Yellowjackets Season 3 May Have Confirmed Who Pit Girl Is

Spoilers for "Yellowjackets" to follow.

The "Yellowjackets" pilot has an unforgettable opening sequence. A girl, dressed only in a short trim nightgown, runs barefoot through an icy forest. As she flees, the ground gives way and she falls into a pit, instantly killed by wooden spikes protruding from the ground. Skewers don't set themselves up, though, so the sinister atmosphere ratchets up when a masked figure peers over the pit afterwards.

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Yes, we've known from the very beginning that the Yellowjackets — stranded in the wilderness for 19 months — will resort not only to cannibalism but also hunting and butchery. "Pit Girl," as fans call her for now, may be the first example of someone (or something) being hunted that we see, yet she's clearly isn't the first prey the other girls have ever gone after.

Since the start of the show, fans have naturally wondered when "Yellowjackets" will loop back around to this and reveal Pit Girl's true identity. Some were quick to guess she's Jackie (Ella Purnell) since we knew early on she had died in the wilderness and had the same golden heart necklace Pit Girl did. But that was before Jackie bought it in the Season 1 finale by merely freezing to death.

Season 2 of "Yellowjackets" revealed how the group picked the hunt's sacrifices, leaving it in the hands of fate with a card-drawing game. (The pertinent scene in "It Chooses" feels right out of John Carpenter's "The Thing" and its famous blood test scene.)

Now we've come to "Yellowjackets" Season 3. In the '90s storyline, spring has come and the snow has melted away. This confirms that Pit Girl will die during the Yellowjackets' second and final winter in the wilderness. ("Yellowjackets" has proven to be a show that keeps its mysteries going as long as possible, aided by its production design team.)

Mind you, Pit Girl is a girl, so we knew from the beginning it couldn't be Travis (Kevin Alves) or Coach Ben Scott (Steven Krueger). We also know for a fact that Shauna (Sophie Nelisse), Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown), Natalie (Sophie Thatcher), Misty (Samantha Hanratty), Lottie (Courtney Eaton), and Van (Liv Hewson) survive and are rescued, so it's not them either. The girl is fair-skinned and dark-haired, so it's not Akilah (Nia Sondaya) or the blonde Melissa (Jenna Burgess). Of the existing suspects, that basically narrows it down to Gen (Vanessa Prasad) or Mari (Alexa Barajas) — and Season 3's two-episode premiere, "It Girl" and "Dislocation," strongly suggests it's Mari.

The "Yellowjackets" Season 3 premiere is deliberately trying to make you think of Pit Girl. There's the title of the season's first episode, "It Girl," which opens on the other girls (led by Shauna) chasing Mari through the woods. It quickly turns out, though, that they're just playing Capture The Flag to blow off steam and decide who gets the grand prize (a day with no chores) — Mari, acting as a decoy for her team, helps win the day.

Shauna, meanwhile, is in a bad mood this season so far. To be sure, she has had one of the roughest times out in the wilderness. Jackie, her best friend, died and then in Season 2, Episode 6, "Qui," she gave birth to a stillborn child. Back in Season 2 finale "Storytelling," Shauna also did the dirty work of butchering the girls' meal, only for the group to elect Natalie as their leader instead.

While the rest of the Yellowjackets sit in a circle, telling the story of the wilderness like a folktale, Shauna seethes alone. Mari is selfish and not very observant, so between her attitude and humiliating Shauna during the game, she's the one making Miss Shipman's blood boil. They even come to blows at the dinner feast and, despite Natalie's intervention, Mari runs off.

With Shauna and Mari feuding now, the central conflict this season appears to be between Natalie and Shauna. The two Sophies are the strongest performers in the teenage cast (if "Yellowjackets" hasn't convinced you, check out Ms. Thatcher's run of horror movie home runs), so letting them make a feast of their scenes together is a good idea. If/when Shauna makes an increasingly likely power grab, that would be bad news for Mari. When winter comes again and the girls have to fall back on eating long pig once more, Shauna could engineer Mari's demise; she's certainly proven devious enough to, say, rig the card game.

Shauna may not even get the chance to do Mari in, though. The end of "It Girl" draws the clearest parallel between Mari and Pit Girl yet by having Mari fall into the very same pit the latter will one day die in. (There's no skewers set up yet, however, so Mari only suffers a dislocated knee.) It turns out the pit was originally a storage bunker, as discovered by the now exiled Coach Ben Scott (Steven Krueger), filled with rations and medical supplies. (In the immortal words of Hermes Conrad, "That just raises further questions!") Ben left a tarp over the pit as an animal trap, and Mari fell in.

In the following episode "Dislocation," Ben helps Mari out of the pit but from there, he takes her hostage; if he lets her go back to the group, they'll find and kill him. When the episode ends, Mari is still tied up in the Coach's underground hiding place, and it's looking around 50/50 that she'll make it out alive. Ben doesn't want to kill her, but it could become a matter of self-preservation; he's finally facing the dilemma his hungry, hungry Yellowjackets did before they turned to cannibalism.

Mari may be even shorter for this world than Pit Girl, admittedly. Recall how "It Girl" opens with the other girls using her as a decoy, a red herring if you will, because they know their opponents are paying attention to her. Is the "Yellowjackets" narrative using Mari as a decoy too?

"Yellowjackets" airs on Showtime and is streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime.