Yellowjackets Season 2 Episode 1 Review: Friends, Romans, Countrymen
It’s finally back! After the gut-wrenching Season 1 finale and year-long hiatus, our favorite band of soccer playing,
Yellowjackets Season 2 Episode 1, “Friends, Romans, Countrymen,” is a perfect taste of the darker elements and depths the season intends to go to.
Picking up two months after Jackie’s death, teen Shauna is having a tough time coping with the loss of her best friend. Keeping Jackie’s body nice and fresh in the meat locker, Shauna hallucinates conversations with, as Mari puts it, dead-ass Jackie.
Shauna dealing with her guilt and grief for Jackie’s death is one of the more intriguing storylines to focus on in the premiere. With a two-month time jump, the burning question going forward is how long will it be before someone finally speaks up?
It almost feels as if Shauna has had some psychotic break, and everyone is afraid to push her any further.
As dark as it is, and let’s face it, Yellowjackets fans show up expecting the most outlandish things to occur, it almost feels right for Shauna to be still bonded to Jackie, even in death.
It’s clear that deep down, Shauna had an unspoken love for Jackie that now she’ll never be able to come clean about. The feelings she’s experiencing are not only heightened by her pregnancy but also the fact that burying Jackie isn’t a possibility, forcing her to be in her presence each day.
Shauna’s circumstances are enough to send anyone into an altered state of mind, and now it’s up to her sisters to snap her out of it before it’s too late. I mean, c’mon, she broke Jackie’s ear off and ate it!
It’s only a matter of time before Yellowjackets finally takes that definitive step and pushes these girls into the cannibalistic frenzy we’ve all been waiting for. It’s clear Jackie will be the turning point, and their world will become darker and more gruesome than ever before.
As lowkey frightening as it is, though, it’s exciting to think we’re getting closer and closer to figuring out who pit girl is and how they began their new way of life.
Elsewhere, things are grim for the girls as food dwindles, Javi is still missing, and they rely on Travis and Natalie’s hunts. So, they turn to Lottie and her ritualistic ways to get them through the tough times, almost as a comfort mechanism.
Although, I’m not sure I’d be willing to risk the array of contractable diseases by drinking Lottie’s blood for fun every morning.
One of the more comedic aspects of the season premiere is the introduction of the JV Yellowjackets, who have supposedly been with the team the entire time. They’re a quirky little group that I look forward to learning more about.
Hopefully, the series will explain how we went a whole season without seeing them in any capacity.
In the present timeline, Taissa is dealing with the consequences of her alternate personality, with Simone threatening to leak her mental health issues to the press. After finding her altar with the dog head, heart, and doll of Sammy, she’s rightfully terrified of the lengths Taissa could go to.
Meanwhile, Shauna and Jeff are still working to ensure that Adam’s death stays a mystery. That includes Jeff and Shauna burning the rest of Adam’s credentials and her journals from the wilderness.
It also leads the two to make a trip to Adam’s art studio, where it’s revealed that he had more than just a little crush on Shauna. With walls plastered with sketches and paintings of her face, it becomes harder and harder to chalk Adam up to being some random guy.
And, of course, it wouldn’t be Yellowjackets without an abnormal and downright awkward sex scene with Shauna.
When Misty isn’t working alongside Shauna to keep Adam’s murder quiet, she’s investigating Natalie’s disappearance. Putting her citizen detective skills to work, it takes her only a short time to figure out Natalie didn’t merely skip town.
Natalie’s capture actually leads to one of the more exciting moments of the episode, adult Lottie’s reveal. We don’t learn much about Lottie on “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” other than she had a rough life even after being rescued.
Sticking true to their nature before the plane crash, Lottie’s parents take her to a list of different doctors trying to cure her. After various treatments and electro-shock therapy, she finally snaps out of her catatonic state, but with a seemingly newfound ability to soothe those around her.
“Friends, Romans, Countrymen” may only be the premiere outing of the second season, but it’s enough to foreshadow impending Oscar-worthy performances from the cast. I can’t wait to see the depths this season will explore.
Stray Thoughts:
- As hopeful as I’d like to be, there’s no way Javi isn’t’ somewhere buried under feet of snow.
- I love Callie’s determination to catch Shauna in a lie about Adam, but if she knows what’s best for her, she’d stop snooping. Shauna has expressed her disgust about Callie multiple times beforehand, and if she’s pushed while in the wrong state of mind, something could potentially happen to Callie.
What did you think of this episode of Yellowjackets? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Yellowjackets airs Sundays at 9/8c on Showtime.
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Cade Taylor
Cade Taylor is a television and film critic living in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a Senior Writer for Tell-Tale TV. His love for television developed at a young age, with a concentration on queer stories, sitcoms, teen dramas, and science fiction thrillers. In addition, he works full-time as a news producer, telling the stories of Missourians and helming "Produced in the Bi-State," a segment spotlighting actors, musicians, and entertainers from the St. Louis area. He can be reached by email at cade@telltaletv.com.