Shownotes Transcript
This episode is brought to you by Metro by T-Mobile. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is worse than settling for less. And we all do it to ourselves, whether it's sitting through a bad date or staying in a relationship that didn't meet our standards. Well, I think we deserve better, and so does Metro. They believe that instead of settling, you should get great deals on 5G devices from top brands like Samsung with no contracts, no credit checks, no exploding bills, and nada, yada, yada.
yada. That's wireless without the gotcha. Stop by your neighborhood Metro store or visit mbytmo.com slash stores and find out about their amazing offers. This episode is brought to you by The Home Depot. It's starting to look like spring and spring starts with savings at The Home Depot. There are savings for every project, whether you're starting with a clean slate with convenient cordless power, like a new pressure washer,
or leaf blower, or start and love the yard again with colorful flowers and fresh mulch. Start your spring with early savings at the Home Depot. Shop now at homedepot.com. Hello, welcome back to House of R. I'm Joanna Robinson, and she is the beautiful, the talented, Mal Rubin. I have just one thing to say to you today. What's that? Go fuck your blunder, Joanna. Line of the season? Yeah.
Line of the series? It's second, I think, to There's No Book Club. Yes. Like, Line of the Series is just a hard honor to win. Correct. Given There's No Book Club. But I would probably put it second. And we don't know Mari's fate. But it fills my heart with gloom and despair to think that she didn't make it after issuing this line long enough to watch Salt Burn. Oh, she would so enjoy watching Barry Keoghan fuck some blunder. She would love to see him fuck that grave. Yeah.
Oh, man. Mari deserves salt burn. I agree. All right. If you didn't know, we're here to talk to you about season three, episode seven of the Yellow Jackets. Buzz buzz. What if you didn't know that, but just heard those last couple minutes? Fuck your blood, dirt, ladi. I have heard, I got so many messages of people eager for us to talk about this episode of television. The Jackies? Nope. The bad babies, I guess, are dialed in.
To here we are in the back third of the season. Where's the time gone? Great question. You and I both enjoyed last week's episode. I enjoyed a lot about this week's episode. I still have some questions, comments, and concerns. But the season is getting better than it has been. And that fills my heart with joy as we careen towards the finale. Before we get into the deep dive that we're going to do here today. Yeah, like deep diving into that blood dirt.
Go fuck your blood dirt, Lottie. How much does that make you worry about Mari? Given how hard they're trying to make us like her? I'm concerned. Yeah? I'm concerned, and I was not prepared for a situation where I would mourn rather than celebrate if Mari left this mortal coil. But that's where we are. Are you like, Mari's definitely going into the pit, and it's definitely happening this season? Is that how you feel?
No. I think Mari's going to last till next season. I think that based on the very, even by the recent standards and eternal standards of Yellow Jackets, very... Cran-ras. Steve. No free ads. No free ads, but...
but Steve they stopped carrying Cranraz LaCroix in the office fridge and Steve has like procured me some that he leaves for me on the set what a guy what a gemstone that he hides for me he makes little treasure hunts of LaCroix for me on the set it's very great I know now today that there's not a LaCroix in that
particular bit of ceramic pottery because our rat Preston is in there. Actually, I don't know that. He could be sitting on top of a cool LaCroix can. Who can say? Anyway, I believe that the loss-heavy nature of this episode, which will come up many times throughout our discussion today, it's given me a, you know, the freighter, sat phones, all of that. Then where do we go? We split.
Right. We've got Team John, Team Jack. So are we actually in the wake of this going to split factions formally? And while that should heighten my anxiety about people dying, it actually weirdly gives me hope that Mari could last longer if the tribe formally fractured. Okay. She's talking about the TV series Lost, and we will give you all that context if you're listening to this episode and you're like, what is she talking about? We will. John, Jack, Frieder, what show am I listening to? We will talk about it.
Before we do that, let me say. Yeah. Elsewhere. Yes. Over on the ringer verse. The Midnight Boys. Pew, pew. Did a severance check in. Yeah. Do you have any formal commentary on? Jomie's wig. Yeah. It is. He has requested it. He did ask me for a wig watch. I think it looked amazing. I thought it looked 10 out of 10. No notes. Not a single note. Wonderful. Also, no notes on Steve's mustache. Yeah.
Great stuff. If you didn't know, if you just listened to the Midnight Boys and didn't watch the video, there was some excellent costume work from the Mint Edition crew on the Midnight Boys wrap up the Severance 2 finale. Button mash covering Assassin's Creed, Shatter Reactions.
And the Midnight Boys will be back with their Daredevil Born Again episodes five and six instant reactions. Double devil. It's a double, double devil. Double devil. And we will also have our double devil episode. We will. Later this week. You know what next week is? What's that? Somehow it's time for Ringiverse Recommends again. I'm ready this time though. I got ready at the beginning of the month. Oh. Yeah. Sick fucking brag. Yeah.
I was not going to be caught unawares like I was last month. Where did the bus go? It was like midnight and I got on a video and I was like, this one's for you, Ben Lindbergh. I saw Ben's email this morning and I was like, surely not. Isn't it March 2nd? But no. No. It's March 25th. So that's harrowing. All right. So that's a lot to keep track of. Yeah. Yes. How can folks do that? Here's what I recommend. It's simple. Follow the pod. Follow House of R. Follow the Ringerverse. Follow the Prestige TV podcast on Zipod.
Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. But here's the thing. If you follow on Spotify, you can watch full video episodes. So you can understand the LaCroix conversation, the Rat Preston conversation, the Severance Costumes conversation. If...
If you're looking for options beyond that, you can also follow the Ringerverse YouTube channel where you can also watch full video episodes of these podcasts. And that's not all. You can follow the Ringerverse on the social media platform of your choosing where you can see photos of the Mint Boys in their Sufferance cosplay. You can see our best attempt to lip sync some Vicky Ratliff memes from White Lotus. Tsunami. Tsunami.
Buddhism. Piper. No. You can see all of it while you're at it. You're at your computer, your phone's in your hand. Send us an email. The inbox is open. It's always open. And it's always hobbitsanddragons at gmail.com. Spoiler warning. Season three, episode seven. If you haven't watched up through that, that's what we're talking about today. This is an episode of Yellow Jackets that it is impossible for us to talk about without talking about some plot points from the television series Lost.
actually genuinely impossible. Up through season four of Lost is where we will be spending our time this week. A lot of season four Lost vibes happening in this episode. So...
This episode, Croak, another great episode title, you have to admit, from the crew. Genuinely good. Written by Alicia Brophy and Ameni Rosa and directed by Jennifer Morrison, the actress Jennifer Morrison from Once Upon a Time or House or however you prefer to consume your Jennifer Morrison, directing this episode. Our listener, Michelle, last week on the Yellow Jackets pod, previously on the Yellow Jackets pod,
We said the phrase birder murder. Birder murder. No fewer than I would say 15 times at least. Minimum. Bare minimum. Minimum. Michelle has suggested, she says, RIP birder murder. Yes. Yeah. FYC, frogger slaughter. I like it. Yeah. It's harder to say than birder murder. Birder murder is just. Birder murder is elite. A delight. Frogger slaughter. Damn it. Why couldn't they have been studying birds? I know. Fuck. Why has it got to be frogs? Yeah.
Frogger slaughter. Frogger slaughter. Frogger slaughter. Arctic banshee frog orgy slaughter. It's tougher. It is. But I'm ready to roll with it. We'll muddle through. Okay. Unreliable narrator slash hallucinator slash dreamer counter. Yeah. I really only have, and tell me if I'm missing someone, Van in this episode. And part of now a proud tradition that like pre-death events
Is that where you think we're headed? I'm seeing a younger version of myself. Reminded me of Nat seeing a younger version of herself in that middle row on the plane before she was taken from us, etc. Did Lottie see a younger version of herself? Misty saw young Lottie in the... It was like young Misty and young Lottie in the morgue scene. But it wasn't like Lottie saw a young version of herself before. Young Lottie was actually also there on the plane before.
in Nat's vision, which is interesting. And then, of course, Travis, if we believe Lottie, had his whole, like, well, I want to just get as close to death as possible so that I can commune with the other side. Obviously, Ben had all of his, like, Paul, cabin, phone call, he's not ready yet moments. So, yeah. Yeah. Not looking great for Van, we gotta say. No. Now it's a segment I'm calling Mailboxes, etc.,
Steve, not our Steve, but A. Steve wrote in to say, I think you were wondering why Ben's head was just sitting there. It's tradition to save the face for Ty. How do you feel about this? Wonderful email, but this, disturbingly, is actually why I was so perplexed by this because she's not going to eat the face raw. You got to roast it. Maybe she wants it dry-aged. Smoked. God. I mean, winter is coming, so, you know, you can't leave any sort of human flesh anywhere near dry.
