Everybody likes to talk about how crazy Shauna was this season of Yellowjackets. But Lottie Matthews’ mental break was truly at its peak in season three. After her disappointing death in episode four, Lottie seems to be haunting the narrative.
Much of what we know of Lottie is shown through flashbacks pre crash and glimpses of her childhood. As a little girl, she’s had psychic visions that foresee the future, like when she predicted a truck crashing into her parents’ car. In this flashback, Lottie lets out a frightened scream, causing her father to hit the breaks, saving them from death.
While her mother sees Lottie’s visions as a possible gift, her father sees it as a sign of mental illness. And so, as she grows into her teen years, she is forced to take pills and suppress her episodes. But when the Yellowjackets land in the wilderness, Lottie’s gifts begin to awaken.
What we know about Lottie
In season one, Laura Lee seems to be the only character drawn to Lottie’s abilities, calling it a blessing. She views Lottie as a spiritual healer rather than as a threat, like Mr. Matthews. Because of this, Lottie’s sense of purpose grows stronger, and compared to her quiet demeanor back home, she gains some sense of control over the group. Like in the last episode of the season, when a bear walks out of the woods and collapses before Lottie, letting her knife it to death. A gift from the wilderness. The others begin to feel that Lottie is onto something.
While the religious imagery might not be intentional, they seem to be consistent with Lottie. She is a Christ figure, at least by Laura. When Laura dunks Lottie into the ocean, ‘baptizing’ her, Lottie sees herself in a staircase with candles around her set up like an altar. We see adult Lottie in season three die here, meaning she predicted her death thirty years ago.
When Laura Lee dies in the plane explosion, Lottie is affected the most by her death not just because the Yellowjackets ruined their chance in getting back home, but because Laura was the only one who saw something in Lottie. In season two, Lottie continues to take on a self-sacrificial role, going so far as letting a raging Shauna beat her nearly to death after Shauna loses her baby. Lottie simply steps forward, at the other girl’s mercy, not fighting back. No one steps in either.
This goes back to my point about Lottie being a Christ figure. She is self-sacrificial. But it’s also important to note that at this point, Shauna truly believes the others had eaten her baby. She especially hates lottie in the moment as she remembers having a hallucination in which Lottie is breast feeding her baby. As Misty tends to Lottie’s weak body, Lottie asks her to promise her they won’t “waste” her body if she dies.
Meaning she was willing to be cannibalized if it meant keeping the Yellowjackets alive. Just as she let Shauna mercilessly beat her to a pulp, rather than let Shauna attack the other girls. As Lottie heals, her eerie visions persist, envisioning a Queen of Hearts card, foreshadowing the “hunt” we see in season three for “Pit Girl.” This vision, along with others, backs up theories that suggest there is something supernatural going on given that all her premonitions come to fruition in season three. But “it” might just be Lottie, not the wilderness. Or maybe it’s both…
Seeking the wilderness
Lottie seems to have found her purpose decades later after forming a cult (years after electro-shock therapy her father paid for.) But Lottie claims she hasn’t had a single vision in a long time. They only begin to flood back when the Yellowjackets come together again, which Lottie takes as a sign. Before Travis died, he told Lottie that the wilderness had “come back to haunt him.” Whether or not this was a side effect of Travis’ mental decline, we do not know. But in season three, we see these two characters interact more as Lottie searches for a new conduit. Somebody she can use to reconnect with the Wilderness.
A season ago, Lottie felt that the Wilderness no longer needed her. Now, she has taken an interest in Travis, the person she tried so hard to save in the future. She feeds him mushrooms and asks if he “feels anything,” but this only makes Travis freak out. He lashes out in retaliation, nearly choking Lottie to death. But then there’s Akilah, who claims to be having strange visions. Because of Akilah’s newfound abilities, Lottie feels that the Wilderness wants to connect with her. But the others aren’t as convinced by Lottie’s powers as they used to be.
