Recap / Yellowjackets S 1 E 7 No Compass

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

On with the fun...

Present

A disoriented Taissa finds herself outside, with a mouthful of dirt and a bloody bite on her hand. She washes up and bandages her wound. Then she goes off to meet Natalie and Shauna to put in action their plan to catch the blackmailer. Shauna comes prepared with a bag ("My daughter made it for Father's Day back when she was cute.") and a GPS tracker. Since she was expecting $50,000 in $100 bills ("A little bit disappointing, by heist movie standards") to be big enough to hide the tracker, they end up stuffing the bag with assorted trash. The plan is for Natalie to drop the money and the others will meet her at a particular corner.

As Shauna and Taissa wait impatiently for Natalie to come back, Shauna wonders if Nat stopped to score drugs. She learns that Taissa paid for Natalie's most recent rehab and chides her for enabling her instead of using Tough Love. But Taissa feels it's only right.

"Don't you think about it? I got Simone, Sammy. You've got Jeff and-and Callie. Did we do something to deserve that? It's just fate that gave us that, right? Who does Natalie have? Other than Travis, which we both know was a fucking train wreck, who does she really have? No one. And now she has less. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her. So I do what I can. Not just for her, for me."

Natalie comes back with some liquor to share while they wait for the blackmailer to pick up the money.

Shauna, Taissa, and Natalie are STILL waiting for the blackmailer to make the pickup. Mad at the blackmailer for his lack of punctuality, Shauna tries to make the best of this “quality time” by trying to engage in conversation with Taissa, who only responds with monosyllables and is generally evasive, even about the huge bandage on her hand.Natalie brings up that she's been having sex with Kevyn Tan, managing to sound like she's happy about it. Shauna's phone dings, ending the talk. The tracker's app shows that the guy is moving. They follow the signal.

Misty's basement: Jessica finds herself still shackled to the bed but minus the gag. Misty makes it clear what she wants from Jessica is the truth about what's been happening to her and her friends. A flippant Jessica does not cooperate.

Misty: Hmm... If the easy way isn't gonna work, is there something else I should try? The reason you're here is simple. I'm protecting my friends. You see, I put all the pieces together, and all roads lead to you.

Misty follows this by accusing Jessica of blackmailing and stalking the surviving Yellowjackets. Jessica denies any blackmail or murder but gets a slap in the face from Misty.

Misty: Don't bother. We both know what you did.
Jessica: No, you think it was me. If you really knew, I wouldn't be here.

Jessica claims not to know anything about the Arc Symbol in the postcards, but does reveal that Taissa hired her to find out if any of the survivors who returned from the wild was going to blab something that would ruin her campaign. She is also sure that Travis's death was a murder and not a suicide. She refuses to reveal anything else and tries to persuade Misty to release her in exchange for telling her everything. Misty finds Jessica’s attempt to "leverage" what she knows amusing:

Misty: (laughing) This is fun. (Beat) But you're wrong. You only have leverage if I am not willing to make you talk, which, in this case, means that you have no leverage at all.

Back to Taissa, Shauna and Natalie. The trio follow a truck with their car. When the truck parks, Natalie gets out of the car and goes off to confront the driver at gunpoint, demanding the truth about what he knows about the blackmail. The terrified driver tells them to just take the truck, thinking that's what they are after. Just then, a guy runs out of the back of truck. With Shauna assigned to drive to the front of the building they are at, Taissa and Natalie chase him on foot. As they run through a warehouse, Taissa sends off Natalie to the wing and tackles the guy. He punches her in the face and gets away, but not without getting an open container of glitter spilled on him. As the blackmailer runs away, Natalie shoots at him but misses. Shauna meets Natalie and Taissa and they go over their fiasco of an operation. The blackmailer not only got their money, he dumped out the contents of the bag including the tracker. Now, their only clue to find him is to look for an "asshole covered in glitter". Taissa and Shauna confront Natalie for shooting at the guy, even though she claims she was not going to kill him. They point out that had she actually killed the guy, they would all have gone down for murder.