Shauna intact where it could freeze and she could put makeup on it or slice a Pringle off. It's just a no all around. It's a no all around. I think your favorite phrase to say around the show is slice a Pringle off. You know, we've got snacky in the arm Pringles. We do. The Pringles were on my mind this episode lamentably. I'd rather not have cause to think about Shauna hoarding flesh. And yet she's just scooped up that scalp chunk.
From Hannah's hair. The hair on the branch that appeared to have a little piece of flesh attached to it. She was like, I'll keep this. Yeah. I'll nosh on this later. Which is what she did with the ear, right? Didn't she pocket it? Pocketed the ear and then ate it later. Despicable. Get in the pit, Shauna? Okay. Casting what if from our listener, Mary. Incredible.
incredible JPEG work in the Google Docs. It's remarkable. Well, I took this directly from Mary's email, but Mary sent us a casting what if. If we could go back in time and know that Juliette Lewis would decide to not continue her time on Yellow Jackets, would we instead have enjoyed casting Samantha Mathis as
From Pump Up the Volume, Little Women, among other things. I love this. In the part. Really good match for young Nat. Yeah. I think this is great. For Sophie Thatcher. Is it too late? Yes. Alas. Are we sure? I mean, on the one hand, it's a great match, physical match. And I would, you know, there's most of me would rather have Nat, adult Nat alive because I think that dynamic is just really missing in the show. Yeah.
Would I ever trade Juliette Lewis in the show for anything, though? I don't think so. I just wish that even though it would have been, I mean, it's such a
It's such an impactful and memorable performance that I do think this would have been close to impossible. But I wish when she said, I'm leaving, they would have said we're recasting rather than killing her off. Yeah, yeah. Like, why not? I don't think that Yellow Jackets would have been what it was in the first place were it not for Juliette Lewis in the show. No question. And I feel the same way about Christina Ricci. And I feel the same about a few people, but not everyone, but definitely Juliette Lewis. Okay. Christina Ricci, adult Misty, my favorite part of the season by a comfortable margin. Wide margin. It's just unbelievable. It's Mari...
Yeah, Mari number one. Sorry, Mari number one. And then adult Misty. And then adult Misty. Okay. Paramount Plus. This is incredible. I had not seen this until you put this in the doc. Okay, we got like a couple emails and tweets about it, but they put out a promo that was a Survivor Yellow Jackets crossover promo where good old Probstie himself, Jeffrey Probst, shows up to do a little like
Yellow Jackets bit where they're doing trials. Sean is walking across the spikes in the pit. When he's like, Thais is running hungry. Like, I swear I've heard probes say that in Survivor. So he's like, he's shot calling on these like Yellow Jackets trials. We've got the young actresses from Yellow Jackets in the mix and they're giving confessionals. They're wearing buffs. It's like very funny. Everybody writes down Sean's name on their piece of parchment at the end. This is why, this is one of the many reasons that
Jeff Probst is one of the titans of our time and our shared experience. And by our, I mean not just us, but the human race. He could have said, guys, we're about to film season 50. Yeah. Five zero of Survivor. No, I'm not going to be in this promo making cannibalism jokes.
I've done 50 seasons of Survivor. I'm about to do my 50th. I don't need to make cannibalism jokes. But he did it. He did it. And he did it with a smile and a dimple on his face. God damn it. He did a great job. This was wonderful. Also, this was a more compelling performance from young Shauna than what we've gotten in season three of Yellow Jacket. Sorry. Sorry. But it's true. I agree.
Alzheimer sourpuss face on her this season. Oh my God. It's tough because every time I want to talk about this and we get like 50 emails from people being like, do you even understand trauma, bro? And I'm like, I get why Shauna would be traumatized. Of course. And I get why she would be angry and I get why she would be mean. Yes. And I get all of that and...
I feel like that's a compelling story to tell. Yeah. And I feel like they're not telling it. They're not telling it. That's the thing. Yeah. I'm with you completely. This is again like I... And this is my main issue with the entire season. Yeah. This is why I'm having... We talked about this last week but a hard time with the passage of time in the past because a lot of the moments that I know we'll talk about this later feel like they're missing.
We have actually gotten in prior seasons because we were with them day after day, week after week, living in that turmoil and that trauma and that specific, oh, I can't move forward. I don't know how tension.
But that's not what's happening. We're skipping weeks and months. And then it's harder, not logically, to understand why a person is in that state, but emotionally to feel how they've coexisted with the people around them, which was like one of the strengths of the show in that timeline in the prior season. So a quick prompt I had, I don't want to spend too long before we get to the breakdown, but a quick prompt I had was on the Survivor beat, on that Shauna front, like who is doing the best on Survivor right now of the Young Yellowjackets cast of characters? Because I would say...
Shauna's social game needs some work. There are characters, there are players on Survivor who do work the intimidation angle. For sure. Your boss and robs, you know, like these people exist. Yeah. But you need charm to go along with it and Shauna's doing one note bullying and I don't think that gets her far on the show. Nat is on the outs. She was like Miss Popularity but her alliance has fallen apart. Oh yeah. And she is on the outs.
And then I just want to note Jen as a tribe member who does all the fishing but has no personality. Yeah, Jen's helping around camp and that's how she's made it. Those people can somehow sneakily go farther. Once you make it to the merge, anything can happen. Nat, falling out of the numbers and a position of control but then becoming a swing vote can be powerful. Good position. Can be powerful. Who's the challenge beast?
Is it Van or Van and Ty? Probably. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's not going to be Misty after she lost those glasses. Sheesh. Misty is in trouble. Tough moment. In trouble. Tough moment. But we did get a shit rage call out and that was...
Fucking great. So if you had to pick one young Yellow Jackets member, I mean, we know who makes it off the island and by the island, I mean out of the woods. But who's winning survivor of these current surviving Yellow Jackets members? In terms of actually being able to get the votes at Final Tribal? I think at the end of the day, I would take my pick from the...
I think the Ty-Van alliance is the one to back there. They have, I think, the outwit, outplay, outlast, triumvirate most effectively in command. But isn't a showman always a bad idea? Tell that to fucking Boston Robin. Amber! Amber!
This episode is brought to you by Metro by T-Mobile. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is worse than settling for less. And we all do it to ourselves, whether it's sitting through a bad date or staying in a relationship that didn't meet our standards. Well, I think we deserve better, and so does Metro. They believe that instead of settling, you should get great deals on 5G devices from top brands like Samsung with no contracts, no credit checks, no exploding bills, and nada, yada, yada.
Yada. That's wireless without the gotcha. Stop by your neighborhood Metro store or visit mbytmo.com slash stores and find out about their amazing offers.
Oh, man. That has been our foray into Survivor, which is a show that inspired the TV show Lost, which in turn inspired Yellow Jackets. And it's all one long daisy chain of television. Let's get down, get into the breakdown. We're going to start with the past. We're just going to go through the past and then we're going to go to the now. So now and then, then is where we're starting.
15-ish minutes cold open spent entirely with Team Frog Science. Did you think this might be the entire episode? I did. Me too. Which I wouldn't have minded, actually. I was like, we're getting a whole Love Triangle, Frog Science Love Triangle episode. Dude, we haven't talked much about the episode pre-pod, but I did tell you that my favorite moment was when Hannah full-on stumble-tripped on like a clump of dirt or a rock or a root. Yeah.
When Cody, on her thin excuse, took his outerwear off and revealed his arm muscles. Who among us? You already mentioned it. We are in Arctic Banshee Frog orgy territory. Sensational stuff. How does this sit with you as an explanation for the wilderness scream sound? Great.
I love it. And it brings me back. I'm now, I'm on a full-on like seesaw with the, is it supernatural or not? This is such a strong mark in favor of the, there's always another explanation argument. Yeah.
Maybe it's just that Lottie is off her medication and that is... Yeah, exactly. So I think that's great, the idea that there could be just something occurring in nature and society and the society you've built. Maybe it's just... Maybe you are not actually a prophet and it's just the delusions from the gas in the cave and maybe there are just a ton of frogs fucking. And I also like...
In terms of mirrors and our girls shrieking into the night, that like animalistic frenzy. Oh, yeah. That they don't even really know they're mirroring. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tapping into something like feral and base. But is your question, why are they having an orgy of cannibalism and not a literal orgy? You know, that's been my question ever since Doomcoming. I know Travis has been wildly inactive.
