ShowtimeYellowjackets Season 3 has made its long-awaited debut, but there are still eight more episodes to go, meaning anything can happen both in the past and the present. Just as is the case with Season 2, there are plenty of theories about what might unfold next.
A lot happened at the end of Season 2. In the ’90s, the girls went full cannibal mode in a bid to survive, and we started to see how they digressed from being regular high schoolers to ritualistic hunters. By the finale, Shauna’s baby had died, Javi became the latest sacrifice, and Nat was named the new leader. Oh, and their cabin burned down.
In the present day, the Yellowjackets survivors all came together at Lottie’s commune, seemingly to get her some help. However, the night descended into an old school hunt, culminating in Misty accidentally killing her bestie, Natalie.
Season 3 Episode 1 jumps forward in time, showcasing the aftermath of these events. But what happens next? While we can be certain, we can speculated – here are the best Yellowjackets Season 3 theories we’ve found.
Coach Ben is alive in the present day
It may seem like we’ve met all the survivors — after all, their current numbers matches the number of figures we saw walking to the plane at the beginning of Season 2. However, the show may be tricking us. Remember when we thought Van hadn’t survived? Season 3 has teased another survivor (more on this next), but some believe coach Ben is still alive in the present day.
One fan in particular explained in a TikTok how Ben may have survived and gone into hiding, faking his own death so that the girls wouldn’t hunt him down or turn him into the authorities.
As we saw in Season 3 Episode 1, Ben is still alive in the wilderness, having decided to run away from the girls after they started, well, eating each other. Whether he is still alive by the time the rescue team show up is yet to be seen.
Melissa is a red herring
ShowtimeIn Yellowjackets Season 3 Episode 2, it’s heavily implied that Melissa survived the wilderness. However, a theory has emerged that this is just to throw us off the scene, and that the mystery person stalking adult Shauna is actually a relative of Melissa’s.
You see, in the premiere, someone with blonde hair (or a wig) turns up to Shauna’s house and leaves a tape outside, although Callie finds it first and pockets it. Then, in the second episode, a mystery person stalks Shauna while she’s out for a work dinner with Jeff. Although Shauna never gets a glimpse of who they are, they leave their phone, which she hands in at the restaurant.
Later on, Shauna calls the restaurant to find out if anyone came to pick it up. They did, and she asks them what the person looked like. Cut in between this is a scene from the ’90s timeline, where Shauna threatens Melissa, only for the pair to start passionately kissing.
Although it’s implied Melissa is still alive and kicking in the present, one Redditor suggested, “For real though, I still think Mel is gonna die… So far all the main characters we care about (minus Ben, though some people dislike him) are confirmed to survive so this season will likely have a lot of character building so that we care when the side-girlies go.
“A Shaunahat romance will definitely lend itself to developing her character, so the alluding that Mel is an eighth survivor in the second episode I think is a red herring.” The reason being that Hilary Swank is confirmed to be playing a recurring character in Season 3.
“Personally, I think Hilary Swank will be playing a sister or some other relation if they are even connected, in big part because the eye color doesn’t match with Jenna Burgess and they use contacts for damn-near every other teen-adult pair so I don’t see them leaving one outlier like that,” they continued.
“Plus it will be so much more spicy, I feel, to have Shauna have this whirlwind romance in the wilderness and then still have Melissa die same as the others, and how Shauna may or may not care/react to it. A scorned lover randomly coming back after 25+ years to enact some sort of revenge? That just doesn’t really jive with me, but we’ll see how they go about it!”
There are other survivors
Paramount+Considering that the Yellowjackets are seemingly destined to split into clans, there would need to be a lot of humans to hunt. Not only that, but many assume that the hair attached to the Antler Queen’s cloak is that of the group’s victims. But both of these factors create a logistical problem: there doesn’t appear to be enough survivors.
Therefore, some fans have theorized that there are more survivors out there, and they’re potentially the ones who carved the symbols.
There could even be extra survivors from the initial plane crash; when we look at how many people are in the above picture, we could guess that a group stayed near the plane, instead of going to the cabin with the other Yellowjackets, as that group seems much smaller.
