How That Lottie and Travis Moment Foreshadows Their Present-Day Deaths in ‘Yellowjackets’

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Yellowjackets Season 3, Episode 8.After last season of Yellowjackets ended with the tragic death of Nat (Juliette Lewis), it looked like the rest of the Yellowjackets in the adult timeline would be safe for a while. It was always clear that the past timeline would have more deaths before they got rescued, but there didn’t seem to be any reason for the others to die any time soon in the present day. As of Season 3, though, the adult timeline has seen the major deaths of two Yellowjackets: first, Lottie (Simone Kessell), and now, most recently, Van (Lauren Ambrose).

In the teen timeline, things are darker than ever, ever since Hannah (Ashley Sutton), Edwin (Nelson Franklin), and Kodiak (Joel McHale) arrived to find the Yellowjackets eating Ben’s (Steven Krueger) body while singing and dancing around his severed head. This was the moment that made it seem like even if they did get rescued, there really was no going back – made even worse after Lottie (Courtney Eaton) murdered Edwin. Then, Lottie fought against the idea of going back home and being rescued, shortly followed by Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) and Tai (Jasmin Savoy Brown). Now, an intense moment between Lottie and Travis (Kevin Alves) in the past timeline seems to be foreshadowing and giving more context to Travis’ (Andres Soto) death, and to some extent Lottie’s as well, in the present timeline.

In ‘Yellowjackets’ Latest Episode, Travis Tries to Kill Lottie

In this week’s episode of Yellowjackets, things are very tense in the past timeline, due to the fight over whether to accept rescue. Shauna is at the head of it, using fear as a way to control everyone around her, especially after she takes the gun from Nat. Tai tries to use logic related to the concern of people finding out what they did, and Lottie insists that the wilderness wants them there. Travis is especially desperate to go back home, to the point where, last week, he tried to just leave with Kodi and Akilah (Nia Sondaya). This week, he finds the pit trap in the woods, and he comes up with a plan.

Travis tells Lottie that when he was walking around in the woods, he felt a rush in his body, where it seemed like the wilderness was trying to talk to him. He uses it to lure her into the woods where the pit is. While there, Travis finally confronts her. He tells her that she’s ruining their chance of being rescued, and that her connection to the wilderness is not real. Although it’s not confirmed, Lottie seems to know what Travis is trying to do. She tells him that she believes that Javi (Luciano Leroux) is still with them, and then she channels the wilderness before walking right into the pit trap. Lottie then stays in the air, and the sticks and leaves carry her weight, as the wilderness protects her. It seems like Lottie walked out there so that Travis would regain his faith in her and the wilderness, although his desire to go home may turn out to be stronger.

‘Yellowjackets’ Parallels Travis’ Attempted Murder of Lottie With His Own Death

In the present timeline, Lottie already told Nat the details of Travis’ death last season. Still haunted by the wilderness, Travis came to Lottie for help. His plan was to die briefly and then come back so that he would finally be free of it, but the button broke on the lever meant to lower him back down, and Lottie couldn’t save him. Lottie is not the sort of person who would have lied about what happened, but the broken button always seemed like too much of a coincidence. The explanation that always made the most sense was that the wilderness didn’t let her save him. Now, with the context of Travis trying to kill Lottie back in the past, this possibility seems even more likely. The wilderness operates based on balance and the exchange of a life for a life, so perhaps it took Travis’ life in the present because it chose to save Lottie’s life that day.

Even as Travis tried to kill Lottie back then, he still reached out to her for help 25 years later. It would make sense if seeing Lottie survive the pit trap restored Travis’ faith, and got him to believe in her and her connection to the wilderness again. As it stands, in the past timeline, it doesn’t seem like the conflict between wilderness versus reality is over for Travis and Lottie. While seeing her survive the pit trap could be enough to restore his faith in her, he could also keep fighting his ties to the wilderness. The timing of Lottie being saved coincides perfectly with the Yellowjackets losing their chance of escaping the wilderness, so it’s also understandable that Travis would blame her even more so now.

Did Lottie’s Death in ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Restore the Balance of When the Wilderness Saved Her?

In Season 2, the past timeline showed Nat being chosen to die, but Javi dying in her place after falling into the frozen lake in an attempt to help her. In the following episode, adult Nat died. Although it was 25 years later, there seemed to be this idea of balance being enacted. Many of the Yellowjackets believed that the wilderness saved Nat back then, and while it was more complicated than that, this act was reversed with her death in the following episode. Lottie’s death just felt off this whole season. It was very sudden, and she didn’t get a death scene like the other adult Yellowjackets.

While Lottie’s death still feels unearned, this scene between Lottie and Travis in the past provides some really interesting context. The wilderness actually seemed to save her back then, and not in a way that could be passed off as the Yellowjackets simply justifying their own actions. There is just no other explanation for why Lottie didn’t fall in the pit. Her survival in the scene with Travis cements the inevitability of her eventual death, because, like with Nat, the wilderness seems to later seek to restore balance by taking the lives it once saved. It’s looking now like Callie (Sarah Desjardins) was probably the one who killed Lottie, but whatever the specific details are, the wilderness clearly played a role in her death – 25 years after it prevented it.

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