After finding Coach Ben last week, the Yellowjackets finally have the man they hold responsible for the fire. However, with so much up in the air, it’s unclear what they should do with him. Meanwhile, adult Shauna has someone dangerous stalking her, whether she wants to admit it or not. There are a lot of open questions as we head into “12 Angry Girls and 1 Drunk Travis,” which delivers the fireworks. Things are said, and power is flexed, which may forever alter the lives of the Yellowjackets.
Yellowjackets — “12 Angry Girls and 1 Drunk Travis” — The Recap
Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) leads Coach Ben (Steven Krueger) and the girls back through the woods. At the back of the group, Akilah (Nia Sondaya) and Van (Liv Hewson) try to discuss the shared dream. However, Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) tells them they need to avoid the cave. Once they return to camp, the women fight over how to proceed with Coach, but Natalie puts her foot down. They will hold a trial to figure out what happens to Coach.
As they prepare for the trial, Shauna pushes for majority rules to decide the coach’s guilt. Natalie disagrees, telling her it needs to be at least two-thirds. Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown) offers to be the prosecution, but they’re unsure who will defend Coach Ben. They try to volunteer Misty (Samantha Hanratty), and while she’s unwilling to do it at first, she agrees after Natalie makes an impassioned plea for her to step up.
In the present, Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) and Jeff (Warren Kole) find out their brakes were not cut but instead just failed. Jeff sees it as karmic, but Shauna remains unsure. Lottie (Simone Kessell) leaves a bank in a nice fur coat when she gets a call from Taissa (Tawny Cypress) about her words about “It” when she was being loaded into the ambulance. Lottie is unsure what she means and hangs up.
In the past, Akilah opens up to teen Lottie (Courtney Eaton) about the dreams in the cave. Lottie identifies it as a vision, not a dream, and asks for more information about the cave. Misty approaches Coach Ben and punches him in the face. She yells at him for setting fire to the cabin after she stopped him from killing himself. He then tells her he did not do it, and she asks him to prove it. Defeated, he believes he’s already lost, but she needs him to trust the system if they’re going to win.
Jeff cleans out old things in the house to win karmic points. It starts a fight between Shauna and Callie (Sarah Desjardins) about Shauna throwing Lottie out of the house. Jeff tells them they need to volunteer, and Shauna agrees. Taissa and Van (Lauren Ambrose) attempt to see if they can confirm if “It” is still working. They use a pack of cards and leave out a Queen of Hearts to see what happens. While several people pick up and drop the card, eventually, a man bends over and puts it in his jacket.
In the forest, the trial for Coach Ben begins. Natalie serves as judge, and Taissa puts Mari (Alexa Barajas) on the stand to testify against Ben. Lottie tries to have Mari swear to the forest, but Natalie tells them to swear to tell the truth. Mari goes on to recount her time in the cave. She tells the jury that Coach did not want her to return to the group and tell them where he was. Coach was worried about retaliation. Misty then points out that Ben could have let her die in the cave or pit, but instead, he helped keep her alive.
Adult Shauna and Jeff arrive at their volunteering event, which takes place at Misty’s job. When Misty (Christina Ricci) sees them, she asks if Shauna came to apologize. Instead, they fight, but when Misty hears they’re volunteering, she gleefully puts Shauan on tapioca duty. Jeff helps with Bingo during the volunteering hour. He tells bad jokes to help Randy (Jeff Holman) liven up the audience.
The next person to testify is Shauna. Misty asks Shauna if she started the fire, alleging she was angry after Natalie was chosen as the leader. Misty reveals how upset Shauna was, and after everything Shauna had done for the group, she would be right to feel slighted. After Misty steps away, Shauna seems distraught. Taissa’s redirect reminds everyone that Shauna was not only a hero but that Coach had left her while she was giving birth. Shauna believes that Ben is upset that he is not “one of them,” and unlike him, they’ve fought to stay alive.
Adult Taissa and Van follow the man who picked up the card. Misty checks in with Svetlana when she sees a letter on the counter. She believes Walter (Elijah Wood) left her a note, but when Svetlana says it’s a note to a comptroller, Misty leaves. She then gets angry when she sees Shauna enjoying the tapioca “punishment,” going as far as to fantasize about stabbing Shauna. Misty leaves the kitchen and, on her way out, steals the letter (as well as a few puzzle pieces) from Svetlana. Adult Lottie practices apologies in a mirror. She “has a lot to apologize for” but does not mention a name.
Teen Misty speaks to Lottie about the group’s lack of belief before they were thrown into the Wilderness. After Misty runs through many of the other women who did not initially believe in her mysticism. With that disbelief, even Lottie could have considered burning down the cabin to punish those who did not follow her. Lottie agrees that would have been possible. Misty asks the group how to convict Coach Ben when there’s so much doubt. Shauna steps up next to Taissa, and tells her that Natalie knew where Ben was hiding but did not tell the group. They exchange glances, realizing it is time to question Nat.
Shauna brings the tapioca into the walk-in freezer at the old folks’ home. However, when she slips on the floor, she hears the doors close behind her. She tries knocking, and when no one answers, she tries to break the handle. As she begins worrying about the cold, she hallucinates Jackie (Ella Purnell) is in the freezer.
Taissa and Van sneak into the building where the man entered. They continue to follow and soon realize the door to the man’s apartment is unlocked. Taissa takes it as a sign, and Van grows worried. Taissa tells Van she needs more time with Van, and Van tells her they should not kill the man. Taissa lets go of the door handle and leaves the building, telling Van to meet her in one hour.
