Yellowjackets Season 3 Review: The Coming-Of-Age Cannibal Mystery Series Has Us Hungering For More

When season 1 of "Yellowjackets" debuted back in 2021, few predicted what a phenomenon the series would become, including the show's creators, Ashley Lyle, and Bart Nickerson. For the uninitiated, "Yellowjackets" tracks characters across two timelines: the first, in 1996 after the nationals-bound Wiskayok Yellowjackets women's soccer team's plane crash lands them in the Canadian wilderness and thrusts them into barbaric survival including cannibalism, and in our current day 25 years later where the now-adult survivors are still plagued by whatever it was that happened to them (or what they did) all those years ago.

While the characters all have their own individual plotlines across both timelines, the show is at its best when it's operating as an ensemble cast. Fortunately, after the heartbreaking end to season 2, our girls are leaning on each other more than ever, but the scars of psychological trauma and enduring legitimate survival horror aren't fading anytime soon. If anything, they're reopening these wounds and playing around in them.

Press and critics were only granted access to the first four episodes of season 3, which means there are still plenty of questions posed from the trailer that need to be answered, but "Yellowjackets" is proving to be as hypnotic as ever. Dangerously deranged, disgustingly engrossing, and deliciously addictive, get ready to spend your spring season once again glued to the TV under the spell of the wilderness, determined to figure out what's real, what's a traumatic hallucination, and what's going to happen next.

After the shocking death of adult Natalie Scatorccio (Juliette Lewis) at the end of season 2, fans (myself included) were worried that the show would suffer moving forward without one of the series' most important characters. While the lack of adult Nat gives us more time with adult Van (Lauren Ambrose) and shifts the friendship dynamic to feature some pretty fantastic scenes with adult Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) and Misty (Christina Ricci), the blunt, no-nonsense attitude and emotional vulnerability of Nat are sorely missed. Fortunately, unlike "And Just Like That" which chose to mostly ignore the lack of Kim Cattrall/Samantha Jones, Natalie's absence influences everything in the adult timeline. There is undoubtedly a Juliette Lewis-shaped void, but Natalie's passing serves as an earthquake to the surviving Yellowjackets, and the aftershocks don't seem to be diminishing anytime soon. Shauna can't seem to keep herself out of trouble and her daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins) has been dramatically impacted by what she witnessed in season 2, and adult Lottie (Simone Kessell) certainly has a lot to answer for after what went down on her compound. So while adult Nat may be gone, her time in the wilderness still hovers above them all.

Lewis' absence also allows Sophie Thatcher to really lean into her role as one of horror's new queens as teen Nat because she no longer has a comparison within the same episode. She had previously spoken with Vanity Fair about the pressure she felt to match Lewis' voice and mannerisms, but now there's a bit more flexibility with that expectation because fans are comparing her to what we remember of Adult Nat, rather than what we might see a scene later. As heartbreaking as it is to lose Lewis, it's only going to benefit Thatcher in the long run. Even in the first few episodes, Thatcher is really coming into her own and delivering what feels like might be her best performance yet. Will she be the first of the teens to nab an Emmy Award nomination? Antler Queen, long may she reign.

As the malevolent gods of Paramount+ with Showtime only granted critics access to the first four episodes of "Yellowjackets" season 3, there are still plenty of mysteries new and old that have yet to be solved. The fact that I have to wait over a month for the rest of the world to catch up to me and help speculate is delectable agony, which is exactly what makes "Yellowjackets" one of the best shows on television. In a landscape where the binge model constantly threatens to become the norm, "Yellowjackets" is the remedy. It's a show, yes, but it's also an experience — one that sends audiences down Reddit rabbit holes and tracking each episode frame by frame just to see if there's a clue they somehow missed.

I feel like I've been saying this for years (because I have), but the world is a terrifying, oppressive, hateful place right now, and the fact that a show about cannibalistic teenage girls fighting for their survival in the wilderness who bond so deeply that they grow up to help one of their own dismember and hide the body of her affair partner when they mistakenly think he's blackmailing them has become the consistent comfort watch of millions is ... truly insane when you say it out loud. But that's precisely what "Yellowjackets" is — the cathartic escape into a world somehow more maddening than our own, acted out by some of the most talented performers in the business and fueled with explosions of rage we can only fantasize about being able to (justifiably) release in our own lives. "Yellowjackets" season 3 is proof positive that this show still has plenty to say about feminine rage and the haunting powers of grief and guilt. Welcome back, team Yellowjackets. We've missed you.

/Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

"Yellowjackets" premieres on February 14, 2025, on Paramount+ with Showtime with new episodes on Sundays.