Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis, Tawny Cypress, Lauren Ambrose and Simone Kessell in the season 2 finale of Yellowjackets.
Colin Bentley/SHOWTIME
[This story contains major spoilers from the season two finale of Yellowjackets, “Storytelling.”]
The second season of “Yellowjackets” brought a tragic ending for one of the leads of Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson’s Showtime survival series.
In the season finale, which aired May 25, Juliette Lewis’ character, the adult Natalie, was accidentally killed by Misty (Christina Ricci) during a wilderness encounter between the adult survivors of the 1996 plane crash that killed the Yellowjackets football team stranded, gone terribly wrong They were teenagers for 19 months and were forced into cannibalism and other acts of violence to survive. In the series, which flips back and forth from 1996 to the present (and briefly introduces a third timeline of the team’s rescue), Lewis has been a regular on the series from the start. She forms the core foursome consisting of Natalie (Lewis), Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), Taissa (Tawney Cypress) and Misty, with Lottie (Simone Kessell) and Van (Lauren Ambrose) expanding the adult survivors in season two.
“Natalie is constantly looking for something to live for,” Lewis said while reflecting on her role during the Showtime show “Behind the Buzz” finale. “She seems tough, but when you see what she’s doing, she just wants to love.”
The actress shared on Instagram Monday that she has been and will be “offline for a while” and is reflecting on her time on the show. On Yellowjackets, she wrote that she was “overwhelmed by the appreciation of my work.” “Dear Respect & [appreciation] is the oil in this creative machine and the encouragement I always need. That I am not creating alone, with whom I will and can continue to create despite the challenges of this industry [its] breakneck hours and pressure cooker expectations etc etc. I love you all dearly.”
She also thanked Lyle and Nickerson, as well as the Showtime team, for “the opportunity of a lifetime” and “some of the greatest, wildest, and ultimately most fulfilling creative innovations and life lessons.” Lewis also praised the series’ “extraordinary writing style” and “phenomenal” cast in his post. “Until we meet again,” she concluded the post, which included photos from the finale.
Her castmates commented on the post, with Lynskey writing, “I love you with all my heart and the respect I have for you is gargantuan,” and Ricci posted on her own feed that Lewis was “one in a million,” and adding, “We’ve loved, we’ve laughed, we’ve giggled, we’ve argued and made up, we’re sisters.”
Lewis was an exciting cast from the start, she, Lynskey and Ricci delighted legions of fans as they reunited for the ’90s set series. Speaking to about the difficult decision to give Lewis that fate so early in the series (Yellowjackets has already been renewed for a third season and the co-creators have a five-season schedule), director and EP Karyn Kusama also said if her departure was harsh and highly emotional, the character’s story arc had stalled since the series’ pilot.
“I know what the showrunners were always thinking about and what Ashley and Bart have always been thinking about since the pilot was that mysterious moment when Natalie Misty hallucinated over the barrel in the woods,” said Kusama, who starred in both the pilot and the pilot Directed the season two finale. “It was always this time-wasting flashback to the idea that Misty was always going to be some kind of angel of death to Natalie.”
Lyle and Nickerson discussed in “Behind the Buzz” that death was a turning point in Nat and Misty’s friendship from that moment in the pilot. “As sad as it is to lose a character as important to our story as Natalie, the fact is that the world is a matter of life and death,” Lyle said. “The ritual itself awakens something in them that has been dormant for a very long time.” Adding to the tragic aftermath, Nickerson added, “What we’re trying to do with today’s story is to show that that power doesn’t end when they’re saved.”
Ricci added in the featurette, “Misty is obsessed with Natalie. She’s never gotten that close to a friend, she won’t give that up – even if she ends up hugging her so tightly she crushes her.”
Speaking to THR, Kusama shared that while Lewis had been aware of her fate for “quite a while,” the cast only found out just before filming began on the episode, which was the ninth of the second season. Sophie Thatcher, who plays Lewis’ younger teen Natalie, described her grief over the loss of her mentor while explaining how the decision will move the series forward. (The finale also featured a big revelation for teenage Natalie as she was crowned the long-awaited Antler Queen, providing more heartbreaking clarity about the adult Nat’s fate.)
“It was pretty devastating,” Thatcher told THR as she read the finale’s script shortly after Lewis confirmed their departure while the pair did press work together. “I am happy that she is participating in different projects as an actress and exploring different roles. Because Natalie is a really difficult role emotionally, and I can’t see myself playing that for three more seasons… But I think it’s really tragic for our character. Everyone’s been through a lot, but Nat’s the one who took it all in the deepest and let it live and bubble up, so there’s something really sad about it. I haven’t really thought about it yet because we don’t know when we’re going to start season 3, but without that mentorship… I know she’ll always be a contact, but not as immediate [mentor], everyone else has and now I’m away from it. She gave me so much confidence as a performer and artist and I will carry that with me throughout my life.”
Due to the ongoing writers’ strike, the third season of “Yellowjackets” is paused; The writers had a day before it ended after May 2nd. When production resumes, Kusama sheds light on what the series will explore following the Yellowjackets’ big defeat and the events of the finale. “There’s something about a loss in the present like this that offers an opportunity to explore how it can trigger a reappraisal or a revisit of the past, and it can trigger many changes, for better or for worse.” And that’s why I think the show will be something that will delve deep into Nat’s death,” she said. (Read the full interview.)
The creatives and stars also expressed themselves in the featurette for the third season. Thatcher called Nat’s fate a “beautiful juxtaposition” of the end of one chapter and the beginning of a new one, while Kusama noted that the fact that young Natalie becomes Antler Queen in an evolution of Lottie (Courtney Eaton) means that each of the Yellowjackets one might have an opportunity to wear the crown.
The season ends with the young survivors’ hut being burned to the ground, leaving them with little shelter in the wintry wilderness. “We’re big fans of clue highlights, so decisions have been made and what those decisions mean will be a big part of season three,” Nickerson teased.
Kevin Alves, who plays Travis Martinez in the 1996 storyline, gave viewers a head start when he spoke to THR about the shocking moment of cannibalism for his character when he took the first bite out of his late brother Javi (Luciano Leroux) , after thinking he had died accidentally.
“The cool and imaginative thing about the Yellowjackets is that there are many inserts [shots when they leave the cabin after the fire]. I’m not sure how many were included in the final edit. You really have to go slow to see them. But they took things that came out of that shack,” he shared. “I assume the writing is about how we’re going to survive outside the cabin. We took everything we could with us, and this show is so iconic that there’s no reason we took some of those things with us. [The writers are] too sneaky. We had the queen of hearts in this deck in episode four or five of season one, and now they came into play.”
“Yellowjackets” left viewers with an ominous message from Lottie (Kessel) today as she looked into the camera and said they had given the wild what they wanted and she was content; “you’ll see.” In Yellowjackets’ final social media stunt for the season, the show updated the voicemail to Lottie’s Sunshine Honey Spa 911 landline number (an Easter egg from episode seven, updated with each episode to reflect the story). When viewers call (607) 478-1033, they hear Lisa (Nicole Maines) in a chaotic message while the grounds are in a mess after Nat’s death. “I’m sorry we left…or we will go. Our gates are closed… and we will soon be back in the dark.”
Season 2 is available now to stream and on Showtime on Demand. Read THR’s coverage and interviews of Season 2 of The Yellowjackets.
May 29, 5 p.m Updated with Lewis’ Instagram message.