Recap / Yellowjackets S 2 E 2 Edible Complex

Recap pages are Spoilers Off per policy and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned

Note: The events of the episode are grouped by timeline, not by the order of scenes.

In the past...

Shauna continues her conversations with Dead Jackie ("Sure, let's taunt the dead girl about her fragile plane of existence.") Inside the cabin, people are in a bad mood. Mari is snippy toward Crystal. And on top of things, somebody broke the rule about using the indoor waste bucket only for pee. Nobody wants to fess up to pooping indoors, so Taissa just grabs the bucket and goes out to throw away the contents.

Dead!Jackie confronts Shauna about what she did with Jackie's ear. She cuts her own arm, but then the hallucination ends Shauna finds herself with a knife in her hand, having cut a gash in Jackie's arm.

Van wakes up and Taissa is not there. Having cut the rope binding her to Van, Taissa is sleepwalking, following the No-Eyed Man she has seen before. Van manages to stop her from walking off to her death. The special symbol is seen on a tree. Back in the cabin, Van suggests that Taissa talk to Lottie. Taissa is adamant about not doing that. Speaking of Lottie, she is talking to Travis under Nat's disapproving eye. As Natalie and Travis go off to find game, they discuss Lottie's blessing rituals, which Natalie is skeptical about. Travis says that him drinking tea is a symbol of being open minded and not thinking he knows everything. They end up splitting up, even though Natalie carries the gun and Travis would not be able to shoot game if they do. He is obviously more interested in searching for Javi. Natalie arranges to rendezvous later on.

Taissa finds Shauna has braided Dead!Jackie's hair and made up her face. Shocked, Taissa proceeds to tell everyone about Shauna's hobby and goes out of her way to tell Lottie that this is not OK. Taissa orders the others to gather firewood so they can cremate Jackie's body before sunset, since they cannot bury her.

Travis and Natalie rendezvous on the agreed-upon point. She shows him a piece of fabric she has ripped from Javi's clothes and stained with her own blood, claiming to have found it hanging from a branch. Finally convinced that Javi is dead, Travis breaks down and Natalie comforts him.

Preparations for Jackie's cremation continue. An arguments pops up about saving her jacket, but Shauna is adamant that nobody is taking off Jackie's clothes. Mari yells back, "Oh, now you're her protector? Too little too late." There is a shoving match and in the end, Jackie gets to keep her jacket. Lottie notices the gash on Jackie's arm and just pulls down the sleeve, handing Shauna Jackie's heart necklace.

Natalie and Travis return to find Jackie on a pyre. Lottie notices the piece of fabric in Travis's hand; she can't believe those are Javi's.

Natalie: Not another word.
Lottie: No, Javi's alive. I can feel it.
Natalie: For fuck's sake, shut up! Don't you see how much damage you are doing? Why? Lottie, why? What is making you fucking do this? You can't just keep making him...

Shauna addresses her friend with words from the heart: "Jackie. I'll never have another friend like you. I don't even know where you end and I begin. I'm sorry. And I love you." Travis adds the torn-up fabric to the fire and whispers goodbye to Javi. One by one, they go back to the cabin. Sex for Solace happens between Natalie and Travis. Travis keeps picturing Lottie. The wind blows snow off a branch and it falls on the pyre, extinguishing the flames consuming the body but not the ones roasting it to perfection.

In the middle of the night, a strong smell wafts into the cabin. The team goes out to find Jackie's body, perfectly cooked. Shauna: "She wants us to." The scene cuts between an Imagine Spot of the team, dressed in togas and gold ornaments at a Greco-Roman-style banquet and the team members grabbing and devouring pieces of Jackie. Horrified, the coach backs into the cabin and slams the door on the feast.

In the present...

Callie is sulking in her boyfriend Kyle's bed, complaining about her parents being assholes who only care about themselves. She breaks up with Kyle without giving him much of an explanation.

Taissa downs multiple cups of coffee. She sits down to get ready but fails to notice her reflection move while she is still.

Cult compound. Natalie and Lottie are having a conversation:

Natalie: Last I heard, you were finger painting in the loony bin, and now you're running a cult. Clearly you've recovered, then.
Lottie: Last I heard, you were getting out of rehab for the fifth time. How's your recovery going?

Lottie goes on to explain that it is not a cult, "We are an intentional community turning suffering into strength. So we can live as our best selves." The naked dude getting buried alive? A therapeutic service. Natalie's kidnapping? Lottie sent her subordinates in purple (sorry, heliotrope) because they were worried about Natalie doing something stupid and they found her about to eat her gun. Lisa, the acolyte from the previous night turns up with a smoothie for Lottie but appears to have screwed up the order. She sniffs at Natalie's lame apology. With good reason, because she almost lost an eye.