Natalie: Like we haven't done a lot worse.
Shauna: You know what? Speak for yourself, Natalie. I... Don't drag us into your endless fucking pit of guilt.

The trio start speculating as to whether the guy was working on his own or with someone like Jessica. As Taissa points out, regardless of who blackmailed them, they have their money AND they know the trio is onto them. She worries that "they" will spill the group's secret For the Evulz. Natalie says she won't let that happen, and Shauna mocks her for thinking she can do that. Having reached her Rage Breaking Point, Natalie demands that they pull over the car. As far as she is concerned, the other two don't get that for her, it's not about them, it's about Travis. They point out that his death might be unrelated, but Natalie refuses to believe that:

Natalie: You guys don't know Travis like I do. He wouldn't kill himself! Do you understand that? And I know you think I'm crazy, but you know what I see? You guys are just as fucked-up as I am. You're just better at lying to yourselves. You're not healthy. You're not stable. You're living on the brink, just like me. If you're not gonna help me with the plan, I'll do it myself.

She breaks down and gets out of the car.

An exhausted Shauna arrives home and is unpleasantly surprised to find Adam waiting for her in her driveway.

Shauna: How long have you been in my driveway?
Adam: I guess long enough to be out of my mind but not long enough to be full stalker.

Pointing out that her husband or daughter could have been there she tells him to go home. He asks her what is going on with them, saying that he’s wondering if maybe they could be something. Shauna tells him to get away from her with that nonsense:

Shauna: You are so full of shit. "I'm an artist. I'm open to the universe. Look at me." That is all just a fucking act. All that is happening is that you're not in control, and you're not used to it.

Before she can get inside her home, he tells her to wait: "That's a nice try, but you feel exactly what I'm talking about running between us. Every single cell in your body wants to blow things up and see what happens. That's who you are." They end up having sex in Shauna's and Jeff's bed.

Back in Misty’s basement, Jessica watches Misty injecting fentanyl into wrapped chocolates and musing as to why it makes for a good poison: "It's legal but deadly. And when someone dies from it, they just assume that it's an overdose." Jessica declines the offer of a chocolate, saying she doesn't like it.

Misty: Everyone loves chocolate. Especially your dad. Eddie, right? He lives at The Cliffs Dwelling retirement home in Florida? Is this the correct address? 1022 Pine Street.

The threat of Misty mailing poisoned chocolates to her elderly father is enough to make Jessica talk. She did visit Travis before his death to get information, but could not get anything, despite attempting to ply with "a nice bottle of whiskey". His death made her suspicious and so she learned that Travis's bank account was closed right afterhe died. It appears that whoever emptied his account may have killed Travis.

In the morning, Shauna wakes up next to Adam and lets out a Cluster F-Bomb when she realizes that Jeff has made it home. She wakes Adam and has him hide in the closet before Jeff comes in the bedroom, apologizing for getting home late from the store. Shauna lies about having had a quiet night in. While he goes to the shower, Shauna gets Adam, still in the closet ("Wow. I've never been in a French farce before.") and instructs him to get out.

Natalie goes to her room and finds an agitated Kevyn. He can tell that his department issue gun has been fired and he asks her if she messed with it. She jokes about robbing a liquor store but when she sees he is dead serious, she makes up a story of taking it for protection when she went out for smokes and then the gun going off accidentally while she was at a park. Kevyn is a By-the-Book Cop and has to account for every round fired, so he asks for details that she claims not to remember. Kevyn goes from interrogating her to pleading with her to be honest: "Did you commit a crime?" He is disappointed because he thought there was something between them. Rather than come clean about the heist or at least the blackmail, she spitefully dissuades him of any romantic notions, figuratively hitting below the belt:

Natalie: Well, I hate to break it to you, but we were just fucking. And your whole high school crush on me was really cute, but now it's just pathetic.
Kevyn: Fuck you (storms out).

