“It Never Meant What You Thought It Meant”: What Does Lottie Really Mean About Jackie’s Necklace In Yellowjackets Season 3?

WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for Yellowjackets season 3, episode 3!As Yellowjackets season 3 finally reveals what happened to Jackie’s necklace in the present-day timeline, Lottie makes a cryptic remark about the item’s real meaning from the Wilderness. The heart necklace was first introduced in the series premiere, being seen worn around the neck of Yellowjackets’ mysterious pit girl during her death scene. It was soon revealed that the necklace originally belonged to Jackie, who gifted the accessory to Shauna on the plane for good luck. Since the crash, the necklace has fallen into a few different hands in the wilderness.

Shauna eventually returned Jackie’s heart necklace, which she wore when freezing to death in season 1. Lottie then took the necklace and gave it back to Shauna, who later passed it on to Natalie when she drew the Queen of Hearts card in Yellowjackets season 2. While it eventually makes its way to pit girl pre-rescue, the necklace’s location remained a mystery in the present timeline until Yellowjackets season 3, episode 3, when adult Lottie presented it to Shauna’s daughter, Callie. Before a horrified Shauna snatched it off Callie’s neck, Lottie advised, “It never meant what you thought it meant.”

Yellowjackets Hints Jackie's Necklace Is Given To The Sacrificed Teens During Their Queen Of Hearts Rituals

Shauna Thinks It Has A Darker Meaning Associated With Death & Murder

Since Jackie’s necklace is given to Natalie after drawing the Queen of Hearts card, indicating she has been chosen by the wilderness to be sacrificed, and later is seen being worn by the hunted pit girl, the necklace seems to take on an important role in the Yellowjackets teens’ sacrifice ritual. When Shauna put that necklace around Natalie’s neck, it gave the item a meaning associated with sacrifice and impending doom. It wasn’t just the wilderness “choosing” someone, but it was the wilderness choosing someone to be hunted down, slaughtered, and eaten by the others.

As such, Shauna’s reaction to seeing Lottie give Callie the necklace is fair. Shauna tried to shield Callie from her past for so many years, and Lottie putting that necklace around her is essentially inviting that darkness to come straight for Callie and corrupt her in the same way it did to them as teenagers. Plus, even if there aren’t really any supernatural powers festering in the necklace from the wilderness, it’s messed up to put a necklace worn by several people while they died on Shauna’s daughter.

Mari holding her wrist with Ben in the background in Yellowjackets season 3

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Not to mention the necklace being Jackie’s, a person whose memory has continued haunting Shauna and Jeff for decades after the wilderness. Various parallels have been drawn between Jackie and Callie over Yellowjackets’ first three seasons, and that connection becomes much darker when Shauna sees Callie wearing Jackie’s doomed necklace. Even though Callie was there for the adult survivors’ Queen of Hearts ritual in Yellowjackets season 2’s ending, she doesn’t know the full history behind the necklace and the inhumane things it was related to in the wilderness.

What Does Jackie's Necklace Really Mean In Yellowjackets?

Is It Just About Being "Chosen" By The Wilderness?

Lottie, Callie & Shauna in Yellowjackets season 3

When Lottie is referencing what Shauna “thinks” the necklace meant, she’s talking about how Shauna believes the necklace is a bad omen associated with death, brutal sacrifice, and doom. However, Lottie doesn’t think that’s really what the necklace means when it’s passed on to a new wearer. Rather, Lottie seems to believe that the necklace represents being chosen by the wilderness, not necessarily for death, but for a greater purpose connected to “what it wants,” which she would interpret as being an honor.

Lottie had secretly held onto the necklace for 25 years after they were rescued in Yellowjackets.

Lottie believes that Jackie’s season 1 death was the wilderness choosing her to save them, giving the necklace a meaning associated with a deeper purpose from the wilderness. Lottie’s interpretation is supported by the idea that teen Natalie doesn’t die after drawing the Queen of Hearts card and being given the necklace. While Nat is being hunted down, Javi falls into the lake and dies, which the others decide means he was chosen by the wilderness to eat instead. Rather than dying, the wilderness chooses Nat to be the Antler Queen, and she still dons the necklace under this title.

Who Has Worn Jackie's Necklace In Yellowjackets (So Far)	Timeline
Jackie	Past
Shauna	Past
Natalie	Past
Pit Girl	Past
Callie	Present

Whether it be Shauna wearing the necklace and surviving the crash, Jackie wearing the necklace and dying to feed the others, Nat wearing the necklace and surviving the hunt before becoming the Antler Queen, or Lottie transferring the necklace as the wilderness’ medium, Lottie’s interpretation doesn’t necessarily associate the necklace with death. Therefore, when she gives the necklace to Callie in Yellowjackets season 3, episode 3, she isn’t intending to involve Callie in the death ritual or make her a victim.

Why Lottie Gives Jackie's Necklace To Callie

Was Callie "Chosen?"

Fitting with her interpretation of the item, Lottie gives Callie Jackie’s necklace because she thinks Callie has been “chosen” by the wilderness. Lottie has mentioned before that she thinks Callie understands what they went through better than anybody who wasn’t actually there, and believes that the wilderness’ forces they brought back with them now have their eyes set on her. Even though they’re no longer in the wilderness, it seems to still have a plan and purpose for Callie back home, perhaps making her the next Antler Queen in Yellowjackets’ present-day timeline.

New episodes of Yellowjackets season 3 release Fridays on Paramount+ with Showtime.