Each week Terry and Joe discuss the most recent episode of Showtime’s serialized thriller, Yellowjackets.

Spoilers follow for the finale - episode 10, “Sic Transit Gloria Mundi”

Plot: On the night of their 25-year reunion, the Yellowjackets navigate damning evidence, false alibis and a dubious attempt to heal. In the wilderness, the Doomcoming fallout finds everything firmly off the rails as resentments come to a head.

JOE

It’s funny how last week we discussed the difficulty of successfully pulling off penultimate episodes; we heaped praise on Yellowjackets’ ability to skirt a lot of issues and deliver a truly great episode. Now we’re up to the finale (also a tough thing to pull off) and I would tentatively argue that the show doesn’t stick the landing quite as well here.

Don’t get me wrong: this isn’t bad by any means, but by sheer virtue of having to wrap up certain plot points and dangle new ones for S2, “Sic Transit Gloria Mundi” winds up spending more time crossing off the expected Ts and Is than anything. Again, it’s not a dealbreaker, but because we know where several of these storylines and character beats are going, the finale winds up being less exciting as a result.

As teased for the last few episodes, a bulk of the 2021 action involves cleaning up Adam (Peter Gadiot)’s remains, the man that Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) murdered last week. The other main plotline in the present day is some slight drama at the 25th reunion. Part of my frustration came from how simple the former is and how uneventful the latter is.

Even developments like Christina Ricci’s Misty (presumably?) killing Jessica Roberts (Rekha Sharma) with a Fentanyl-injected cigarette and Taissa (Tawny Cypress) winning the election feels predictable. Again, it’s not bad, but considering how frequently Yellowjackets has zigged when we expected a zag, a fair amount of this feels…underwhelming.

Let's tackle the crime scene first. Thanks to citizen detective Misty, the clean-up goes exceedingly smooth. Cut off Adam’s head and hands in the bathtub, use industrial strength bleach from the old folks home to clean up the blood, pack a suitcase with clothes and books to suggest a trip, then cremate the identifiable bits in the coffin of a stroke victim. Easy peasy, Terry! (Burgeoning killers take note: this is how to cover your tracks).

My biggest gripe, however, is the reunion. Things begin strongly when the ladies arrive late (in full posse mode) to strut their shit to yet another Yellowjackets earworm: The Offspring’s classic banger “Come Out and Play”. The delirious joy I felt watching them slow-mo walk into the room like it’s a 90s teen film was amazing, so hats off to music supervisors Jen Malone and Whitney Pilzer for all of the great needle drops throughout the season.

Aside from that, though, the reunion is a bit of a bust. Oh sure, Jersey girl Ally (X) is nearly as desperate as Misty to make an impression and there’s a power to the way the past is intercut with the Memorial slideshow in the present, but there are no other fireworks here. Instead that’s reserved for the final moments of the episode when Simone (Rukiya Bernard) returns home and discovers a bloody path through the vents to Taissa’s Biscuit the dog-adorned shrine and Natalie (Juliette Lewis) is abducted by what appear to be members of Lottie’s cult.

Big WTF energy in these scenes, Terry!

Obviously there’s plenty to speculate about, but we should address the events of the past first. What did you think of Jackie (Ella Purnell) and Shauna (Sophie Nélisse)’s showdown? Were you surprised or saddened by how Jackie went out? Any theories on the mysterious man in her death-campfire vision? And would you have expected Lottie’s first acolytes to be Van (Liv Hewson) and Misty (Samantha Hanratty)?

TERRY

I know what you mean, Joe. I think the problem with “Sic Transit Gloria Mundi” is that it has a very strong opening and ending, but that middle section doesn’t do terribly much. After the wild “Doomcoming”, I was expecting similar fireworks at the 2021 Homecoming. Misty continues to be appropriately unhinged, explaining how to get away with murder with such casual excitement (“He sure was a gusher” and “torsos are useless…duh!”) that I wonder how many bodies she’s disposed of.

But that’s not even the most deranged thing she says. When Taissa says she’s probably going to lose the election, Misty responds: “Well, I voted for you…and I only registered so I could get jury duty.”

Who WANTS jury duty, Joe??