It’s clear that Lottie misses feeling like the chosen one. As winter comes, the Yellowjackets eat around a fire, hearing a screeching noise coming from all around them (which we later find out it came from a trio of hikers testing out frog sounds with their equipment). As Lottie howls, the others follow without question, almost like a hive mind. It’s almost as if Lottie has taken back control. But their little bonfire dance is interrupted when the hikers arrive. To everyone’s surprise, Lottie doesn’t hesitate to axe one of them before eating his brains. She tells the others that the Wilderness doesn’t want them to leave, that they should all stay. This not only proves how disturbed Lottie has become, but how much she despises home.
Even adult Lottie longs for the Wilderness, when she proposes the other adult Yellowjackets to a “hunt” through a card draw back in season two. She searches for the wilderness in Shauna’s daughter Callie— in fact, she believes Callie is a reincarnation of the Wilderness. This revelation is what leads her to her death, as Callie pushes Lottie down the stairs in a fit of rage, the same stairs Lottie saw in her vision. But Lottie doesn’t seem afraid on the way down. On the contrary, she seems blissful. She feels chosen in this moment.
The Antler Queen
The season finale circles back to the very first episode of season one, where we see the girls trudging through snow hunting “Pit Girl” aka Mari. But before the hunt, Lottie has another one of her vivid intuitive dreams: the Antler Queen standing before her, a backdrop of blinding light behind her as she tells Lottie, “I am ready, my will is your will.” Lottie then lets out a primal scream, her hands held out in mimicry of the Antler Queen’s. So this means that Lottie is Antler Queen, right? Wrong. This season, it’s revealed that Shauna is the antler queen.
Lottie proposes a hunt because they should show the Wilderness their devotion. That they should offer themselves this time. Although the hunt is Lottie’s idea, Shauna still remains authoritative. And despite Shauna’s vindictive, unhinged behavior this season, Lottie steps back and watches with a slight curl of the lip. Lottie seems to be enjoying this because no matter how evil Shauna grows, it’s okay as long as her actions align with what the Wilderness “wants.” But does Shauna even believe in “it”? She said it herself, there was no “it” — “it” was just them. But Shauna is down to spill blood no matter what the excuse is.
When Misty has the girls draw a card one by one, Lottie looks at the ground in disappointment— a dissociative, blank-eyed stare— when she realizes she won’t be hunted. Lottie wants to be chosen by the Wilderness even if it means being brutally killed. Though it would have been a predictable choice to crown Lottie as the Antler Queen, I still would’ve loved to see it. Especially when the show gave us multiple glimpses of Lottie as Antler Queen. Like the vision she had of her younger self standing under a pair of antlers, or when adult Lottie hallucinates her therapist as the Antler Queen— who sounds very much like Lottie. We also get to see Lottie in a headress during “Doomcoming” in season one when the Yellowjackets try to kill Travis.
Lottie’s death
Lottie’s death was…disappointing to say the least. Usually, I don’t agree when fans say that the adult timeline should be its own show, but now I see why. This season felt like it was a whole bunch of running around and a whole lotta nothing to set up season four. Things only started to get interesting when the hikers arrived. I wish the writers would have explored the disturbing, eerie side of the show here.
Think about it: you’re a hiker walking through the woods at night, only to find a group of cannibals dancing around a bonfire with a severed head sitting on a table. This concept sounds straight out of some found footage/creepypasta story. Either way, I guess Lottie’s death was inevitable.
But it was an interesting decision to have both Van and Lottie die in one season. There were quite a lot of deaths this season. But what the Yellowjackets have in common— specifically in the adult timeline— is dying in unconventional, or for lack of better word stupid ways. You’re telling me Van got stabbed by Melissa? And Lottie died by getting pushed down the stairs? But what if the Wilderness has really come back to haunt them, as Travis said? Will they all end up on that purgatory plane?
Yellowjackets season 3 is streaming on Paramount+ now.
