It’s heating up Yellow jackets season 2 (or at least as much as they can in the midst of a freezing winter in the 1990s timeline that starves and freezes the team). The new season on Showtime has it all: woo-woo cults, mysterious deaths, hard-nosed law enforcement hanging out with teenage girls and, of course, cannibalism.
In circumstances like these, it’s easy to form a hierarchy – especially one that yields the long-awaited reveal of the Antler Queen Yellow jackets has been promising since the opening of the pilot. With mysteries piling up in the first two episodes of Season 2, each week we’ll be going through the power rankings to examine who’s ready to lead and who’s ready to feed the cannibal cult.
Of course, the criteria for this are a bit loose; like Yellow jacketsfirst foray into icy cannibalism, we play it by ear. Suffice to say, those who show the determination to step up to the Antler Queen mantle (and whether they got closer to her and that title in each episode) will rise through the ranks. And since the Antler Queen seems to overlook the glimpses of cannibalism we catch in the pilot, stepping on the board also generally means leading the charge to eat people.
Who’s on the rise in the Yellowjackets cannibal cult?
Photo: Kailey Schwerman/Showtime
Shauna — Shauna took a huge step up the leaderboard this week by leading the cannibal attack and convincing the rest of the team that it would be a real shame to have such a perfectly grilled Jackie. While Shauna never had leader vibes before this exact moment, this could easily be her first step into Antler Queendom.
Lottie — Lottie’s question remains: is she the Antler Queen, or more of a High Priestess in the Yellowjackets hierarchy? There’s not much to suggest that her modern cult is cannibalistic, but she clearly has something happens in the way she can compartmentalize parts of her personality as a leader (and in the trippy vision she has of zombie Laura). She does not a tons in episode 2, but she is already appears to Travis in visions as a glowing religious icon. So it feels like that might be a leap, leap, and leap to get your friends to ceremonially eat your other friends’ corpses.
Taissa — We know from contemporary events that Tai is in charge, and clearly he has some kind of messed up relics from her time in the woods. But other than ordering the group to finally put Jackie to rest, she doesn’t do much in Episode 2 (or at least not much aside from hungrily devouring their teammate’s flesh, which pretty much everyone does, so). She has some sort of freaky vision of a suitably weirdo, but it all happens while she’s asleep; since Lottie seems to have the spiritual leader thing locked up, it seems unlikely (this week) that Taissa is putting on a play for the crown of horns.
crystal — Crystal moves up the ranks slightly because she’s clearly important, but that’s exactly the problem: she’s a new character for Season 2. Do you really expect the Antler Queen to be some rando that didn’t show up in the first season? Do we think the showrunners just forgot about her? Who do you think that is piloting this ship, Benioff and Weiss? Either way, Crystal certainly has a part to play, and one that is clearly close to Misty, but this is definitely not her story… or her cult.
Travis — Travis never really seemed into the supernatural woodiness of the crash – perhaps because he was mostly distracted by Natalie – but he made a few strides so far in Season 2, thanks in large part to having his hopes of Javi’s survival hanging on the dim psychic-looking visions of Lottie. So he does get a very slight increase in the ranking; however, he’s still a dude, meaning his chances of gaining too much power in this particular teenage girl cult are slim.
Who falls in the Yellowjackets food chain?
Photo: Kailey Schwerman/Showtime
Delivery van — Van is a great kid, and would make a pretty awesome enforcer or right-hand man for any aspiring bovidae-like cult leader. But so far she doesn’t seem like much of a leader herself, so she’s dropping out this week. Then again, she’s deep in cult lore, which we know because she’s one of three girls who shows up at the end of Season 1 and kneels at the heart altar.
Natalie — Natalie is one of the few Yellowjackets who doesn’t really change much this week, mainly because she’s spent so much time uninterested in the rest of the team’s general shenanigans. That said, she does take a small step toward cult leader status by buying into cannibalism, but takes a somewhat bigger step back by doubting Lottie and trying to give up on the search for Javi.
foggy – Misty has lost even the lowest tea-making privileges, so it doesn’t look like she’s leading any kind of cult so far in the second season. That’s not a huge surprise considering that teen Misty isn’t a leader at all, but this is still about as low as her leadership stock has fallen so far.
gene — Still largely anonymous, Gen’s chances of becoming Anter Queen don’t look great. We’re not definitively naming anything just yet, but it doesn’t seem entirely unfair to call her one of the many Red Shirt Yellowjackets who seem destined to be sacrificed to the brutal cannibal god of the forest (or worse).
Coach Ben — The only one to walk away from the Jackie party and seem disturbed by what he sees. His stomach may be morally clean, but he won’t climb the rankings without a little more nutrition.
Mari — Red shirt. I’m sorry, Mari.
Jackie — Jackie gets an honorable mention just for showing up, but her chances don’t look great considering she’s already dead (and has been for months) and the fact that she was the main course for the first-ever Yellowjackets forest banquet . But since she’s still there, at least physically, she does get a spot on the list.
Akila — This girl got a new cast for Season 2. That sure is Red Shirt shit.