What Lottie’s Scene Means In Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Finale

Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Yellowjackets season 3, episode 10, “Full Circle.”A Callie Sadecki (Sarah Desjardins) and Lottie Matthews (Simone Kessell) scene raises intriguing questions about the wilderness in the Yellowjackets season 3 finale. Ever since Lottie saw Callie for the first time during Yellowjackets season 2’s ending, she has been fascinated by her. When Lottie stayed at the Sadecki house early in season 3, she and Callie appeared to be growing closer to each other, but their relationship came to an abrupt end after Lottie was found dead at the end of Yellowjackets season 3, episode 4.

Misty Quigley (Christina Ricci) has been at the forefront of investigating what happened to Lottie, as she does not believe that her former teammate’s death was an accident. The evidence that Misty and Walter Tattersall (Elijah Wood) found seemed to prove that Callie’s mother, Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), is Lottie’s killer. Instead, it turns out that Callie accidentally killed Lottie. The DNA found under Lottie’s fingernails was assumed to belong to Shauna, but only because mothers and daughters share mitochondrial DNA. More importantly, what Lottie says before her death has significant implications for Yellowjackets‘ future.

What Callie Being The “Child” Of The Wilderness Really Means

Lottie Has A Unique Perspective

Callie goes to meet Lottie because she stole the recording sent to Shauna. Lottie is convinced that the tape is only Callie’s excuse for coming, and that she is really there to better understand her mother. This leads to Lottie talking about how the wilderness lives strongly in both Shauna and Callie and that Callie is a child of the wilderness. Lottie points to Callie firing the gun in the Yellowjackets season 2 finale and drugging Misty earlier in season 3 as examples of the wilderness living inside her, and that she is a child of that place.

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From Lottie’s perspective, Callie is the culmination of everything that happened in the wilderness after Yellowjackets‘ plane crash. Lottie refers to the baby that teenage Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) lost as “our baby” and that the wilderness sent Callie instead. In Callie, Lottie sees all the same rage and need for power that lived in Shauna. All these factors mean that even though Callie was not born in the wilderness, she represents what Lottie sees as its defining features, and is essentially a better version of what Shauna was during her time out there.

Why The Wilderness Wants Shauna’s Children So Badly

The Wilderness Demands Sacrifice

According to the world through Lottie’s eyes, the wilderness is fixated on Shauna’s children and demands a great deal from them. It took Shauna’s first child, and now, Lottie sees Callie as a living embodiment of the wilderness. Since Lottie sees the wilderness living through Shauna, it makes sense that she thinks this power would reside in her children as well. Lottie thinks sacrifice is the answer to everything, which can explain why she believes the wilderness took Shauna’s first child. Now, the second child, Callie, has a responsibility to be the predator instead of being the prey.

After being rescued, it is suggested that all of Yellowjackets‘ survivors except for Lottie lost touch with the wilderness, and that includes Shauna. The parts of Shauna that thrived in the wilderness dimmed within her and instead passed down to Callie. This is how Lottie sees things, as she uses her twisted belief in the wilderness in an attempt to cope with reality, and Yellowjackets continues to blur the lines between whether there is any validity to it or if it is the result of unresolved trauma and preexisting medical issues.

Did The Wilderness Make Callie Kill Lottie?

Callie Had Agency In Her Decision

Callie’s fear, anger, and the problematic example Shauna has set for her are what primarily contribute to Lottie’s death. Callie is understandably scared and hurt by Lottie’s words, and as Lottie gets physically closer, Callie instinctively pushes her away. Given the example that Shauna has set, where she solves many of her problems through murder and covering up the truth, it is not surprising that Callie resorts to the same methods when she is backed into a corner. This is not what Shauna wants for her daughter, but it is what Callie has learned from her mother.

Of course, if Lottie had an opportunity to speak about what happened she would say this is another key moment of the wilderness manifesting in Callie. Lottie’s facial expression as she flies backward indicates that she is surprised, but there is part of her that is also impressed and relieved. Her last thoughts are probably that the wilderness had Callie kill her and that Callie has become her replacement. This conclusion negates Callie’s agency, though, as it is her decision, and not a mystical force that pushes and kills Lottie.

What Callie Being “More” Than Shauna Means For Yellowjackets Season 4

Callie Is An Upgraded Version Of Shauna

One of the most intriguing things that Lottie says to Callie during their last moments together is that Callie is “just like [Shauna], only more.” Lottie seems to believe that Callie is a superior version of who Shauna was in the wilderness. Shauna amassed significant power and was able to instill fear in her peers. However, Shauna ultimately failed to keep them all in line, and she failed to keep the group in the wilderness. Perhaps Lottie thinks that Callie can successfully finish what her mother started and was unable to complete.

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Callie could become a modern-day Antler Queen and bring the remaining survivors back to the wilderness where they belong. Without Lottie, though, there will be no one to guide Callie down this path, as the remaining survivors generally do not have the same devotion to the wilderness. One possibility could be Melissa (Hilary Swank), who makes comments when she kills Van Palmer (Lauren Ambrose) that make it sound like she still believes in the wilderness. Melissa could become a twisted mentor for Callie and help her be “more” than Shauna.

Yellowjackets season 4’s story can provide more insight into whether the wilderness has any real power, especially now that Lottie is gone. Callie definitely has some significant issues that she needs to work through, but these issues arguably stem from her relationship with Shauna, and not from the wilderness itself. Regardless of the truth about the wilderness, if Callie does not address these issues, more trouble will follow as her story continues in Yellowjackets season 4, and she could become an even more dangerous character.

Yellowjackets

7/10

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