"Yellowjackets" Season 3 Episode 9 review

Season 3 Episode 9 of “Yellowjackets,” titled “How the Story Ends,” was the most devastating episode of the season yet.

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

The episode begins with Van (Lauren Ambrose) in her hospital bed having a dream involving her younger self (Liv Hewson). Her younger self talks to her about “The Goonies” and how it is a classic hero’s journey.

Van instructs her older self to “get the treasure” and says that X marks the spot, just as she wakes up with Taissa (Tawny Cypress) by her side. They then make the decision to leave the hospital.

The scene switches to where episode eight left off with Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) and Melissa (Hilary Swank): Shauna is trying to force Melissa into eating her own flesh.

What follows is a gag-inducing close-up of Melissa following Shauna’s instructions and then spitting her skin and blood onto Shauna’s face. This moment alone probably explains why the season got a 9.5/10 gore rating.

In the wilderness, Shauna (Sophie Nélisse), Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Lottie (Courtney Eaton) are successful in getting the rest of the girls to stay in the woods instead of taking their chance at rescue.

The girls decide to keep Kodiak (Joel McHale) and Hannah (Ashley Sutton) tied up in the animal pen until they figure out what to do.

In the words of Taylor Swift, I think I’ve seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending.

Misty (Christina Ricci), Tai and Van are on their way to find Shauna in the adult timeline when they come across Melissa.

They decide to bring her back to her house and find Shauna still there. The women start pointing fingers again, making accusations left and right about who killed Lottie (Simone Kessell) and who did all the terrible things to Shauna.

Misty reveals that she is the one who shut Shauna in the freezer, but the other scenarios were simply just coincidences.

Taissa takes Shauna’s side in their debate, which causes Misty to finally stand up for herself, saying, “This is Shauna’s mess. She can find some other maid to clean it up.”

Back in the woods, Travis (Kevin Alves) finishes making the infamous death pit, and the sane half of the girls are plotting a different way to leave camp.

Melissa (Jenna Burgess) is in the animal pen as Hannah tells her about her daughter and uses it to manipulate Melissa into feeling bad.

Shauna catches them laughing together, resulting in a blowout fight between the two girls. Melissa storms away and calls Shauna crazy, which causes her to cock and point the gun at Melissa’s head.

Melissa dares her to do it, and Shauna fires a bullet that just barely grazes the sleeve of her jacket.

At this moment, Melissa seems to come back down to earth.

Mari (Alexa Barajas) and Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) take Hannah into the woods to devise a plan to escape. They give her a knife and instruct her to meet them later that night once everyone else is sleeping.

Later that night, Hannah and Kodiak start their escape when they are caught red-handed by Shauna.

In shock, Hannah blames Kodiak for having the knife and then proceeds to stab him in the eye.

Yes, this was a manipulative move by Hannah to potentially save her life, but she also just made their chances at going home much smaller. Kodiak was the only one who knew how to get to the rescue point, and now he’s dead.

After her fight with Shauna, Misty meets up with Walter (Elijah Wood) and pretends to be on his side again to get him to bring her Lottie’s cloned phone.

When Misty opens the phone, she sees something seemingly crazy and flees.

Van had left the women in the house to get some air, and she returned to them unconscious on the floor because Melissa closed the fireplace flue.

In her unconscious state, Tai has a dream where she is fighting her other self. This seems to be the conclusion of “Other Tai,” as she returns to her normal self.

Van successfully brings Taissa and Shauna outside, saving them, and then returns to deal with Melissa.

She grabs a knife and debates killing until Melissa reminds her that she’s different, saying, “There’s goodness in you, there always has been.”

Van listens to this and cannot go through with it.

This should be the point in the episode where we all shut our laptops and consider it over.

Unfortunately for the fans, however, Melissa takes hold of Van’s knife-wielding hand, and she’s suddenly back on the plane with her younger self, watching her life end.

It sucks that the writers chose to introduce both Lottie and Van in season two, just to kill them both in season three. It’s hard to say that the viewers had enough time with either of them, especially with Van.

With this devastating turn of events, the episode ends. The season finale is looming, bringing the return of winter and hopefully showing the audience who the “pit girl” is.

Rating: 4/5

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