Okay. Oh, man. This is all very Lost. And I just want to take a second and give people context for this. Because I know that sometimes people listening to this are like, I didn't even watch Lost. Why are you talking about Lost all the time? I'm sorry. It's just the text that they're working with. I'm not sorry. Okay, great. We have mentioned before while we're talking about the show the concept of the others. And it's a way in which Lost, the television show, opened up. You've got a plane crash. You've got your survivors. Yeah.
But how long can we go around and around and around with the same dynamics? So we introduced the others, people who were living elsewhere on the island, you know, all this sort of stuff. Another way they opened up
The cast and the narrative even more in season four of Lost is they introduced what we would call the freighter crew. Yes. A team of scientists and Naomi who sort of parachute into the island. Yep. And it's Miles. The best. And it's Charlotte. And it's my best friend in the world, Daniel Faraday. Genuinely one of the most important characters in the history of my life. I mean...
Exactly. So the freighter scientists, the freighter scientists show up and not only are they like, hey, we're scientists and we're here to talk to you about anomalies, about memory, about probability, about time travel and all this sort of stuff on Lost. They show up with a sat phone. Sat phone. And the fact that these scientists, these frogging scientists show up with a sat briefcase. Yep.
is our excuse to talk about Daniel Faraday. And I'll take any excuse to talk about Daniel Faraday. Question. Does anybody in either show at any point confront the fact that you need to be at a certain height to use the sat phone? They sure do. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And it goes really well for them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Everyone's fine. Um, yeah, they have to hike up to the, uh, you know, to the radar, uh, tower in order to get the sat phone to work. Um, um,
Here we are with a love track. Also, okay. Oh, man. Yeah. Also, let's just get the freak out of the way. Hannah has a child, and the child's name is Alex, which is, once again, because there's a character named Rousseau who had a similarly improbable brown wig. Yeah.
who was also a scientist who crashed on the island and had a child name or so, a daughter named Alex. Yes. Like this was the one genuinely more so than make your own kind of music, make your own kind of music or the hatch or the flight of the bumblebee where it was like,
We are alluding to Lost. We are inspired by Lost. The secret child is named Alex. Like, I have to respect the covert chutzpah. Great use of chutzpah. Thanks. A love triangle of sorts. That's just absolute. I mean, listen, if you're Edwin, this is just tough in general.
The last thing you see before you die is a severed head. You realize you have stumbled into a cannibalistic ritual because you really wanted to go find these other people.
You get an axe to the back of the head from Lottie. You have to die knowing that Cody was right. You have to die knowing that Cody was right and that your romantic partner definitely wanted to fuck him. This is just a disastrous final stretch of living for Edwin, though he did get to get high once more. So that's good. At least. Edwin.
Who I have later referred to in the notes as no headwind. You have indeed. Even though he technically has his head, but you know. He's missing some key parts of it, which Lottie has scooped up. Smeared on her face. And smeared into her face. It's fine. We love this show. That's worrying. In addition to Hannah's fascination with Cody, Kodiak, as played by Joel McHale. Yeah.
In case you're wondering. Yeah, I was. He's not named after the bear. Oh. He's named after the chewing tobacco. I definitely know what Kodiak Chewing Tobacco is. I meant to ask Chris Ryan if he, I feel like he would know. Do you think he's waiting to meet a character named Zinpak? Or Zinepak, as I would call it for no reason. Zinepak.
I also want to celebrate. Yes, please. Seeing the body electric that is Hannah's 90s color-blocked polar fleece, I 1,000% had one of these. I would wear this today. Yeah. I would wear this today. Not only the style, so 90s, but it's all giving Charlotte Hornet's starter jacket in terms of the particular colorway that has been deployed. So that's also just very 90s. Hornets. Great stuff. Got it. Okay. Indeed.
We got an answer for the Karma University stash. Yeah. The KUH stash. Yeah. Quote, you know, you're going to run out of those at some point. Well, the last team hit a stash somewhere, so...
The question of does the last team explain anything in regards to Javi's friend, not necessarily because the follow-up is a few years ago. The last team was here a few years ago. So I don't think whoever it was that hid that stash of hot chocolate, among other things, bear mace and hot chocolate, the world's favorite combination, have nothing to do with Javi's tree friend. I think not. And I guess the other timeline thing that we get is...
So let me get this straight. Your frogs, they stay frozen for seven years and then thaw out just to have a summer-long frog orgy? First of all, sounds great. Life as an arctic manchi frog. Who knew? You just want to cry asleep for seven years and then wake up and fuck all summer? Fuck a bunch of other frogs and then go right back to bed? Sounds great, honestly. Love it.
Seven years. We don't know this for sure, but do we deduce? We do know that they have never been recorded. We hear that from Hannah. She's very worried that they will never be recorded again if the rain doesn't let up. Do we think that means, though, that the last expedition was seven years prior to attempt and fail, but to attempt to record them? And that it means the next group that would just come out on its own would be seven years in the future. Thus, we need a rescue crew.
I mean, we need a rescue group. They're getting rescued in a few months, no matter what. We know that from the timeline. Here's our bridge. Thanks, Ben. You smelled great. Ben, like, way to be a bridge. Yeah. Be a bridge, my dude. I love the idea of the Benbecue just luring the new group that they can then kill and imprison. Benbecue. I want to make another reference, but I can't yet. Okay, listen. Are you ready to go to Aesop Fable Corner? Please, take me. Oh, my gosh. I want to thrill.
The Frog and the Heron story. Had you heard this story before? Yes. Me too. But I really enjoyed Cody's version of it. Is this your favorite? Do you have a favorite Aesop fable? Ooh. I do. Do you want me to tell you mine while you're thinking? Yeah.
Diana, my best friend, got it embroidered on a pillow, actually, for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because, so the story of the scorpion and the frog, right? I was going to pick that. Yeah, scorpion and the frog, where, you know, the scorpion's like, hey, man, give me... It all comes back to frogs. Hey, man, give me a ride across the river, man. Hey, man. He's like, no, you're a scorpion. You're going to sting me. He's like, no, man, why would I do that, man? Give me a ride across the river, man. And then halfway across the river, the scorpion stings the frog. Frog's like, now we're both going to drown. Scorpion's like...
Tis my nature, which is how I tell that story. And Diana got embroidered onto a pillow. Tis my nature. I just say that when people are just like behaving like they feel like they have to behave. Tis my nature. Okay. Yeah, that's a great one. The frog who desired a king. As Cody tells it, the frogs are like, hey, God be the Zeus or Jupiter or whoever, you know, depending if you're in Rome or Greece, who cares? Right.
we need a king. We need a leader. Yes. And God's like, here's a log. And they're like, this doesn't seem like a king. And God, the gods, a God is like,
Wow, you ungrateful little bitches. Here's an apex predator that's going to eat you. And in some stories, it's a crane or a stork or whatever you care about. But there's the stork king and the log king as sort of like two examples of what you could have. Here's a quote in verse.
You scorned the good king that you had, and therefore you shall bear the bad. Ye likewise, O Athenian friends, convinced to what impatience tends. Though slavery be no common curse, be still for fear of worse and worse.
So, Cautionary Tale, in regards to the desire for rule, rule of law in the wilderness, we saw this with, like, the court case a couple weeks ago. Like, that idea of, like, decorum, law, we need rules, we need a ruler. The danger of authority given so freely. Like, why do you have a queen in the wilderness? Why the fuck do you have a queen? You're Americans. We don't have a monarchy. Come on. Okay. Yeah.
All he gave you was that story about libertarian frogs is a great quote from our guy Edwin. Wonderful stuff. Edwin, classic King Log. Cody, classic King Stork, would you say? Just in terms of their energy? Edwin, definitely King Log energy. No doubt about it. Um...
There's this quote from James K. Baxter in 1961 talking, I think it was like a New Zealand election, and he was talking about it. He says, Democratic people have elected King Log, King Stork, King Log, King Stork again, because I like a wide and silent pond. I voted Log. That party was defeated. And not to get too political here on House of R, but I would say that Biden, classic King Log energy. Everything was just kind of fine. Yeah.
Real log energy. And the people were like, give us that stork king, baby. And that's the reality we're living in right now. God damn it. Does that make Natalie King log and Shauna the stork, do you think? Interesting. Yeah, I guess it does. Yeah. And Nat, you know, didn't really want it.
Don't want it. The old Jon Snow, right? That log didn't ask for it. No. Just plopped right down. It's just a log. Yeah. And you could sit on it sometimes. You can sun on it. The thing about King Log. The thing about
The way in which the season has gone from King Log to King Stork, to your point about the timeline, it just all feels like we poured accelerant on it. Yes. You know what I mean? The reign of King Log was so happy and peaceful. And I like the idea of exploring the idea that any group in Left to the Wild or anywhere will get bored with a King Log life forever.
