Yellowjackets 2- Spoilers(even on Friday’s)

[RumHam]

23 minutes ago, Winterfell is Burning said:

Most of the episode was great, but the Walter stuff is so ridiculous it feels a jumping the shark moment 

and it's made worse by the fact that they don't really ...explain why he's like this. Seems like they just came up with "Misty's soul mate" and ran with it. Then at the end he becomes a deus ex machina for the Shauna murder plot. Unless I missed it, they never even bothered to explain how his email to the cops at the end of last episode was part of his sceme to blackmail Saracusa. 

Edited May 27, 2023 by RumHam

[Darzin]

 I feel like the 1996 timeline had a great season finale and the present day one just flamed out. Walter is a great character but the tone for the show is all off with him and he just magically uses his computer skills to make a murder investigation go away. It feels cheap and unearned and while not really bad writing just doesn't fit the seriousness and realism of season 1 and large parts of season 2.

But the 1996 timeline knocked it out of the park. Sophie Thatcher's acting was phenomenal, as was the whole fucked up situation. Ben telling her she's "not like other girls^tm" and her saying she's the worst of them all, which I don't agree with at all seeing as she was under threat of death when it happened, but I see why she thinks so. and finally the cabin getting burned down. Just a great fucked up finale.

All this is pretty much confirming what I felt when I first heard of this show, which is that five seasons is way too long and it should just have been a movie or a mini series set only in the 1996 timeline.

 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

@Darzin is that what they said? They’re planning on 5 seasons?

[Curled Finger]

I still don't know if this is great or garbage.  Totally confused over the very end.  Makes ZERO sense if Coach did this.  Been thinking they should kill everyone off and just make it the Misty and Walter show since it is clear these 2 characters are interesting enough to carry a show.  

10 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

@Darzin is that what they said? They’re planning on 5 seasons?

Yep.  

I've watched interviews with the show runners.  Apparently there are 3 of them and they are the brains behind all this.  They wrote 3 of the episodes in season 1 and the 1st episode of season 2.  Seems to me they might want to pay more attention to this thing if they want to maintain their viewers' interest?  Weird is great to a certain extent but when a show gets to the point they just pull things out of the air like Castle Rock did it's just not fun to watch.  I guess if the people who created the show aren't interested in writing episodes maybe I don't care that much about watching what their minions write either.  

Didn't hate the ending.  Called Nat dying, but missed Kevyn thinking the other cop would be the one.  Wasn't put together very well at all.  Going to have to sit with this for a bit to see if this taste it left me with gets better.

[SpaceChampion]

3 hours ago, Curled Finger said:

I still don't know if this is great or garbage.  Totally confused over the very end.  Makes ZERO sense if Coach did this.

It'll never make sense it you want to understand these characters as people with a coherent psyches.  The writers either are portraying them all as psychopaths, which is uninteresting, or don't understand how to portray a consistency in their motivations, which is maddening.   "Why did you do that?"  "I don't know."    That'll be the answer from any character in this show at every step of the plot.

These writers are deciding what plot they want, and figuring out behaviours to build that plot, but don't expect those behaviours to follow from well thought out and consistent motivations.  Same problem with Rings of Power, I think.  Some people lack a theory of mind.

[Curled Finger]

4 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:

It'll never make sense it you want to understand these characters as people with a coherent psyches.  The writers either are portraying them all as psychopaths, which is uninteresting, or don't understand how to portray a consistency in their motivations, which is maddening.   "Why did you do that?"  "I don't know."    That'll be the answer from any character in this show at every step of the plot.

These writers are deciding what plot they want, and figuring out behaviours to build that plot, but don't expect those behaviours to follow from well thought out and consistent motivations.  Same problem with Rings of Power, I think.  Some people lack a theory of mind.

It wasn't completely awful and that may be the worst part.  The potential is clear in this, the talent is powerful the story could be intriguing if they could just figure out what it is.  I agree with you that Rings suffered the problem with weak writing despite so many other great things powering it.  The problem is that television, particularly episodic television, is a story.  Special effects, brilliant characters, inspired music and top tier acting can only carry a story so far without actual story.  Whether this is a tale about the human psyche or the supernatural or survival and trauma or crime and punishment or something else it needs to make up its mind and just tell the tale.  As you say, the writers are still figuring it out and it shows. 

