Thank the Antler Queen, Yellowjackets is back. The delightfully twisty, spooky show last graced our screens in early 2023, making it almost two years since we’ve seen our favorite plane crash survivors/cannibals — and since we delved into all the entangled mysteries that have made the series such a hit with audiences.
Inspired by the themes of hunger, eating, and consumption present throughout the show, our sister publication Eater recently teamed up with Paramount+ to host a five-course dinner ahead of the show’s season three premiere on February 14. The event was hosted by pop culture savant Evan Ross Katz, with recipes created by chef Pierce Abernathy. Each course was inspired by the wilderness of the show, featuring ingredients like mushrooms, root vegetables, and pine needles, as well as meat like short rib and rabbit. (Yes — unlike in Yellowjackets, we can assure you that no humans were served.)
Most of the Yellowjackets cast attended the event, including the adult Yellowjackets Melanie Lynskey, who plays Shauna (Katz referred to the Emmy nominee as “iconic” during his opening toast), Tawny Cypress (Tai), and Simone Kessell (Lottie). The teenage survivors were also well represented: Sophie Thatcher (Natalie), Samantha Hanratty (Misty), Sophie Nélisse (Shauna), Kevin Alves (Travis), Alexa Barajas (Mari), Jasmin Savoy Brown (Tai), and Liv Hewson (Van) were all sighted, as well as Sarah Desjardins, who plays Shauna’s daughter Callie.
While enjoying hor d’oeuvres and custom cocktails at the beginning of the night, the cast and other guests could get tarot readings in front of a replica of the Yellowjackets’ cabin in the woods, or pose in distressed varsity soccer jackets for a photo op. After a toast from Katz (he said he named his signature cocktail “the Mother” because all the actresses on the show are “mother”), the five-course dinner was served. Dinner included dishes like Lottie’s “Bear” Stew (thankfully swapping out the bear for short rib, wild boar, and lima beans), Shauna’s Rabbit Pie, beet “tartare,” and pine needle-flavored ice cream, served on a bed of actual pine needles. Guests were also sent off with chocolate bites shaped like a human ear, in homage to our favorite fallen Yellowjacket.
The February 12 dinner was the ideal starter course to season three, which premiered two days later. Season two saw the ‘90s Yellowjackets surviving a brutal winter that involved their first forays into cannibalism and increasing tensions among the team. When season three picks up, that tension is even more palpable — and it bleeds through to the present-day timeline, where the remaining adult survivors are threatened by an audio tape sent to Shauna that could reveal their long-buried secrets. Yellowjackets is a mystery-box show meant to provoke questions and theories, so below are the top three mysteries we’re hoping to have answered as season three continues.
Who is the Antler Queen? The Antler Queen was one of the first mysteries the series ever presented to us — in the first few minutes of the pilot episode, which depicted a human corpse brought as a sacrifice to a mysterious leader clad in antler horns. We’ve seen a few characters take the place of a possible AQ as the series has gone on (it appears to currently be Natalie), but we still don’t have official confirmation on who the figure in the pilot scene is. Could this be the season we find out? Our eyes are on Natalie, Lottie, or Shauna.
How will the new characters get involved? One of the most exciting pieces of off-season news was that Yellowjackets was adding two well-known names to the cast: Hilary Swank and Joel McHale. Since both are adults, it’s likely that they’ll show up in the present-day timeline — but how? Is Swank playing an additional adult survivor that we don’t yet know about? Is McHale somehow connected to Misty and the still-mysterious Walter? Regardless, we’re excited to see these veteran actors on our TVs.
Are the Yellowjackets really alone in the wilderness? Some of the most popular fan theories out there hinge on the fact that the Yellowjackets are not actually alone in the woods. Could this season show us that there are other people or groups living nearby? Who left the survival kit that Coach Ben finds in the woods in the first episode of season three? These questions also overlap with another enduring mystery: how the team eventually gets rescued. Could those people somehow help them get back to civilization, or would they just be yet another challenge for the Yellowjackets to face?
New episodes of Yellowjackets season three are now streaming on the Paramount+ with SHOWTIME plan.
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