Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Yellowjackets Season 3 Episode 5.

After last week’s explosive episode chock full of twists, cliffhangers, and shocking exits, Yellowjackets Season 3’s fifth episode is tasked with giving us some answers. Lottie’s (Simone Kessell) death is arguably the most shocking moment of Episode 4, and though it’s clear the circumstances behind it will gradually be revealed, it seems the present-day characters are bent on finding out what happened. The real star of the series this week, however, is the Coach Scott (Steven Krueger) storyline. Now that he’s been sentenced to death, he’s a sitting duck as the team struggles to come to terms with their decision. Emotions are high in Episode 5, titled “Did Tai Do That?” — not just for the characters, but also for those of us watching, because things are getting heavy.

‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Episode 5 Says Farewell to Lottie Matthews

After the shocking final moments of Episode 4, in which we discovered Lottie was dead, this week’s installment of Yellowjackets fittingly begins in the morgue — and who else would be visiting the morgue other than Misty (Christina Ricci)? She’s there because she has to be sure the body is Lottie’s, and, unfortunately, it is. There’s a chilling shot of adult Misty staring at the body that suddenly shifts to teenage Misty (Samantha Hanratty) looking over a teenage Lottie (Courtney Eaton) on the slab. The moment shifts back to adult Misty, who asks the coroner for Lottie’s personal effects, and though he’s initially hesitant to give them to her, since she’s not family, he gives in after Misty brings up how certain items occasionally go missing from the morgue and end up on auction sites. While he’s gone, she takes the opportunity to swab under Lottie’s nails for her own evidence and swipe the crime scene photos for good measure.

Back at her house, Misty invites the remaining Yellowjackets over, addressing Tai (Tawny Cypress) and Van (Lauren Ambrose) but purposefully ignoring Shauna (Melanie Lynskey). She tells them that she has some difficult news to share and then drops the bomb that Lottie is dead, much to their shock and disbelief. Van is flabbergasted by the news, while Shauna can’t quite believe it’s true since she just saw her the other day — so Misty pulls out the photos as proof. She tells them the coroner ruled it an accidental death, and believes that Lottie fell down the stairs, but Misty smells something fishy.

This immediately flags Shauna’s interest, and she begins grilling Misty about her whereabouts because she left work early the previous day. They all agree that it would be very on-brand for Misty to kill Lottie and then call a meeting to talk about it. Shauna also points out that if anyone had a reason to be mad at Lottie, it was Misty, because if it wasn’t for her, Natalie’s death (Juliette Lewis) may not have happened. Furious about the accusation, Misty promises that she’s going to find out what happened to Lottie, both for Lottie’s sake and because it’s what Natalie would have wanted, before storming out of her own house in a fit of anger.

Two Citizen Detectives Are On the Case in ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3

When Misty is opening the bag of Lottie’s personal effects, she realizes her phone isn’t among the contents, and calls the coroner, who explains that Lottie didn’t have a phone on her when she died. This prompts Misty to go on a side mission to find it, and when she leaves, we see that Shauna is trailing her, clearly not believing that Misty is innocent. But it’s not just Shauna who is tailing Misty — someone is also following Shauna, and quite closely. She ends up losing track of Misty to catch her pursuer in the act, causing them to rear-end her (Shauna’s van has been through so much in this series). To no one’s surprise, it’s Walter (Elijah Wood) who’s following her. He explains that he has appointed himself Chief Citizen Detective in Lottie’s murder case, which Shauna finds strange but thoughtful. She’s not sure why he’s following her, though, and it’s a question he answers with nothing but a knowing look. Since she murdered Adam (Peter Gadiot), he assumes she killed Lottie as well. She throws this back in his face, saying that both he and Misty have a body count too, but Walter assures Shauna that Lottie’s murder wasn’t Misty’s work, and suggests they join forces.

Misty, meanwhile, has shown up at a swanky apartment building. She enters the basement, and it’s the same place Lottie was found, complete with crime-scene tape. The most eerie part, though? The scratches Misty finds on the wall. After a bit of nosing around, she talks to the man working the front desk and learns that he’s known Lottie since she was just a kid, that she and her family used to live in the penthouse, and that her dad actually still lives there. In fact, Lottie had been staying with her father for weeks. With this new information, Lottie heads up to the penthouse and pretends to be a neighbor picking up a package that was delivered by mistake. Surprisingly, this works, and Mr. Matthews lets her in, but tells her to be quick. His memory isn’t all there, which allows Misty the opportunity to snoop around a bit, including rummaging through the pockets of Lottie’s coat, where she finds a receipt for a bank withdrawal of $50,000.