Dual timelines can't rely on one timeline being more interesting, both need to grasp interest, particularly when your draw is in the fame of the older actors in the second timeline.  Duh.  I have yet to read or listen to a single review of this series since the death of Adam Martin who was actually interested in the adults until the introduction of adult Van.  Adult Lottie was never interesting.  The only adult character I ever saw appreciation for was Misty as she was entertaining while the others were chaotic at best.  How do you do that with three of four main characters?  The adults relied on the younger versions of their characters for viewers to sympathize with them.  There was a disconnect between the Lottie actors that was far less discernable between the other pairings.   

Yellowjackets has a lot to offer or at least promises to have a lot to offer.  I am 2 seasons in now and feel like I have earned more than I have received for the time invested in this thing.   Not cheated exactly.  Disappointed may be better.  Season 2 didn't get any better at telling the story of the survivors in either timeline.  I did find out what happened to Shauna's baby in an extraordinarily moving way as well as Javi's mysteries.  Saw the devolution of their spirits as winter devoured them.  Got rid of all the problems in season 1 and 2.  The big problems any way.  Still don't understand how Walter fixed everything or why he had to.  That was really lame.  We shall see what becomes of Taissa's career, family, freedom and insurance premiums.   

Just hope the showrunners start to understand how important the writing is.  I can't get excited about another season of more of the same.  

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Season 2 didn’t have the novelty of season 1 but I thought it was still very good. I want to see where this goes.

[Ramsay B.]

Yeah, a lot of the finale was just plain silliness. The whole cop shit, and Natalie getting dramatically stabbed like that unfortunately just made me chuckle. I don’t know if I’ll continue to watch another season. 

[Werthead]

That was an okay finale, after a weak penultimate episode, but there's been a lot of backwards writing this season, where the writers think of where they want the characters to go and what would look cool, and then awkwardly write backwards from that point to manipulate the characters to going there, rather than doing stuff that organically makes sense. The plotting and character arcs are much weaker than in Season 1, although I did like several ideas, like Lottie never being the "evil leader" of the group and Misty pushing her in that direction, and then Nat was the one who did become leader (interesting because seemed to be setting Nat up as the most rational of the modern-day group, and certainly the one most afflicted with guilt over what happened). I just don't think those ideas were well-serviced.

Getting another three seasons out of this will be tough though. Season 3 will presumably start off with them freezing and struggling to survive, but they're very close to Spring, which should bring respite. Season 3 might then change into a battle of cat and mouse with Coach Ben trying to take them out one by one from his tree HQ? 

Where the modern day story will go I have no idea, but hopefully they won't go back to the bloody cult HQ again. Spending so much time there was a clear budget-saving move, but it never works well (i.e. the farm in Season 2 of The Walking Dead).

On 5/26/2023 at 10:52 PM, RumHam said:

Everything else I thought was pretty good. Did anyone die in the fire? There were nine at the end watching it burn. From left to right I'm pretty sure it's Pink Hat, Van, Tai, Nat, Travis, Misty, Shauna, Lottie and then maybe Mari? That leaves at least Akilah unaccounted for. 

Nobody died in the fire from the look of it. The survivor count in total is (bolded characters we know survive):

1. Coach Ben
2. Akilah
3. Gen (redshirt, an extra in Season 1 but more prominent in Season 2)
4. Lottie
5. Mari
6. Melissa (pink hat)
7. Misty
8. Nat
9. Shauna
10. Taissa
11. Travis
12. Van
13. Unidentified 1
14. Unidentified 2
15. Unidentified 3

We've so far lost:

1. Rachel (killed in the crash)
2. Laura Lee (blown up in the plane)
3. Jackie (died of exposure, eaten)
4. Crystal (pushed off a cliff by Misty, body MIA)
5. Javi (frozen to death/drowned, eaten)

[RumHam]

7 hours ago, Werthead said:

Nobody died in the fire from the look of it. The survivor count in total is (bolded characters we know survive):

Thanks, It didn't seem like anyone was trapped inside. but I wonder why they weren't all there for the closing shot?

[Melifeather]

I enjoyed season 2. Was a bit surprised by the reveal that Natalie was the Antler Queen, but I guess it makes sense. She hates herself so much and must have been haunted by her role. The survivors to the present partook in the hunts which took the lives of all of the missing characters that we don't see in the present. Natalie's insistence that she's "not supposed to be here" hints that even she believed the wild chose her. If she remains dead, and I really think she's going to pull a Jon Snow here, going into season 3, then I wonder if the survivors choose a new Queen? Shauna seems ready to shed the "tribe", but the rest seemed almost eager to fall back in. If Lottie had actually caught up to Shauna and stabbed her, I don't think they would have prevented the killing.

Edited May 30, 2023 by Melifeather

[Nictarion]

 

[Werthead]

12 hours ago, Nictarion said:

 

I believe we already know what it's about.

Spoiler

They filmed scenes with Jason Ritter - Mr. Melanie Lynskey - in the 1970s (?) playing the guy who built the cabin. Makes sense to do all the cabin stuff they can before striking the set for good.

 

[Heartofice]

Only just now caught up on the final episode.

On the plus side, the soundtrack was fucking great, it’s usually good but they reallly knocked it out of the park with this one.

Otherwise I think the show has, after 2 seasons, revealed it’s true nature to me and I don’t like what I’m seeing.

My main issue is that the tonal conflict between the two storylines is enormous, it’s an ocean they can’t cross.

You have the grim dark survival horror of the teen timeline and then modern day is basically Desperate Housewives, all bright lurid colours and light humour. Modern day just all feels so silly.

Before yes there were silly elements, Misty was always pretty over the top, but it was at least tempered by a level of darkness and horror, like Tai’s nighttime adventures. But now it also just feels cutesy and non offensive. I like Elijah Wood and I like him in this but he’s character just feels so off, so unreal, especially that he can pretty much solve any narrative problems with his detective ‘magic’

I don’t know what this show is planning on doing next. From what I saw I suspect Van’s cancer goes away and she thinks it’s supernatural, Shauna’s  daughter becomes number 2 in the cult and follows  Lottie, breaking her out. None of that is peaking my interest tbh. 
 

I’ve been giving this show a chance, and to be fair I’ve never been bored or truly disliked it, but right now it doesn’t seem like there is anything actually interesting going on under the surface here. The supernatural stuff is almost certainly not a real thing, they have backed away from it too much for there to be an actual spirit of the wilderness.
 

The characters are actually far too one dimensional and cartoonish to actually give much of a shit about them.

Maybe I am done with this show unfortunately 

[RumHam]

I like that they're calling it a "bonus episode" when it seems like it's just a ....late episode? Like there were ten last season...

[Curled Finger]

On 6/3/2023 at 3:56 PM, RumHam said:

I like that they're calling it a "bonus episode" when it seems like it's just a ....late episode? Like there were ten last season...

No disrespect intended here.  Maybe they realize how many sharks they actually jumped and this is that ace in the hole to save some of the viewers they may have lost.  To have an episode in the bag and not air it is a weird thing.  That happened with Sandman, but it was an animated episode, so not really the same and Sandman was in no way in the same shape Yellowjackets is.  The 11th Sandman episode really was a bonus.  This?  I hope this is an apology.  

[dbunting]

Caught up on this and I think I have similar takes as pretty much everyone else. Teen time line is much better done than the current one.  Although, if all we had was the teen timeline I imagine there would be a ton of complaints about teen angst etc.. I do think that several of the teen actors have done great jobs though.

Walter, I want to like his character but that pop out and pull the cops gun, get off a couple rounds and then just toss the gun in and close the trunk without the cop immediately beating and cuffing him???? That whole plotline is just horrible. Even the beginning of it sucked. A couple of high school kids, who actually look like kids, in a bar in the middle of the day drinking, and then a cop buys her a drink knowing full well she is a teen? That action alone would have tossed those detectives off the case if the parents had brought a complaint.

I actually liked that coach did that, we saw him deteriorate for several episodes after they ate the first girl, he was never the same. He was dealing with that but then they arranged to kill one of their own and eat them and he saw how far gone they were.  BTW, do we mention how these people are "starving" and yet still have tons of baby fat on them? I mean, watch a season of survivor and see how much people lose in just 37 days, or and season of Alone. I know they can't make them skeletons but there should have been some built in understanding that they all needed to lose some weight between season for the show, not for vanity reasons. Hard to reconcile they are resorting to cannibalism and murder when they still have chubby cheeks. But, then there are so many kids that get told to lose weight for a lot of reasons so I can see them not doing it in real life.

5 seasons will likely be 2 too many.

[RumHam]

3 hours ago, dbunting said:

Caught up on this and I think I have similar takes as pretty much everyone else. Teen time line is much better done than the current one.  Although, if all we had was the teen timeline I imagine there would be a ton of complaints about teen angst etc.. I do think that several of the teen actors have done great jobs though.

