Yellowjackets season 3 ending, explained

Yellowjackets took the concept of Lord of the Flies and turned it on its head. Instead of boys, it’s a soccer team of teenage girls traveling to nationals when their plane crashes in the middle of the wilderness. They are left to survive there for 19 months. The story continues to be told in the 1990s and present day — 25 years after their rescue. Even more so than any other season, the story in season three is a thought-provoking examination of trauma.

With the third season ending after several characters’ deaths, mysterious new figures in the wilderness, and the surprise introduction of another survivor, we finally got answers that have been looming since the pilot episode. These women are far more broken than ever imagined, and the Antler Queen’s identity is a shock, as are her revelations as an adult.

The hunt is on, and the Antler Queen is crowned in the wilderness

In the flashback scenes in the wilderness, the ladies are gearing up for the Queen of Hearts game. They technically aren’t starving and don’t need to play, but they feel that the wilderness needs a sacrifice of someone they cherish. It has to be a hunt. 

Tai (Jasmin Savoy Brown) convinces Van (Liv Hewson) to rig the game, but Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) is onto them. She moves spots and purposely draws a second playing card to alter the count. This results in Mari (Alexa Barajas) pulling the fateful card instead of Hannah (Ashley Sutton), who Tai and Van tried to rig it to be.

Mari is confirmed to be a “Pit Girl,” another character who has been teased since the pilot. She runs through the wilderness, desperately trying to evade capture, at least for as long as she can. But it’s inevitable, and when she perishes, Shauna proves colder than anyone imagined. While the women grieve Mari’s death, Shauna simply asks what the hold-up is because they have a feast to prepare. 

Later at their bonfire dinner, the horns are placed on Shauna’s head along with a veil covering her face, revealing her to be the mysterious Antler Queen that has been teased since season one. Young Shauna has gone from being the most likable character on Yellowjackets to the most feared.

The remaining ladies deal with the trauma of today

Back in the present day, the extent of the trauma Tai (Tawny Cypress) carries with her from the wilderness is realized when she digs a grave for Van (Lauren Ambrose) but cuts out her heart before burying the body and eats it. That, combined with Tai’s ongoing fugue states and visions, suggests she’s more far gone than anyone, viewers included, realized.

Lottie (Simone Kessell) may have been right in that there’s darkness in Callie (Sarah Desjardins), too. In a shocking twist, Callie is the one who killed Lottie. When Callie realized that Lottie stole the tape Melissa (Hilary Swank) sent to Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), Callie visited her to get it back, but caught Lottie in the middle of one of her episodes. Realizing how mentally unstable Lottie is after her hurtful words, Callie pushes her mother’s old friend down the stairs in a fit of rage. Misty (Christina Ricci) figures it out and urges Callie to confess to her father. Desperate to save his daughter from her mother’s darkness, Jeff (Warren Kole) gathers their things and leaves the house.

Shauna is shaken when she returns home to find her family and their belongings gone. She blames Misty, who advises her of what Callie did. While pondering the situation in her kitchen, Shauna spots something sticking out from under the fridge. It’s the note Melissa swore she included with the tape. When Callie was startled by her father while secretly opening the package, the note fell. Melissa was telling the truth. In the note, Melissa asks Shauna to try and forgive herself. For what?

Shauna crumples up the note and tosses it into the garbage disposal. It’s in this moment that the memories start flooding back. After breaking down, Shauna grabs her pen and starts journaling. Here, the frightening truth comes out. 

The final scene is a harrowing juxtaposition

The final scene of the season flips back and forth between adult Shauna jotting down her feelings and the goings-on in the wilderness 25 years earlier. As young Shauna is being crowned and the ladies prepare to feast on Mari’s meat, adult Shauna writes that she believes she and the ladies felt so alive out there that they lost their “ability for self-reflection.” They haven’t failed to remember things clearly because they are blocking trauma; it’s because, deep down, they were “having so much fun.” Recalling her position as the Antler Queen, Shauna reminisces about the sense of power she felt. “I was a warrior,” she declares. “I was a f***ing queen.” It’s a feeling Shauna lost, and now that she remembers the adrenaline rush, it’s time to get that feeling back.

How does it all end? With a massive teaser for what will hopefully be a fourth and likely last season. Back in the wilderness, young Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) has run off with the satellite phone and transponder. She climbs up a mountain and desperately tries to get a signal. In the final moment, her pleas of “Is anyone out there?” are finally answered as a crackled man’s voice responds, “Yes, I can hear you.”

It would stand to reason that Yellowjackets, one of the best shows on Paramount+ with Showtime, will run until it meets a fitting conclusion. This would logically be when the ladies are rescued. There’s still a lot of story to tell. In the wilderness, the headcount needs to be whittled down to only those confirmed to have survived. In the present day, that number might have to be reduced further as well. Based on Shauna’s revelation, she may be ready to do heinous things to ensure the secrets of the wilderness remain as such and, most importantly, to get back her power and become a queen once again. 

Who will be left by the end? We’ll have to wait and find out if Yellowjackets gets a fourth season renewal.

Stream Yellowjackets on Paramount+ with Showtime.