“12 Angry Girls and 1 Drunk Travis” is available to stream now via Paramount+; it will make its Showtime network premiere on Sunday,
If the trial of Coach Ben Scott has taught us anything, it’s that karma doesn’t really matter in the Yellowjackets’ cinematic universe. When the girls decide to put him on trial for burning down the cabin — a crime he very clearly did not commit — it’s worth remembering that this group would not have survived without him in the first place. He is the one who taught them how to shoot a gun. He is the one who taught them how to set traps for animals. He is the one who taught Shauna how to field dress and butcher animals. If not for Ben, these girls (and one drunk Travis) would have all been long-dead.
The idea of karmic retribution has informed the overarching storyline of the series for the entirety of its run. But, as we’re learning, the wilderness needs sacrifices, and it doesn’t really care how it gets them. From what we know so far, “It” is a capricious god, taking what it wants, no matter what the cost. In that way, “It” is kind of like a vengeful teenage girl. Teens are notorious for being unable to reconcile internal feelings of guilt and shame and, not knowing what to do with the discomfort, lashing out at an external source. For the wilderness — and individuals unable or unwilling to deal with their own shit — no external sacrifice, good or bad, can ever be enough.
This is bad news for Jeff, who is attempting to assuage his karma by finding a missing cat, donating some old DVDs, and volunteering for an afternoon at a nursing home. I’d make fun of him for such a paltry attempt at balancing out his role as an accessory to both Adam and Kevin’s murders, but he’s just so earnest and sweet and, if the fickle wilderness turns out to be an actual sentient force, none of what he’s doing matters anyhow.
Shauna and Jeff end up volunteering at the nursing home where Misty works. Misty is still big mad at Shauna for blaming her for cutting her brakes when she didn’t do it, and she asks for an apology. Shauna doesn’t apologize, but she does follow through with Misty’s assignment of prepping food in the kitchen. Misty thinks that this will be punishment for Shauna, but Shauna has always thrived when given a chance to be alone with her thoughts and work with her hands, so Misty gets the “L” on this one. Frustrated, Misty imagines herself stabbing Shauna in the back, and the twist honestly kind of thrilled me as a viewer for a moment until I realized it was a daydream. Oh, well. There’s always next week.
Later, Shauna gets trapped in the freezer and contemplates her lot in life. It’s shades of Carmy Berzatto up in there until Jackie’s ghost makes an appearance. As per usual, Jackie’s ghost is just Shauna’s conscience, and she tells her old frenemy that she wouldn’t be interesting if it weren’t for her, and that Shauna deserves to freeze to death as karmic retribution for what happened to her. Randy eventually finds Shauna in the freezer, and Shauna goes looking for Misty, convinced that she’s the one who locked her in.
Misty and Shauna also face off in the wilderness as they represent the extreme positions in Ben’s trial. Natalie assigns Misty to defend Ben, and she throws herself into the project with an open heart. Shauna is angry and furious and will never be convinced of Ben’s innocence. At one point, when Shauna is on the stand and Misty is questioning her, she asks her if she set fire to the cabin. Shauna thinks this is ridiculous, because the cabin was her home too, and this is a fun little mirror of adult Misty’s claim that she would have never cut the brakes on the van because she could have died as well. During her thoughtful questioning of Mari, Shauna, and Lottie, Misty does make a strong case for reasonable doubt over Ben’s innocence. In contrast, Tai — who eventually becomes a powerful lawyer as an adult — often relies on buttering up her witnesses and using courtroom theatrics to get her point across. If this isn’t a commentary on logic versus emotion, then I don’t know what is.
When Lottie takes the stand, Misty uses her as a history expert — her credential is that she got an ‘A’ in history class — and discusses the grand tradition of people who disagreed with certain belief systems burning houses to the ground. This wording is a bit off, as often it was churches that were burned to devastate the spirit of a community in times of conflict and war, but the sentiment is there. I guess since the cabin was the only structure the Yellowjackets had at the time, it could also be considered to be their place of worship?
But I digress. Lottie eventually admits that any one of them could have burned down the cabin and that there’s not enough evidence to convict Coach Scott based on what they know. Her realization seems to sway a portion of the peanut gallery. Tai and Shauna are shook, but then Tai calls Natalie to the stand, making her admit that she knew where Ben was the entire time but actively deterred the group from looking for him. Yet again, Tai uses smoke and mirrors to detract from the real issue: Natalie’s decision to let Ben stay hidden in no way proves that he burned down the cabin — quite the opposite, actually — but the information gets the jury riled up, and things start to look bad for Ben.
Speaking of Tai, let’s take a minute to check in with adult Van and Tai. They do this crazy thing this week where they let the wilderness choose a victim to sacrifice by placing a queen of hearts on the sidewalk in the middle of New York City and then waiting to see who picks it up. The plan appears to be to follow the unlucky person (in this case, a grown man who appears to have a young child) and then … murder him in cold blood in his apartment? Once they get to the guy’s door, Van hesitates, saying that she can’t live this way. Tai accepts this all too quickly and then says she’ll meet Van at Columbus Circle in an hour. That’s a whole unaccounted-for hour where Tai (and her dark passenger) could have potentially gone back to that apartment. What did she do before meeting Van in Central Park for their soft pretzel and carriage ride? It’s a mystery.
