Because the Yellowjackets entered their second winter within the Canadian wilderness, many questions continued to crop up. Since Season 1 of the Showtime thriller drama, followers have been acutely conscious that the titular ladies’ soccer group would finally take a tough flip onto Cannibal Lane. The query remained simply how lengthy it will take to essentially get there.
This query was answered by the top of Season 3 when the group deserted all hope of rescue and bowed to their official Antler Queen. Yellowjackets threw its viewers for a loop when it implied different ladies would take up the mantle. Natalie took over management in Season 2, however within the finale of the newest season, that honor went to Shauna. For good this time, it appears, followers lastly understood who the cutthroat chief who led her worshippers to eat their teammates was. Shauna’s eventual crowning because the Antler Queen was precisely the place Yellowjackets was meant to go.
Natalie By no means Made Sense because the Antler Queen
Yellowjackets was by no means straightforward viewing, however Season 2 of the collection took a flip for the darker. Cannibalism was touched on within the first few episodes of the season and later established once more. This elevated the stakes of the world because the group struggled to search out survival and cohesive management. Lottie was an apparent contender for the chief of the Yellowjackets due to her connection to the imprecise entity solely known as the Wilderness. However in the long run, the ladies determined that the deity desired to make Natalie the chief of the wild. Natalie survived a vicious hunt in opposition to her and was credited with delivering Travis’ brother Javi to be their subsequent course.

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On the time, all indicators appeared to level to Natalie, however the collection has all the time questioned if the Wilderness is actual or whether it is simply the ladies decoding what they consider to be the Wilderness. Changing into the chief of the group did not belong to Natalie. Whereas viewers know that she battled her personal darkness, years sooner or later, that by no means meant that she would assist consuming her teammates.
Out of all of the characters within the collection, Natalie remained the center. She was the one involved that Travis had disappeared within the current timeline. She pushed everybody round her to search out the perpetrator whereas the remaining have been largely comfy with their lives as they have been. Natalie was additionally devastated to study that she had been flawed that Javi was alive, solely to see him freeze to demise within the icy waters within the wilderness.
Natalie had the desire to outlive, however that did not equate to turning into the Antler Queen. Although viewers knew little or no concerning the chief main as much as the reveal, it was apparent this mysterious determine condoned the group’s cannibalistic tendencies. Natalie struggled essentially the most together with her darkness, making it clear she would by no means have the ability to settle for the place the group was going. Because it turned out, Natalie by no means was the Antler Queen. She truly led the group to a extra utopian communist society earlier than management was ripped away from her. She ended up shedding management, significantly as a result of she continued to stay linked to her humanity.
Shauna Bent to the Darkness of the Wilderness
Season 3 went off the rails in some ways, however the ascension of the Antler Queen made essentially the most sense. The start episodes confirmed why Natalie was unfit to be the people-eating chief. She wished to assist the neighborhood survive to such a level that it destroyed her. After the Yellowjackets discovered Coach Ben, the one who supposedly burned down the cabin, they known as for his blood. Natalie wished a good trial so badly that she couldn’t let him go even when he begged her for it. The group saved him alive, however barely, in order that he requested to be put out of his distress. Natalie’s mercy killing Ben was the nail within the coffin of her management.
This left an influence vacuum, which Shauna gladly took over. For episodes, she was established as being on the precipice of grabbing management. She had been remoted from the remainder of the group for a while, displaying a transparent distaste for the peace and love that the remainder of the group was demonstrating. She as a substitute subscribed to the concept that they need to act like they have been combating for his or her lives within the wilderness. Shauna’s habits continued to escalate, particularly after discovering Ben. She was the main voice in executing him, however this wasn’t precisely a shock. Within the wild, she had suffered greater than anybody. Following the airplane crash, her friendship with Jackie deteriorated rapidly and have become considered one of her first losses.
The key that Shauna had slept with Jeff, Jackie’s boyfriend, finally drove them aside, particularly when it was apparent Jeff was the daddy of her child. Jackie’s incapacity to adapt killed her however nonetheless ripped Shauna aside. Shauna mourned Jackie after which needed to give start to a stillborn child. The trauma and malnourishment ensured that no baby might survive.
Shauna held Ben partly accountable for this as a result of he couldn’t assist her ship the kid. As irrational as her reasoning was, it was a response to trauma. After the lack of her baby – one thing nobody ought to need to undergo – Shauna strayed from the backyard path. She gave up on being civil and have become as wild as her environment. Even more concerning about Shauna’s behavior was that she was by no means an enormous believer within the faith of the wild. Shauna discovered her method to searching individuals and feasting on their flesh on her personal. She was completely bred to hold out the needs of the Wilderness, all of the whereas by no means actually believing in it. She solely ever believed in herself.