Before she can get much information out of Mr. Matthews, Misty discovers that Shauna and Walter are also at the apartment, undercover as internet technicians. Shauna and Walter are trying to hack Lottie’s internet history, meanwhile Misty is still in search of her phone, so both parties try and sabotage one another in hopes of finding evidence first. It turns out that Walter found the phone first, and reset it, a discovery that angers Misty. But he assures her he cloned it before doing so and that he’d be happy to share his findings with her. But she’s not interested, she’s still angry with him and isn’t letting up.

Shauna Says Goodbye to Lottie in ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3

Outside of the Matthews penthouse with Walter, Shauna wonders aloud why Lottie claimed she had nowhere to go instead of going to her dad’s after being released from psychiatric hold. Walter says that maybe Lottie just needed a friend, a relationship that Shauna describes as “complicated,” but to Walter it’s simple: She was either a friend or wasn’t, although in the case of Misty, he’d put her squarely in the “not friend” category. Shauna throws this back at him, saying he’s literally sabotaging Misty’s investigation, which won’t win her back. But Walter points out that Misty loves a challenge and she’ll appreciate what he’s doing. Shauna then counters that she wouldn’t be surprised if Walter had killed Lottie just to give Misty something to investigate as a form of twisted gesture. Walter adamantly denies having any role in Lottie’s death and yanks out a single hair from his own head as proof, asking the same from Shauna as a sign of trust. He reasons that if someone is really after the Yellowjackets, it’ll make it easier to identify her remains if they already have her hair, but she’s firmly a no and storms off. However, she leaves her fake internet technician hat behind, and Walter manages to recover a stray hair from it.

Back in the penthouse, Shauna stands in Lottie’s room and soaks it all in. There are pictures of her and the team on her nightstands, and the room is filled with personal touches of a life that’s now flickered out. She starts having flashbacks of Lottie, both teenage and adult, and that’s when Mr. Matthews walks in, mistaking Shauna for his daughter and telling her to clean her room, and Shauna decides to indulge him by playing along. The scene shifts perspectives to Mr. Matthews and we see that, in his eyes, he is talking to teenage Lottie. He says that he’s trying his best, but it’s not easy. Lottie shifts back into Shauna, who tells Mr. Matthews, “It’s hard to show love the way we want to.” He nods, solemnly, and then suggests they order Chinese food and watch the new Martin Scorsese film. Shauna agrees, but just as Mr. Matthews is about to exit the room she pulls him into a long hug, and it feels as though she’s healing herself — and, in a way, saying goodbye to Lottie.

Tai (Briefly) Reunites with Sammy in ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Episode 5

Later in the episode, Tai and Van are getting lunch, with Tai asking Van what she wants to order — as if nothing is wrong and they haven’t just gotten some pretty life-altering news. Van, on the other hand, is rightfully shaken up, and wonders aloud how, after everything Lottie went through, she can just be gone. She then asks Tai the question many fans have been wondering: Where did she disappear to during that one-hour window? In the previous episode, Tai told Van to meet her at the park in one hour — but, as Van points out, it’s only a 15-minute train ride. Tai says that she had to scope everything out, and rent the horse and carriage, and they were in New York, which is just chaotic on its own. Surely Van can’t believe she killed Lottie, can she? Van doesn’t get a chance to answer, because Tai’s phone rings, and she has to take it — because, to her surprise and ours, it’s Simone.