And chase that King Stork life. Right. Just for the sake of excitement or change or something like that. And I would have loved to have seen something that just felt like it flowed a bit more naturally from the Nat administration into the Shauna, the Shipman administration. And I still bump to and just like, you know, obviously Ben. It's not like the second there was a challenge. That was a massive thing. Right? They had this thing. But...
Were there no other things in the time we missed? No days where something went wrong? No days where someone wanted to eat Mortimer and everyone else said no? By the way, where the fuck is Mortimer? This is like waiting all this time to see an update on Steve the dog. By the way, lest I forget, I have a note for Tyessa Turner. You take that photo of Biscuit off your fucking lock screen. You don't get to keep that there. No! No!
It was outrageous to see that. That's really funny. Oh, my God. If you cut off the head of your dog and place his heart on your secret cellar altar, you don't get to keep him on your fucking phone anymore. No. But what if that was the other one? I mean, well.
Van's asking the same thing. We'll come back to that. Okay. Before we leave our frogging pals, we have Edwin, soon to be no Edwin, discovering that Cody is perhaps not on these teams. Right. Do you think that will come into play in the future? So we have some interesting lines, some like ominous lines from Cody. Obviously, Edwin is like, my partner wants to fuck you and also you...
and kind of sexily wrestled her into the sat phone and then it broke. And then I found that your garments have someone else's name on them. But he's not quite as hung up on the things that...
that Cody's saying. He's like, focused on the things he's not saying, right? He's like, he's not answering any of your questions. He won't tell us anything about himself. But, you know, it's not just the kind of like, you'd be surprised how many things out here can kill a man. Kind of like I'm a, I took my bow, I wandered in and I never wandered out. Got this from a Sasquatch energy. Great stuff. I liked your Cody like video game characters just sort of like rocking movement. I, as you can tell, don't know what it would be like to have muscles. Is this how people with muscles walk?
Is this how people with muscle definition move? Couldn't tell you. No idea. I do have a very bad pain in my left leg and I have no idea where it came from. That's my contribution to how people move. Sure. But when he shot the bolt, quote, that's a callback. When he shot the bolt into the hair, got their dinner, Edwin didn't want to eat.
He said, dinner's on the house tonight, everyone. The wilderness provides. Now, the show is obviously doing this deliberately to make us wonder. Cheeky little wink. So, like, is any of that pinging to you or any of the suspicions that Edwin has as, like, this guy? He thinks they're going the wrong way, Edwin.
And Cody's leading them to a symbol tree. Do you think there's any chance that he has some cabin daddy like tie to this place? I think the show wants us to think that. Or do they just want us to think that? He was very willing to fall off the shit ridge and die. So that makes me less inclined to think that he has... The symbol tree being back in the mix here when we haven't talked about symbol trees like all season essentially is very interesting to me. And it just feels like they answered the question of why
What is that ungodly shrieking? It's just frogs fucking. Don't worry about it. So they've introduced science into. Did I almost make you do a spit take? That's great. You did. Not for me. You're dead. So we've introduced a scientific explanation into the mix. Yes. Right. Yes. But so why not side by side bring us back to Symbol Tree Corner, you know? Yeah.
I prefer some cave gas. I prefer poo corner personally. Slap bracelets. All right. Gio, what now? Welcome to day one of Reign of Kingstork, aka the shipment administration. How's it going? Did you see this meme that was going around of the electoral map?
of Shipman versus Scatorchio. I did not. It's pretty phenomenal. Great stuff. Absolutely harrowing. Just someone took an electoral map. My home state of Maryland, Team Nat, proud to say. Yeah. California always goes Team Nat, I gotta say. No question. All right. Misty saying Ben died of natural causes is generally incredible. Quigley for president as well. Incredibly amusing. Oh, really good.
As you mentioned, Ben is the bridge unless they burn that bridge down, which they're already off to a great start on that front personally. And then Van saying we're going home. Yeah. Yeah. Not so fast. Do you want to hear about the SOS incident? Please.
Tell me. Shout out, Redditors, for digging this up. So this idea that, like, we've got the froggers, and as we later find out via various Google searches from, you know, the entire Shauna family. Yeah. The froggers go missing, never to be seen again. Mm-hmm. So... A hundred miles. Yep. From the crash site. To what's going to happen to Hannah and Cody, I guess. Or...
Did they change their identities? Who's to say? And what's left behind is this DAT tape, right? We don't know how the DAT tape got back from the wilderness. You know, time will tell. I have a theory. Okay, can't wait. In 1989, two lost hikers on Mount Asahi in northern Japan were rescued after helicopters spotted an SOS sign made of 19 cut birch trees, except the hikers hadn't been the ones to build the sign and weren't aware it existed at all.
So the authorities are like, huh, who put that SOS sign? Wasn't these people you rescued? Oh, no. So they go back and they find some human remains. Not great. And a cassette recording of someone calling for help. And I this is on YouTube of them like playing the cassette recording of just someone screaming for help into a cassette. Anyway, so the idea of like.
Lost hikers, lost scientists, and like nothing remains but this mysterious tape of someone, you know, screaming for help or tearfully leaving a message for their daughter, Alex. Could have been, you know, could have been an inspiration here. When Lottie's axe comes out of the dark of night into the back of Edwin's head, and how did she like sneak around? Like, because she was in front of them, snuck around behind them.
She axe murders Edwin. Mm-hmm. Yep. And Shauna loves it. Laughs. She's fucking thrilled. She's on the brink of climax. This was disturbing. How's Team Shauna doing? Poor! Poor! What the fuck, Shauna? I mean, obviously, like, the group has not always been unanimously aligned. How could they be? That's always been part of what's interesting. But there's no greater test than this.
With apologies to Ben, whether Ben was going to live or die is not the same as, should we leave? Should we go home? Should we go home? What the response is, person to person, to Lottie threatening, risking. People have come into their camp and they have a chance to say to those people, how did you get here and do you have a way out? And Lottie puts an ax into one of their brains. So every reaction should be
Don't. What? He died. Why? How? Shauna is overcome with ecstasy. Euphoria. Can't wait to go chase down and...
obviously her desire is to continue to kill. I mean, she does not want to bring Hannah back at the end of the episode. It's only Nat. Nat's like, don't hurt them as they leave camp. Nat is like trying to appease and peacemake and all this other stuff like that. Travis too. Travis is also on Team Let's Go Home. Grab the gun and climb up here, buddy. We're going home, you know? So in terms of that schism that you are projecting Team Jack, Team Locke, that's a lost reference. Yes.
On the team Locke beat, John Locke is a character on Lost who, similar to Lottie, felt like he had a direct connection to what the wilderness wants. In his case, what the island wants. The island wouldn't want this. The island wants us to stay. The island wants us to do this. And when the freighter scientists in season four of Lost show up and they got a sat phone. Yep.
spoilers for Lost and climb up to the radar tower. Naomi's got the sat phone. John Locke fucking hucks a knife into Naomi, similar to Lottie with the axe, right? So like, and he's just like, we're not meant to call the freighter. We're not meant to leave. We're not supposed to go. And jury's still out on whether or not John was right about that. Honestly, that's the beauty of Lost. It's a mixed bag.
But Shauna is so, to your point, is so bloodthirstily excited for this hunt. Yeah. That she barely pauses when her girlfriend, Melissa, takes an entire bolt of
To the shoulder chest? Shoulder chest? Yeah. What is that? Just south of the collarbone? Yeah. Right there? Yeah. The décolletage? Oh, man. The later in the episode, the pushing through the... It's barbed! And then the pushing through the skin. Yeah. Made me want to gag. You know what else? Quickly, on the Edwin, no, Hedwin front, he knows who they are. Well...
Right? He's like, wait, this is a, you all are, um, oh my God. It read to me that they're, he's like, you guys are the pain in the crash. I have two definite, I have two. Yeah. What's the other possibility? Oh my God. Are you guys cannibals? Certainly that. Yeah.
Yeah. But I... So... I agree that that is a very likely... Here's what I at least want the kids to do. It's a very likely explanation. I just think there's, like, a plausible deniability that he was just like, oh, my God, these are cannibals. Right. You know what I mean? Yes. Yes. This guy's had his hair at that smell that, Lord me, was human flesh. Oh, boy. Oh, no. Yeah. But, like, if they do... And, of course...
a plane full of high school girls soccer team heading to Nationals lost without a trace. Thanks, Misty. I still don't understand. The transponder was going for quite some time. Anyway, they'll answer that at some point or they won't. I don't know. I don't know. The if...
