Recap pages are Spoilers Off per policy and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned
Note: the events in the episode do not appear in chronological order. The events in this recap do appear that way... mostly.Opening scene
Winter. A girl in a nightgown is running barefoot through the woods, panting and crying. She is being chased down by a bunch of people making alarming animal noises. All of a sudden, she falls into a pit full of sharpened stakes and dies. We get to see her distinctive gold heart necklace. A silent figure, covered in furs and animal hides and wearing pink sneakers watches silently. Pit Girl is dragged away and her body is hung upside down, throat slit.1996
The Yellowjackets are an elite high school soccer team that has qualified for Nationals. Some girls are seen planning to "freeze out" Allie, a freshman player. At practice, the girls change their mind about the freeze out plan. Taissa tackles Allie, which results in Allie breaking her leg and being unable to join the team at Nationals. At a party later on, when a fight about Allie's accident (or was it!?) is just about to start, team captain Jackie puts a stop to it by making each team member go around and say what they like about each other. After the party, Jackie and her best friend Shauna are driven home by Jackie's boyfriend Jeff. He drops off Jackie first, then he and Shauna have sex in the car. She makes him swear he won't get her pregnant, or else she will train the child to hunt him down.The next morning, we get a montage of assorted team members getting ready: Lottie takes medication and is served breakfast all by herself in a large dining room; Laura Lee is on her knees praying; Taissa bids a casual goodbye to her parents; Natalie broods from her home in a trailer park; Van tries to shake her mother awake, and finally slaps her so she can give Van a ride; equipment manager Misty stares impassively at a rat drowning in a swimming pool; and Shauna looks at her early-admission acceptance letter to Brown University (not Rutgers, where Jackie assumes they will attend and room together). Finally the team boards the chartered plane (courtesy of Lottie's father) that will take them to Seattle. The passengers include not just the team, but also Coach Bill Martinez, Coach Ben Scott, and Coach Martinez's two sons, Travis and Javi. Jackie lets Shauna have her necklace (a heart in a chain) for good luck and a Valium. Much later, Shauna wakes up to turbulence and chaos inside the plane. She looks outside the window and sees that the plane is about to crash.
Present
In 2021, Shauna, now a suburban housewife and married to Jeff (yes, that Jeff), is approached by journalist Jessica Roberts from the Star-Ledger, who is encouraging her to tell her side of her story: how did a group of teenagers survive a plane crash plus 19 months in the wilderness before their rescue? Shauna gives it a pass. Later that night, after trying to bond with her daughter (and failing) and killing the rabbit that had been damaging her garden (what?!), she digs up a phone from her safe.Taissa is getting photographed with her beautiful family (her wife Simone, their child Sammy, and dog Biscuit) as part of her a campaign for state senator. Shauna calls Taissa and they meet late at night at a diner. They discuss Jessica Roberts, her suspicious lack of bylines, and the pact their fellow survivors made to keep quiet about their experience. Shauna gives Jessica's card to Taissa and tells her to take care of it. As Shauna puts it, if any one of the others decides to talk, "we are all fucked."
Natalie, now a brunette, has completed rehab and decides to "reconnect with some old friends". She goes to a storage facility and uncovers her car, removes a gun from the trunk, and checks to see it is in working order.
Misty is a nurse at a resting home. She goes to check on Mrs. DeGenaro one of her elderly patients, who goes out of her way to knock her food tray. Still smiling, she speculates out loud that the morphine might be upsetting her patient's stomach and deliberately withholds the patient's pain medication. Before walking off, she directs a "Don't fuck with me," to her patient. Shortly after she leaves work, unaware that Natalie is spying her.
Final scene
A bunch of people dressed in animal furs and masks roast some meat (clearly sourced from the poor girl) and sit around a fire. One of them serves it to yet another individual clad in a white robe decorated with strands of dark hair and wearing a deer antler headdress. This person, whom will be referred to in the future as the Antler Queen, gives a nod of approval. Then and only then, the others start eating. As they eat with obvious delight, the grease dribbles down their chins. When the feast is over, they all leave except for the one who served the Antler Queen. That person pulls off their mask and puts on glasses. It's the teenaged Misty, of all people, who smiles mysteriously.Examples of tropes specific to this episode:
- Elder Abuse: The adult Misty Quigley deliberately withholds her patient's pain medication because the woman had knocked her food tray to the floor.
- Hope Spot: During the scrimmage, Taissa switches sides and plays aggressively against Allie in order to bring out the best in her and per her own words, teach her to “play under pressure”. This actually ends up working and Allie finally steps it up and plays more aggressively against Taissa, who looks visibly impressed and delighted to finally see improvement from her and even sighs “Finally.” Then Taissa goes for a brutal slide tackle with disastrous results.
- Informed Flaw: Jessica Roberts rudely asks the adult Shauna if she expected her life to end up "like this". Shauna's living a comfortable middle class lifestyle, with a nice house and a husband who's still in as good shape as his high school self, as well as not having to work herself. Granted, Jessica's grasping at straws to get Shauna to go along with her, but it seems like an odd attack. It is revealed that Shauna and Jeff are in couple's counselling, and she doesn't have many friends of her own, but that's information Jessica couldn't have known. It is revealed later though that Shauna was an Academic Athlete who had a full ride to college, so it's possible that Jessica Roberts imagined her as pursuing a life as an ambitious career woman.
- Irony: Taissa's injury to Allie ironically saves the girl from being on the plane when it crashes.
- Jerkass: While the team is getting ready for the rally, Van is painting the team mascot on Allie's face. Allie is lamenting that she is going to have to skip prom due to Nationals and and that she had an awesome dress. Van tells her that she can wear it next year. Allie responds by reminding Van that nobody invited her.
- Love Triangle: 1996 Jeff is in a relationship with Jackie. Unknown to her, Jeff is also sexually involved with Shauna, whom Jackie calls her best friend. In the present, Jeff and Shauna are married.
- Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration: The first time we see the adult Shauna she is masturbating in her daughter's bedroom to a picture of Callie's boyfriend, suggesting her sex life is less than fulfilling.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Although she hated how Allie was underperforming, Taissa is horrified when she ends up breaking her leg.