Walter, I want to like his character but that pop out and pull the cops gun, get off a couple rounds and then just toss the gun in and close the trunk without the cop immediately beating and cuffing him???? That whole plotline is just horrible. Even the beginning of it sucked. A couple of high school kids, who actually look like kids, in a bar in the middle of the day drinking, and then a cop buys her a drink knowing full well she is a teen? That action alone would have tossed those detectives off the case if the parents had brought a complaint.

I actually liked that coach did that, we saw him deteriorate for several episodes after they ate the first girl, he was never the same. He was dealing with that but then they arranged to kill one of their own and eat them and he saw how far gone they were.  BTW, do we mention how these people are "starving" and yet still have tons of baby fat on them? I mean, watch a season of survivor and see how much people lose in just 37 days, or and season of Alone. I know they can't make them skeletons but there should have been some built in understanding that they all needed to lose some weight between season for the show, not for vanity reasons. Hard to reconcile they are resorting to cannibalism and murder when they still have chubby cheeks. But, then there are so many kids that get told to lose weight for a lot of reasons so I can see them not doing it in real life.

5 seasons will likely be 2 too many.

The police plotline is the worst. None of it make sense. They're investigating a murder from the start, with no body and not even a "we found traces of blood at his apartment." He's just missing, so he must be dead lets assign two detectives and have one stalk our suspects daughter. 

Coach may have been the only character to get development this season in the 90's timeline. Other characters got introduced or...rodent plotlines for the sake of a horrifying reveal (which was good.) 

Things happened to young misty, but it's not clear to me how they changed her or color who adult Mistly is. It feels like the writers walked back from misty pushing crystal, or forgot she watched that rat drown in season one with the detatched look of a sociopath. 

Young Shauna had a story and for a bit I was quite invested in it, considering it was pretty obvious the baby didn't make it back. I guess I was mostly just relieved with that one. Though it culminats in Shauna almost murdering someone as an expression of mostly halucinated anger. Had they actually eaten her baby, that'd would have been more impactful instead of over the top. 

Javi got two or three lines and died. Nat had a lot of individual moments but I'm not sure I could draw an arch with them. The climax of her story is her being put in jepordy literally by the luck of the draw, and then saved by something equally random. 

Given that they didn't go with the "Lottie = evil / running a cult dedicated to "it" that they suggested at the end of last season you'd expect young lottie to be one of the more interesting characters. But I dunno that I get her at all. Is she riddled with doubt because of years of being forces to take anti-psychotics? Does she suspect she was "special" before the crash? 

I'm not as down on the show as most, but yeah it sure seems like the writing of season two was rushed. Which isn't really suprising because I remember being like "I don't see how they're going to get the next season out next year." 

 

[Heartofice]

2 hours ago, RumHam said:

Things happened to young misty, but it's not clear to me how they changed her or color who adult Mistly is. It feels like the writers walked back from misty pushing crystal, or forgot she watched that rat drown in season one with the detatched look of a sociopath. 

Young Shauna had a story and for a bit I was quite invested in it, considering it was pretty obvious the baby didn't make it back. I guess I was mostly just relieved with that one. Though it culminats in Shauna almost murdering someone as an expression of mostly halucinated anger. Had they actually eaten her baby, that'd would have been more impactful instead of over the top. 

This is maybe one of the biggest weaknesses of the show I think. There doesn't really seem to be a properly thought through line between the two storylines. You don't get those moments where you see a character have a moment in storyline A and then you see how it has affected them in storyline B. I guess the show sometimes tries to do that, but the tonal shift between the two plots is so big it doesn't work.

Shauna losing her baby was a horrible, traumatic moment which should have completely fucked Shauna up for life, but tonally Shauna in present day is just kinda joking and bumbling around in a Keystone Cops comedy. You don't get the sense it has really hit her. There were moments in season one I think where her character seemed to slip and she looked pretty messed up, but mostly this season she's been 'cute mom', and it doesn't seem to work.

Maybe it all ties together better in season 3, I just expected more progress of tying to the two plots together by now so you can really feel cause and effect. 

[Slurktan]

9 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Shauna losing her baby was a horrible, traumatic moment which should have completely fucked Shauna up for life, but tonally Shauna in present day is just kinda joking and bumbling around in a Keystone Cops comedy. You don't get the sense it has really hit her. There were moments in season one I think where her character seemed to slip and she looked pretty messed up, but mostly this season she's been 'cute mom', and it doesn't seem to work.
 

Shauna is fucked up for life lol, she's one step from being a sociopath in the adult timeline.