They know who they are. This would be a huge story in national news. I'm so curious to see if any of the kids ask Hannah and Cody, like, hey, have you heard about us? Is our plane crash a big deal? Like, what do people think? Are they looking for us still? What's the state of the search? Do they give up? Do they assume we're dead? Are we like baby Jessica or something? Yeah.
Who would be most excited about that? Definitely Mari. Mari. Obviously. Has anyone found my vibrators? Do they know how I chipped a tooth? Do they talk about me on MTV? I love her. Oh, God. Okay. We're going to talk more about Hannah's message a little bit later. I kind of want to get that as we compare her to adult Shauna. That's something to talk about later. But Nat is still not only in charge of the hunt. She's giving some directions. Mm-hmm.
Shauna gives her the most sucking on lemons face I've seen from Sophie and I've seen a lot of sucking on lemons faces from her this season. Yeah.
But I loved the moment. So we're all, you know, we split off. Akilah and Travis are off in this direction. Misty is doing God knows what before she loses her glasses. Van and Ty, surprise, surprise, are together. But the moment that Nat and Shauna, who have been at odds all season, wordlessly snuff their torches at the same time.
Because they know what it is. They are practiced at this. They know what it is to be on the hunt. They've never hunted human in this way before. They have hunted human. But like not like this. But they're just sort of like we know what to do. We don't even have to talk about it. We're going to snuff our torches and we're going to head off in this direction. That's what we're going to do. And I really loved that as like a moment of. Yeah.
You know, teammate camaraderie. You know, these are women who played soccer together. Like, teammate camaraderie, but also, like... They dug coal together. They dug coal together, exactly. But also the idea of, like, we're enemies until there's a bigger enemy, and then we're allies. Right. Yeah. And that's why I'm curious to see, like, when... Because Travis wants Cody to get them out of there. Nat stopped Shauna from...
killing Hannah. Lottie's sitting there with brain, blood, bones smeared on her face saying, you know, they don't belong here. It doesn't want them here. I understand all this stuff that she's muttering to herself. Fuck your blood, dirt Lottie. Fuck your blood, dirt Lottie! Like, I'm, that shorthand of the torch snuff that
that you share and that you build over time. I liked what this episode did and reminded us of just like the thing that was there because they'd known each other for so long and had played together and gone to school together, grown up together, those formative years. But then also what is different about where they are now, not just like literally, but in terms of the passage of time compared to even earlier in the wilderness post-crash. Like again, with what Lottie did, okay, we have actually had a character before decide, right?
unilaterally on her own, I'm going to make a decision that stops us from being rescued. Misty, we've alluded to it. That's so different from what Lottie did in a couple ways. One, there's the passage of time, right? When Misty does that, terrible thing. It was before they ate people. They had not yet become cannibals. But also she's like in the throes of being needed, right? She's protecting something new and doesn't know, maybe in the back of her mind worries, but doesn't know that they will be here for more than a year later. Right.
They've been here for more than a year when Lottie does that, and that's why she does it, because she wants it to be forever. She doesn't want to go home. It's now really interesting. We sort of knew this at the time, but through the lens of this decision to think back to the cult and Sunshine Honey, and even when she had been rescued and left, she wanted to kind of rebuild that around her. But the thing that's most different about what Lottie did and what Misty did is how public it was. When Misty finally said that out loud to one person, she then had to
scare scream push crystal backed up as misty would have us believe off the natural causes she fell off the shit ridge body was not afraid to do that in front of everyone
To be fair. That's how sure she was that she was right. On the one hand, yes. And on the other hand, Lottie is also dealing with a different set of neurons firing in her brain. Certainly. You know what I mean? There are other people in this group who certainly will, I'm sure, and we get some of this from Ty and Van inside of this episode, also think perhaps they shouldn't go home. I don't know that they would put an ax to someone's head like that, the way that Lottie did. Lottie is emboldened by her...
Lack of medication, I would say, part of it. You know what I mean? Yeah. Okay. So...
Hannah's on the run, loses a hunk of hair and scalp, as you pointed out. Disgusting. Takes it as a souvenir. But her hair comes tumbling down. It is very pit girl-esque, as we discussed last week. And then we've got Ty and Van Sila together on the hunt yet again. And I want to read this email we got from our listener that is... Yeah. Our listener's calling out a specific gripe, but I think it's a larger gripe I have for the season. So our listener Crash wrote, I've been really...
I miss the crow that we could hear. Remember when you were like, scared me with the crow sound? Gah!
Crash says, I've been really bummed out that teen Taisa and teen Akilah don't have any scenes together in season three so far. I remember watching an interview with Jasmine Savoy Brown, who plays Taisa, about season two, who said that it was really important for her and Nia that two Black girls have a relationship because it's true to life. Jasmine said she really pushed show leadership about it for a few scenes we got in season two. And it's really disappointing to see Akilah have much more major storylines this season with zero interaction with Taisa.
Akilah only started going to Lottie's quote woo-woo prayer circles in season two because Taisa started to and she told Taisa that. Why isn't Taisa checking in at all with Akilah who's going through some really rough stuff? It seems so unlike Ty to not even attempt to make sure that Akilah's okay with all the cave gas vision stuff. Ty has frequently been shown to be a loyal and caring friend to Shauna.
And I don't understand why the powers that be seem to have cut off teen Thaisa from all the characters but Van. I'm wondering if they feel they're backed into a corner to only write Thaisa with Van in the 90s timeline because the most current timeline has Ty and Van together. Something I really loved about the show in previous seasons, and especially season one, was that the Yellow Jackets had complex relationships with each other, not just pairs of friends.
Season three feels like we've gotten a flattening of these previously complex friendships and characters. And so I really love that email for the Ty and Akilah stuff specifically, of course, but also just like thinking about Ty and Shauna haven't really shared time together. We talked about the really rare Nat and Travis moment that we got, but it's like kind of shocking that that's all we've seen from those two characters. And just sort of like,
Ty and Van, as much as I like them and as much as I think, you know, if your shout out that Van, like that death is coming for Van and will want to feel that pain for Tyesa, like it makes sense that they would want to identify, like really, really emphasize their closeness throughout the season.
I still need these women to mix and match and talk to each other more than like, you're in the Lottie, Akilah, Travis clique and you're in the Van and Ty clique. You know what I mean? Like, no question. And I would, I would say, I really agree. And like a great email. I, I think actually like the show needs to trust us that this does feel connected. So they're just a time thing. Did their seasons get to cut down? Okay. Et cetera. Yeah. But,
We actually will feel and appreciate that closeness more if it is in contrast to other active, present relationships that we get to watch. Yeah. Right? And witness. Like, we were incredibly invested in Ty and Van when we watched them go huddle up in the attic and literally, like, bind their hands together so that...
Dark Ty wouldn't sleepwalk Ty out after no eyes to a shit ridge, right? Yeah. But inside of those episodes, yes. Yeah. Inside of this episode, you still have like the Ty and Shauna connection and the Ty and Akilah connection. Yeah. And so then like when you have this moment where it's, oh, I see what Ty is like with someone else. And then I see what she's like with Van. Yeah. You actually, it's heightened. Yeah. But if all you have is Ty and Van. Yeah.
Then how do you even know what you're comparing it to? Now we're three seasons in, but I do miss that. And it's like, I think on the one hand, it does feel true and right to me that there would really be these like,
factions inside of the group after this much time in the wilderness. That is a very Lord of the Flies-y type of thing. It is very Alliances and Survivor, all of it. But just in terms of making a television show that, like, is operating at the highest frequency and homing for us as viewers and allowing us to really understand all of the dynamics, you have to see more people interact. Like, for example, and this is, again, to your point about time, it's
So different on a 22 episode season. But if we want to take the lost comp, you definitely had groups of people that you associated with each other, like Sawyer and Hurley or, you know what I mean? Like there are definitely like groups where you were like really excited when they were together. But you would also pull them apart and mix and match them constantly so that you could explore new character dynamics. And it helps you understand, to your point, the full like 360 of who that person is. It's like great email.
It was really fun to see. This is not the same as the girls, but like Mari and Ben together. Yeah. Because we hadn't seen that. And I also like even the glimpse of like that we get in this episode with like Jen and Mari and Melissa as like the B team group. You know what I mean? That they have like, I really felt that Jen and Melissa have like a close friendship that we haven't seen, but like we can understand it, you know? For sure. Yeah.
All right. So, yeah, Ty and Van have this conversation. They find the tent. They find the broken sat phone. And we have this sort of like do we stay or do we don't go conversation of Ty saying we found all these supplies for the village. And Van's like, we don't need any of it. We just need to find these people so we can go home. Right.