Sadecki home. Shauna tries to connect with Callie, but not even the prospect of a shopping trip is enough to entice Callie to spend time with her mother.

Misty's workplace. At the nursing home, Misty leaves her third message of the day for Taissa. She checks the citizen detective website, where she has posted a pic of the camera outside Natalie's hotel room asking for assistance to get the footage. A user with the handle PuttingTheSickInForensics (credited as Walter, and given this name subsequently) has posted: "I might have an idea but only if you stop shitting all over my Adam Martin theories." Misty claps back with her own post: "I might have an idea, too. Stop wasting our time with goose chases."

The Sadecki home. Detective Kevyn Tan drops by. He is looking into the disappearance of local artist Adam Martin. Shauna admits to the fender-bender and exchanging information on insurance, but denies any further contact. She lies about some texts. Fortunately, Callie interrupts the conversation. Kevyn says he'll come back if there are further questions and leaves. Callie asks her mother why she lied to the police. Shauna claims to have done it because cops are sexists and she is trying to protect her husband. She asks Callie to leave through back door so Kevyn doesn't see her.

The Turner home. Taissa is surprised to see Sammy there playing with Steve the dog. He walked to her home all the way from school, without Simone's knowledge. Taissa sends him off to play with the dog and calls Simone. Simone has trouble believing that Taissa had nothing to do with it but is going to come over to pick him up.

The nursing home. Misty overhears a man chatting with the home's manager. He is pushing his mother on a wheelchair and inquiring about all sorts of things in order to find out if the home is suitable for his mother. The man gives Misty a knowing look. Misty finds someone has left an envelope for her in the staff refrigerator, but all it contains is a blank sheet of paper.

Natalie gets Lottie to tell her about what happened to Travis. Lottie claims that Travis called her, saying the "wilderness" had come back to haunt him. She drove all night and found him terrified and paranoid. "The only way to confront the darkness, to find out what it wants, is to get as close as possible to death." She also claims to have asked about calling Natalie, but Travis said that would make things worse. She fell asleep and when she woke up, she found a note with instructions about his bank account and the note for Natalie. She found him in the barn, where he'd set a bunch of candles in the shape of the symbol and had tied his neck to a crane. His plan was to hang himself and give himself a Near-Death Experience. But the crane buttons malfunctioned and Lottie was unable to lower him back to the ground.

Natalie is skeptical about having been told the whole story, and with good reason, because Lottie neglects to mention the appearance of a shrieking wraith with a resemblance to Laura Lee. Natalie tells off Lottie about her claim of trying to save Travis:

Natalie: Because every time that you try to save someone, a lot of bad shit happens. And look at you now, 25 years later, and the same shit's happening again. Only this time, you're wearing a Rolex. And you have all the broken toys around here who think you walk on water.

Natalie demands to be taken off the compound but she is told that she is going to have to spend the night.

The Turner home. Simone arrives, waking up Taissa. They go to Sammy's room, but it's empty. They set off to find him

Callie and her friend Ilana are hanging out at a bar even though they are underage and discussing Kyle. Ilana points out a guy who has been checking out Callie and she goes to talk to him. He is stuck on 16-across on his Crossword Puzzle. He buys her a drink and they exchange stories. Jay lives in Brooklyn, his parents are splitting up and he is helping his mother move out. Callie lies about taking the semester off during her last year at Rutgers, and spills the truth about her mom cheating on her dad.

At her cabin, Natalie scoffs at the heliotrope-colored change of clothes left for her and lies down. She has a vision of EMTs reviving her after an OD.

Misty's home. She is ready to clean Caligula's cage and lay out fresh paper. She has a lightbulb moment and puts the blank sheet of paper under black light. It is not blank anymore! "I have no doubt you're reading this note, because you're too smart not to have figured it out." According to the note from Walter/PuttingtheSickinForensics, the camera by Natalie's room does not work and is only there for deterrence purposes. However, he has identified a man "...who's been living at the motel for three months. He thinks he's being interrogated by the FBI tomorrow at 1100 hours. Would Agent Quigley care to join? Please advise on the Citizen Detective Board of your choosing. This note will self-destruct in ten, nine... Never mind, I'm kidding."

The police station: that cute older guy Jay Callie was having a heart-to-heart? His real name is Matt, and he brings coffee to his partner Kevyn. Apparently Matt followed Callie from her home and spent the past two hours with her. His work paid off, because Callie confirmed that Shauna was cheating on her husband. "What is the over-under on the boyfriend being Adam Martin? Kevyn, we could bring her in right now. Go hard." Kevyn disagrees. Shauna's smart. "We're gonna need more." Matt questions whether being high school classmates and "the whole plane crash thing" is presenting a conflict of interest for Kevyn. Kevyn bristles. "You've been on the job, what, a year? Just... slow down, okay? Or you're gonna royally fuck this up."

