Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, the married writing duo behind Showtime's "Yellowjackets," started with a simple idea: What if a girl's sports team was in a plane crash and had to survive? What materialized is a compelling and unnerving coming-of-age tale —a chilling remix of "My-So-Called Life," "Now & Then," and "Lord of the Flies" — that has swept up text threads and social media feeds week to week.
Shifting between 1996 and the present, the series follows members of New Jersey's state champion Yellowjackets, one of the nation's top-ranked girls' high school soccer teams. Bound for a championship game in Seattle, their plane crashes in the remote Canadian wilderness, where they're stranded for 19 months. The result has been a 10-episode season unafraid to shift genre and tone: there are indications of cannibalism and supernatural elements alongside deep explorations of female friendships, rage and trauma — not to mention an awesomely '90s soundtrack.
With Sunday's season finale, "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi," the series answers some questions — like what happened to Jackie — offered clues to others — like which additional survivor we'll likely meet as an adult — and poses a few new ones to be tackled in Season 2. (It's already been renewed.) Lyle and Nickerson spoke to the Los Angeles Times to break it all down.