I don't want more supplies for the winter to come. I want to leave before the winter gets here. Yes. So, yeah. On the phone front, the broken phone. So when, before Hannah and Cody split,
And the hair splits from Hannah's head. Again, disgusting. Yeah. We get like a little lecture from Cody. He's like, you know, you need instincts. If you think you're going back to camp is the right thing to do, you don't have instincts. That's not how he said it. He was not like, how do people with muscles move? But he said, because she's like, we got to go back to camp. And he's like, you mean the broken one? And she said,
Maybe I can fix it. Much like you say about Bullseye every time he comes up on the Daredevil podcast. But I can. Now, who will fix something first? You with Bullseye or Hannah with the staff phone? She's me. I believe in me. I think I believe in you too. She will attempt to fix this phone. Right. So will they be able to use this phone? Hannah fixing it, someone else fixing it. They got to try to fix it. Classic Saeed, by the way. Totally. Yeah. Totally. This was, again, so losty. Like,
Is someone just going to come looking for the missing party because they didn't call in? They didn't return? Obviously, they're not making routine calls because Edwin was like, that's half our budget. Great moment when Cody was like, the future, you know, my future missus is at a different 900 number. Remember 900 numbers? What a time that was. That was a real attempt to be Sawyer. Oh, yeah. Not quite working, but sure. Yes, I agree. I agree. So the sat phone, someone will fix it, presumably, and then they'll make a call. Great.
Or a rescue group will just show up because they never returned home. Either way, I'd like to once again thank Coach Scott for his service. Thanks, Ben. Be a bridge. Thanks, Ben.
Not when they get a hold of Hannah. Yeah. When Hannah's like, I can't sit silently behind this log anymore. I really think you were almost in the clear, Hannah, but okay. I can't sit silently behind this log anymore. If only she had made it long enough to watch Fellowship, you know? How do you properly huddle? Even when the bugs are crawling out of the woodworks, you can huddle. You've got to find your time, goddammit. She pops out and she's like, listen. Yes.
And Shauna is immediately with her knife, just, like, ready to slice and dice. And she's like, you hurt our friend. As if Shauna gives a shit about Melissa. Astonishing stuff. And Nat's like, hey, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Yes. I didn't... Can I... A nitpick? I didn't understand how... Obviously, Nat was talking Shauna down anyway, but I didn't really understand how the, like, I have medical supplies to help your friend line worked. Because...
Obviously, it was deeply traumatic, but, like, they have survived catastrophic harm to their bodies before. Like, Van was... The crossbow bolts? Van was...
I'll buy a wolf. Yeah, but like, okay, fine. If you're like herbs and poultices got you through, that's fine. But wouldn't you rather some fucking back team? Of course they'd rather. But if I'm Shauna and I'm in this state, I'm like, fuck it. We stitched up Van after a wolf ate off her face. Shauna's just like, I'll kill you later. Yeah, true. True. As I mentioned, we got a lot of great emails about...
Shauna and her trauma and people talking about it. And I really like, I appreciate all those emails that people have written in. I really don't think we're not understanding that, but I, you guys can continue to disagree with us. Plenty of people are really enjoying what the darkness that is brewing inside of Shauna this season. But we got this one email about sort of like,
And Shauna, Anima from Sunny, who was talking about this idea of like Shauna and her baby. Thank you. Shauna and her baby against the world. Yes. You and me against the world. And now it's just Shauna against the world. Right. Jackie's gone. Her baby's gone. It's just Shauna against the world. And this idea of like.
wanting to be the queen because feeling so powerless and buffeted by the like horrible things that have happened to her since she's been out there so if i'm the queen if i'm in power then at least i have some control or if i stay here if i don't go home because i can't go home right after what's happened to me and what's what's what we've done out here um
I kind of liked this email, even if it's all still not working perfectly for me. I continue to be a little bit more hung up on how the group is responding to Shauna versus how Shauna is actually behaving. Shauna's response to the ceaseless loss, you know, we talked about when Van, Shauna, and Akilah all had their cave gas visions that just...
unbelievably gut-wrenching experience of Shauna swimming and not moving toward this child that she had lost. Like, she has suffered greatly and, of course, would be altered by what she has experienced. How could she not be? But we haven't actually had as much time other than, you know, some of the opening journal scrawls at the beginning of the season. That sense of isolation certainly is, I think, clear. But then to pull her out of that into this position of active...
leadership just requires a little bit more plotting of the path because she had been so separate. We knew that she coveted. She believed that she should lead. That wasn't the missing element. It's that the other people didn't think she should. Well, it's not she believes she should lead, but like why does she want to leave? And it's not just like I think I'm better than everyone else, which she does, but also just sort of like this idea of like I need some measure of control.
I need some measure of power. And I was always so powerless. Second to right. This is the other thing is like, and this, this partially like works inside of the show.
She's trying to be as mean as Jackie, and she doesn't have the, like, savoir faire to pull off what Jackie could. So, you know. Yeah. All right. So we deal with the crossbow bolt. We get go fuck your blood dirt Lottie from Queen Mari. That takes us to the now. Yes.
Shauna listening to... Oh, and Hannah hides the tape, right? Very like Aria hiding needle, tucks it under the rocks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So... So who's going to find it? Should I hit you with my theory now? Oh, yeah, let's do it now. Let's do it now.
Actually, I know when I'm going to drop it on you. Okay. It connects to something in the present, so I'll stay there. Can't wait. So we see adult Shauna... I'm not making it sound like it's not a very good theory. We see adult Shauna listening to the no headwind moment. No headwind. A shudder and a wince, not the manic laughter of her youth. Yes. I just started like... Okay. Mm-hmm. Um...
This is Hannah Sophia Finch is the Hannah in question, per the impressive Google detection skills. And I want to read this thing that –
A Redditor who goes by one and only Slack wrote, quote, taking a closer look at Hannah's obituary, it's very clear, at least to me, that she becomes everything Shauna could have been if the plane hadn't crashed. A teen mom who won nationals, Frisbee in Hannah's ultimate Frisbee, not soccer in Hannah's case. A teen mom who won nationals, who graduated and who was known to be smart and dedicated. How do you fancy this sort of parallel between Shauna and Hannah?
I like it, especially like we think of, you know, the very recent someone locked me in a freezer and then I saw Snacky again scene that... Is this who you wanted to be? Right. Shauna? Exactly. Someone's mom? Someone's wife? You know, is it actually Jackie's ghost haunting Shauna? Maybe, but what it certainly is undeniably is Shauna's... Is it a frog orgy? It could be. It could just be the frogs croaking. You know, this...
and doubt and lament that lives inside of Shauna surfacing in the form of a person who used to make her feel bad about herself. And so this comparison, friendship, this comparison. How weight loaded? Totally. Totally fancy coogs. Man, it would have been great to see
It would have been great to see Jackie grow up and go to the White Lotus. I love White Lotus season four. Dude. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Oh, she would be great. Yeah. Vicious. Oh, man. She would be great on White Lotus. I love it. I can't wait. I despondent that season three is ending, so I can't wait for season four. Mike White cast her. Maybe he's listening to this podcast because we talked about Survivor so much. Cold Lotus. Cold Lotus. Make it happen. Yeah. She's always done fine in the snow.
Okay, I lament that we cannot play clips, so we can't hear Jeff's epic pause on in this poorly furnished shitbox as he continues to describe the Jolly Hitcher. And he expresses his frustration at Shauna's willingness to disrupt his life and Callie's life, yet not loop them in on plans and the double standards of her behavior.
And then when Shauna says that Callie, as smart as she is, needs to, quote, back the fuck off, that goes for you too, sweetie. There's this, like, great Warren Cole, who's always wonderful as Jeff, does this great sort of, like, infinitesimal. No. You got it. No. You got it. No. You're killing it. It's not coming out today. It's not happening. We're not saying that word today. Teeny tiny, eensy weensy. Flinch. Flinch.
From Jeff. Infinitesimal. There it is. Okay. Wow. I just really stuck in my brain. Did not want to come out to play. Murder, murder. Murder, murder. Murder, murder. Murder, murder. Frogger slaughter. Frogger slaughter. Yeah. Jeff is just, I mean, we're headed towards the end of the episode when Callie's like, hey, is Arma, is mom bad actually? Remember the old Grantland rubric, overrated, underrated, properly rated? Callie just came in and was like, mom.
