Yellowjackets Season 3 Episode 8 Review: A Normal, Boring Life

Yellowjackets Season 3 Episode 8, “A Normal, Boring Life,” sees Hilary Swank finally joining the fray in a frenetic, high-stakes outing. Swank and Melanie Lynskey deliver a masterclass in tension and building suspense. Sure, making Swank Melissa isn’t the most unexpected move from the creative team, but Swank really sells it. 

Do the Yellowjackets Deserve a Normal, Boring Life?

Shauna’s headspace and significant unraveling are the crux of this episode in both timelines. It’s an absolute blast watching both Shaunas’ journeys mirror each other in their respective narratives. “A Normal, Boring Life” reminds us that Shauna’s now trademark anger and desire to stir the pot have been intrinsically part of her since before the crash. After all, she was sleeping with Jackie’s boyfriend (who’s now her husband). 

Melissa sums up Shauna Sadecki perfectly: She wants to watch the world burn because she’s perpetually miserable. She longs for everyone else to feel as miserable as she does. That’s her unprocessed rage and suppressed trauma in action. And, of course, being second fiddle to Jackie pre-Wilderness. 

Lynskey taps into Shauna’s white-hot ire like no other. Her revelation that you can only protect your secrets if you’re the last one standing surely doesn’t bode well for the adult timeline. Still, it will undoubtedly be entertaining to see how this bears fruit in the overarching narrative. 

Additionally, Shauna proves Melissa right by the end of “A Normal, Boring Life.” She breaks Melissa’s arm and bites off a hunk of her flesh before forcing her to eat it. Is self-cannibalism a thing, or did Yellowjackets invent it? I’m not usually squeamish, but this scene made me squirm.

Who Stays and Who Goes 

The ’90s timeline sees Shauna, Lottie, and Taissa refuse to leave with the others to get rescued. Lottie’s reasoning, in a monologue beautifully delivered by Courtney Eaton, is that she doesn’t belong in society. If she returns home, she knows her parents will medicate her and send her to a hospital. Lottie specifically uses “won’t be well” and claims she feels the “unwellness” in her bones. It’s here in the Wilderness where she feels most like herself — uninhibited, unencumbered, and primal. 

At face value, Shauna and Taissa’s reason for staying put is that they don’t trust Kodiak and Hannah. However, if Shauna was really honest with herself, she’d resonate more with Lottie’s statement. Here in the Wilderness, Shauna can be herself, warts and all. She can exist in all her anger, grief, and fear. There also seems to be a sliver of Shauna that feels remorse. She knows proper society won’t accept everything the teens did out here. 

Sophie Thatcher delivers another understated, compelling performance as Natalie. She also feels more like Juliette Lewis than ever. You see how young Nat becomes the Nat we know in the present timeline. 

Eat It

“A Normal, Boring Life” is one of the strongest episodes in Yellowjackets Season 3. For once, the present timeline was more engrossing than the ’90s timeline (which is still entertaining in its own right), and that’s thanks to Melanie Lynskey and Hilary Swank’s natural chemistry and raw visceral performances. 

Here’s hoping that Shauna won’t force Melissa to eat more of her own arm next week… 

Stray Observations: 

• “Freaky little four-eyed mushroom” is an iconic line from the icon himself, Jeff Sadecki. He’s 10 times better than FurnitureFam.net. The Joels will rue the day they chose that fraud over him. 
• The “Wonderwall” needle drop feels like a reference to the funeral our titular survivors hold in the second episode after the crash for their fallen teammate. “She’ll never hear ‘Wonderwall’ again.” 
• Did you notice that Dream Jackie was buying boxes of hot cocoa from Shauna in the grocery store? That’s a fun callback to her death scene when she drinks hot chocolate. Mari sips on Ben’s cocoa earlier this season. It seems this beverage might be associated with death…
• Shauna telling Melissa to “Eat it” is reminiscent of the season premiere when Teen Shauna shoves Mari’s face in the mud and yells, “I told you to eat, bitch.” Her biting Melissa’s arm also reminds me of Teen Shauna tackling Mari in that same episode and biting her arm during a rousing game of Capture the Bone. 
• “We are leaving whatever you are behind” is so heartbreaking in hindsight (well, for us), considering years later, Nat says she believes they brought the Wilderness back with them. 
• How long has Other Tai been calling the shots in the Wilderness? No-Eyed Man standing behind her was pretty damn creepy. 
• Another callback: Jeff asking the Joels if every woman they’ve been with was “f*cking boring” is reminiscent of Teen Shauna telling Melissa she hopes she’s not “f*cking boring.” 

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Yellowjackets drops new episodes every Friday on Paramount+ with SHOWTIME and every Sunday at 8 pm EST/PST on the SHOWTIME network. 

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