"Yellowjackets" - Season 3 Episode 4 review

Episode 4 of “Yellowjackets” Season 3 was the best so far. Titled “12 Angry Girls and 1 Drunk Travis,” the teen girls hold a mock trial for Coach Ben and viewers see the first death of the season.

This post contains spoilers for all three seasons of “Yellowjackets.”

The episode opens with the girls returning to camp with Coach Ben (Steven Krueger) as Shauna (Sophie Nélisse), Van (Liv Hewson) and Akilah (Nia Sondaya) talk about their combined hallucination from the end of the last episode.

Akilah is the only one who seems genuinely concerned about their shared nightmare because Shauna just brushes it off as being “not that weird.” She later confides in Lottie (Courtney Eaton) who, of course, feeds her delusion.

As accusations towards Ben start to fly when they get back, Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) decides that the girls must hold a trial, and the outcome must be a two-thirds majority.

Misty (Samantha Hanratty) is chosen to defend Coach Ben, Natalie is chosen as the judge and Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown) holds prosecution.

In the adults’ timeline, Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) is getting her brakes fixed while Lottie (Simone Kessell) is taking care of something at the bank. Taissa (Tawny Cypress) tries calling her to talk about the “wilderness’s return,” but Lottie promptly finds a way to hang up.

Jeff (Warren Kole) calls for his family to fix their karma deficit by signing them up to do volunteer work. Unfortunately for Shauna, who is avoiding Misty (Christina Ricci), the volunteering is at her place of work.

Taissa and Van (Lauren Ambrose) are conducting a sick experiment with playing cards in an attempt to see if wilderness will choose its next victim.

Later in the episode, Tai follows the “chosen victim” to his house. It is only when she starts to break in that Van finally stops the madness. Tai agrees and quickly switches up, instructing Van to meet her at the park in an hour for what ends up being a date.

Back in the woods, the girls are taking this trial so seriously that it is almost comical.

The accusations are constantly flip-flopping during the trial and as a viewer, it was fun to have opinions shift back and forth about who the true criminal of the cabin burning is.

The scene switches to adult Lottie sitting in front of a mirror talking to herself, seemingly rehearsing some sort of apology. To who that apology is for, of course, we don’t know.

Shauna is doing volunteer work alone in the kitchen when she suddenly becomes trapped in the freezer and gets visited by a dead, frozen Jackie (Ella Purnell).

It is unclear whether Shauna was trapped by accident or not, but she blames Misty once again.

Tai has new motives in the trial after she learns that Natalie seems to have known where Coach was hiding all along.

Misty, enraged, decides to call Coach Ben to the stand.

She asks him questions about why he chose to be a substitute teacher and girls' soccer coach, and why he stayed. Her questioning gets him to spill everything during a very emotional scene.

Coach Ben truthers are pumping their fists in the air after this. His monologue gave his character so much more depth, and it would be terrible to see his story end here.

Finally, the jury votes again and again with no outcome until Shauna takes the wrongful initiative, scaring her teammates into changing their opinions.

Unfortunately, viewers will just have to wait until next week to learn what Coach Ben’s fate is.

At the end of episode four, viewers are left flabbergasted at the first death of the season. After the screen turned black, eagerness for the next episode was surely at an all-time high.

Rating: 5/5

Sarah Gavlak is a third-year majoring in telecommunications. To contact her, please email sng5393@psu.edu.