‘Yellowjackets’ Is Finally Doing Something Interesting With [SPOILER]

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for the finale of Yellowjackets Season 3.

From the very beginning of Yellowjackets, Callie (Sarah Desjardins) has been a curious character. When we first meet her, she’s a typical teenager. She’s cold, grumpy, and defiant towards her parents, especially Shauna (Melanie Lynskey). Come Season 2, and she softens a little as Shauna finally begins to let her in on the secrets from her past, and Callie sees those secrets firsthand when she interrupts the hunt at Lottie’s (Simone Kessell) compound. This season, it seems as though she and Shauna may be on a path to some sort of understanding. That is, until Lottie shows up on their doorstep, which immediately freaks Shauna out as Callie grows close to her. Then Lottie dies, and Shauna begins thinking everyone and everything is against her and personally targeting her, which causes her and Callie’s budding mother-daughter relationship to go back to square one.

This has been the same cycle for three seasons of Yellowjackets when it comes to Callie. She and Shauna have moments of vulnerability, but then something happens to make Callie question her mom once again, putting them back several paces. But finally, Season 3 decided to add an extra twist to Callie’s character by making her Lottie’s murderer. Sure, she didn’t intend to kill Lottie, so she’s not a cold-blooded murderer. Regardless, Callie now has a body count, and it makes her infinitely more interesting, especially since she’s looped Jeff (Warren Kole) in on the crime. This immediately sets her character up for a storyline far more fascinating than we’ve seen so far, and it’s about time.

Callie Is Revealed To Be Lottie’s Murderer in the Season 3 Finale of ‘Yellowjackets’

Ever since the show released the jaw-dropping cliffhanger in Episode 4 that Lottie Matthews had died, fans have been speculating about who could’ve killed her. It was initially ruled an accident since it looked like she had just fallen down the stairs, but her fellow Yellowjackets knew there was something more sinister at play. Misty (Christina Ricci) is the one who figures it out, of course, when she sees a picture on Lottie’s phone of Callie wearing Jackie’s (Ella Purnell) necklace. Callie practically word-vomits her admission of guilt to Misty and tells her how it all went down.

It happened in a fit of rage, though it wasn’t initially a charged conversation. Callie originally shows up to get the tape back from Lottie after she swiped it from Callie’s room when she left. Instead of giving it back, Lottie promises to tell Callie anything she wants to know, and Callie tearfully asks if Shauna just doesn’t love her. That’s when Lottie explains that Shauna is still haunted by “It” and starts referring to Callie as “It’s child”, which understandably freaks her out. Lottie tells Callie that Shauna can’t love her because she’s jealous of her, and that she’s exactly like Shauna, only more. This is Callie’s final straw, and in a fit of rage and fear, she shoves Lottie, sending her flying backward down the stairs to her death.

Callie Just Became a Far More Interesting Character in ‘Yellowjackets’

Callie shoving Lottie to her death in anger ends up proving Lottie’s exact point: She’s just like Shauna. Shauna often lets her anger get the better of her. She leads with her emotions, not her head, as seen in Season 2 when she lets out all of said anger by beating up Lottie. Tensions were high in the wilderness, and understandably so. Since they were literally stranded in the middle of nowhere, these kinds of actions almost felt inevitable. But up until this point, Callie had been a relatively innocent character, so her being the murderer was a huge shake-up for Yellowjackets. Yes, Callie is a moody teenager with an attitude and a crappy relationship with her mom, but that’s not uncommon for a teenager, and certainly not for a teenager with a mother like Shauna. Outside of being a stereotypical teenager and constantly craving affection and answers from Shauna, Callie’s character has been given little depth.

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‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Ending Explained: Pit Girl and Antler Queen Are Finally Revealed

Some of our biggest questions are finally answered.

Her being the one to kill Lottie, despite seeming to admire her and even viewing her as a friend at the beginning of Season 3, is blindsiding and brilliant. Not to mention, she’s told Jeff now, so he’s complicit in her crimes, and they’ve seemingly fled town. This reveal makes Callie so much more interesting, and it’s far overdue. She’s always had the potential to be a fascinating character, being that she’s the same age that Shauna was when she got in the crash, which gives her a unique perspective to understand what it was like for her mother. However, the show rarely taps into that aspect.

Now, hopefully, with this reveal hanging over the characters, there will be a lot more for Callie to say and do next season in an effort to keep the truth from coming out. Not to mention, Shauna seemingly hinted at returning to old ways herself, if her comment of “Taking it all back” was anything to go by. With this information, it seems like there’s a good chance we may finally see the Sadeckis go head-to-head. Season 3 has also been hinting at this, as we’ve seen not only Callie but Jeff slowly start to drift in his loyalty to Shauna, even referring to her as “unhinged” to potential business partners. Something is certainly brewing, and with Callie as the catalyst, who knows how it will play out?

Yellowjackets

Release Date

November 14, 2021

Network

Showtime, Paramount+ with Showtime

Showrunner

Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, Jonathan Lisco

Directors

Benjamin Semanoff, Daisy von Scherler Mayer, Deepa Mehta, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Liz Garbus, Scott Winant, Eva Sørhaug, Jamie Travis

Writers

Liz Phang, Sarah L. Thompson, Ameni Rozsa