Natalie's Funeral

Yellowjackets: Season 3 Episode 1 – Recap/ Review

Three seasons in and it could be submitted the past still offers far more than the present may ever.

ByAmari Allah Hours Posted on

[Unless Said Otherwise] Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.

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Episode Details

Season Number: 3
Episode Number: 1
Episode Title: It Girl
Originally Aired: February 14, 2025
Network: Showtime
Director(s): Bart Nickerson
Writer(s): Ashley Lyle, Jonathan Lisco, Bart Nickerson

Recap

Party Pooper: Shauna, Melissa, Mari, Natalie, Taissa, Van, Coach Ben

After losing her best friend and her baby, Shauna is in no mood. She doesn’t want to play these games Van has come up with, she doesn’t want to party or socialize much, and then add in people like Mari wish to pick with her; this leads to Shauna isolating herself, with only Melissa making a concentrated effort to navigate past Shauna’s grief. Taissa picks up on this and appeals to Natalie to step in, but Natalie, the apprehensive leader, doesn’t want to get involved in girl drama.

However, when Shauna spits in Mari’s food, which leads to fighting, Natalie is forced to put both on house arrest, which Mari complains about since she doesn’t see herself as the aggressor. But rather than face her punishment, she runs off and ends up in a ditch. It’s one set up by Coach Ben, who has survived and even stumbled upon a cache of food and supplies that was in the said ditch.

Originally, he planned to use the hole to trap deer and other critters, but he has caught Mari, and now comes the question of what he will do to the only person who can prove he is alive and relatively well.

6 Weeks Later: Taissa, Van, Misty, Walter, Shauna, Callie, Jeff

In modern times, Natalie, almost six weeks after the events of the season 2 finale, has a funeral, and it is a bit of a hot mess. Misty doesn’t come, Lottie is getting psychiatric care, so she can’t come, and as for Shauna, Taissa, and Van? Well, it’s just awkward.

What doesn’t help is that the funeral is a bit lackluster, which leads Shauna and Taissa to reflect on their legacies and what people would say about them, both of which offer something negative with a comical spin. Van, who is actually dying, doesn’t take well to the jokes, and Taissa tries to cheer her up with a date later on. That goes well, but with the entity from her childhood showing up, it seems she is due to interact with her other self soon.

As for Shauna? Well, after the funeral, her focus is primarily on Callie, who, after some girls try to bully her, throws animal guts on them. She gets suspended, Jeff gets worried, but Shauna is slightly entertained. This allows her and Callie to grow closer, and despite Jeff’s worries, it doesn’t seem Callie is increasingly traumatized but rather may see the limits of what she can or should do pushed back since she is more aware of what her mother is capable of, and has done, far better now. Heck, with a cassette left for Shauna that Callie takes, she may become privy to yet another of her mother’s secrets.

Which leaves Misty. Long story short, she is mourning Natalie, and with none of the ladies reaching out to her directly, this isolates her and allows Walter to make a move to be her everything and step into Natalie’s place. He does this by finding Natalie’s storage, likely tracking her phone, and presenting himself as the only one who will be there in her time of need. But whether Misty may go from crying on his shoulder to walking with him hand in hand doesn’t seem likely – at this point.

New Character Descriptions

Melissa (Jenna Burgess)

Shauna and Melissa (Jenna Burgess) in Yellowjackets: Season 3 Episode 1, directed by Bart Nickerson (Showtime)

Melissa is one of the few who decides to outright be on Shauna’s side rather than push Shauna to make her grief something for the collective or push her to move on before she is ready.

Review

Highlights

  • Like Mother, Like Daughter [83/100]

While modern times still feel lackluster compared to the past, Callie finds herself moving from an annoying character to potentially beloved. Her embracing the madness and vindictiveness of her mother gives us a taste of what makes the past the more engaging part of the show, and I’d submit it allows Shauna a means to accept who she was. Her laughing and wanting to see the video of what got Callie suspended almost seemed healing in a way.

On The Fence

  • The Past Still Being Far More Interesting Than The Present [74/100]

Misty’s breakdown, Taissa and Van’s romantic issues, never mind Taissa’s issues with her ex-wife, and the constant hinting of addressing her family’s connection with the spirit world continues to be something that makes the show feel lopsided. Now, in defense of modern times, what often makes the past more interesting is that everyone’s life is more connected, so it doesn’t feel like multiple, loosely connected stories of people with shared trauma with varying degrees of story quality.

But, there is no denying that what can drive “Yellowjackets,” Misty getting drunk and acting up, while understandable, isn’t a hook. Taissa and Van’s relationship in modern times doesn’t call for you to subscribe to Showtime via Paramount +, and while I do love how Shauna and Callie’s relationship is evolving, the problem here is that it isn’t like Shauna is letting little by little of her past out.

In comparison, from Shauna and Mari’s beef, Natalie’s struggles to be a leader, finally introducing some background characters like Melissa in a way which makes them worth noting, to the point of questioning if they could pop up in the present, and then Coach Ben as a wild card, there is far more intrigue in the past. Add in the ghost of Jackie, who has the potential to show up, and wanting to see the early days of the girls when they get rescued. “Yellowjackets” continues to be at war with itself. Mainly because there is nothing to look forward to in the present, while you have all the desire to see what happens next in the past, even though you have a pretty good idea of who lives, dies, and what they become as adults.

Trajectory

Trajectory (78/100): Plateau

“Yellowjackets” pretty much is giving more of the same right now. Misty does things big and dramatic, Shauna is her opposite while cracking at the seams of her curated life, and Taissa and Van operate in the middle, together by no means offering anything bad in modern times, but certainly not the hook. Meanwhile, the past is the driving force that you wish didn’t have to share screen time with storylines that don’t hold up their side of the show.

“Yellowjackets” Guide

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Amari is the founder and head writer of Wherever-I-Look.com and has been reviewing media since 2010. He approaches each production with hope, rooting for every story to succeed, and believes criticism should come from unmet potential, while praise is reserved for work that meets or exceeds expectations.