Tai and Van then meet Simone (Rukiya Bernard) and Sammy (Aiden Stoxx) (and Steve!) at a park, and boy, are tensions high. Tai thanks Simone for allowing her to see Sammy, but Simone shrugs her off and informs her it was Sammy who wanted to see her. She’s not impressed, even less so when Van sits on the bench next to her. We get an amusing shot of Simone side-eyeing Van before finally addressing her with a cold, “So you’re her, huh?” But this interaction is cut off before it can get too juicy, because Sammy abruptly storms away from Tai, and Simone is all too happy to indulge him and Steve and get the heck out of there. Later on, Tai’s flashbacks reveal what happened; when she approaches Sammy, he asks, “Are you not my mommy anymore?” to which Tai replies, “I’ll always be your mommy, no matter what,” right before he walks off. Could this be a hint that Other Tai is now the one in control? We do know Sammy has a sixth sense for sniffing her out. Van then checks on Tai before she can dwell on the moment any longer, and Tai asks her how she’d feel about a change of scenery. Van, never one to argue much, indulges her and agrees, eager to ease Tai’s mind.

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The King of Hearts Is Drawn in ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Episode 5

After being found guilty in the previous episode, Coach Scott (Steven Krueger) is waiting for his sentence, and he begs Akilah (Nia Sondaya) for information about what the team is planning to do to him. She says she doesn’t know, and we later see the team discussing this exact thing. They know he’s going to die, it’s just a matter of how. Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) suggests he die by fire, but Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) says that fire isn’t a form of justice, it’s torture, before offering her own suggestion: a firing squad, because it’s more humane. The question now is who will be the one to use the gun. Shauna suggests Natalie as the best shot in the group, but Nat counters that it will be at close range, so anyone can do it, and that they should draw cards like they normally do. Van (Liv Hewson) proclaims that whoever pulls the King of Hearts is the one who will pull the trigger, deeming it the “suicide king.”

As Van passes the cards around, she lingers when she gets to Tai (Jasmin Savoy Brown), giving her a look before moving on. Sure enough, Tai is the one who pulls the King of Hearts, and she looks petrified by the thought of what it entails. Van proceeds to try and give her shooting lessons out in the woods, but Tai is unfocused, shaking uncontrollably every time she prepares to aim the gun. In her view, it’s one thing to say that someone should die, and another to actually do it. That’s when Van comes up with a new idea: What if they can summon Other Tai? Maybe Tai’s sleepwalking persona, the more uninhibited and ruthless side of her, will be willing to pull the trigger.

In an effort to summon Other Tai, they have sex, as Van points out that doing so has summoned Other Tai on other occasions. But when they finish, Tai is still her regular self, a point made all the more clear when they stumble across a rabbit caught in one of their traps and Van walks Tai through killing it, telling her to be present in the moment. As Tai holds the rabbit, closing her eyes, she says she can feel its fear, and hear its breath, and then she slits its throat. Suddenly, the wind starts to blow fiercely, shaking the trees above them: another sacrifice has been made to the wilderness. Van looks at Tai expectantly, but there’s no sign of Other Tai in her eyes.

Akilah Sees a Way Out in ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Episode 5

After Akilah confides in Lottie that she experienced a hallucination in the caves alongside Van and Shauna, Lottie encourages her to return to the caves. She’s also enlisted Travis (Kevin Alves) to come with them for extra safety measures, believing the gas in the caves to be a conduit the same way that the mushroom tea is. As they travel to the caves, Travis starts to get nervous and suggests that they call it off. Lottie is vehemently against the idea because Travis saw Akilah in his vision, so surely the wilderness wants to speak with her. Travis shamefully agrees — because he didn’t actually see Akilah, he just wanted the wilderness to stop calling to him, and he feels especially guilty when Akilah tells him that she trusts him.

They tie a rope around Akilah’s waist, reasoning that when it stops moving, they’ll know it’s time to come in and get her. Almost as soon as she heads into the cave, Travis wants to pull her out, but Lottie makes him wait, and the rope stops moving so they spring into action, carrying out an unconscious Akilah — only, she doesn’t wake up immediately. Travis angrily tells Lottie that her idea was bad, but Lottie continues to pray over Akilah’s body, begging the wilderness to “bring her back to us.” Akilah’s eyes begin to flutter, and she awakens with a gasp, telling them that she had a vision of herself standing on a cliff. She couldn’t see below her, but she could see something in front of her, so she stepped out onto it. It was Coach Scott, lying across the cliffs and acting as a bridge between them for Akilah to walk across. Lottie asks her if she was able to see beyond, and Akilah reveals that it was dark, but she could see city lights and hear car horns. She should have felt scared, but instead, she felt hope.

