Recap / Yellowjackets S 1 E 6 Saints

Recap pages are Spoilers Off per policy and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned

Flashback: Little Lottie

We start with a flashback to Lottie's childhood: she and her parents are in the family car. Without warning, Lottie screams, startling Mr. Matthews and making him slam the brakes… just in time to avoid a car ignoring a red light. Later, she overhears her parents arguing. Her dad is saying that "it" is getting worse and that they are taking her to a psychiatrist, despite Mrs. Matthews arguing about the possibility of "things in this world we don't understand".

1996

During the day, the girls go foraging with little success and get snippy. At night, Van and Taissa are bathing in the lake and having a fun, private moment. Taissa notes how dirty her hands are and denies being afraid that others will find out about them, "Just not interested in the drama." Taissa also brings up wanting to go look for help. Van is doubtful as to whether Taissa can survive out there.

Back at the cabin, she finds Shauna, still awake from dreaming she gave birth to a cooked chicken. Shauna is stressing out about her pregnancy. She brings up a classmate who got rid of her pregnancy on her own. Taissa tells her she'll die if she tries the DIY route. Shauna would rather die from giving herself an abortion than to die having her best friend's boyfriend’s baby. Taissa is astounded by the revelation but asks Shauna not to do anything stupid because she has a plan!

While out with Shauna, Jackie waxes poetic about rabbits: "I mean, what even is a rabbit? A squirrel with floppy ears and a pom-pom on its ass? Like, why? What even is that?" She shares with Shauna that Jeff said he loved her the day before they flew out and regrets not saying it back. She also regrets making him wait for sex on account of wanting everything to be perfect, and laments that if they die out in the wilderness, “someone else is gonna be his first.” Shauna, who was that someone else, experiences some nausea.

Travis and Natalie are making out in the crashed plane, but it’s awkward and things don’t happen. Natalie makes a joke out of it. "Come on. Who hasn't rolled over a broken tray table while making out in a blood-stained death trap?" Back at the cabin, they are greeted with friendly teasing from the girls, who totally know what was going on. (Van: "I hear it's beaver season!") Natalie just laughs back and flips them the bird. In contrast to the other girls, an irate Jackie confronts Natalie (and only Natalie) on the lack of results:

Jackie: Is this why we don't have any food? 'Cause you've been too busy running for mayor of pound town?
Natalie: Uh, go fuck yourself?
Jackie: I guess we shouldn't be surprised. Nat's always down for a good time, right?
Natalie: I can't magically conjure a deer, Jackie. But keep talking shit, I'll find something to shoot.

Things escalate until they are made to break up. Misty confides in Natalie that she can relate because she has a secret boyfriend, too.

Back at the cabin, Ben tries to give The Talk to Travis, stressing what a terrible idea an unexpected pregnancy would be out in the wilderness, not to mention how risky to Natalie. He ends up giving Travis a whole bunch of condoms. Travis gets a little sassy at the sheer number since they were only going to be out for a week. The coach just tells him to use them.

Lottie finds Taissa outside, eating dirt and looking feral. In the morning, Taissa wakes up in the attic by herself and runs out searching for Shauna. Lottie points her in the last seen direction and asks Taissa if she was outside last night eating dirt. Taissa denies it and runs off, claiming she has no time for crazy. Shauna, armed with a bra underwire and other tools, tries to give herself an abortion. Taissa bursts in and makes her stop. She takes over, because she won't let her friend deal with this alone. Shauna goes from whimpering to screaming in obvious pain and begs her to stop. Taissa comforts Shauna as she cries that she doesn't want to die.

At the cabin, Lottie asks Laura Lee for advice on visions. She admits that she is seeing things and wants to know how prophets in the Bible knew they were not just crazy. Laura Lee tells them it was due to faith, "It's the substance of things that are hoped for. And the evidence of things unseen." She tells Lottie that if she accepts God into her heart, He'll help her discern what's true from the false. She even has an idea as to how to help Lottie. At the lake,Laura Lee prays out loud as she submerges Lottie in the lake in an actual baptism. Underwater, Lottie has a vision of herself lighting candles and sees something explode behind Laura Lee. She panics and gets out of the water, saying she saw fire and light. A delighted Laura Lee attributes these visions to the Holy Spirit.

While talking, Travis presses Natalie'd Berserk Button by asking how many guys she’s been with. Indignant, she brings up a male classmate who had sex with "half the girls on the volleyball team… what does that make him?"

Travis: He's a dude and... he's not the one with his ahand on my...
Natalie: No. You do not get to judge me, dude. The '50s called, they want your dumbass attitude back. Welcome to 1996. Our vaginas have, like, monologues now. And newsflash: girls like to do stuff, too. You don't have a monopoly on that. Like, why is it your job to want to do it and my job to say no? Why do you get all the wants and needs? Who made up that stupid fucking rule, anyway?