Another theory is that there is a community or a town not too far away from where the girls are. Why else would there be a used cabin in the middle of the woods? True, it’s likely they would have been found by now if civilization wasn’t far away, but then again, they have to get rescued somehow – this could be a plausible way that they do.
There is no supernatural “it”
The official plot of the show states: “Wildly talented high school girls’ soccer players descend into savage clans after their plane crashes in the remote northern wilderness. 25 years later, they discover that what began in the wild is far from over. They brought the darkness back with them.”
From the moment we saw Lottie save her parents with a premonition, a question has been asked: is any of this real? We see cryptic symbols, birds fall from the sky, and teddy bears magically catch on fire, things which are hard to explain, and are ultimately chalked up to the supernatural concept of the darkness, or “it”, as it’s referred to in Yellowjackets Season 3.
However, while the girls believe that the darkness of the wilderness latched onto them, perhaps it was always inside them. The girls’ backstories show how trauma and conflict was already a huge part of their lives.
Perhaps it was hunger, PTSD, or just the sheer toxicity of being stuck with your frenemies for over a year, and maybe everything supernatural we’ve seen has been all in the girls’ heads. The darkness has just been them, all along.
Natalie is the Antler Queen… but she won’t be the only one
ShowtimeIt’s one of the horror show’s biggest mysteries: who is the Antler Queen we see in the flash-forward scenes? An obvious choice right now is Natalie. After all, she is the new leader of the group, having cheated death during the hunt, and is a fine hunter.
Another theory is that the Queen isn’t a fixed person – they could be the individual the group plans to sacrifice next. After all, that person is chosen by drawing the Queen of Hearts card.
For now, all we can do is speculate, but there are some clues. Judging by height, it could be coach Ben or Travis under those robes, while others believe it’s Lottie. Only time will tell.
Mari is (still) the Pit Girl
Paramount+This theory has been the most popular among fans, and has been (somewhat) taken as gospel since the opening episode of Yellowjackets. In the very first scene, we see a girl with long dark hair, dressed in a nightgown and wearing Jackie’s iconic heart necklace, fall into a pit with spikes at the bottom.
As the girl takes her final breath, we see a masked individual walking over to check she’s dead. It’s clear that whoever she is, she’s set to be the team’s next meal.
Now, we do know that Jackie’s necklace has become something of a bad omen after we watched Shauna put it around Natalie before attempting to slit her throat. So, regardless of who the pit girl is, one thing is clear: you wear the heart, you get your heart eaten.
Up until now, it’s been believed the pit girl is Mari, and this is still going strong due to the similarities between the two in their appearance. The opening sequence of Season 3 Episode 1 – aptly titled ‘It Girl’ – even gives a nod to the scene, and it’s Mari who’s being hunted.
We soon find out she’s not running for her life – she’s actually playing a game of ‘catch the bone’. But it’s interesting that they chose her to reenact this scene. Maybe it’s a dose of haunting foreshadowing (or another red herring).
Van still believes in the darkness, just like Lottie
Paramount+Van became somewhat of a worrying character in Season 2. It’s clear that she fully believes what Lottie says in the ’90s timeline and shows very little remorse about the deaths of others if it means her own survival.
When we first meet her in adulthood, Van seems to have mellowed out and doesn’t buy into Lottie’s frame of thinking anymore. However, maybe she still does.
For starters, she won’t let the others leave Lottie’s compound before they explain everything to her. Secondly, once the Yellowjackets have prepared a fake hunt to placate Lottie while they call mental health services, Van convinces Tai to call the services off, saying only they can help Lottie.
This seems illogical, unless you consider the fact that Van could still very much be in the grip of the darkness. It would explain her expressions when she sees Lottie for the first and last time, and considering how deep she got into it back in her teenage years, perhaps she’s just better at hiding her beliefs.
Yellowjackets Season 3 Episodes 1-2 are streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime now, with Episode 3 set to drop on February 21. You can also read about the true story the show is based on.
In the meantime, check out our 2025 TV show release calendar and make sure you check out what’s dropping during Dexerto’s We LOVE TV & Movies week.