In the past, Taissa calls Natalie to the stand as a witness. Misty objects, but Natalie sees no problem with it. Taissa asks Natalie when the last time she saw Coach was, and Natalie reveals she saw him after the Wilderness chose Javi, but before the cabin burned down. Taissa presses her on the timeline, especially if she suspected Coach after he disappeared. The cabin burned after he saw what they did to Javi, and they should question that.
Natalie reveals that anything could have caused the fire. However, Taissa reveals that Natalie knew where Coach Scott was located. The trial turns against Natalie quickly as the girls grow furious with her choice to withhold that from the group. After Taissa finishes her cross-examination, Misty calls Coach Ben to the stand.
In the old folks home, Jeff shows off a Christopher Walken impression to the men and women. They tell Randy to get some snacks and more games. Shauna continues to call out from the freezer as Jackie berates her. Jackie believes it’s Karma that she should freeze to death after everything that happened. She also tells Shauna that someone is trying to kill her, but instead of doing anything, she’s passively letting it happen. Jackie tells Shauna she’s the only interesting thing that ever happened to her and disappears. Randy opens the freezer, and Shauna runs out. She tries to blame Misty, but the other volunteer reveals Misty left hours ago.
Teen Misty cross-examines Coach Ben about his time coaching the team. She asks why he stayed with the team for nine years if he hated them all so much, and Ben says that their talent helped elevate him as a potential coach. Misty pushes it again, and he admits he likes teaching them because they are relentless underdogs. He reminds them of all the times he covered for them and then admits he wanted to look out for them.
Misty wants to know why he left them in the woods. Ben admits that he was a coward and scared that he might have been next. He apologizes directly to Shauna for leaving her alone. He ends on the note that what they’ve done to survive was incredible. He’s sorry he does not understand the belief system they’ve adopted, but he would never try to kill them. Misty rests her case.
Jeff returns home and asks where Shauna went. When he turns into the kitchen, he sees Shauna holding a cat. She tells him that she found this cat in a shelter in New York City because the old people were bumming her out. Jeff thinks it’s the cat from the flyer from earlier, but Shauna reveals it’s definitely not. Even so, they can tell the family that their cat has returned, and they can earn Karma that way. Jeff seems skeptical but lets Shauna have it.
Adult Van and Taissa walk through New York. Van is initially confused, but Taissa buys a pretzel and arranges for a Horse-drawn carriage. Van finds it adorable, and they buy the pretzels. However, Van’s hand starts to shake when they buy them. Taissa takes notice, and they walk to the carriage.
The voting commences, but the different sides do not budge. After several rounds of voting, Shauna lashes out at everyone, again imploring them to vote for guilty. The wind swirls and finally flips three votes — Travis, Lottie, and Akilah. Natalie pronounces Travis guilty. Melissa (Jenna Burgess) tells Shauna that she wields incredible power. Lottie walks over to Travis and sees him drawn on a sheet of bark. The image displays one body floating over three others. He calls it “The Outcome.”
At her home, adult Misty looks at the letter she stole from Svetlana. At first, she cannot find any notes from Walter, so she jumps on the internet to search the forums. Simultaneously, she receives a text from Walter, telling her something happened to Lottie. Misty scrolls and finds Lottie has fallen down a flight of stairs. Her body is at a crime scene, surrounded by candles.
Was “12 Angry Girls and 1 Drunk Travis” — Season 3, Episode 4 of Yellowjackets — worth watching?
Most of the power in Yellowjackets has come from the emotional heft of the story. Once again, the writers can tap into that vein with “12 Angry Girls and 1 Drunk Travis” ranking among the most intriguing episodes to date. While the past storyline centers entirely around the intense emotions of the Coach Ben trial, the present-day story features more subtle work on the edges.
In the past, Shauna flexes incredible power, seemingly shifting the literal Wilderness to her side. Doing so surprises even Lottie but makes for an important shift in the tribe’s culture. Simultaneously, Natalie loses credibility in her defense of Coach and obstruction to finding him. With the power shifting quickly, we could see civil war within the groups sooner than expected.
Meanwhile, Shauna in “12 Angry Girls” is a far more tepid person. We’ve seen her make big moves throughout Yellowjackets, but her fear of what might be happening to her seems to make her timid. Unlike the other women, Shauna does not want to believe something is actively trying to kill her, whether that is the Wilderness or something else. Tellingly, we lose track of Shauna for a short time in “12 Angry Girls,” which causes her to head to New York.
This brings us to the most pressing mystery of “12 Angry Girls.” Who killed adult Lottie, and why did they do it? She fell down a flight of stairs, but we have no idea who would have killed her. Additionally, we know that Lottie felt the need to apologize to someone, which has been uncommon in Yellowjackets. Meanwhile, Shaua drove into New York for the day. Was there another friend from the Yellowjackets we have not met in the current timeline? And if they were involved in killing Lottie in “12 Angry Girls,” did Shauna try to help cover up Lottie’s death with the adoption of the cat?
The real standouts in “12 Angry Girls” are the “teens.” Thatcher gets a starring role in this episode and owns the screen during the questions. Savoy Brown and Nélisse also soar in the dramatic tension of the trial. Hanratty unlocks something special in her relationship with Krueger, and the two make for brilliant scene partners. The modern-day story in Yellowjackets is fine, but no one gets enough material to showcase their best. One could argue that the Purnell and Lynskey showdown in “12 Angry Girls” was exciting, but it did not quite reach the level of Purnell’s surprise appearance in the last episode.
Watch Yellowjackets on Showtime and Paramount+. New episodes are released on Friday mornings on Paramount+. “12 Angry Girls and 1 Drunk Travis” first streamed on February 28, and airs on Showtime on March 2.
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