He apologizes. She demands to know his number. It's zero; Travis is a virgin. She tells him in turn that she has only been with two guys, and that regardless of what Jackie says about her, sex means something to her. They see a deer and shoot it. They bring it back, but the others are appalled by the way the deer looks, with its bloody antlers make it look unappetizing. When Shauna cuts into it, its belly is full of maggots. Taissa has had enough and points out the obvious: when winter comes, they will either starve to death or freeze, and nobody is going to rescue them. They will have to save themselves. She will be leaving in the morning to find help. "Come with me if you want to get out of this fucking hellhole."

Present:

Shauna goes to Natalie’s motel to meet her and Taissa. At the parking lot, Shauna encounters Randy, Jeff's old friend from high school. She makes up an excuse about needing to park there for her book club meeting and gets him to promise not to narc on her. At Natalie's room, she and Taissa show Shauna the pictures of Travis’s death and share their theory that whoever killed Travis is the same person who sent the postcards ("F Sharp") and is now demanding $50,000 in cash to keep their mouth shut about the Yellowjackets' big secret. The blackmail is a surprise to Shauna. They speculate as to the blackmailer’s identity, whether it is someone from the team, Jessica Roberts... or someone else. Natalie proposes a bluff where she contacts Jessica pretending she is ready to spill the beans, but Shauna points out that if Jessica is not the blackmailer, they will end up sabotaging the whole secrecy aspect. The possibility of including Misty is brought up and thrown out.

Natalie: Well, she did take me to see Travis, but first, she fucked with my car. Still, she's been helping me to figure it all out.

Jeff and Shauna are having their yearly brunch at the Taylors's in celebration of Jackie's life. Mrs. Taylor gives Shauna another rabbit figurine (this one with babies), saying that Jackie just adored rabbits. Mrs. Taylor congratulates them on their upcoming anniversary, saying that Jackie would have been happy for them, and that, "You're both the type to be content. You don't want more than, well, (scoffing) what you have. Oh, I don't mean that in a bad way." Shauna announces bluntly that she doesn't even like her daughter. Jeff passes it off as a joke. Shauna excuses herself. Shauna goes to Jackie's old room and flashes back to a moment in their earlier teens where Younger Teen Jackie and Younger Teen Shauna schemed to have Shauna let Jeff know that Jackie likes him, but without telling him that Jackie told Shauna to ask him.

Taissa is on the phone with her bank, which will not let her withdraw money from a joint account without Simone's signature. Simone sends Sammy to his room and tells Taissa that they are taking Sammy to a child psychologist that afternoon. She is angry about Taissa going out in the night instead of having an important conversation and lying to her about quitting the race. She is done with the unconditional, one-sided support.

Back in the present, Shauna sees again a vision of Jackie, telling her, "It's not your fault. What happened." Shauna tells Ghost Jackie that she knows it. To her surprise, Ghost Jackie contradicts herself: "It's totally your fault. But we were kids. And it was awful." Jeff interrupts Shauna's "conversation" and brings her back to the table. They all wish Jackie a happy birthday. Mrs. Taylor continues with the subtle put downs. "I can't imagine how exhausting it must've been, always comparing yourself to someone so beautiful and smart." Jeff brings up that Shauna had plenty of smarts of her own. Then he announces that he and Shauna were sleeping together while Jackie and he were still a couple.

Jeff: Because the truth is Jackie was amazing. But so was my damn wife. And she still is. And I may have been an idiot then, but at least I was smart enough to see that. And this really is the best tuna quiche I've ever tasted, Mrs. Taylor.

At the psychologist's office, the doctor tells Simone and Taissa about the many possible reasons for Sammy’s behavior (psychogenic fugue, dissociative amnesia) but more sessions will be needed to make a diagnosis. Taissa gets a text with drop off instructions in the middle of this. During the drive home, Simone discusses the doctor visit. Sammy "doesn't remember any of the things we accused him of. He thinks he's telling the truth." Taissa is skeptical of the doctor’s opinion and shrinks in general: "Shrinks make their living off of problems that don't get solved." Simone lays out some truth on her wife: "You know, for someone who went through some shit of their own, it never ceases to amaze me how shut off you are to help." Sammy’s behavior, according to the doctor, is the result of overwhelming stress. Simone says that as his moms, they need to do better by him.

Since Taissa, despite having the money, cannot access it without Simone's signature, Natalie offers to get the $50k. As she is about to drive off on an errand, Kevyn stops by her place. He offers to keep her company and is surprised when Natalie sells her car. She justifies it as being a different person from when she first bought it.

On their way home from the Taylors' Jeff reaffirms to Shauna that he doesn't wish things had been different. Their life together is not perfect but he has no regrets. Shauna does have regrets about how they started. He agrees it was not their "finest moment or anything", but they were kids. He rationalizes that Jackie would have broken up with him anyway and that he was just a high school boyfriend. He reaffirms that he loves Shauna.