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Whereas Shauna was initially Yellowjackets most heartbreaking character, she could now be essentially the most terrifying.
In every other teen drama, that might be an excellent thematic takeaway. In Yellowjackets, it gave Shauna the authority to kill with out regret and led many ladies to do the identical. She stopped the group from getting rescued and actively tried to harm Natalie, who wished to flee most of all. It might not have been apparent at first, however Shauna had been on an inevitable descent into villainy for a while. Getting crowned as Antler Queen was simply affirmation of one thing everybody ought to have seen coming.
Shauna’s Villainy Was Years Within the Making
Shauna’s introduction to the collection made her an apparent alternative for the protagonist of Yellowjackets. Her story was one which many teen ladies would discover relatable. Finest buddy of the preferred woman and infrequently missed and underestimated, Shauna was adrift. This acquainted story had some twists and turns, nonetheless.
Despite the fact that Jackie was saving herself to have intercourse with Jeff for the primary time on the proper second, Shauna took that from her. Shauna slept with Jeff first and continued behind Jackie’s again. This made Shauna a way more fascinating character than it could have first appeared. She beloved and hated Jackie equally, utilizing Jeff to behave out these feelings. Jackie was arguably the one factor Shauna ever cared about, as unhealthy because it was.
Introducing audiences to Shauna this fashion ought to have been a crimson flag. As unbearable as Jackie was, particularly after getting stranded within the wilderness, Shauna was worse. She was all the time exhausting, betraying the particular person she beloved and gravitating towards evil at a breakneck tempo. Jackie’s demise actually didn’t assist issues. It helped crystallize Shauna’s ache to make her a good darker model of herself. It wasn’t lengthy earlier than the lack of Shauna’s child pushed her previous the purpose of no return. She had no humanity left in her, confirmed by how she acted to these round her.
Jackie died after falling asleep exterior on the night time of the primary snow.
Despite the fact that Shauna had a relationship with fellow survivor Melissa, she by no means appeared to care about her. For Shauna, all the things turned about energy. Melissa was simply one other acolyte she might use to her benefit. In the long run, this labored. Shauna amassed a cult-like following, which finally was a cannibalistic sect previously often known as the Yellowjackets soccer group. Changing into the Antler Queen wasn’t essentially a twist within the narrative; it was coming residence.
In a season that had quite a lot of shifting elements that didn’t all the time join, Shauna’s ascension made excellent sense. Yellowjackets brilliantly revealed a query followers had been asking for years, just for it to make excellent sense. It additionally linked to the current timeline, as grownup Shauna got here to an identical realization.

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By Yellowjackets Season 3, Shauna (Melanie Lynskey and Sophie Nélisse) appears to have misplaced her grip on actuality, however which may not be completely true.
For a time, Shauna might have been a traditional housewife, however she was hiding a coldness beneath. Her daughter, Callie, acted out due to the ache of not with the ability to join together with her mom. Jeff acknowledged that being married to Shauna was a lonely endeavor. The ultimate fruits of this character flip was Shauna acknowledging that she was at her greatest when she was within the wild. She was free, capable of be a warrior queen when actual life was suffocating. Shauna expressed no regret for something she had achieved, displaying that she was the true villain of the collection. There are many mysteries that Yellowjackets still needs to address within the coming seasons, however this was one of the crucial narratively satisfying ones the collection might have give you, setting the bar excessive for Season 4.

- Launch Date
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November 14, 2021
- Community
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Showtime, Paramount+ with Showtime
- Showrunner
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Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, Jonathan Lisco
- Administrators
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Benjamin Semanoff, Daisy von Scherler Mayer, Deepa Mehta, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Liz Garbus, Scott Winant, Eva Sørhaug, Jamie Travis
- Writers
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Liz Phang, Sarah L. Thompson, Ameni Rozsa
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Melanie Lynskey
Shauna Sadecki
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Tawny Cypress
Taissa Turner