TV & Streaming Flashbacks: Yellowjackets Season 2
review
✦
review ✦
Season 2 of Showtime’s Yellowjackets doubles down on its dizzying blend of horror, psychological drama, and supernatural ambiguity with an even sharper set of teeth. As the stakes rise both in the snow-blanketed wilderness of the '90s and the fractured adulthood of our surviving protagonists, the series manages to feel tighter and more deliberately shaped than its debut season. If Season 1 was about the trauma of survival, Season 2 is about what that survival does to the soul—twisting it, splintering it, and sometimes, offering it to something darker.
Here’s why this season works, what risks it takes, and how it sets the stage for something truly grim moving forward.
Yellowjackets Season 2 | Showtime and Paramount+
Lottie Matthews Raises the Stakes
Season 2 succeeds most clearly in how it takes characters who felt peripheral or mysterious and places them center stage, no one more so than Lottie Matthews. In the wilderness, young Lottie’s evolution into a spiritual leader—worshiped, feared, maybe even touched by something beyond understanding—adds a layer of eeriness that never feels forced. The show wisely deepens this arc by mirroring it in the present, where adult Lottie (played with a mesmerizing calm by Simone Kessell) is now the head of a wellness commune that straddles the line between therapeutic retreat and full-blown cult.
What works so well is that this isn’t just for shock value. Both timelines examine the human need to find meaning in chaos. Lottie isn’t simply mad or mystic—she’s a conduit for the group’s unraveling sense of control, and the writing treats her with nuance. Her storyline allows Yellowjackets to lean further into the supernatural tension, while still leaving room for viewers to interpret her visions and influence as the byproduct of trauma, groupthink, and untreated mental illness. The ambiguity is maddening—in the best way possible.
Twists That Earn Their Place
So many prestige dramas treat twists like party tricks—momentary distractions to keep audiences engaged. Not so here. Yellowjackets Season 2 integrates its surprises with precision. Whether it's the reintroduction of characters long thought dead, shocking betrayals, or the subtle way tensions boil over into full-blown chaos, nothing here feels like it was tacked on in the writer's room at the last minute.
The balance between unpredictability and narrative logic is a delicate one, but this show threads the needle by grounding its twists in character rather than spectacle. That’s why they hit harder. You don’t gasp because the show pulled the rug out from under you—you gasp because deep down, you knew the rug was always going to be yanked.
Shauna: Morally Corrupt, Utterly Compelling
If there’s a poster child for emotional dysfunction in this series, it’s Shauna. Both timelines depict her as a complex, often reckless figure. In the past, her impulsiveness causes ripples that worsen the group’s plight. In the present, she’s a spiraling adult hiding behind sarcasm and bad decisions—including, notably, her involvement in a violent crime that acts as a narrative centerpiece this season.
And yet, she's electric to watch. Melanie Lynskey's portrayal is both simmering and sad, a portrait of a woman who’s been hollowed out by grief, guilt, and survival. From a moral standpoint, she’s arguably the worst of the bunch. But from a storytelling lens, she’s essential—an emotional anchor whose poor choices and bitter resilience keep the show’s darker ideas alive and kicking.
Present-Day Storylines Converge with Purpose
Unlike some shows that struggle to juggle multiple timelines or characters, Yellowjackets Season 2 does something rare: it ties its present-day arcs together not just for plot convenience, but for thematic depth. Taissa’s fractured sense of identity, Natalie’s quest for answers (and maybe redemption), and Misty’s toxic loyalty all flow into one another by the season’s end, building toward a climax that’s as emotional as it is grim.
What’s more, the show begins to tie fate and belief into its thematic backbone. Are the characters meant to be drawn back together? Is something supernatural pulling the strings? Or are they simply playing out a cycle of unresolved trauma and self-destruction? The brilliance is in not answering those questions—just making you ask them.
Tonal Shifts and the Descent into Darkness
Season 2 of Yellowjackets leans into a darker, more disorienting tone, pushing the protagonists to question their own humanity and grip on reality. The wilderness timeline delves deeper into psychological unraveling, blending raw survival with a haunting loss of self. While the show incorporates some Young Adult-style storytelling—heightened romance, teen angst, and stylized emotional arcs—these elements amplify the contrast with the season’s grim intensity.
This interplay creates a visceral tension, as the characters’ emotional vulnerabilities clash with their increasingly desperate circumstances. The result is a season that feels both intimate and epic, with moments of raw vulnerability juxtaposed against the brutal, almost surreal violence. Some viewers may find these tonal shifts jarring, as the narrative oscillates between personal drama and a descent into near-mythic horror. Still, it never strays too far from its already established tone.
Score: 8/10
Bleak, riveting, and occasionally divisive, Yellowjackets Season 2 keeps its claws sharp and its secrets darker than ever.
