Yellowjackets Finally Lives Up To The Buzz Of Its Title

This post contains spoilers for "Yellowjackets" season 2 episode 3.

Most people can tell whether or not they'll be able to handle "Yellowjackets" based on its pilot episode. Between the bone-crunching soccer match that has viewers cringing before the team ever crash-lands in the wilderness, the traumatic plane sequence, and the early hints towards the cannibalism of it all, "Yellowjackets" stars out with the pedal to the metal. Yet despite all of the show's people-eating and occultism — elements that you'd think would be the deal breakers for squeamish viewers — I have a few friends who responded to my pitch about "Yellowjackets" with the same nervous question: "But are there bees in it?"

Bad news, apiphobics: it turns out there are definitely bees in it. The show's title has until now only referred to the mascot of the soccer team at the show's heart, functioning as a layered reference given the fact that real-life yellowjackets are carnivorous — and regularly feast on other insects. It's an ominous image to keep in mind while watching the teen girl horror series, and it's one that the series has kept on our minds with a striking poster featuring Ella Purnell's Jackie with a bee perched on her dirty, tear-stricken face.

But the Yellowjackets name has also been the source of a lot of fun so far, inspiring team merch and headlines with puns about swarms, hives, and buzz (guilty as charged). Some fans have even taken to responding with some variation of "buzz buzz!" to news about the show, a spontaneous rallying cry for "Yellowjackets" lovers everywhere.

The latest episode of the show's second season took its title to a new level, as viewers learn that cult leader Lottie (Simone Kessell) owns and maintains several beehives on her compound. We don't get a Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme moment here, as Lottie doesn't mention yellowjackets by name, but we do get to hear the buzz and witness some great bee metaphors in action. "In winter, they cluster around the queen and they vibrate to keep her warm," Lottie tells Natalie (Juliette Lewis), with admiration in her voice. "When a new queen hatches, the first thing she does is sting all the other unborn queens to death."

Alas, this description means that Lottie is probably keeping typical honeybees as opposed to yellowjackets, which actually tend to die off each winter with the exception of their queen. This species choice makes sense — people don't really keep yellowjackets as livestock — and also changes the way we can interpret her words. 

The survivors have so far kept things pretty democratic during the post-crash scenes we've witnessed, but as winter hits, it's clear that there's a growing division between those who believe in Lottie's (Courtney Eaton) superstition and those who don't. Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) herself seems to be the main voice of opposition, calling out Lottie for putting the hunter's symbol on the baby blanket she makes for Shauna (Sophie Nelisse). Who will cozy up to the queen bee, and who will get stung?

Decades later, Natalie and Lottie still have some unresolved tension, and it's clear from their conversation here that it relates to a power struggle we haven't seen yet. "I can see why you like them," Natalie tells Lottie in response to her mass-death fun fact. Lottie picks up on the meaning under Natalie's level tone and defends her point of view. "It isn't brutal, it's natural," Lottie says. "It's simply what has to be done, otherwise they starve. We all do."

Bees are an important part of the ecosystem, but Lottie is clearly talking about more than just her colony. The reference to killing "unborn queens" immediately calls to mind Shauna's baby, which we know is not around in 2021, but the camera cuts back to teen Natalie right after Lottie's last line. With five seasons planned and many more months in the wilderness to go, is it possible Natalie could end up pregnant, too? It's equally possible that "unborn queens" refers not to an actual fetus, but to other survivors whose leaderly abilities are maturing even after Lottie has already all but taken over the group. Natalie fits the bill for that interpretation, too.

Regardless of what lies beneath the surface of Lottie and Natalie's conversation, the bees clearly matter as much more than a reference to the show's title. At the episode's end, Lottie hallucinates that they've died, and the calm exterior we've seen from her in adulthood gives way to a moment of uncontrollable emotion. She breaks into a sob, repeating "No, no" under her breath, as if the loss of the bees has broken her. When she sticks her hands into the combs, they come away bright red and wet; it looks like she has blood on her hands.

As with everything in a show as great as "Yellowjackets," this moment feels loaded with multiple meanings. On one level, Lottie's emotional response may come straight from whatever part of her brain is inducing the hallucination, forcing her to go into a distressed state. On another, she genuinely seems like a person whose worldview is based on her ability to care for others and, at least the way she sees it, keep them safe. Losing the bees not only hurts her on an empathy level and disrupts her worldview that may center her as queen of the colony, but also likely reignites old traumas from her wilderness days.

It's also worth noting that the hives are arranged in a strange, swirling pattern, and include symbols on their lid — though the geometric circle and lines don't look quite like the hunter's symbol. "Il veut du sang," Lottie hears one of her acolytes saying before she snaps back to reality: "He wants blood." Her beloved insects may not exactly be the "Yellowjackets" of the title, but they're still out for blood. In a show full of cannibals, shadow selves, and sinister spirits, I appreciate that "Yellowjackets" takes a break to remind us that one of its scariest elements has been in its name the whole time.