Spoiler warning: Spoilers for the first two seasons of “Yellow Jackets.” After another long hiatus, Yellowjacket is finally back next year thanks to a double strike by writers and actors in 2023. What begins as an inverted version of Lord of the Flies gradually transforms into an even stranger beast. The show somehow blends Lost’s supernatural mysteries with Heathers’ darkly humorous breakdown of teenage hierarchies, while powerfully exploring how past trauma manifests itself in the present. No other show on the air comes close.

Like “Lost,” this series knows how to hook and captivate viewers quickly with a tantalizing mystery. The Yellow Jackets pilot serves primarily as a backdrop for a 1996 storyline about a group of teenagers surviving a plane crash in the woods, as well as a 2021 storyline about these same characters as adults. But it also contains a tantalizing tease, with a scene highlighting a cannibal cult (apparently survivors of the crash) led by a woman wearing a crown made of antlers. Although the series later clarified things, many fans still have questions about the “Queen of Antlers.”

Release date November 14, 2021

Season 3

Who is the Antler Queen in Yellow Shirt?

Trying to explain the Antler Queen is a tricky task because the Yellowjackets represent her in a way that seems both literal and figurative. Starting with the first option, we need to go back to the 1996 storyline and analyze the overall dramatic arc. In particular, the first season centers around the titular Yellow Vests, who gradually slide into bestiality as they move further away from civilization.

One of the most fascinating characters in season one was Charlotte “Lottie” Matthews, a girl with schizophrenia. Shortly after the accident, her medication ran out and she soon began experiencing disturbing hallucinations, which she gradually came to accept as even psychotic. Slowly but surely, her fellow survivors accepted her vision as teachings, to the point where she became something like a cult leader, as evidenced by a scene in the Season 1 finale in which she and The other girls sincerely give a bear as a gift in the story. desert.

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This led to a near-unanimous belief among fans that Lottie would become the Queen of the Jungle, and these beliefs seemed to be confirmed by several events in the show’s second season. Lottie begins to compete regularly for the role of leader with Natalie, the most skilled hunter in the group, and the 2021 story features an adult version of Lottie who is now the mysterious leader of a spirit commune and sees Her vision returns.

However, the Yellowjackets ultimately subvert these expectations, with Natalie displaying increasingly callous behavior during the second half of the season, allowing Harvey to drown after falling into an icy lake, only for him to replace Harvey as A team player. In the season finale, Lottie insists on delivering everything about communicating with the wilderness, declaring Natalie the leader of the group (and perhaps the show’s best character) and the first unofficial Queen of the Forest. This may help explain a lot of Natalie’s actions in the 2021 storyline, as she struggles with addiction to assuage her own guilt and past suicide attempts. Her self-sacrifice in the finale can be seen as a way of trying to save herself from the inhumanity she had to endure as the Queen of the Forest.

Is the Queen of the Jungle a supernatural figure in the Yellow Vests?

But for all Lottie’s preparation, this explanation seemed too neat for Natalie to be the true Queen of the Forest. After the Season 2 finale, adult Lottie actress Simone Kessel explained: “A lot happened about Lottie becoming the Queen of the Forest. But really, now we understand that the Antler Queen is for all of us. Partly, she’s really what allows these women to survive in the wild. It seems, then, that the role of the Antler Queen is more symbolic than literal, it’s an exploration of the ways the girls are turning to nature as a way to protect them in the wild. The strength of one’s power is a means of experiencing a loss of humanity.

However, this still doesn’t fully explain the Antler Queen’s undeniable supernatural characteristics, nor how the girls’ time in the wild is defined by strange events that defy rational explanation. Consider how nature plays a key role in important plot points: a late-night snowfall prevents the team from burning Jackie’s body (instead of cooking it and causing the team to eat people), or how Shawna goes into labor right after a storm. Midway through the second season, supporting character Harvey, who was thought dead, returns to camp after being trapped in the forest for weeks. He calls a mysterious entity “my friend”, believed to be the Antler Queen, who helps him survive.

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Season two frequently raises the question of whether the Queen is real or just an illusion. One episode this season shows adult Lottie hypnotizing Natalie, during which she mentions the darkness they brought back. While under hypnosis, Natalie saw an alternate version of the crash in which she did not survive, and she saw the Antler Queen exploring the wreckage.

Although this single scene is more symbolic than any other, it’s clear that there’s something mysterious at work in the series. A common fan theory is that the Antler Queen is actually an actual supernatural entity that preys on girls far away from civilization, or, more interestingly, a physical manifestation of the wilderness itself. There is much basis for the latter explanation, as evidenced by Lottie’s seeming worship of the natural forces around her and her fervent quest to pass this knowledge on to her fellow survivors.

Surprisingly, how little we know about the Queen of the Forest in Yellow Jackets

As mentioned earlier, interpreting the Antler Queen requires both a literal and a symbolic interpretation. While the series has mostly been explained in the first category, there’s still a lot left up in the air, as the series hasn’t quite delved into its ambiguity about what’s real and what’s an illusion.

While it’s still a long time before Yellowjackets returns, we’re really hoping season three will give us more to think about. Yellow Jackets Seasons 1 and 2 are streaming on Paramount+, while Season 1 is streaming on Netflix.