From February 14th, 2025, to April 11th, 2025, the highly anticipated third season of the Showtime original series Yellowjackets aired. The drama series follows a fictional New Jersey girls’ soccer team and their plane crash in the Canadian wilderness on their way to the Nationals tournament.
The show goes through the 1996 high school timeline that focuses on the girls and their 19-month-long survival journey. The 2021 timeline focuses on the group of limited survivors and the long-standing impact and consequences of their time in the wilderness.
Spoilers ahead for seasons 1-3 of Yellowjackets.
Where did Season 2 leave off?
In the teenage timeline, we last saw the Yellowjackets have a winter hunt on Natalie that ended up causing the death of Javi instead. After the team brought back and made a feast out of Javi (complete with making Travis eat his brother’s heart), a disgusted Coach Ben finds a cave and Natalie is crowned the team’s wilderness queen. However, later that night, the team wakes up to smoke and the cabin on fire. It is unknown who set the fire, as they watch their only shelter burn in the dead of winter.
The adult timeline also has its own attempt at a hunt at Lottie’s compound (cult). With our core six survivors in the woods, it was Shauna who ended up pulling the ill-fated Queen of Hearts. However, before that hunt could come to fruition, it ended in an unintended death instead of Shauna. After the hunt goes awry, it ends with the death of Natalie and an uncertain feeling of what will happen next to the now five survivors.
Where does Season 3 start in the 90s
Season 3 picks up with a change of scenery in the 1996/1997 timeline. Gone is the winter setting of Season 2, with Season 3 beginning with a time jump to the summer. The Season 2 finale leaves the Yellowjackets with their cabin burning down in the middle of winter. In contrast, the season 3 premiere shows the audience that the girls have now adapted, they set up a wilderness village that includes their self-made huts and even a small animal farm.
While the living conditions of the wilderness have improved for the girls, tensions are running high between teammates the drama is mostly stemming between Mari and Shauna this season. Aside from the typical teenage girl drama, Coach Ben Scott has been missing.
What else goes down in the 90s?
Teammate drama is not the only thing to happen in the 1997 timeline. We also have a new ill-fated romance in the form of Shauna and Melissa, who was introduced in Season 2. We also have the finding of Coach Ben’s cave hideout, first found by Mari who then rats out the location. The finding of Coach Ben’s death leads to a wilderness mock trial and a death sentence (which is overturned quickly). There is also a major power struggle for the leader of the wilderness between Natalie and Shauna, with Shauna winning. The girls are almost saved by a frog scientist and wilderness guide but ultimately stay as second winter approaches. The second winter in the season 3 finale brings the revelation of ‘Pit Girl’ and ‘The Antler Queen’ identities.
Where does the adult timeline begin?
Season 3 in 2021 opens up weeks after last season’s finale, after the accidental death of survivor Natalie at her funeral. Natalie’s death is serving as a main form of guilt for her “best friend,” and accidental killer, Misty. The other remaining Yellowjackets have their own issues as well, with family woes for Shauna and Taissa and Van’s mortality. There is also the loss of Lottie’s compound (cult), which leaves her staying with Shauna, Jeff, and their daughter, Callie. Shauna believes she’s being targeted by a mystery assailant, but is it all in her head? We later find out that it is not as the assailant left a tape and a note, both taken by Callie. Between that and a new murder mystery, Shauna and her family hide out in a motel. The assailant is revealed later to be none other than secret survivor, Melissa
What else happens in the 2021 timeline?
Shauna believes she’s being targeted by a mystery assailant, but is it all in her head? We later find out that it is not as the assailant left a tape and a note, both taken by Callie. Between that and a new murder mystery, Shauna and her family hide out in a motel. The assailant is revealed later to be none other than secret survivor, Melissa. We also have the citzen detective work of Misty and Walter trying to uncover a plot this season.
Are there new characters?
While there are only three new characters, we do see more screentime for some of the supporting characters. While introduced in season 2, Melissa becomes more crucial to the plot by having a romance with Shauna. We also see an increase in characters who have been there since the beginning, with Mari and Akilah. We meet a frog scientist couple, Hannah and Edwin, and their wilderness guide, Kodiak.
Where does the season end in both timelines?
Season 3 ends in the teenage timeline with the infamous second winter hunt. Thinking she’s on top, Shauna tries to speak with Natalie, only to find out that she isn’t speaking to Natalie at all. Under the mask and raccoon-like eyeliner is frog scientist Hannah to which Shauna freaks out about. For the adult timeline, Shauna has made it back home after causing Melissa to go rogue, Only to see that Jeff and Callie have disappeared. After numerous frantic attempts to contact, we find out through text that Jeff and Callie are safe but want space. As shauna angrily writes in her diary, she vows to try and reclaim her queenhood. As Shauna writes, Misty and Taissa plot to take down the antler queen once and for all.
The final shot of the season is Natalie on a mountain with the satellite phone calling for help, and a male voice answering, the hunt all a distraction for Natalie to get away
Who dies in Season 3?
While the show is no stranger to killing off characters, this season does not hold back at all with the deaths. This includes three main characters, one recurring character, and two guest characters. Here’s who all left the hive this season.
The first main character to die this season in the adult timeline was Lottie Matthews in episode 4. She dies off-screen by being pushed down a flight of stairs. The death is later shown in the season finale, with the assailant being Shauna’s teenage daughter, Callie.The first death of the teen timeline was Coach Ben Scott. Ben is killed in episode 6 by Natalie in a mercy kill by stabbing him in the heart. This came after Ben was almost shot, and had his Achilles tendon on his leg cut by Shauna and Melissa. Coach Ben’s death leads to the death of frog scientist Edwin, who had run across the girls after their feast. Lottie kills him with an axe in the beginning of Episode 7.
Episode 8 gave us a death in both the teen and adult timelines. The teen timeline showed Hannah betraying Kodiak by stabbing him through the eye in a botched escape plan.The adult timeline loses Vanessa ‘Van’ Palmer, who is stabbed in the chest by Melissa.The final major death of the season was Mari, who is impaled in a pit trap during the second winter hunt that kicks off the series.
While many have fallen, death is not always the end for the Yellowjackets, as seen in hallucinations such as Jackie and Laura Lee, who died in the Season 1 finale and halfway through season 1 respectively. Jackie comes back not once, not twice, but three times this season to haunt both teen and adult Shauna. Talk about a guilty conscious. As for Laura Lee? Unfourtnately, we not graced by Laura Lee on our screens this season although she did appear in hallucinations in Season 2. As for our newly fallen characters, whether they will come back or if they have reached the point of (as the theme song says) no return is unknown for now.
Season 4 Confirmed
After a month of nothing but radio silence, the long awaited update came. On Tuesday, May 20, 2025, the official Instagram account for Yellowjackets gives the fans the news they have been highly anticipating.In the Instagram post, the confirmation of a return and fourth season was made official. The caption reads “The Wilderness rewards you 4 devotion. #Yellowjackets will return.” There is no current set production date or release year for season 4 at the writing of this article. While season 4 awaits, for now fans may leave the hive but unlike the theme song, return is welcome.
All episodes of seasons 1-3 of Yellowjackets are now available for streaming on Paramount+ with the Showtime plan.