1996

Taissa is determined to leave the rest of the group and get help, despite Van's misgivings. They are starving, there’s hardly any game…

"And it's just gonna keep getting colder, and not "I better put on a coat" cold. We're talking "dying feels like falling asleep" cold."

While they may be in the wilderness, Taissa insists that there's bound to be a town or a road somewhere, and she is willing to take the risk of dying out there if there is nothing. For the sake of the group, Taissa agrees to leave the rifle behind and only take supplies they don't use every day, like a compass and a flare gun. Before heading out, Taissa cuts off her long curly hair. Van compliments her short new ‘do and to Taissa's surprise, tells her she is coming along. Van wants to get back home so that someday she can share an special experience with Taissa: what she actually wanted to do in New York City when she went there for her seventh birthday, instead of what she actually did (get taken to see Cats):

"I want to go to New York with you, and I want to buy you a fucking soft pretzel, and I want to take you on a fucking horse and carriage ride through Central Park."

Mari and Akilah join them too. Travis is packing to join them too, figuring that they might need a guy with them. Natalie asks him to stay, admitting that it's selfish of her. He agrees.

Lottie gives Van a unburnt deer bone that she thinks will keep Van safe, based on a dream she had with "red smoke and a river of blood." She makes Van promise not to lose it. Just before they head out, Misty comes out running and announces that she is going too. She asks the coach not to talk her out of it. Coach, trying not to look relieved, tells her she is brave and that he'll be OK.

At the cabin, Jackie corners Shauna and demands to be told what the hell is Shauna hiding from her because her behavior (sneaking around, whispering with Taissa and being distant) is driving Jackie crazy. Shauna finally reveals she's pregnant and that Taissa knows. A surprised Jackie feels left out of the loop that Shauna lost her virginity without sharing the news with her. When asked for more info, Shauna lies that it was with Randy Walsh, Jeff's best friend since high school). Jackie promises that they will get through it together.

The expedition: as they hike, Taissa asks Van about the unburnt deer bone Lottie gave her. Van tells her what Lottie saw in her dreams. Taissa has doubts about Lottie:

Taissa: I'm just saying, you know, if this was a horror movie, she'd be the villain, right?
Van: If this was a horror movie, you would be the first to die.
Taissa: Why, because I'm Black?
Van: No, 'cause you're the skeptical one. They always go first, leaving the rest of us to keep doing dumb shit and die in unnecessarily brutal ways.

At the cabin, Natalie and Travis decide to take advantage that everyone else is at the lake to consummate the relationship. There’s some awkwardness, Travis declines Natalie’s offer to help with the condom]], she tries to talk dirty but it doesn’t work for him, and… things do not happen. Again. An embarrassed Travis pulls a Screw This, I'm Out of Here!, leaving Natalie confused.

Jackie wants to know everything about Shauna's first time. Shauna describes her alleged first and only time with Randy: it hurt a little and only lasted three minutes. Jackie laughs at the mental image and wonders when it happened and more importantly, how did she manage to miss it. "I have a life outside of you, you know," Shauna says, before she makes up a story. In her tale, she ended up losing her virginity at Mari's birthday party, after Jackie and Jeff left early and Shauna drank too much. Jackie asks Shauna if it was really at Mari's party, because Jackie remembers that she had to go back and pick up a very drunk Randy. Shauna lies that it was.

While hiking, Van does a recap of While You Were Sleeping that gets interrupted by howling.Taissa reassures the other girls that they will be fine, since wolves are intimidated by humans and it sounds like they are a significant distance away. They agree that they will take turns keeping watch, just to be extra safe. Reassured, Van goes back to her retelling.

Shauna comes up the attic and finds Javi. She thinks he is snooping, but he just wanted the hunting knife for an art project.

In tears, Jackie learns from reading Shauna's journal that Jeff, Jackie’s boyfriend, is the real father of Shauna's baby.

