Oh, Valentine’s Day. A holiday of mixed emotions. You either love it or you hate it. Thankfully, single or not, this Valentine’s Day is like no other. That’s right; the first few episodes of Yellowjackets season three will finally be out, and I couldn’t be more excited.
Yellowjackets is a T.V. show about a talented girls’ soccer team whose plane crashes on their way to nationals. The story alternates timelines between the present day and the time the girls spent in the wilderness. Yellowjackets is action-packed, dramatic, and enthralling. If you haven’t watched seasons one and two, do it now! Then come back to this article.
To formulate these theories, I obviously watched the show, as well as researched, watched trailers, and asked my friends for their opinions in addition to my own. Here are my biggest predictions for the third season.
WARNING: Major spoilers ahead!
Coach Ben is so dead
This is a pretty obvious one. If you don’t remember, Yellowjackets season two ended with the team’s cabin going up in flames while Travis and the girls were sleeping. The person who started the fire is unknown, but one thing is for sure; Ben wasn’t in that cabin.
As time passed in the wilderness, Ben became increasingly terrified of the girls, and they weren’t too fond of him either. Season two ended with the cannibalization of Javi, Travis’ younger brother, following the infamous scene where the girls eat Jackie, Shauna’s best friend and team captain. The only person currently still alive in the older timeline who didn’t participate in either act is Coach Ben. I think he will be the next to go.
First of all, the team resents Ben for his reluctance to participate in their hunts and interprets Ben’s actions to mean he thinks he is morally superior to the Yellowjackets. Ben is also at a physical and mental disadvantage. Physically, Ben is weak because he lost one of his legs after the plane crashed. Mentally, Ben is weak because he is severely depressed and misses his boyfriend back home.
I also believe that it would make the most sense for Ben to die next. He represents the last shred of humanity the Yellowjackets have left before fully descending into insanity. So far, three main characters have died in the wilderness; Laura Lee, Jackie, and Javi. Laura Lee represented faith and hope, Jackie represented humanity and realism, Javi represented innocence and kindness, and Ben currently represents logic and order. Ben dying would allow the girls to go completely off the rails with no constraints, which we know happens in season three.
There are also moments in the trailers which could be indicative of Ben’s fate. In every trailer, Ben is shown screaming. One of the creators of the show claims the gore scale will be 9.5 out of 10, where 10 is “eating eyeballs.” Therefore, my ultimate prediction is that Ben will be eaten alive.
The real question is, will Natalie help him? She was the closest to Ben in the previous seasons, and a girl in the trailer says “I think Natalie knows where Coach Scott is.” My guess is that Natalie will attempt to hide Ben away in the same spot Javi stayed in to survive the winter. Will she be successful? We will have to wait and see.
The mine theory is real
Another popular theory is known as the “mine theory,” or “tunnel theory.” It’s clear the girls are not the first people to endure the wilderness. There are symbols engraved on the trees that could be markers for people to navigate their way through the forest.
As I mentioned, Javi survived the winter by hiding in a tunnel. However, there is no way he would have made it without food, and he did not know how to hunt. I think there was a person, or multiple people, who helped Javi. This could likely be another survivor, and potentially the new woman we see covered in blood at the end of the trailer. This could be the person who is blackmailing the Yellowjackets in the present day!
The mine theory hypothesizes that, beneath the area in which the Yellowjackets reside, there are caves that contain minerals, such as mercury, that are making the girls go insane. In one episode, the girls find a red lake. This could likely be caused by those minerals. I’m not sure if there is a supernatural aspect to this show, but I do believe the mine theory is a possible source of the girl’s descent into madness. However, I definitely don’t think that was the only contributor. I think the hunger and loss of their friends really pushed them over the edge.
Also, while Lottie does have schizophrenia, her visions have been very accurate in the past. One of them shows her walking through a tunnel lit by candles, which is also indicative that the mine theory could be real.
This leaves me wondering if the dead man who was found in the cabin in season one worked in these mines. Could he have been poisoned by the same minerals? Is that why he died in a chair or was he arranged in that position? Who knows?
Shauna is going off the rails
I think both young and old Shauna are about to be ferocious. Young Shauna has many more quotes in the trailers than the other girls.
