'Yellowjackets' Season 3, episode 1 brings us back to the all-important pit
The pit! The pit! It always comes back to the pit in Yellowjackets.
We're officially back in the wilderness with the arrival of Season 3 of Showtime's teen cannibalism drama, and in episode 1, there's a throwback to the very first episode of Season 1. Yep, we've finally found the all-important pit, the site of the mystery Pit Girl's grisly demise.
Wait, what's the pit in Yellowjackets again?
In the opening scene of Yellowjackets Season 1, we see a girl running for her life through the snow as a wild rumpus echoes through the trees. She falls into a deep, stake-lined pit and is impaled. Importantly, she's wearing a heart-shaped necklace we learn originally belonged to Jackie (Ella Purnell). Jackie had given the necklace to Shauna (Sophie Nélisse), who then makes it a ritual item in Season 2, to be worn by whoever draws the Queen of Hearts card to be sacrificed and eaten. The identity of the necklace-wearing Pit Girl has yet to be revealed, but it's now clear that she drew the damned card.
Where do we find the pit in Season 3?
Now, in the opening scene of Yellowjackets Season 3, we see a terrified Mari (Alexa Barajas) chased through the woods, a ruse revealed to be a mere game of "Capture the Flag." It’s both a clever throwback to Season 1's opening scene and a foreshadowing of what's ahead in this episode — and it's especially interesting as a lot of online theories point to Mari possibly being the Pit Girl, as it's still unclear whether she made it out of the wilderness.
About 25 minutes into the episode, we reunite with Coach Ben (Steven Krueger), who's been surviving solo in the wilderness after ditching the team last season, horrified by their pivot to cannibalism. He stumbles across a pit covered by wooden planks, and within it finds a cargo container under a tarp that's full of survival supplies. Best guess? It was probably dug by the hunter who owned the cabin the Yellowjackets took shelter in until it was burned down (more on that below).
After pulling everything out of it, Ben re-covers the pit with the tarp, dirt, and leaves, then leaves bait on top of it, hoping for a deer to fall in. Later in the episode, having stormed off from camp after her fight with Shauna, Mari falls into the disguised pit and breaks her leg.
What's Coach Ben's plan?
Ben has had quite a time of it, what with having his leg amputated by a teen, experiencing emotionally draining hallucinations from starvation, and almost taking his own life. Ben finally fled the cabin in Season 2, horrified by the team's human feasts. He's been surviving by himself for months, through winter, spring, and now summer. But with his absence and open disdain for the team's eating of one another, he's also a prime suspect for the big event of the Season 2 finale.
As we see in a scene between Natalie (Sophie Thatcher), Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown), Gen (Vanessa Prasad), and Van (Liv Hewson), the team suspect Ben of being the one who burned down the cabin last season in retaliation for their cannibalism. They're still looking for him, but he's pretty much presumed dead by the Yellowjackets. But then we see the coach very much alive, setting small animal traps in the woods — clearly how he's been surviving this long.
When he sees it's Mari caught in the pit, not a deer, it's hard to judge Ben's reaction beyond pure shock. What's Ben's plan now? Will he succumb to the Yellowjackets' penchant for human haute cuisine? Will he capture or release Mari, and why? At this point, anything could happen.
But what we do know from Season 1? The Yellowjackets will eventually find the pit and line it with stakes.
Topics Streaming Yellowjackets
Shannon Connellan is Mashable's UK Editor based in London, formerly Mashable's Australia Editor, but emotionally, she lives in the Creel House. A Tomatometer-approved critic, Shannon writes about entertainment, tech, social good, science, culture, and Australian horror.
