Yellowjackets – Season 2 Episode 8 “It Chooses” Recap & Review

It Chooses

The Past

Lottie is still recovering from her vicious beating at Shauna’s hands as episode 8 of Yellowjackets season 2 begins. Misty and Mari are taking care of her, while most of the girls are at their breaking point. They were not meant to survive and will not be able to take this suffering for much longer. They are all hungry beyond comprehension.

It turns out that Akilah has been seeing things too. Her pet mouse, Nugget, is shown to be dead and she has been holding on to a rotten corpse for a long time. Tai has started to see her alternate self too, and she is back after Tai was able to rid herself with Van’s help.

Shauna is back to her senses too and is helping Lottie. Nat suggests they should end Lottie’s suffering if her pain cannot be reduced. She discusses with Coach Scott how Lottie has a hold over the other girls; influencing them to do things. He later goes through Javi’s things and finds drawings of the symbol tree, as Nat mentioned. Mari has an incident as well where she hears the dripping once again and hallucinates blood seeping through the walls.

Travis apologizes to Nat for whatever he said to her in the last few episodes. But there is a catch here for sure. Lottie says to Misty that if she dies, the girls not “waste her body,” meaning that they eat her. Coach Scott sneaks out that night and heads towards the tree that he saw in Javi’s drawings.

Misty breaks the news to the girls and Travis. They decide to feed Lottie and not let her die, since her death would send them spiraling. Instead, they decide to sacrifice one of them.

They stand around in a circle and draw cards. The one who gets the queen of hearts will be sacrificed. Nat draws the card and Shauna prepares to kill her. But Nat turns around before that and asks Shauna to look her in the eye while she does it. Shauna is thrown off and Travis tackles her to the floor. This gives Natalie a window to run out and the other girls make primal chants as they chase her.

Coach Scott discovers the tree and finds a passage taking him down. There are clear signs of witchcraft here, as Javi takes Natalie to the same place as the alternate Tai guides the hunters to her location. They have to cross a frozen lake to get to it, but as Javi steps on the thin ice, it breaks and swallows her.

Natalie tries to save him but Misty pulls her back, allowing Javi to drown. Misty retrieves his body and Van shouts, “The wilderness chose.” Lottie somehow gets a vision of it too, as the girls stand around Javi’s lifeless body, looking at what the wilderness made them do.

The Present

Shauna breaks the news to the group. Nat and Misty discuss how they buried Adam’s body deep enough to ensure it couldn’t be found. Van is confused as Tai tries to keep the lid on Adam’s situation. Van senses she is lying and throws away Shauna’s keys. She demands to know the truth, as the others realize that Jeff called Shauna, meaning he also knows. Lottie proposes they talk inside the privacy of a room as others start focusing on them.

The police show up at Jeff and Shauna’s house. They have a search warrant and turn the place upside down. Callie tries to play the victim card and record Matty’s reaction while confronting him ,but it does not work as he is remorseless in exploiting her. Kevyn still wants to protect his friends and asks Jeff where Shauna is. He once again lies but it is undeniable that Shauna is the prime suspect in Adam’s murder.

Matty shows Adam’s severed body parts alluding to Shauna’s experience in the wilderness. Jeff almost regurgitates when he sees them but asks the police to leave and says he is getting a lawyer. The ladies discuss Adam’s issue and Shauna tells them everything. In conversation, it is also revealed by Misty that Tai hired Jessica Roberts, the reporter from season 1, to look into all of them. Misty then insinuates that she killed Roberts so none of them have anything to worry about.

Since all the cats are coming out of the bag, Misty also reveals how Walter and she questioned Randy as fake FBI officers. When she goes over it again, Misty points out that Randy was nervous about something he and Jeff had done. Tai suggests that Jeff had access to Shauna’s old journals that he might have leaked them and that he was the blackmailer.

Walter, meanwhile, reads the news that Adam’s body has been found. He sends an email to the police department, saying he has information on the case. Jeff has a nightmare where he envisions Shauna preparing to eat him with a knife and fork. He catches Callie drinking beer and joins her, instead of scolding her.

Callie asks if she is like Shauna; her darker parts. And Jeff does not sugar-coat his response by saying the truth. He also tells Callie about the baby Shauna lost while in the wilderness. Callie breaks down but Jeff comforts her, saying it is not her burden to bear.

Shauna tries to explain herself to the ladies and confesses that she is struggling to sort out the situation. Whenever she tries to fix things, they only get worse. Nat gets up and suggests that they talk about their problems. But Lottie speaks up and asserts that “something” guided them to this place. All of them. And now, they have to give “it” what “it” wants.

Lottie says one of them should be sacrificed as “it’ wants a life. She rationalizes how all the ladies have been affected by “it” and hurt their families. Lottie pours phenobarbital into one of the cups with another liquid and decides that fate will choose once again, as it did that night.

The Episode Review

After a long time, Yellowjackets finally expresses some life. This was arguably the most “possessed” episode in this season and showed the true potential of the wilderness. It is one thing to talk about “it” in words and another to see “it” in action. Both the past and present timelines were impressively paced, something that has been lacking in the last few episodes.

Natalie and Shauna, in both timelines, seem to be majorly affected because of their issues. The cold ending where the girls kill Javi embodies the knife’s edge potency of the wilderness. It has been stunted for the majority of this season. Story-wise, some frustrations still remain.

Due to a lack of linearity, the obviousness element is sucked out, leaving little room for tangible progression in the plot. With just one more episode to go, it seems unlikely we will have all our wishes.