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This goes back to, like, we thought—what we thought we understood about Jeff was that Jeff had read the journals, so knew everything that had happened in the wilderness, and chose Shauna anyway. Yeah. So then Callie's like, hey, have you heard about Frogger Slaughter? Mm-hmm. Do you know about Frogger Slaughter? No. You know Mom's capable of this, don't you? And this seemed like this big, like, dun-dun-dun moment. But I'm like, isn't Jeff supposed to know everything? Or did Shauna not journal about the Frogger Slaughter? I don't—I was—
Was she out of notebooks at that point? This, to me, possible. Though why not ask Travis for some of his fucking tree bark that he's doodling on? His scrolls. This, to me, was like a... Ah, the show has... We liked the last couple episodes more like has lost a couple miles per hour off its fastball. There's a little thing like that. Yeah. Because that actually just doesn't make sense. It's not consistent with...
their relationship but also just kind of established canon in the show. Jeff has seen the darkest parts of her and he loved her anyway. It would be one thing if we had not seen Shauna journal in eons upon end but
She's in a fever scrawl of like, how, how, at the beginning, we can never go back. So like, I, and she's journaling about all of these horrific things. Dear diary. Why would this be the thing she didn't journal about? Today, Lottie put an ax in the back of a man's head. Exactly. And Mari, who sucks, had the greatest line of the season. Yeah. And you know, Mel is like on the IL right now. So we're going to be doing a little less fucking in our teepees. Like she would have definitely.
I've definitely journaled about all of that. I mean, he definitely knows about Melissa. 100%. Well, I feel like that's going to still come into play. The other thing on this little nitpick front in this stretch, maybe this is fine, but stuff like this drives me crazy. We talked last week about how they stopped listening to the tape in the car. Okay. Shawna fast-forwarded. Callie has like 30 minutes of tape. Callie, but we know she's, right. She's got their conversation in the car, et cetera, like the elevator. Okay.
Shauna sits down. They stopped listening to that tape immediately, right? Okay, shit, we know what this is. Shauna sits down on the toilet, running the water. Jeff's like,
Do you need some Imodium? How long are you going to be? How long is this shit going to take? Should I go to the lobby? She's like, don't go. He's like, you sent me for snacks. Okay. She fast forwarded 13 minutes on this recording. I just don't accept that you wouldn't listen to every single second of that. Now, I guess we can deduce that they do later in the van when they play it for Misty. They listen to it all. But like what she's fast forwarding.
But isn't the implication that she's been in the bathroom for a while? Like, hasn't she been like sort of zooming around the tape? Maybe. It seemed to me like this was like the first time she moved forward in the tape was to suddenly go, let me see what else is on here. I'm going to go 15 minutes in. What? That's just like bizarre, though. I kind of believe that Shauna would do that. They're at the gas station later. Everyone's fucking tapping their credit cards. I'm like, guys, what did Shauna use to buy that hunting knife?
Hopefully cash. Hopefully she is not stupid enough and behaving recklessly enough to leave that kind of digital trail. You mean Shauna who just stabbed Adam out of fucking nowhere? That Shauna? Shauna! Shauna, no. Shauna doesn't plan, as Misty clearly outlines. That was great. You know what I mean? That was a great moment. Rudely. Absolutely. Okay. Rudely. So...
I sense cleanup. Don't ask yourself. Not yet, but if past is prologue, you will. Late and rudely. Incredible line. Genuinely incredible. I really love this flavor of over Shauna's shit from Misty as opposed to like pleading, placating Misty from earlier in the season. Shout out. Tough love, Walter. Absolutely. Walter got us here. Absolutely. Thank you, Walter. To Misty just like crushing it. He was right to air quote that friendship. He really was. He really was. He was right. Um...
Misty accuses Ty of murdering Lottie previously. Van looks like she might be concerned about the same thing. And then Misty learns about the tape for the first time. Misty being like, you know, keep an eye out for your 1099. Oh my God. Thank you for your service to the government. Remarkable stuff. Your government thanks you. Remarkable stuff. So good. Okay. So Shauna tells Van and Ty and Misty that she's going after Alex. And then they say Jen and Melissa...
Both got pretty close to Hannah. Yeah, but they're both dead. Okay. Here's my theory. Okay, great. Okay. This is the Hilary Swank is still Melissa theory? Correct. Great. Because... Couple things. One...
like Misty was kind of like, Shauna, how'd you find all this out so quickly just in terms of how she... It was funny to see that Callie and Shauna had identical Google styles, by the way. Correct. They usually love the plus sign in their Google search. They love the plus sign. Wild stuff. A lot of capitalization as well. Okay, so Jen and Mel got close to Hannah. Hannah has been brought back and will not be dying immediately. She will be living long enough...
to get close to a couple members of the Yellow Jackets. What might she tell them? Perhaps that she had a child? And buried a tape somewhere. And buried a tape somewhere. On the Lost front. Again, spoilers for Lost. This is giving... We talked about this possibility previously in previous episodes, but this was really pinging the...
Oh, not everybody's getting rescued. Not everybody's coming home theory that we've discussed before. Oh, but some people will survive anyway. Mel gets left behind. That's why we have this moment where Shauna runs away after she's injured to kind of prime us. Shauna's going to not hesitate to leave Mel behind. Mel gets left behind. They all just assume that Mel's dead. But Mel continued on.
Whether it's that seven years later expedition or some other thing, somehow later, tape in hand, makes her way off that island. Now, does Shauna know Mel is alive? I thought the look on Shauna's face when they said Jen and Mel were dead was notable. I don't know if that means she actually has reason to believe or knows that she was not dead or it's just guilt that she let her die, maybe that she left her behind. But they want us to think Hillary Swank is Alex and I still think it's Mel.
I hope you're right. I love this for you. Wouldn't it be so funny if it's Jen? Oh my God. Hi, it's me, Jen. I've had three lines this season. Sheesh. I'm Hillary Swank. I'm still waiting to understand why they recast Jen, given the like two and a half minutes of her total screen time. But maybe it's coming out with a Hannah bonding. Who knows?
All right, Walter, we go to the gas station. I don't, you know, van is not doing well. We'll come back to that. But Walter lets Missy know about Shauna's DNA under Lottie's nails. And this is a theory from our listener, Allison, who says, I think Lottie had Shauna's DNA under her fingernails because she probably braided Callie's hair before she got murdered. What do you think? I will just say this in response to Allison's email. Is that how DNA works? Genuinely asking. I don't know.
I don't know. Is the implication that Shauna's DNA would have been on Callie's head from touching her or that Callie's DNA is close enough to Shauna's that it could ping that? Is that how DNA works? I'm not a scientist. You've heard me say it before, folks. I'm not a scientist. You're not a doctor. Come cover the pit with me. Dude, I can't wait to watch the pit. I really feel like I am missing out. It's been hyped for you. It seems great. Come join us. I will. Hobbitsanddragons.gmail.com if you are a geneticist. You know how DNA works. If you're a geneticist and you know everything I know about gene...
DNA theory I learned from down on DNA from Mr. DNA in Jurassic Park. Okay. Yeah. That also involves frogs, by the way. It does. It does. Did Callie kill Lottie and Shauna and is Shauna covering for her has been a wildly popular fan theory on Reddit for some weeks now. Did Callie kill Lottie and is Shauna covering for her? Why would Callie kill Lottie? Now we did see her. She wants answers to questions. Yeah. And Lottie won't give them to her.
But Lottie was like, yeah. She did seem very eager to welcome Callie into her new cult that she was building. I mean, it would be interesting in an Apple doesn't fall far from the tree kind of a way. Yeah. Callie did. Thanks, Randy. We've missed you these last few weeks. Order, order.
Entrails. A bag full of entrails to dump on a friend. So that's possible. But that again, I wouldn't like that from like a story mechanic perspective. Like that would just feel like, oh, twist. It was Callie versus somebody who had like a more clearly established and deeply rooted motive for doing this. With any of these things, whether it's Melissa, whether it's Shauna, whether it's Ty, it's
I don't think it's Misty. No. I don't think it's Van. It'll depend entirely on execution, I think. Yeah. Yeah? How they show it, how it all went down. Yeah. We're learning that this season, right? For sure. We're learning who killed Lottie? Okay, good. Have to. Have to. The gang goes to the hospital where Van's magical cancer rears its head.
Missy trying to follow Van and Ty back there citing a very intense trauma bond is wonderful. Made me think of Allie from season one at the reunion. Trauma bond. You love, you love. Talk about Allie. Great stuff. What do you think of this spooky phone motif?
With the neighboring patient next to Van's bed saying, ring, ring, motherfuckers, the devil's calling. Yeah. We had the phone call that Van answers and hears Ty on the other line of last week. We also have, of course, the sat phone stuff with Van and Ty this week. So what do you think about this, like, phone situation? I mean, you know, obviously in the immediate moment there, we just get the, like, I'm going to kill him. And Van's like, please don't.