Back in 1996, things are similarly buzzing along as a bear interrupts the group squabbling over mushrooms and orgies and death. What’s interesting about this moment is the way in which the bear seems to prostrate itself in front of Lottie, as if offering itself up for a sacrifice and fulfilling Lottie’s pronouncement in “Doomcoming” that they soon wouldn’t have to worry about food.

Thinking about it, maybe that’s why so much of the finale felt anticlimactic to you, Joe. Yellowjackets has done such a fantastic job of laying the dominoes all season that by the time it has to knock them over, there’s no element of danger: everything’s been placed just so (for the most part…more on that later). So Taissa’s altar reveal pales somewhat because she’s been acting shifty most of the back half (her speech, eating dirt, the realization that she’s probably the creepy woman in the tree, etc.). Jessica’s statement earlier in the season that this wasn’t her first kidnapping and that the kidnappers never outlived her, is another setup/payoff moment that seemed a bit too literal.

But where Yellowjackets did zig, to borrow your phrase, is Jackie’s almost perfunctory death. This season has been leading up to a fiery conflict between Shauna and Jackie but I didn’t expect it to end the way it did. Not only did the reveal feel cruel as Jackie was slowly covered in snow to freeze to death, but it also opens the narrative in intriguing ways. We’ve been following her necklace’s journey this season as it went from Jackie to Shauna and back to Jackie. It’s obvious now that the person in the cold open wasn’t Jackie…so before she is buried (or…god forbid, becomes the first morsel on the group’s journey towards cannibalism), someone will wind up with it.

“Sic Transit Gloria Mundi” also introduces the mystery man, standing in the back while Jackie slowly dies. It’s staged as a warm welcoming, as Shauna leads her back inside to the full Yellowjackets group before it’s revealed to be a hallucination when Laura Lee (Jane Widdop) appears in front of her and tells her “It’s not as bad as you thought, is it?” Then the man in the background, looking out of sync and a little jittery, as if he’s a VHS image like in the opening credits, tells her “so glad you’re joining us. We’ve been waiting for you.”

It’s chilling, even before we discover Jackie’s body. His statement seems to suggest that whatever dark presence has been building all season is collecting souls for some nefarious purpose. Between Tai’s altar, Lottie’s cult leader persona and this dying dream, Yellowjackets seems poised to fully commit to the supernatural. And speaking of Lottie’s cult, I scream-cackled at the way in which the episode ends with a kidnapping, a phone call clearly stating that Lottie is alive in 2021 and Lottie offering up the bear’s heart to the altar in the woods.

I want to turn this part over to you, but before I do I feel obligated to discuss the title of this episode, “Sic Transit Gloria Mundi”. This phrase immediately popped in my head because it’s the title of a poem by Emily Dickinson, a Valentine she wrote to a law clerk in her father's office. It’s been a very long time since I’ve read that poem so I can’t offer up much analysis, but I will be curious to see what (if anything) Yellowjackets fans unearth in the year between now and season two.

The words “Sic Transit Gloria Mundi” translated mean “This passes the glory of the world” and that is a phrase used during the coronation of a new Pope. This feels completely appropriate as Lottie dons her new persona as a cultish/religious figurehead among the survivors. Of her first disciples, Van seems the least likely; what with her brush with death and her continued use of the necklace, we should have seen this coming.

As for Misty? Well, her need to belong makes her devotion seem a little more likely.

But that raises a question that I want to turn over to you, Joe. If Misty is a disciple of Lottie in 1996…and Lottie’s cult seems fully at large in 2021…is Misty still a member? Is she still working for Lottie?? Staying in 2021, I’m guessing we’re to assume that Simone’s gross discovery in the vents means that Tai performed some ceremony to secure her win? Tai seemed to genuinely think she was going to lose…was she acting, do you think? Or is there something else going on here? Did you gasp when the kidnappers burst in? And finally…where the hell is Javi (Luciano Leroux) in 1996?

JOE

In terms of delivering on expectations, I was pretty darn sure that the series wasn’t going to lose Juliette Lewis. Although Nat finally seemed to concede that Travis did, in fact, kill himself and she decided to join him, it seemed unlikely that Lewis would go out like this. Stranger things have happened when A-Listers sign on to do television, but Nat is just getting going so ending her storyline here would have been incredibly disappointing.