Simone and Taissa are driving around trying to find Sammy. Simone gets a call from Sammy's school. An exasperated school official informs her that Sammy is waiting for her to pick him up. Simone is confused when the official tells her that he has been in her office for the past two hours. Apparently, Taissa hallucinated her son's stopping by.

Simone: You are... ...very sick, Taissa. You need to stop everything that you are doing and get help right now. Listen, I won't let you be his mother like this.

In response, Taissa scowls and presses on the gas pedal. Their car gets T-boned on Simone's side.

Tropes appearing in this episode:

• Bad Liar: Shauna really, really shouldn't be talking to the police.
• Caffeine Failure: Taissa, who has a history of sleepwalking both as a teen and as an adult, is seen drinking cup after cup in to keep herself awake. She ends up hallucinating her son has come to visit.
• Drink-Based Characterization: Adult Lottie orders a smoothie with ashwaghanda, an ingredient with calming properties such as stress relief. Instead, acolyte Lisa brings her one with maca root, an ingredient that increases libido. Lottie makes a note of the mix-up but drinks it anyway.
• Driver Faces Passenger: Other!Tai crashes the car while giving her wife a very deliberate Death Glare.
• Faking the Dead: Natalie ends up faking discovering a torn bloody jacket (discreetly taken from the cabin and cutting herself for the blood), having the more realistic view that Javi is long since dead and doing the deed will help bring Travis closure (with her also getting increasingly pissed at Lottie insisting she can "feel" Javi) in seemingly confirming his demise.
• Ghastly Ghost: How Laura Lee appears to Lottie. She goes from looking like herself to a shrieking wraith.
• Insistent Terminology:
  • Lottie's cult is not a cult; they're an intentional community.
  • Lottie's followers do not wear purple. It's heliotrope.
• Invisible Writing: How Walter makes contact with Misty outside the Citizen Detective board: by leaving a seemingly blank piece of paper on top of Misty's lunch. A black light is enough for the writing to be come legible.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The show has never leaned so hard into this trope. Jackie talking to Shauna, Sammy coming home to Tai, Lottie's vision of a wraithlike Laura Lee, Travis seeing Lottie while having sex with Natalie, and finally the banquet scene; are all these just Imagine Spots, hallucinations (possibly hunger- or trauma-induced), or genuine mystical visions?
• Meat-O-Vision: The ending is a delicious banquet of strawberries, grapes, wine, Jackie, roast turkey...
• No Party Like a Donner Party: It's debatable if they absolutely needed to eat Jackie to survive at that particular point, but they were hungry enough to not resist.
• Near-Death Experience: According to Lottie, Travis' death was an accident when he tried to induce one of these.
• Oh, Crap!: Coach Scott realizing that meat's back on the menu.
• Pun-Based Title: The episode title is a play on Oedipus Complex.^note The "O" is silent..
• Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: A terrible smell leads the Yellowjackets to realize that someone has pooped in the pee bucket. An angry Taissa reminds them that "If it's yellow, it can mellow. If it's brown, then f—ing do it outside."^note "If it's yellow, it can mellow. If it's brown, flush it down"- but, of course, the Yellowjackets can't exactly flush anything.
• This Page Will Self-Destruct: At the end of Walter/PuttingtheSickinForensics's invisible ink note to Misty, he writes that the note will self-destruct in ten, nine... then admits that he's kidding.
• Undercover Cop Reveal: The underaged Callie and her friend Ilana are at a bar. Callie meets "Jay", a slightly-older guy who says he is helping his mother after his parents' divorce. Callie proceeds to spills the beans about her mom's affair. Jay turns out to be Matt, a detective (and Kevyn Tan's partner) who followed Callie to the bar to find out more about Adam's disappearance.
• Unreliable Narrator: We get to see Lottie's memories of Travis' death twice: In her account to Nat, it's a simple tragedy of the crane malfunctioning. In her own flashback, she's distracted by visions of Laura Lee's ghost, and doesn't seem nearly as calm and collected as she presents herself.
• Viking Funeral: In the past, Taissa talks the group into burning Jackie's remains. The cremating process is interrupted when the wind blows snow off a tree branch and on top of the body, leaving it cooked and ready to eat.
• Wham Episode: In the past, the group (except for the horrified Coach) finally gives in to cannibalism. In the present, Lottie admits to being there at the scene of Travis's death and failing to save him. Shauna lies to the police about Adam's disappearance and they know she lied. Misty makes contact with a fellow citizen detective. Taissa hallucinates her son's presence at her home and later she and Simone get into a car accident.