First, Shauna tells Natalie, who holds the most power over the group at the end of season two, that she is “not in charge anymore” and only “did what she wanted to do.” I think Shauna’s wildest quote is when she says, “Can’t believe we didn’t eat that bitch first.” Like… WHAT?! Who is she talking about? She also says, in modern time, that “the only way to be safe is to be the only one left.”
I also think Misty is going to absolutely serve in the third season. In the trailer, Misty literally stabs Shauna in the back in modern time. I think it’s very possible she does this in honor of Natalie. It’s clear that Shauna has been cruel to Natalie in the past and, since Natalie was Misty’s only friend, I think Misty will take revenge.
I don’t think Misty is the only one who wants Shauna dead. In the trailer, there is a quick clip of young Shauna being pulled under the water in the lake. That leaves me wondering… who pulled her down? Could it have been young Misty?
I also can’t wait for a Jackie comeback. She looks absolutely devious in the trailer, raising her eyebrow at a terrified Shauna. As Fleetwood Mac would say in “Silver Springs,” “You’ll never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you.” I also think the use of bunnies in the film symbolizes Jackie’s ongoing presence despite her death because they were her favorite animal. Shauna slaughtered a bunny in season one which she ate for dinner (sounds awfully symbolic, right?), and there are several clips of bunnies in the trailer for season three.
Finally, I think Callie, Shauna’s daughter, is also going to be absolutely unhinged, just like her mom. I can’t wait to see what they do with her character this season!
Van will surprise us
I think Van is going to become an even more important character in season three. One of my most controversial theories is that I’m not sold on the idea that Ben started the fire. I think there’s a possibility it could have been the other Tai, and Van helped to cover it up.
Because Ben represents logic and order, it’s extremely out of character for him to lock a team of children in a cabin and set it on fire. However, I think it is definitely possible that he reached his breaking point and made this decision to prevent the team from doing further harm to one another.
The other version of Tai, her evil second identity that only comes out when she is asleep, represents her animalistic tendencies and ties to the wilderness, climbing trees and eating dirt. I think Other Tai could have burnt down the cabin to destroy any connection the girls had to comfort and normalcy, forcing them to face the wilderness like wild animals.
The reason I think Van would help Tai is the obvious fact that they’re in love. I also think that the reflection of fire we only see in Van’s eyes in the trailer could be her reaction to Tai setting the cabin on fire. At the end of season two, her face was not zoomed in like the other characters. Even Taissa had a close-up and, being her normal self and having no recollection of her sleepwalking, was terrified of the fire.
Also, in every season so far, we have seen one or more main characters die. In the first season, it was Jackie, Laura Lee, and adult Travis, and in the second season, it was Javi and adult Natalie. This season, I expect Van will die in a sacrifice of some sort.
Since Van is a selfless character, already dying from cancer, and is so devoted to Tai despite the amount of time they’ve spent apart as adults, it would make sense if she was the next to go to save Tai or the rest of the group.
Betrayal is the main theme
This is one thing that hasn’t changed in any season, but I anticipate the betrayal will become far worse and more prominent in season three.
One person I expect will betray Misty is Walter, the man who helped her frame Detective Kevyn for the murders of Adam Martin and Jessica Roberts. He also killed Kevyn for Misty.
I’ve always found Walter to be very suspicious; why are you helping a woman who you know very little about to commit and get away with murder? His character came out of nowhere, and I think there’s something off about that. Walter is also aware that Misty’s a Yellowjacket and he could be unhealthily hyper-fixated and curious about her because of that.
I think he is likely teaming up with another survivor. As Shauna believes, everyone who knows about what happened in those woods is “either us or dead.” I don’t think that is the case; they might just not be a Yellowjacket.
I also think Mari will be betrayed. Viewers have theorized that she is “Pit Girl,” the girl who fell into a hole and died before being hung in the intro to season one. Ever since that scene, fans have been dying to know who Pit Girl is. Mari runs through the woods in the trailer with a terrified and desperate expression on her face, similar to how Pit Girl ran before falling to her death. There is also a scene of a metal wire hung in the shape of a circle which was likely used to kill Pit Girl.
The only issue is that the scene where Mari is running in season three looks to be set in the summer, while Pit Girl dies in the winter. Could this be symbolic of how the Yellowjackets can’t escape what they did to survive in the winter?
There are so many questions whose answers I can’t wait to be revealed this Friday, Feb. 14. Make sure to stream Yellowjackets season three on Paramount Plus!