Now, did I think a cult was going to nab here? No. Mostly because even though there’s been supernatural hints all season and the rumblings of a religious sect building in the past for several episodes, it never occurred to me that Lottie or this group might be active today. So yes, big score on Yellowjackets so throwing in this last minute wrench.

So is Misty in cahoots with them? Gosh, it’s too early to say because we don’t even know what they’re after (what does a cult founded by a teenage girl in the Ontario woods twenty-five years ago want in present day metropolis?). As you suggested Terry, this is the kind of juicy development that will feed audiences between seasons, including, no doubt, a debate about whether Misty has been protecting the cult all season and not the other girls, as we originally believed. Methinks plenty of folks will be revisiting her reaction to things like the postcards and the discovery of Travis’ body from earlier in the season.

Tai is definitely another mystery. I can’t help but wonder if she’s even aware of what she’s doing; which may explain why she acted like she was doomed to lose the election or her panicked reaction to losing Biscuit a few episodes back. Would it make sense for a lawyer and career politician to convincingly sell this lie? Sure…but we’ve seen Taissa when she’s by herself. The look of confusion and fear on her face when she discovered herself in the tree a few episodes back looked pretty authentic, and there’d be no reason to put on a mask then.

With that said, though, it’s hard to misread Cypress’ Cheshire Cat grin of pure evil when her name is announced as the winner. What a chilling and magnificent moment from the actress who, among the five adult leads, has had arguably the trickiest - and least showy - role to balance this season.

That leaves Javi, who goes completely unglimpsed outside of the “Previously On…” when he awoke the day after the shrooms. Again, we’re lacking information here, so I have very little to go on, but I’m sure the search for him will take up at least the first few episodes of S2. The girls have got to figure out what they’re gonna do with Jackie, start making some winter clothes out of the sacrificial bear and then find Javi. Poor kid’s been out all night in the same storm that killed Jackie, so…it’s not looking good for him.

It’s time for me to wrap up my half, though, Terry. Overall Yellowjackets has been a stunning surprise that popped up super late in the year. Initially I thought debuting the Showtime series so close to the holidays meant there was a lack of confidence, but watching people hop on this bandwagon over the last ten weeks has been something to behold. I’m so glad we got in on this on the ground floor because it has been a wild ride. Yellowjackets S1 earns an A from me.

What about you, Terry? Any parting thoughts about the clash for dominance between Lottie and Coach? Will anything come from Jessica’s death? And do you hope Ally and her “Jeanine from Friends” Jersey accent pops up again next year?

TERRY

The clash between Lottie and Coach feels like a simmering tension that’s finally blown over, Joe. We’ve seen Coach attempt to establish himself as the “adult” and the one who’s supposed to be in charge of the minors. And yet over the course of the last few episodes, we’ve seen the young women turn on him and “put him in his place,” so to speak. If this finale is anything to go on, I’m rather fearful for our recently out cutie pie. With his leg, I honestly expected him to be one of the first to go and was pleasantly surprised that we got to learn more about him and his life. He seems like a good man and, unfortunately, there’s no place for him (or adults) in this wilderness survival thriller. I’m afraid his time is numbered going into Season Two.

As for Jessica’s death…Misty is nothing if not prepared and I can’t help but think she’s covered her tracks very well with Jessica. Now, the question is…did Taissa? Because I have this sneaking suspicion that the police will look into her death and their questions will probably lead right towards our newly elected Senator. It doesn’t bode well and political drama is almost certainly heading towards her. Taissa has shrugged off whispers of cannibalism as well as good old political bigotry…but can she shrug off a potentially mysterious death?

The other wild card in this whole mess is Shauna and Jeff’s daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins), who is forced to sit down with her finally happy parents to watch TV and summarily discovers that the man her mom has been seeing on the side is dead. The look that flashes between mother and daughter is tense. As his disappearance turns into an investigation, what will Callie do?

Finally, Ally…the girl left behind when the teammates cruelly broke her leg in drills. I’d been waiting for her to pop back up in a meaningful way. As we head into the second season, her simmering tension with the group and her need to belong to their cycle of trauma seems like more drama on the horizon for our heroines.

What “Sic Transit Gloria Mundi” left me with is a sense of giddiness. This is an almost perfectly executed first season. From the cast, to the twisty story to the banger score and use of 90s music, Yellowjackets ends its first season the heir apparent to LOST. It’s a solid A for me, as well.