Yellowjackets Season 3 Just Answered That Fiery Cliffhanger From Season 2

Spoilers for "Yellowjackets" to follow.

The "Yellowjackets" Season 2 finale "Storytelling" got some mixed responses, and it left the series in some awkward places for the now-underway third season. In the show's present-day timeline, the death of Natalie (Juliette Lewis) was panned as premature and ill-conceived. Meanwhile, as usual, the '90s storyline concluded with a much better hook: the survivors' cabin caught fire in the middle of the night, leaving them with no shelter.

The obvious arson suspect was Coach Ben Scott (Steven Krueger). He'd spent all of Season 2 in a spiral, refusing to partake in the cannibalism as he tried and failed to bury himself in a dream world. His abdication of responsibility for the kids only made the girls more independent (and terrifying). After finding an underground cave to hide in, Ben decided he wasn't going to wait around to become the next meal. When he returned to the cabin to steal some matches, he saw the girls crowning Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) — the one girl he considered better/more moral than others — as the (antler) queen of their cult.

The obvious conclusion for the viewer, and the Yellowjackets too it seems, is that Ben was so disgusted by their devolution that he set fire to their cabin to kill them all. It was a logical leap but just open-ended enough for doubt. It's possible the "Yellowjackets" writers themselves hadn't committed one way or another, wanting to leave the possibilities open for Season 3.

Based on the "Yellowjackets" Season 3 two-episode premiere ("It Girl" and "Dislocation"), it appears the writers have chosen to make Ben innocent. When he runs into Mari (Alexa Barajas), who has fallen into a pit and sprained her leg, he appears genuinely shocked when she tells him the cabin burned down. He could be lying, of course, but then he takes Mari hostage instead of just killing her. If he had already decided to murder the girls, why would he hesitate to kill Mari now?

Barring a plot u-turn, "Yellowjackets" is zagging when the zig was so obvious. But is it choosing the right path?

I'm a bit disappointed with the show's choice to let Ben off the hook. He's been one of the most sympathetic characters to this point, yes, but the whole theme of "Yellowjackets" is how extreme conditions will cost you your civilized humanity. Him finally turning on the kids seemed like the logical endpoint of his story up to that point. Before "Yellowjackets" Season 2 finished airing, Krueger teased (to TV Insider) that Ben's arc was all about isolation and desperation:

"[Ben] feels like there are some points of commonality with Natalie [...] but at the end of the day, Ben is still on an island and I think he spends a lot of this season starting to come to the realization that he cannot trust any of these girls."

Turning Ben from the show's heart into a compromised villain would be completely understandable, and the way "Storytelling" seemingly chose to do it was dark. Him torching the Cabin was half self-defense, half a deluded mercy-killing that the girls had become too dehumanized to keep on living.

If Ben is not actively trying to hurt the girls, just to stay away from them, then that robs this season of a chance to shift away from familiar character conflicts into a cat-and-mouse game. (The original "Yellowjackets" synopsis teased that the survivors would become "warring clans" out in the wilderness, a point which we still haven't reached.)

Moreover, by skipping the last weeks of winter, "Yellowjackets" Season 3 begins with the girls readjusted to a place of relative comfort. Van (Liv Hewson) recalls the girls kept the cabin fire going for 12 days, using it for warmth, but we don't see that. The leap I made after "Storytelling" was that the loss of the cabin and struggle to survive in winter would push the Yellowjackets even further into savagery. Instead, it seems like they've returned to a more humane place. They've built a civilization with its own customs and rituals, but it still feels like the show is holding back the brutality. 

Granted, there's eight episodes of this season to go, so maybe I'll be singing a different tune by its end.

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