Yellowjackets Season 3, Episode 8 Review: There's Still A Lot To Cover & Yellowjackets Needs To End On A High Note To Justify A Season 4 Return
Warning! Spoilers for Yellowjackets, season 3, episode 8, "A Normal, Boring Life"!Yellowjackets season 3, episode 8, "A Normal, Boring Life," is a cool-down from the explosive action of the previous episode. In Yellowjackets season 3, episode 7, the series surprised us with a tightly packed story that shook up the status quo and made me excited about the show's future for the first time this season. "A Normal, Boring Life" isn't a letdown after the fast pace of "Croak," but it didn't hold my attention. Some of the choices in this episode have cemented that Yellowjackets isn't sure where it's going and is making wild swings to keep us engaged.
There were some highlights, as Hilary Swank is confirmed to be the adult Melissa. Unfortunately, this was a twist that everyone saw coming since Yellowjackets only revealed her supposed death one episode before. Melissa has been underused all season, and though she has attempted to push back against Shauna in the past and present, it barely makes a dent. When compared with the emotional nuance and connection between Jackie and Shauna, it's hard for me to believe that Melissa could elicit the reactions she does in adult Shauna. Their relationship has always felt more like fan service than purposeful storytelling.
Shauna Finally Reaches Her Breaking Point In "A Normal, Boring Life"
In The Woods & The Real World, Shauna's Had Enough Of Civilization
All season, my heart has been breaking for Nat, especially considering her fate at the end of season 2, and this episode has me hoping she'll have a moment to shine before the end of the season. Throughout the season, Yellowjackets has been playing up the juxtaposition between the strong personalities and the weak ones in both timelines. Jeff and Callie have an ancillary plotline where they come to the same conclusion they've been reaching all season: Shauna is interested in herself, not her family. However, I don't know if Jeff will ever have the courage to leave her.
I love Shauna as a character and I want to see Yellowjackets push her even further, but the best way to do that would be to develop the other characters. In the woods, the girls are swept away by the possibility of rescue, even though it's pretty clear that this will end up being a disappointment like their previous attempts. I wanted more from Joel McHale and Ashley Sutton. The Yellowjackets might be capable of murder, but the adults have more power than they think, and I hope episode 9 uses that to its advantage.
As the title would suggest, "A Normal, Boring Life" is all about the sharp contrast between the world the Yellowjackets left behind in the woods and the letdown of the real world.
As the title would suggest, "A Normal, Boring Life" is all about the sharp contrast between the world the Yellowjackets left behind in the woods and the letdown of the real world. No one embodies and understands this disappointment better than Shauna, who is fearful of the person she'll become back in society. In the future, we see she has a reason to be afraid, as she became the person she never wanted to be, and suppressing her guilt, rage, and thirst for excitement has only made these parts of herself grow stronger.
We've been waiting to see Shauna properly snap since she first murdered those rabbits in season 1, but I don't know if Yellowjackets has fully justified the emotional turn. I've never thought of Shauna as truly bloodthirsty, just hopelessly dissatisfied her entire life. The emergence of Melissa, someone she easily manipulated as a teen and who represents that hidden part of herself, is a great excuse to set herself loose. However, where will Shauna and Yellowjackets go from here? We've already seen her evade the cops and cover up a murder, and I'm not interested in rehashing that.
There's No Way The Yellowjackets Are Going Home Yet, But I'm Still Rooting For Them
The Cracks In The Team Are Getting Wider As The Possibility Of Rescue Becomes A Reality
It makes sense that Lottie and Tai want to stay behind, as they both have a supernatural or psychological connection with the wilderness. Shauna's choice to remain in the wild is the most interesting. She's never bought into the power of the woods. However, she wants to stay so she can feel powerful, and this will build up to the clash between her and Nat that Yellowjackets has been hinting at all season. This will likely evolve into an all-out civil war, as even the most passive Yellowjackets won't sit by as Shauna denies them rescue.
Yellowjackets season 3 has had both too much and not enough going on in every episode, and "A Normal, Boring Life" exposes this. The wilderness plotline is on track to see some relationship-destroying action unfold, but the present is juggling too many opposing stories. Lottie's death, Van's illness, Shauna's violent outbursts, and Tai's battle inside her mind are only a few of the threads that Yellowjackets will have to wrap up in the last two episodes. This is a lot of ground to cover, and Yellowjackets needs to end on a high note to justify its return next season.
Yellowjackets airs weekly each Friday at 3 AM EST/12 AM PST on Paramount+ and on Sundays at 8 PM EST/5 PM PST on Showtime.
Yellowjackets is a television series exploring the survival ordeal of a high school girls' soccer team stranded in the remote wilderness after a plane crash. It interweaves psychological horror and coming-of-age themes, simultaneously depicting their harrowing transformation and its lasting impact on their lives 25 years later.
- Network
- Showtime, Paramount+ with Showtime
- Cast
- Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Sophie Nélisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, Samantha Hanratty, Steven Krueger, Warren Kole, Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis, Sarah Desjardins, Courtney Eaton, Liv Hewson, Kevin Alves, Alexa Barajas, Ella Purnell, Simone Kessell, Lauren Ambrose, Nia Sondaya, Mya Lowe, Alex Wyndham, Elijah Wood, Jenna Burgess, Nicole Maines, Jane Widdop, Rukiya Bernard, Luciano Leroux, John Cameron Mitchell
- Showrunner
- Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, Jonathan Lisco
- Creator(s)
- Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson
- We get some answers about the tape and Shauna's adversary.
- The tensions between the Yellowjackets in the woods escalate with exciting tension.
- "A Normal, Boring Life" juggles too many storylines at once.
- I don?t buy Shauna's breaking point at the end of the episode.
