After a one-week hiatus — which threw many viewers for a loop and taught one YouTube recapper a lesson in double-checking embargo dates for screeners — "Yellowjackets" is back with Episode 6, "Qui."
Since the start of the season, the cast and showrunners have been dropping hints (warnings?) about this particular episode being one to brace for, which is advice that shouldn't be taken lightly when it pertains to a show that casually revolves around teen cannibals.
What could be more upsetting than eating human flesh? Well, dead babies. Dead babies is the answer to that question. And even though the show made good on the assurance that, no, Shauna's (Sophie Nélisse) "wilderness baby" doesn't get eaten by her on-the-brink-of-feral soccer teammates, what actually ends up happening is even more upsetting to watch.
We've known that Shauna was pregnant — and that the father of the baby is her best friend Jackie's (Ella Purnell) boyfriend, Jeff (Jack DePew/Warren Kole) since Season 1, but the fate of that baby has rested on the musings of our own imaginations.
Based on what we know of adult Shauna's (Melanie Lynskey) life, she only has one living child, Callie (Sarah Desjardins) who — being that she's in high school — is much younger than "wilderness baby" would be had it been brought back from the cabin they were stranded in over 25 years ago. And, contrary to the incestuous stretch of a theory tossed around on Reddit and elsewhere, Adam (Peter Gadiot) does not end up being the grown-up version of the baby either. One because, ew. And two, because Shauna's baby does not, as we now know, live through childbirth.
On first watch of "Qui," which translates from French to English as "who," I came away thinking that the episode wasn't as wild and crazy as it was posited to be. I was almost (and I can't even believe I'm about to type this) disappointed. After all the high-stakes build-up of Shauna being pregnant in the woods with little to sustain herself on, let alone a growing fetus, it was a given that the baby would likely not make it. So to have this episode end with something as simple-seeming as a still-birth felt like a missed opportunity. But then I watched the episode again.
Sure, we got the shock value of the showrunners doing the thing without actually doing the thing — showing the baby being eaten by the others in the cabin via a dream sequence — and my own sick mind considered, earlier than that, if Akilah's (Nia Sondaya) hidden pet mouse, Nugget, would nibble the baby to death in its sleep or, even worse, crawl into Shauna and do it from there. But this episode didn't need all that ick be effective. On second watch, it was the
We've entered into grim misery and hopelessness, which is indisputably worse. And "worse" was the promise we've been given.
gut-wrenching sadness of the situation that provided the K.O punch.
In the episodes leading up to this one we've passed the point of sad and disgusting with the death of Jackie and her two-month-old corpse BBQ. Now, we've entered into grim misery and hopelessness, which is indisputably worse. And "worse" was the promise we've been given.
As Shauna screams through the agonies of labor with nary a sedative, her teammates gather around to provide whatever assistance they can. Lottie (Courtney Eaton), Travis (Kevin Alves) and the rest of the "cult" clan are over there by the fireplace bleeding on things and chanting to "the wilderness." Misty (Samantha Hanratty) is sweating her curls flat and struggling to remember what Coach Ben (Steven Krueger) taught in sex-ed class. Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) and Tai (Jasmin Savoy Brown) are delivering words of encouragement. And Javi (Luciano Leroux) is hiding around the corner, cursing the day he was ever brought back to that God-forsaken cabin.
Shauna pushes. They look. She pushes some more. They look again. And then, a mass of goo is pulled out from between her legs by Akilah — who takes over doula duties when Misty crumbles from the pressure and abandons her position as resident "nurse." I paused on this goo for a long time and swear I can see a very tiny foot in all that mess. But what do I know about placentas?
From that point on, Shauna's passed out and everything we see, up to the final scene from the '90s timeline, happens only in her mind.
In her subconscious, her worries are the same as any new mother's. The baby won't latch on to breastfeed, but then it does. She falls asleep and then something terrible happens. She doesn't think she can love the baby, but then she does, despite herself.
Mirroring this in a cut to her adult life, Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) tries a performance of all of these remembered emotions in an effort to clear herself in the case of Adam's murder, but she's not as good of an actress as her child is. Her child who lived, and who has spent the totality of her 17 years learning from her mom, by example.
Speaking to Detective Matt Saracusa (John Paul Reynolds), who the internet also theorized as being grown-up "wilderness baby," Shauna cries without tears and lays it on thick about cheating on her husband because she's a bored housewife who had a kid she didn't want. The detective doesn't fall for her theatrics. In a nearby room, Callie lies to Kevyn Tan (Alex Wyndham) about having sex with Saracusa, which would make any intel he gleaned from her inadmissible, and this story seems all too believable. Especially once she mentions his "weird ass balls."
Back in the family minivan, where Jeff has been waiting and passing the time by listening to N.W.A.'s "F**k the Police," Shauna is told that Tai (Tawny Cypress) and Van (Lauren Ambrose) are joining Natalie (Juliette Lewis) and Misty (Christina Ricci) at Lottie's (Simone Kessell) "intentional community," and that she'd be better off going there too. Way to lead the cops to the honey pot, Jeff. Good thinking, buddy.
Reunited, like the Avengers but for the mentally ill — (I stole that from Twitter) — the camera pulls back to show that creepy wilderness symbol we've been shown since Episode 1 of Season 1. They did bring "It" back with them. Whatever "It" is. And now they're smack dab in the middle of it, once again. I have a theory that in the '90s timeline (maybe next episode) we'll see Lottie sacrifice Shauna's dead baby to "the wilderness," and in the present-ish day timeline, the reunited ladies will make a new sacrifice at Lottie's intentional community. Callie, let's hope you got back in the minivan quick.
QUICK BITES:
- Now that we know what became of "wilderness baby," there are more mysteries that need solving. Why was there no mention of an adult Javi when the ladies learned of Travis' death? And why have we not seen hide nor hair of a post-wilderness Ben, Mari (Alexa Barajas), Akilah, Gen (Mya Lowe) or Melissa (Jenna Burgess)?
- I'm so relieved that Natalie put The 14th Gilly back in its fish bowl. Don't mess with my friend Lisa like that.
- Misty dumping out brass knuckles, handcuffs, a tiny jar of jam, binoculars and a syringe from her purse and pockets before officially joining Lottie's "community" was comedy gold. I know she's a serial killer, but I can't help but love her unconditionally.
- Was Jackie's favorite flower really poppies? I feel like that's so random.
- Why was Lottie so freaked out to see Misty at the intentional community? And why was Van so freaked out to see Lottie?
- "I'm not worried that I'm ill. I'm worried that I've never been ill." - Lottie
- After Shauna passes out following the delivery of her baby, a voice says her name and it sure sounds like ghost Jackie.
- We're all like this, aren't we?" - Natalie