Coach Scott Faces the Firing Squad in ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Episode 5

As Coach sits in the animal pen, awaiting his fate, Misty (Samantha Hanratty) arrives with dinner. It’s a big fish, cooked to perfection, and there are even some greens on the side. Coach is impressed, even quipping that it’s not human meat and asking what he did to deserve such a fancy meal, and that’s when Misty tearfully tells him the others are coming for him at dusk. She apologizes to him, telling him she did everything she could, and Coach says it’s OK because he knows she tried. He puts on a strong front for her, but when she hugs him, he also sheds a tear, not ready to be put to death for something he didn’t do. Coach says that he’ll be remembered by them for being the one who tried to kill them, and in the real world he’ll hardly be remembered at all. But Misty shakes her head, telling him that he was decent, he was her first boyfriend (a point he doesn’t agree with or approve of), and her first amputation. But most of all, she’s really going to miss him.

Sure enough, later that day, the team shows up and puts a sack over Coach Scott’s head, dragging him out to the woods. Natalie removes Jackie’s necklace (Ella Purnell) from around her own neck and places it around Coach’s. He tells her she doesn’t have to do this, but she just apologizes and walks away, unable to look at him. Coach then tries to plead with the team, calling them out for not being able to look at him as they prepare to kill him. They then try to put the sack over his head again, but he refuses, telling them that if they’re going to do this, they’re going to have to look him in the eyes. Gen (Vanessa Prasad) coldly informs him that he doesn’t deserve something like that and puts the sack over his head anyway. Coach suddenly gets very quiet as the weight and gravity of the situation sink in and then starts to plead with them, crying, sniffling, begging them not to do it. All the while, Tai shakily points the gun at him, barely able to keep her own eyes open. Then, suddenly, her entire demeanor shifts, and she looks to Van, telling her “It’ll be alright.” Their plan to summon Other Tai has worked. But before Other Tai can pull the trigger, Travis arrives and shoves Coach Scott out of the way, and Lottie knocks the gun out of Tai’s hands. Lottie says they can’t kill Coach because Akilah had a vision: Coach is their bridge home. He’s now off limits, and safe from harm — or at least, he thinks he is.

Melissa and Shauna Are a Murderous Duo in ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3

Early in the episode, Melissa (Jenna Burgess) approaches Shauna as she sits by the water, and Shauna informs her that she’s not looking for company. Melissa simply drops off the gift she brought her and goes to leave. It’s a small bouquet, complete with a knife holder that she’s carved an “S” into. Shauna asks why she even likes her, to which Melissa replies, “You say that like there’s nothing to like.” She then points out that Jackie treated Shauna terribly, and Jeff (Jack DePew) treated her like a dirty secret. What’s more, Shauna let them. But she’s changed now, and she’s not afraid of the bad parts of herself anymore — and Melissa likes that.

This brief interaction comes full circle later when, after Coach Scott is narrowly saved from death, Melissa and Shauna visit him. He panics and says they can’t hurt him, but they don’t acknowledge him. Shauna simply passes Melissa the knife and repeats her previous words when she hesitates: “You shouldn’t be afraid of the bad parts, either.” With a new confidence, Melissa picks up Coach’s good leg and slices his Achilles heel, causing him to cry out in excruciating pain. It’s not enough to kill him, but it’s enough to ensure he won’t walk again any time soon.

The two return to camp, where everyone can hear Coach Scott’s screams, but they all look strangely OK with it. It’s clear the punishment was discussed beforehand, but Natalie still tells Shauna she doesn’t have to enjoy it so much, to which Shauna tells Natalie she doesn’t have to act like such a saint. She then clasps Melissa’s bloody hand in her own, all while Van stares at the two of them in confusion, and the pair walk into a shared hut as Coach’s screams continue in the distance.

New episodes of Yellowjackets Season 3 premiere Fridays on Showtime.

Yellowjackets

Yellowjackets Season 3 Episode 4 emotionally serves up justice for Coach Scott and seeks answers for Lottie.

Release Date

November 14, 2021

Network

Showtime, Paramount+ with Showtime

Pros & Cons

• The entire firing squad scene is emotional and beautifully done.
• Misty and Coach Scott’s heart-to-heart is very touching.
• Akilah’s vision hints at imminent rescue.
• Shauna and Walter’s team-up makes for great comedic moments.