I Still Have Questions After The Yellowjackets Finale…

Spoilers for season 3 of Yellowjackets ahead! You have been warned!

Season 3 of the hit TV show Yellowjackets just finished and oh boy what a season it was!! In just nine weeks, we got canon girlkisser Shauna after years of speculation, the first sighting of outsiders in the year since the plane crash, the subsequent death of two out of three of the outsiders, the rise to power of Shauna “Bisexual Stalin” Shipman, and the first real hope of rescue for the Yellowjackets. Not to mention the deaths of FOUR characters who we have known since the pilot, two in the 1997 timeline and two in the 2021 timeline.

But despite this insane influx of information, we still don’t have all of the information! From small, innocuous details to seemingly massive plot threads, we’ve been left hanging and scrambling for answers.

Obviously we can assume that at least some of these will be answered in the upcoming seasons of the show (pending the renewal of seasons 4 and 5 as was the creators’ original plan), but given the every-two-years release schedule so far, there’s nothing left to do but speculate while we wait.

So now I present to you, my questions:

First up, perhaps not the most important question but I need to know, where is Akilah? Last seen in the finale after sacrificing her livestock to prompt a Hunt, she went down to the caves to confront Lottie, picked up a big rock, started having a crisis of faith and then… nothing? While we see Lottie multiple times throughout the rest of the episode, Akilah is nowhere to be found! My big fear in the moment was that she was going to bash her own head in with the rock after deciding that she didn’t want to be a conduit for bringing The Wilderness back to civilisation, and I still worry that season 4 will start with the discovery of her body. Stay safe my princess!!

On a related note, where in the world was Evans Johnson?? First reported to be joining the cast back in October 2024 by fan-run Twitter (X) account @buzzbuzzdaily, a fair amount of speculation was had on who she would be playing, with many sure that she would play adult Akilah in the 2021 timeline. Given that

a) Akilah’s fate hasn’t been explicitly revealed yet,

b) Nia Sondaya (Teen Akilah) was the only cast member who followed her back on Instagram, and

c) Johnson would often infer that this was true by interacting with fans who DM’d her and even posting a season-wrap gift on her IG story, it seemed more and more likely every day.

And yet, with the whole season now released she is nowhere to be found! Who knows what happened, especially with Johnson hinting at it herself, but @buzzbuzzdaily has since deleted the original tweet and apologised for the confusion.

@buzzbuzzdaily ‘s original announcement tweet and subsequent apology

Think back to February, if you can, and remember episode two. While we were all freaking out about the shaunahat kiss (Shauna and Melissa - a character known for her hat), something else piqued my interest too: who the hell was coach Ben talking to in the cave??

While holding Mari captive after going on the run from the rest of the team, we hear him talking to someone off screen about what to do with his newfound captive. And then we never hear about it again, except for an easily-missed throwaway line in episode three. So who was he talking to??? We later found out that a nearby cave was filled with a hallucination-inducing gas, so that could explain it, but my thoughts go elsewhere. There was a similar plot thread in the previous season when Javi - the youngest son of the team’s head coach - had gone missing and was later found to be living in the same cave system where Ben was. When Javi came back to the team he didn’t speak much, except for a few cryptic lines about a mysterious “she” who told him not to come back. Could this be the same “she” that Ben was talking to? If so, who is she? Hopefully there are answers to come.

Walter, what’s your deal? That’s it. That’s my question. Last season he was a quirky guy who could match Mitsy’s freak and her wit, and that was about it. This season it felt like they were trying to add some more dimension to him, but I could never tell in what direction. At times it felt like he had the purest of intentions and was only being framed as the antagonist thanks to the freakishly intertwined lives of the adult Yellowjackets. But at other times I was sure that he was maliciously driving a wedge between the women, even going so far as to murder them or frame them for murder. It seems that the show has settled on the former, but I still can’t shake the feeling that his vibes are a little bit rancid.

My next question is less a question and more me being excited for next season, but I must know what Shauna’s next move is in the adult timeline! The note she wrote at the end of the finale was completely unhinged and I have no clue where it will lead but damn am I excited. Like, girl, “we were the most alive we’ve ever been, we were having so much fun”???? This speech being juxtaposed with images of her brutally hunting down, butchering, and eating her teammate while the rest of them cried and plotted to overthrow her? If that’s Shauna’s idea of fun, I am worried for the residents of Wiskayok, New Jersey to say the least.

Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) as the newly crowned Antler Queen in the 1997 timeline | Paramount +

And of course, the big overarching question of the show, are the supernatural forces of The Wilderness real, or are they just traumatised teenagers huffing cave fumes and eating shrooms?

By the end of last season I was so sure that it was supernatural, and honestly, I thought that anyone who didn't believe was being willfully ignorant. But now? Despite being presented with more supernatural evidence than ever, I have never been more sure that everything going on has a psychological or physical explanation. The biggest dent against my rationale comes from the adult timeline: Van getting a call from the real Tai… on a disconnected phone sitting in a cardboard box. That one really trips me up. The two-second Tai vs Other Tai fight in episode nine? I can easily attribute that to being a creative way to show an internal struggle. But a phone call? To someone else? That one is a bit more tricky…

I’m sure that over the coming weeks, months, and years - most likely years - as we digest, rewatch, and redigest season 3, there will be more questions. But for now, these are the ones that have my brain burning.

What about you? How did you feel about the season? Comment below your questions and theories as we start the long wait for season 4.