You know, this impulse that continues to drive Ty, Dark Ty, which one is it? When did the takeover happen? You know, a question, oh, how long has it been you that we had been asking and Van asks in this hallucinatory sequence. But this idea of like the devil calling, this is again very Lord of the Flies, like this pull. And that for Ty, like this pull to the dark and this...
You know, if Van, when they're in the hospital bed and she's like, this is exactly what we didn't want. It's like, well, yeah, no shit. Like, nobody wants the person they love to be dying of cancer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so it's like Ty using any excuse. Shawna like. Very much so to say no. And when Van is like, I don't want to do that. And Ty's like, I'll do it for you. Like, let me do it for you. Let me kill people. Let me sacrifice to the wilderness for you. Yeah.
That's the devil calling. How do you feel about this other tie? Was it other tie? How long has it been other tie reveal that we get inside of this episode? If we want to call it a reveal. It's a van hallucination of a sort. Yeah. It feels to me like van kind of clocking what we talked about last week and piecing it together. I find this interesting in terms of van being the one, as we discussed last week, in the earlier timeline episode.
be seeking to surface and unearth and coax out.
dark tie and now to really fear that it makes me wonder what else awaits in the past. Obviously plenty has already happened. Fun to get the you know shoveling dirt into her mouth previously on. Flashback. Great stuff. What a moment that was in season one. But yeah I you know I think that I'm still where we were last week like it feels like this has been going on for since maybe The Waiter right? At least.
I'm the one who can save you. Well, we'll see. Doesn't seem like it. All right, Callie and Jeff, we've already covered most of this. I just want to say, Jeff's saying enjoy your vermin, Jules. Like, good job trying to have best line of the episode. Too bad Mari got there first. And then, Rebecca wrote in to let us know that there's a...
There's a hotel that looks absolutely lovely in Red Bank, New Jersey called the Molly Pitcher that she thinks the Jolly Hitcher is sort of making fun of. But the Molly Pitcher actually looks like the Molly Pitcher and looks beautiful. Yeah.
The Jolly Hitcher, well, riddled with bedbugs or neuroses. I stand with Callie. I mean, yeah, Jeff just absolutely besmirching the reputation of this fine, albeit, as he said, poorly furnished ship box. It's the voice within that is causing those hives, my guy. It's the voice within. Okay, what do you think with this Jeff Callie? Where's this leading? Is this leading to some sort of active betrayal of the ship?
of Shauna or is it more likely that Shauna will lash out in the face of their judgment? That feels like the more likely thing to me. I feel like if we're heading towards the parallel of like revolt against Shauna in the past, if that's where we're headed, and then revolt against Shauna in the present, a parallel beat. Because so much of where she is in the present day... If I'm Jeff, I'm way gone. One...
electric knife slicing open my skin side's nightmare was all I would have needed to go. But because he's been through all that and stood by her, went to Adam's studio and stood by her. Went up to Sunshine Honey and stood by her. What if his point now is like, but you're putting Callie in danger or Callie feels like she's more exposed. If that's the stance that he would take. Yeah. Callie being the one to say,
this is too much. Yeah. Feels like the one thing that could pull Jeff back in. And also, I guess the other thing is that he, his limit is twofold. It's Callie, but it's also, his bargain has always been really, like, surface level and out there for all to see. I will accept who you are in full. You cheated on me. You killed him. I'm,
All the things you did in the past. Yeah. He could have been strawberry lube. I accept this. Could have. Could have gone strawberry. I accept it because you show me who you are.
And as soon as she stops doing that, which is what's happening now, is that coupled with Callie losing faith or comfort, losing the ability to accept that this is who Shauna is, is that where Jeff draws the line, which actually I would kind of like to see from him. This all feeds into like where I want to wrap up today, which is that, you know, we end with Shauna.
Shauna takes off in the Sadecki family van. She's got this hunting knife that she has purchased from the gas and sip. Loves the hunting knife. With like the orange price tag on it. There's this discussion on Reddit about Shauna as a Walter White-esque figure. And if, spoilers for Breaking Bad. Yeah. Walter White, who starts as a family man who we initially root for because he's doing some tough things in order to, quote, protect his family. Yeah.
Not sure Shauna has that excuse in regards to Adam, but okay. And this idea that like we've been watching Shauna and we're like, we kind of understand, we kind of root. She's still like, we like Jeff. We care about, she seems like she could kind of be an okay mom. Like there are excuses she's making about protecting her home life, but-
Where it all ends. Spoilers for Breaking Bad. Where it all ends. Spoilers for Breaking Bad. Yeah. Is with Walter White admitting, I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really, I was alive. Yes. So the way in which we've seen Shauna like,
hands shaking with excitement about potentially shooting a gun. You know what I mean? Like all of this, this addictive nature of it and this like this reawakening. Yes. From the moment she like stabbed that rabbit in the yard with her shovel, like reawakening of who she was in the wilderness and how that made her feel not buried in suburbia, but alive. Yeah. I think that is Shauna's story ultimately. And we've heard, you know, the moments where
she voiced that again, like to go back to Adam's studio. I know we've talked about this at one point in the last few weeks, like when she said to Jeff, like, you know, I used to think about these and like, I felt like a pervert. And now I like that part of myself, Shauna, um,
and in general, the show and what the show has to say about like the darkness within and what happens when you touch the darkness, right. To, to bring in rings of power as well into, um, the just, uh, various and sundry pop culture temples that we've discussed and spoiled on this episode. Um, you know, sometimes you have to touch the darkness before, you know, but then sometimes you like it when you touch the darkness. And that actually feels like the awakening of your true self, the acknowledgement of your true self, um,
I think that's like you're saying with the rabbit and the cleaver. They're from day one with Shauna. So I don't know that Shauna has ever been, like, good, right? No, no, no, no. And I don't think you could ever say that, like, Walter White, like, once he starts cooking meth and, like, dissolving bodies in the bathtub, suppose, or breaking bad, like, you're not like, that's good. But there's, like, I think the point is, like, there's a...
there's a tipping point where you're watching Breaking Bad and you're like, well, he's doing some stuff. This is not a redemption story. But we're working for him, blah, blah, blah. You know, we're rooting for him, blah, blah, blah. Shauna did shit from the beginning and I'm still kind of like, Shauna, I hope everything works out for you. Are we getting, are we approaching a point where I don't feel that way about Shauna anymore? Yeah. And is it running parallel with what we're seeing with Shauna in the past? Yeah. You know? Yeah, and I think that could also be part of the, this is a version of the email we got, you know, about
Van and Ty like part of the dialing up like you're saying of Shauna in the past to make us less inclined to refer though it sounds like that's not the reaction everyone's having to it but yeah I don't know that I want Shauna now I'm like I'm interrogating my own feeling about what I want from Shauna because I have often I think held Shauna in some state of
I've long been trepidatious in terms of how Shauna behaves and the decisions that she's made, but that has been interesting to me. You know, making the mistake like the one she made with Adam was so tragic, especially on the heels of like feeling so awakened by that spark with him. Yeah. I don't necessarily want Shauna to get caught or like arrested. You know, as recently as last season when Hot Kevin was in pursuit of her, I was like, no, I want Shauna to make it out of this. And I think I still do, but I do want Shauna...
To have to confront the cost of her decisions, like, on other people. That it's actually despite the Queen of Hearts not just a deck of cards, that she is gambling with everybody's lives, including her own family, really recklessly in, like, this kind of...
I am the sole arbiter and I am not just the antler queen, but God, like instinct and compulsion. I'm the most important person in any scenario. I will fuck up your business dinner to the joels because I just feel like I'm over it. And this is beneath you. And so I've just decided I'm going to fuck it up. Yeah. What's the tipping point?
Tapas? What? Was it last week when she pretended she wasn't feeling well? Maybe. To make Jeff leave the room is that when Shawna lost us? Maybe it was tapas. All right. Tapas. Last but not least, favorite needle drop of the episode, Miley Rubin. It's got to be Sugar Ray. It's Sugar Ray. Come on. How could it not be? Come on.
This has been another episode of House of R covering Yellow Jackets. We've had people asking questions about the scheduling of this podcast. We really do our best to put it out on Monday, but things happen. I was traveling. This one's my fault. I'm so sorry. It's all fine. We'll be back on Monday next week. Theoretically. I don't want to make any promises. We will do our best. And we would like to thank John Richter and Steve Allman for staying late today. Thanks, guys. Our general room pal,
for all of his work everywhere on the feed. Jummy at dinner on wig wearer extraordinaire. Wonderful stuff. And we'll be back later this week. Double devil. Oh yeah. With Mallory Rubin. Can't wait. And my best friend Bullseye. You can text him. I don't know if he's in these episodes. We'll see. All right. Bye. Bye.