When William Golding published his groundbreaking 1954 novel Lord of the Flies, it was described, in a contemporary review, as “not only a first-rate adventure but a parable of our times”. It’s testament, then, to how little our collective psychology has evolved in nearly 70 years, that Yellowjackets, Paramount Plus’s unmasking of the dark recesses of the human mind, could be talked of in almost the same terms. Adventure meets social satire, presented in neatly digestible chunks.
This second season continues with the same time split as its predecessor. In the late 1990s, a group of high-school football stars fight for survival in the harsh Canadian wilderness, while, in the present day, the survivors of that traumatic plane crash reckon with what it took to survive. By now we know the protagonists: Shauna (Sophie Nélisse, young, Melanie Lynskey, older), Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown/Tawny Cypress), Natalie (Sophie Thatcher/Juliette Lewis), and Misty (Sammi Hanratty/Christina Ricci). But others are starting to emerge from the wreckage of their shared history, not least Lottie (Courtney Eaton/Simone Kessell) whose mysterious visions seem to be pushing the girls down a violent and all-consuming path.
