I can’t recall a series that has managed to kill off not one but two of my favorite characters in a single season (not even Game of Thrones, but that was largely because the series eventually became allergic to actually offing key characters – something that, for all its faults, one cannot accuse Yellowjackets of being). But oof. First Adult Lottie and now Adult Van are gone – and, in the case of both, it still feels like it’s far too soon to say goodbye to either character. Sure, Van’s cancer diagnosis was a ticking time bomb, and even the choice to seemingly link a potential cure to “giving the Wilderness what it wants”* felt like it would be a dead end from a story perspective. I mean, it was either going to end up with Tai going on a murderous rampage or Van compromising her moral compass to appease her partner. Van was always going to die too early for our tastes – and I so wish Lauren Ambrose was given more to do than try to rein in Other Tai for a season and a half – but I’m not quite sure just what the series gains from Melissa being the one to strike the killing blow.
*If I have one macro criticism of the series, it is how the writers deployed the idea of and belief in “the Wilderness” without much structure in season three. Yes, both Lotties remain fully immersed in the thrall of the Wilderness as a deciding factor, and Teen Shauna and Teen Tai both see the very clear benefits in clinging to the Wilderness as a tool to ensure the team can’t make it back to civilization until they have their stories straight and/or they have solidified their power base. But with the adults, aside from Lottie and Other Tai, everyone seems to understand that there wasn’t a supernatural link to their time out in the actual wilderness. Van clearly doesn’t buy it anymore, Shauna is far more focused on how she can stay in control of everything, Misty just wants friends, and even Nat wasn’t into all of that anymore. But Melissa seems to still buy into it? Or maybe she doesn’t? It feels less like the writers are trying to toe the line between the supernatural and the realistic and more like they want to trot out the Wilderness as a plot device when it’s convenient to shore up some plot holes. Van’s in remission? Wilderness! Van is sick again (and her remission wasn’t just a mistake or some aberration)? Wilderness! But also, Van doesn’t believe in the Wilderness, so it wasn’t that. It’s getting tiring and frustrating.
The one thing that stuck out to me, upon a second watch of the episode, was how beautifully book-ended Van’s death was. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’ve loved getting to see the teen versions of the characters interact with their adult selves (although that interaction does seem to only occur when the death of the adult character is looming – something to put a pin in for the future). Teen Van charging Adult Van to go on one final mission with her teammates was such a great way to frame her death. Goonies never say die, and Van went out a hero. She saved Tai – in more than one sense of the word – and Shauna, once again fulfilling her role as the spark that kept her team alive when things were at their worst. That’s Van’s legacy. Although, Teen Van’s comment to her adult self on that plane* was ominous: Surviving was never the reward. So, if survival wasn’t the reward, what was? Certainly not the friends we made along the way. I guess seeing the love of your life happy one final time?
*Interesting that Van and Natalie both received plane send-offs, but Lottie didn’t. Perhaps we’re going to get one in the finale, when we will presumably find out just who pushed her to her death. But it’s strange that a standard is apparently being set in terms of plane meetings and Lottie was not provided with one. Was it because she wasn’t killed by a fellow Yellowjacket? Was it because her death didn’t involve an invocation of the Wilderness? This is a question I would like to know the answer to.
One last piece on Van’s murder and then I’ll move onto hitting some other points in the episode that stood out to me. We’ve known Adult Melissa for two episodes now and she’s shown that she’s still emotionally impacted by what happened in the wilderness – even if she claims she’s come to terms with it through therapy (which, again, the other Yellowjackets should look into). But in that time, we’ve learned that she faked her own death (the lack of shock from, well, everyone on this point still strikes me as strange), married the daughter of Hannah (a woman whose death she had a hand in), she attempted to kill not only herself but also Shauna and Tai (presumably to “protect her family” from Shauna), and she actually killed Van (who had saved her life). So, either Melissa has a hell of a lot of mental trauma she’s still working through – which would help explain just why she claimed to believe in the Wilderness before killing Van – or she’s really willing to do anything it takes to protect her family (after all, Shauna more or less said she would kill Melissa for learning about Adam). What I don’t get is why Melissa appears to care about the Wilderness? Her teenage self doesn’t put stock into it – at least not anymore. Unless it was just a convenient line to say in order to freeze Van in her place before stabbing her, I just don’t really get it. So, another thing to put a pin in.
Outside of Van’s murder, we had a bit of a shuffling over in the past. Teen Melissa is firmly off Team Shauna (as is, well, everyone else – so I absolutely don’t get why they don’t just band against her and leave). Kodi is firmly dead at the hands of Hannah, who definitely understands just how to placate teenage girls in a way poor Kodi never got. Travis is building Chekhov’s murder pit – which tells me Pit Girl is coming sooner rather than later. And Sophie Thatcher is so freaking good at emoting complete and utter despair, that I cannot wait for the moment Teen Nat can finally wrest control of everything away from Shauna. Even if we know just how tragic Natalie’s post-wilderness life will end up being.
With an episode that was so locked into the present, that can only mean that our finale will swing the focus back to the past – Shauna is on the warpath, after all, and you know that she won’t take kindly to people seeming to plot behind her back. We’ve got one more episode left. I wonder who else won’t make it out of season three alive?
-
Writing
-
Acting
-
Direction
