivate a relationship with the Wilderness. Then there’s her vision problem, which helped the team find food and gave faith to many of her compatriots. Because of this, these omens are currently heading in a sinister direction.

As someone who rarely finds vision to be a particularly compelling or interesting storytelling device, I enjoyed yellow jacket‘Self-restraint when it comes to Rotty’s. Her mystical powers are more focused than the rift that arises between the team’s true believers and skeptics, with dynamic pushes and pulls in flashback sequences that extend to the current cult of Lottie himself. Create. Team members turn on team members and yellow jacket We examine each character’s capacity for brutality as we get closer and closer to the ritualistic cannibals we met in the show’s first episode.

Eaton, in her newly expanded role, portrays Lottie as a true believer who happens to be put on a pedestal by some of her friends. It can be hard to buy the reverent treatment, but Eaton plays Lottie’s commitment with such honesty that her actions can easily be believed, no matter what those around her are doing. Her current counterpart, Kessel, is somewhat slippery, especially given her apparent cult leader status. The way you reveal it makes it clearer.

yellow jacket We’ve always blended different genres, including psychological horror, coming-of-age drama, and dark comedy. Season 2 takes this blend even further, with a particular focus on the supernatural and incorporating even more surreal elements. Taissa faces off against a sleepwalking double in the mirror. In one dreamy sequence, one team her member wanders through the woods and comes upon a crowded shopping her mall. In another, one of her Yellowjacket girlfriends fantasizes about a life she’s never been on a plane. These deviations from reality provide a fascinating look at each Yellowjacket’s mental state and the different ways they deal with and compartmentalize their trauma.

Other similar departures don’t land as well, such as the sequence in which the Yellowjackets see themselves as Greek goddesses. Instead of imagining the horrifying consequences, I would rather sit confused.

nevertheless i am still grateful yellow jackets A dedication to exceeding the wild expectations that Season 1 set for us, both in terms of story and style. Be willing and it’s paying off. Can you give us more answers about what the heck is going on in the wilderness? Of course.but i trust it yellow jacket takes us there. In the meantime, this season’s many twists, cliffhangers, and more have been enough to keep me hooked and wanting more.

yellow jacket Season 2 begins streaming March 24 on Showtime, with new episodes streaming every Friday(opens in new tab)Episodes will also air on Showtime every Sunday at 9:00 p.m. ET beginning March 26.