Kevyn has taken Nat to his son Mason’s soccer game, which he is attending at his ex's request. He introduces Natalie, saying that she was on the team that won the state championship when they were in high school together. The boy asks an innocent question as to why Nat’s team did not get to play at Nationals. Kevyn saves Natalie from having to answer by telling him to go back to play, and Natalie gives him a tip to fake out the other team's sweeper. Her tip works; Mason’s team wins the game. While he goes off for pizza with a friend, Kevyn and Natalie bond.

While Misty is spying on Natalie's room where she is with Kevyn, she gets a call from Jessica Roberts. After exchanging barbs, they arrange to meet later that night. At the scheduled time and place, Misty is waiting in her car for Jessica, who gets in. "So, what made you finally want to..." Jessica does not finish her sentence, Misty injects her with a syringe full of the drugs she stole earlier on. Instant Sedation happens. Jessica wakes up gagged and shackled to a bed in the basement of Misty's place, who leaves her there after bidding her a special good-night.

Misty: Goodnight. Sleep tight. Don't let the fact that you're a terrible person keep you up tonight.

Jeff has to go back to the store that night as he is having trouble with the inventory database. Shauna offers to go with him to help, but he declines.

At night, Taissa wakes up when her phone rings, to find herself outside on a tree, her mouth full of dirt and her hand bloody.

Tropes appearing in this specific episode:

• Bait-and-Switch: Towards the beginning of the episode Shauna is seen approaching a shady motel and she gets discovered by Randy from high school. The audience is led to think she's heading to the motel for more hanky-panky with her lover, Adam. Instead, she's there to meet Natalie and Taissa to discuss the blackmail.
• Call-Forward: Jeff rationalizes his cheating on Jackie as a teenager by saying he was just her high school boyfriend and she would have broken up with him anyway. This gets brought up again in "Doomcoming".
• Come with Me If You Want to Live: Taissa is brutally honest with the group about their chances of rescue being nil.
  Come with me if you want to get out of this fucking hellhole.
• Eat Dirt, Cheap: Lottie catches Taissa outdoors at night, eating dirt. The next day, Lottie asks her about it, but she denies it.
• Embarrassing Tattoo: Randy had the Wiskayok High School mascot tattooed. The artist did not do a great job, but Randy seems unaware.
• Empty Bedroom Grieving: During the episode, Shauna and Jeff visit the Taylor family home for the annual birthday brunch they hold in honor of Jackie's memory. At one point, Shauna visits Jackie's bedroom and a flashback shows both of them together in the bedroom as teens, the room looking exactly as it does in the present.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Laura Lee is focused on sweeping and when Lottie walks in, her startled response is "Cheese and rice!". This is consistent with her characterization of being afraid to say cunt out loud in “F Sharp)".
• Innocently Insensitive: Kevyn introduces Natalie to his son by saying that she played in his school soccer team and won state championship. She tells Mason that no, she did not go to Nationals. He asks if she got hurt.
• Let Me Get This Straight...: Shauna, by the end of her meeting with her former teammates:

Um, is there anything else I should know about, or does the blackmail, Travis maybe being murdered, and this one [Natalie] playing buddy cop with Misty fucking Quigley just about cover it?

• Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Natalie and Travis attempt to make love on the floor of the plane remains, but given the latter's lack of experience, things don’t happen. Natalie makes a joke to spare Travis’s pride: “Come on. Who hasn't rolled over a broken tray table while making out in a blood-stained death trap?”
• Newhart Phone Call: Taissa calls her bank and tries to convince them to allow her to withdraw $50,000 from her and Simone's joint bank account without Simone's signature. She complains that she shouldn't need her wife's signature to make a withdrawal in any amount, but the response she gets is obviously not to her satisfaction and she hangs up.
• Questionable Consent: The second time Natalie had sex was with a guy she met the previous summer. "He was older and I was kind of fucked-up and it... (Laughs softly) It wasn't great."
• The Reveal: Taissa is the "lady in the tree" that Sammy has been seeing.
• Shout-Out: "Welcome to 1996. Our vaginas have, like, monologues now."
  • Jessica is kidnapped to the "Overture" of The Phantom of the Opera.
  • The younger Jeff liked doing impressions of Ace Ventura.
  • On the deer Natalie and Travis bring in: "It's like Freddy Krueger and Bambi had a baby."
• Slut-Shaming: Natalie and Travis return empty-handed from hunting. Jackie asks Natalie if she was too busy being the mayor of Pound Town. Oddly enough, she says nothing to Travis.
• Unexpected Virgin: Natalie is surprised to learn Travis has no sexual experience.
• Volleying Insults: Hunger is making the girls cranky. While they are looking for berries, Lottie brings up that some animals live off their own vomit:
  Mari: Did Dead Cabin Guy tell you that, or do you guys just chat about blood and stuff?
  Lottie: No, we mostly talk about how Danny Mears dumped you for his own cousin.