Led by Taissa, the group comes up to a river of murky, off-smelling, reddish water. Akilah and Mari mention Lottie’s dream of a river of blood and a cloud of red smoke. Taissa is skeptical and tells them to keep moving. But the compass is malfunctioning and spinning like a top. The other start contemplating going back and and they remind Taissa of what Lottie said when they found the plane ("It didn't want him to leave.") Taissa says it is just mineral deposits in the water what is making the compass act weird, and if they get far away enough they will be fine. Van asks that Taissa think about the red stream and and how contrived it would be for it just to be a coincidence. Taissa dismisses all the unusual signs by saying that the forests don't give a damn, that the whole “spirits don’t want us to leave” is nonsense, and to just keep moving. The group prepares to camp out for the night. Van steps up for take first watch tonight but Taissa offers to do it instead so that the others can rest. Much later, Taissa wakes up on a tree to the sound of screaming and howling. Below are Mari, Akilah and Misty struggling to keep away Savage Wolves. She gets down and asks for Van, who had gone looking for Taissa and is now being mauled by two wolves. Taissa runs off one with the flare gun and kills the other with an axe. The others come over. Van has been left with horrible injuries to her face and neck and is not responsive. Taissa screams in anguish.

Examples of tropes present in this work

• Facial Horror: The wolf attack leaves poor Van with serious wounds on her face. One is so deep that her teeth can be seen through her cheek.
• Foreshadowing: Taissa’s description of how cold the weather will get, "We're talking 'dying feels like falling asleep" cold' ".
• Black Guy Dies First: Brought up and deconstructed. A Genre Savvy Van says Taissa would die first, but not on account of this trope, but because she is the cynical one of the group and if she is dead, the others will get a grip of the Idiot Ball and get killed. Interestingly, nobody bothers to discuss how Akilah, the other black member of the expedition could be affected.
• Dissonant Serenity: Acknowledged in universe by Misty, who finds that for somebody who was drugged, abducted, and is now chained to a bed in The Unfettered’s basement, Jessica is surprisingly calm. Apparently Jessica has been held hostage before.
• Drunk Driver: Averted by Shauna, who provides a very good reason for handing over her keys to Taissa and Natalie: "Actually, I probably shouldn't drive 'cause if we die, we will never find out who's doing this."
• The Easy Way or the Hard Way: Misty demands that Jessica tell her truth. Jessica does not feel like cooperating:

Jessica: OK. Your haircut is unflattering.
Misty: Hmm... If the easy way isn't gonna work, is there something else I should try?

• Everybody Has Standards: Shauna is incensed that their blackmailer has been making them wait since 2:00 a.m. to pick up the money. "This is unacceptable. Blackmail us, fine, but it's 3:34."
• Hates Small Talk: Taissa had no trouble mingling with potential donors at the party she went to earlier on, but Shauna's attempt for quality time is laughable.
• Important Haircut: Before hiking out, Taissa cuts off her long hair, and ends up with a TWA^note Teeny Weeny Afro that is perfectly even.
• It's All About Me: When Shauna tells Jackie about her pregnancy, Jackie wonders where was she when this happened, as if surprised that Shauna has a life that does not involve her.
• Shout-Out:
  • Jackie to Shauna: "Remember when your parents first separated and you told me the reason your dad wasn't around as much was because he got a new job as the president at Hello Kitty?"
  • Van got taken to see Cats at the age of seven. She was not impressed.
• Tempting Fate: While hiking out, the group hears distant howling and worries about wolves. Taissa tells them not to worry because wolves are scared of humans. While that is true, wolves have been known to attack humans if they feel their territory is invaded or if they are hungry enough.
• Waking Up Elsewhere: Taissa volunteers to take an evening watch, but ends up falling asleep. When she wakes up, she finds herself up a tree with no memory of having sleepwalked there and the others below trying to fend off a pack of wolves.