Teen Van, despite her sardonic demeanor, has become a true believer. She first bought into Lottie’s mysticism, and now she is trying to convince Tai and the rest of the girls of Tai’s potentially magical qualities. In the present, Tai has seemingly gone to Van for help, but, in the past, Van coaxes her to darker and darker places. Their dynamic has whiffs of toxicity.
That sourness is seeping into all of the interactions in the cabin as some of the Yellowjackets look for meaning in their desolate lives. Mari (Alexa Barajas), for instance, has made Lottie the center of her entire belief system. In her mind, Lottie is the one who has been keeping them alive. Lottie slew the bear at the end of Season 1. Lottie embroidered the symbol onto Shauna’s baby blanket, which in Mari’s view resulted in that mass starling death, and therefore in more food. To Mari, Natalie’s skepticism toward Lottie is hindering their survival: When Natalie doesn’t accept Lottie’s blessing when she goes on a hunt, she is decreasing the likelihood of finding sustenance.
So Natalie proposes a contest: She will compete versus Lottie for who can find food first. There are no winners. Natalie stumbles upon a frozen moose in the lake and runs back to get help, but the moose disappears into the icy water when the gang tries to dislodge it. Lottie, meanwhile, almost dies of hypothermia alone.
Neither of the Lotties seem as sure of themselves as they once appeared — or as their followers are wont to believe they are. After ’90s Lottie sets out on her hunt, she finds one of the symbols carved into a tree. Placing her hand on it, she tries to connect with her surroundings. She gets nothing and is frustrated. Later, finding herself in front of the shrine where she laid the bear heart last season, she hesitantly cuts open her palm, hoping the blood will yield something.
Again nothing, no food. Instead, she is led to a hallucination of Laura Lee’s plane, which takes her into a fantasy of a mall where her teammates gather and eat Chinese takeout as if nothing ever went wrong.
Adult Lottie knows not to trust these visions. She goes to her psychiatrist to ask for an increase in her medication so that the visions might stop. But her regular doctor isn’t there, and this unfamiliar woman challenges her request. “I would urge you to reframe the way you are thinking about these visions,” she says. “The stress of constantly pushing them away could potentially cause more to surface. So maybe ask yourself: What do you think they are trying to tell you?”
Esther Zuckerman
Source link