Feb. 14 marked the premiere of season 3 of Yellowjackets. Since the first two episodes debuted, an episode airs every Friday. From the show’s inception, fans have speculated whether the mysterious happenings in the woods are due to a supernatural force, or a collective group hallucination induced by the girls’ being traumatized by their plane crashing and subsequent struggle to survive in the Canadian wilderness. The first three episodes of the new season give reasoning into both sides of the argument, leading many viewers to wonder: Madness or Monster?
Monster
The competing fan theory for the weird happenings in the woods is that elements of the show are supernatural. Now, this has been alluded to many times by the show itself but, given the state of the girls’ mental health, it cannot, as of right now, be taken as fact. As soon as the Yellowjackets find the cabin in the woods early in season 1, they begin to notice odd things about their surroundings, specifically in relation to the previous resident of their new home, who they affectionately name “cabin guy.”
The mysterious symbol found in a multitude of places surrounding the cabin, the séance gone wrong, the odd sounds coming from the woods: these all lend credibility to the “monster” theory. Again, the writers of the show further toy with this idea in the first three episodes of season 3. The eerie noises from the woods seem to join into a collective, concentrated voice. Several times throughout the season, an inhuman screeching sound is heard initially by one of the characters before the rest in the group hear it too. Advocates for this theory confidently assert that this is the writers’ way of signifying that, at least in some capacity, elements of the supernatural are at play. If so, this would account for some of the more unexplainable events of Yellowjackets.
Madness
As previously stated, a large subset of the Yellowjackets fandom, myself included, think that the odd and off-putting elements of the show are caused by the girls’ trauma. They’ve survived a plane crash, watched their fellow teammates die, and tended to each other’s injuries with little to no medical experience. Not to mention being forced to survive in the wilderness in the middle of a Canadian winter. Given their inability to access mental health resources, it would make sense that their coping mechanisms would help them grasp the sheer horror of their situation.
One interesting thing that fans of the show have noticed in season 3 is the yellow filter in certain scenes, mainly on those of the girls camp. The aptly named Yellow Filter theory suggests that scenes with the filter show an idealized version of the Yellowjacket’s reality with the hope that as the season progresses, viewers will get to see what their lodgings, and the other aspects of their lives, truly look like. Part of this theory stems from a tangential theory about the girls residing near mining territory and, therefore, are experiencing hallucinations due to exposure to mercuric gas. One of the symptoms of mercury poisoning is a yellow tint to one’s eyes.
This theory has especially gained traction with what’s been revealed in episode 3 of the new season. When the girls search for Coach Ben in the cave, they each have hallucinations. In the final minutes of the episode, it is revealed that there’s gas within the cave, which caused their visions. Fans reacted to this theory with both trepidation and excitement. The notion of a gas leak (potentially of a mercuric nature) exacerbating the symptoms of untreated emotional trauma certainly adds fuel to the fire for the “madness” theory.
These theories leave fans to wonder, are the strange occurrences due to the girls’ response to their traumatic experiences? Or is there really a supernatural entity in the woods with them? While I tend to lean more towards the madness argument, I can definitely see the reasoning for the monster argument. Regardless of your stance, one thing is for certain: this debate will be investigated, on both sides, throughout the various twists and turns sure to come in the remainder of season 3.