‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3: Release Date, Cast, Trailers

Adult Nat (Lewis) was killed when she was accidentally and lethally dosed by her friend and fellow survivor Misty (played by Ricci in the present-day timeline). The death came as a major blow to viewers, and the decision to kill off a leading character with Lewis’ star-wattage was no easy decision for the creative team. However, Nat’s death had been foreshadowed since the beginning.

“Something I know the showrunners had always thought about from the pilot was that mysterious moment when Natalie hallucinates Misty at the kegger in the woods,” director and EP Karyn Kusama, who directed both the pilot and the season two finale, told The Hollywood Reporter of the scene where Natalie has taken drugs and sees Misty, or thinks she sees Misty, staring at her across a party that she never would have been invited to. “That was always this time-defying flash-forward to the notion that Misty was always going to be kind of an angel of death for Natalie.”

Devoted Yellowjackets viewers have pored over that first-ever episode and “pit girl” flash-forward scene with the always-looming question: How will this team of teenage soccer players arrive at the ritualistic cannibalism that had been promised?

The second season gradually answered that. Following the early feast of their late star player Jackie (Ella Purnell), the end of the season showed how the starving survivors arrived at their decision to sacrifice Javi (Luciano Leroux) and crown young Nat (played by Thatcher) the “Antler Queen” in the 1996 wilderness, just as adult Nat’s untimely death in the present-day storyline was playing out.

As it turns out, the pilot also hinted that Nat would become Antler Queen, which is the show’s most tragic twist to date. “All this time, it was Natalie who was crowned the successor to Lottie (Courtney Eaton). And she’s been carrying this terrible shame of taking on that role. What has she done?” said Kusama of Nat’s ultimate fate. “The fact that was part of her guilt was such a surprise to me. Of course, she’s so much a part of it that she hates herself for it. And that was something that I felt bound the two seasons together, from pilot to this finale.”

Viewers last saw adult Nat somewhere in between life and death, taking her last breath after being confronted by her younger self (in her and Thatcher’s first scene together) on an empty airplane. “There are some people who say, I don’t think she was ready at all. And then there are some who say, she’s been really ready,” said Kusama of different interpretations. Lewis, for her part, told THR, “I thought they wrapped up the characters really beautifully, and I just love good writing, so I was happy to be a part of it.” She also left the door open for a return, perhaps in ghost form: “I don’t know anything … but I think that’s a good idea. We’ll see what happens.”

In addition to the shocking ending in the show’s present day, the past timeline of the 1996 wilderness story also left several bodies in its wake — including Shauna’s (Nelisse) stillborn baby — and left Coach’s fate up in the air as the teens eye him for setting the blaze to their home.