Van and Tai cut menacing figures in the wilderness storyline as well. They are the only couple in the group, and they both have influence, especially when they stick together. Both of them clearly think that Ben is guilty, and Van is particularly eager to pin the blame on him. Or, if we play devil’s advocate, perhaps Van wants to point a finger at Ben because she knows that Bad Tai started the fire and she wants to deflect? This theory would certainly mirror the idea of Tai wanting to kill an innocent man to save Van in the present-day timeline, right? Discuss!
For her final witness, Misty calls Ben to the stand. Steven Krueger’s performance is marvelous as Ben testifies and seamlessly journeys through a slate of strong emotions. Note to Hollywood: When the Yellowjackets inevitably kill and eat (?!) Ben, please hire Krueger for more things. In his role as a male in a nascent, female-dominated society, Krueger has created an immensely compelling and endearing character in Ben Scott, particularly during this trial. Last week, I wondered how Ben became one of the most sympathetic characters in the series, and Krueger’s commitment to Ben’s complex and layered emotions is how.
When Misty starts to question Ben, he becomes a fountain of honesty and self-reflection. At first, he says that he didn’t particularly like teaching kids and that his substitute teaching gig was just a waystation after he tore his ACL. However, as he begins to talk, he starts to realize certain truths about his life. Ben clearly had no direction. We know from previous episodes that he was gay but remained closeted to most of the world even after he found true love in his partner, Paul. His experience with his family not accepting or protecting who he was caused him untold psychic pain, and as he speaks on the stand, he realizes that he did the same thing to the girls that he once signed on to lead and protect. The girls were underdogs, just like him. Eventually, under his stewardship, they became the best. They were an example of who he could be, but then the crash happened and upended his life. Men will literally begrudgingly coach a high-school girls’ soccer team before going to therapy, am I right?
Ben singles out Shauna and apologizes to her for abandoning her when she was in labor. This is correct and right. If Ben made one mistake, it was to flippantly turn his back on her in this vulnerable and horrific moment. But Ben also did a lot of things right. He doesn’t mention anything that happened after they crashed — see above; he’s done a LOT for this group since then — but he mentions how he could have murdered them socially on many other occasions back at home, such as the time he caught Tai and Van fooling around, or the time they all got drunk before a big game and he covered for them. Ben Scott did not try to murder these girls. I believe it and, at this point, most of them believe it, too.
With one exception: Shauna doesn’t believe it. The hurt from his abandonment cut too deep, and the shame of thinking of him judging the group for eating Jackie and Javi is too raw. She can’t allow herself to think that he is innocent because then she’d have to think about herself, and that’s a big no for her right now. So, instead, she bullies the rest of the group into voting to convict him. At first, only Van and Melissa are on her side, with Travis, Akilah, Lottie, Mari, and two new randos (the credits tell me their names are Brittney and Robin) voting “not guilty.” Gen voluntarily abstains, and Tai, Misty, and Natalie abstain because they were involved in the trial. Slowly, as they revote and revote, Shauna brings people over to her side. At one point, the wind blows, somehow signaling to Lottie that the wilderness wants her to vote with Shauna, and the tide turns. After the final vote, Natalie declares Ben guilty. Everyone is visibly upset and shaken, with the exception of Melissa, who looks like she just won the lottery. With a goony grin on her face, she shuffles over to Shauna, saying, “That’s power.”
However, it feels more like Lottie had the power to shift the tide in this particular situation, and the pointed emphasis on her influence in the wilderness is odd because we don’t see her much in the adult timeline. And then? She’s dead.
Before the shocking reveal of Lottie’s dead body lying at the bottom of a creepy staircase lined with unlit candles, we only see her twice. First, we see her leave a bank, and then we see her practicing an apology in a mirror. These are curious clues, and the circumstances surrounding her death (murder?) mark the first interesting thing to happen in the adult timeline this season. Let’s hope the momentum lasts.
Buzz, Buzz, Buzz
• ‘90s Song Watch: They finally used “Linger” by the Cranberries, and it was super sweet. Also, one of my faves, The Eels make an auditory appearance as their song “Fresh Blood” plays over Van and Tai’s card hunt.
• Jeff’s Christopher Walken impression isn’t half bad! I want to see him do lines from Severance. “Fields is tending the ham” would be my preference.
• For some reason, references from the TV series Arrested Development kept popping up in my head throughout this episode. First, Ben’s mention of a mock trial brought to mind the reality-show-within-the-show Mock Trial with Judge Reinhold, and then Lottie and Misty’s exchange reminded me of George Bluth’s blooper in which he accidentally says “faith is a fact,” and then the statement is hilariously misinterpreted by one of his groupies. Lottie seems to think that faith is a fact, but it’s very much not. This, unfortunately for Ben, does not matter in the court of the wilderness.