Warning: SPOILERS for Yellowjackets season 3, episodes 1 and 2, "It Girl" and "Dislocation"!Lottie is still not done communing with the wilderness in end of Yellowjackets season 2 (which is ironic considering that “It” chose her to die in the present timeline), but young Nat isn’t necessarily equipped to handle the fiery personalities at each other’s throats the way Lottie was.
But unlike Shauna, who has been lashing out to take back the power she feels was taken from her, Eaton told ScreenRant that young Lottie “is quite happy about” the current turn of events. “She doesn't trust herself and her brain, and she's been told that there's something wrong with her,” the actor explained. “She can't handle the responsibility of looking after others.” Nevertheless, she remains “someone that people naturally gravitate towards,” and she uses that magnetism to draw Travis closer during Yellowjackets’ season 3 premiere.
Yellowjackets is a television series exploring the survival ordeal of a high school girls' soccer team stranded in the remote wilderness after a plane crash. It interweaves psychological horror and coming-of-age themes, simultaneously depicting their harrowing transformation and its lasting impact on their lives 25 years later.
The burgeoning connection is abruptly cut off in episode 2, when Travis appears to suggest the wilderness revealed to him that Akilah was their preferred vessel, but fans of the series know that they spent his last days alive in the present timeline attempt to call to “It” once more. The minor violence that breaks out when Travis strangles Lottie in a trance here is a foreshadowing of how fragile their sense of peace is at any given moment.
Yellowjackets’ Opening Episodes Portend A Greater Darkness To Come From The Wilderness
“We See That Right At The Beginning Of The First Episode”
During an interview with ScreenRant, Alves pointed to the opening sequence of season 3, episode 1 as proof of how “fragile” the new home they’ve built is. The survivors seem to be frolicking idyllically – only for the game to grow more violent when Shauna and Mari butt heads. “I think we see that right at the beginning of the first episode,” Alves added. “There's this beautiful montage of what feels like it could be great, and then the minute we get into it we're like, ‘Wait, they're fractured.’”
Yellowjackets Season 3 Makes Shauna's Biggest Tragedy Even More Devastating
Shauna Shipman’s biggest tragedy in Yellowjackets happens at the end of season 2, and season 3’s opening episodes make it even more devastating.
The tension between them simmers throughout the episode, exploding when Shauna spits in Mari’s food and both girls are sent to time out by Natalie. In her isolation, Mari falls into a pit, from which she is rescued and subsequently kidnapped by Coach Ben. This sequence of events is the first sign that Nat’s leadership may not be strong enough to hold the team together and that the joy of their games “is just a façade,” in Eaton’s words. “This is what they're telling themselves.”
Yellowjackets is forever shifting in the power and the emotion and just the amount of trauma each individual is going through, plus what they brought into the situation. It's not always stable.
Lottie Uses Travis When She Needs Another Hit Of The Wilderness
“She Doesn't Realize When She's Pushing A Little Too Hard”
Even in the relative calm before the storm, Lottie’s desire to reach out to the wilderness once more has her taking Travis out of her comfort zone. While he genuinely wants to help her at first – not to mention get his own answers and heal from the loss of his brother Javi – it quickly becomes too much to handle and he begs off.
“Our relationship dynamic this season is really interesting,” Eaton teased, hinting that the premiere is merely a teaser for what es between them. Given that neither of them is prone to violent survival tactics, “I think we both kind of head into season 3 as the slight outsiders of the group.” Lottie in particular hopes to understand “who she is in the wilderness and who she is at home. She is trying to figure that out this year.” While there’s nothing wrong with asking those questions, Eaton acknowledged that Lottie’s thirst for answers “lands on Travis a little.”
I think she's a bit addicted to the wilderness, and so once she gets a taste, she doesn't realize when she's pushing a little too hard.
For his part, Alves didn’t think Travis was entirely innocent in the situation. “At first, I am sure he knows that and is enabling it a bit too.” Specifically, he knows the chaos that communicating with “It” can bring because she’s seen what happened to his own brother when the survivors fell into a frenzy. “He understands that, but he's trying to get his own coping happening based on all the grief he's feeling. He's trying to get his own answers and understand how he feels and what he believes in too.”
They have this mutual adventure of trying to find these answers, and I think it's very quick that he realizes that he's maybe being used in some way. he's not getting the answers he wants. He's just getting more scared, and that's not good.
Plenty of time es from the moment Travis claims he is not the one the wilderness wants in “Dislocation” to the moment he calls Lottie for help before his death, and Yellowjackets season 3 is sure to give us more insight into how close the two of them grew in the wilderness – and in what way their bond competes with or complements his enduring feelings for Natalie.
Check out our other Yellowjackets season 3 interviews here:
New episodes of Yellowjackets drop Fridays on Paramount+ before airing Sundays at 8pm ET/PT on Showtime.
Source: Screen Rant Plus
