WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for Yellowjackets' season 3 finale!While it looks like Yellowjackets’ present-day characters and storylines become more confusing, such as the survivors’ willingness to reconnect with Shauna or certain adult character dynamics being stronger post-rescue. As such, the past timeline still has to fill in some gaps to explain how certain teen characters’ relationships change to reflect their adult counterparts.

One character at the end of Yellowjackets season 3 whose relationships look especially different from her adult counterpart in the series premiere is Natalie. Though Natalie and Misty become close upon reconnecting in Yellowjackets season 1, we find out early on that Juliette Lewis and Sophie Thatcher’s character stayed closer with Travis and Tai in the 20+ years after their rescue. However, considering how much has changed since teen Travis and Nat first became romantically linked in Yellowjackets season 1, there’s still more to explore in the pre-rescue timeline before the context of their adult relationship makes complete sense.

Yellowjackets Season 4 Needs To Bring Back Natalie & Travis' Romance In The Teen Timeline

Yellowjackets Has To Reveal How They Romantically Reconnect Before Adulthood

While Natalie and Travis became romantically interested in each other out in the wilderness in Yellowjackets season 1, their relationship broke down around the time that Javi returned in season 2, and still hasn’t recovered after Javi’s death. Scenes between teen Natalie and Travis began to dwindle in season 2, and the two characters hardly interacted throughout Yellowjackets season 3’s ten episodes. However, we know from the present timeline that, although they grew apart in the wilderness, that’s far from the end of their relationship.

Yellowjackets season 1’s present timeline explained that Natalie and Travis had a turbulent off-and-on romance throughout adulthood, until Travis’ unexpected death. Since we haven’t seen Nat and Travis in a romantic setting for about a year in Yellowjackets’ past timeline, season 4 has to prioritize getting them back to a place where it’s believable that they’ll continue romantically reconnecting for the rest of their lives. They’ll always be connected by their shared trauma from the wilderness, but Yellowjackets season 4 has to strongly establish why Nat and Travis’ bond remained so much deeper while distancing themselves from the other survivors.

Yellowjackets' Rescue Timeline Can Focus More On Natalie & Travis' Stormy Relationship

Natalie & Travis' Relationship Becomes More Volatile After They Return Home

Both Natalie and Travis are intent on leaving the wilderness, so he’ll likely be elated when Natalie returns to the “village” and reveals that she made with the satellite phone. That could end up being the moment when Natalie and Travis truly start reconnecting, as he’s become increasingly disillusioned with Lottie throughout season 3. Both Natalie and Travis, in particular, carry intense guilt about Javi’s death, so saying goodbye to his spirit in the wilderness and bringing that grief back home with them will likely be a focus of their post-rescue timeline stories.

At the time of writing, Yellowjackets season 4 has still not been officially renewed by Showtime.

Sharing that grief and drowning out the horrors of the wilderness through substance abuse will likely be what gets Travis and Natalie back into their toxic romantic dynamic after returning home. As tragic as their stories will be after being rescued in Yellowjackets season 4, it’s a devastating, mutually destructive development that is necessary to explain why adult Travis and Natalie are the way that they are in season 1. Considering how important the other is to the end of their stories, teen Travis and Natalie’s dynamic shouldn’t be sidelined in Yellowjackets season 4.