Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Yellowjackets Season 3 Episode 8.
Last week’s episode of Yellowjackets Season 3 left off on quite the cliffhanger as the team decided not to kill Hannah (Ashley Sutton) but instead inducted her into their camp. Episode 8, titled “A Normal, Boring Life,” not only sees her navigate this strange new reality, but also sees Kodi (Joel McHale) adjust to his fate as a Yellowjackets prisoner as well, as the two are tasked with helping the team find rescue. This week also finally answers our biggest question of the season — Who is Hilary Swank playing? — while providing us with even more questions that will be hard to answer with just two episodes left in Season 3.
Shauna Confronts Old Ghosts in ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Episode 8

At the end of the last episode, Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) ditched Misty (Christina Ricci), Tai (Tawny Cypress), and Van (Lauren Ambrose) at the hospital in favor of continuing their road trip solo to find Hannah’s daughter. She succeeds in doing so, but also ends up finding much more than she bargained for. After staking out the house from her car, Shauna breaks in and hides inside the pantry as Alex and her daughter come into the kitchen, calling for another person in the house — another woman they call “Kelly,” played by Hilary Swank. Kelly urges them all out of the house so they’re not late, and as soon as they’re safely gone, she turns her attention to the pantry, telling whoever is in it to come out: “You don’t know whose house you just walked into.” As Shauna emerges from the pantry, she just stares blankly at the woman, while brandishing the new hunting knife she bought, and reveals that “Kelly” is actually Melissa (Jenna Burgess). When Melissa asks Shauna what she’s doing in her house, Shauna fires back by asking Melissa how she’s even alive.
In Episode 7, Van casually dropped the confirmation that Melissa was dead, which seemed to rule out the popular fan theory that Swank would be playing the character as an adult. We don’t have to wonder about the truth for long, though, because Melissa clears it all up. Since she left a suicide note behind, the cops just took her staged demise at face value, even though there was no body, and didn’t investigate further. Melissa also goes so far as to blame her reason for faking her death on Shauna, and how scared she is of the other woman — but adds that after the team came back from the wilderness, she felt like she wasn’t one of them anymore, and needed to escape. Shauna insists that Melissa doesn’t get to have a clean slate; moreover, she’s doing the exact opposite by changing her name in order to marry the daughter of the woman they killed.
After pulling out the tape she received, Shauna asks Melissa why she’s been messing with her, and we learn that, apparently, Hannah told Melissa of the tape’s whereabouts and asked her to share it with Alex if she ever left the wilderness. Once Melissa heard what was on the tape, however, she knew she could never let Alex hear it, so instead she decided to just keep tabs on Alex, ensuring her safety from afar. One day, they met in person and fell in love — which Melissa admits might sound strange, but they have a good life together. They have a daughter, they go to church, and they live a normal, boring life. Shauna just shrugs before telling Melissa that none of those things matter to her.
Shauna Is a Victim of Her Own Making in ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Episode 8

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While Melissa seems keen on telling Shauna about her new life and how good it is, Shauna came here with a motive, and she’s determined to get answers — so she demands to know why Melissa sent her the tape. Melissa admits that initially, she kept it locked away in a safe deposit box, only holding onto it as leverage in case one of the survivors decided to spill the beans. After her nightmares about the wilderness came back, and she started seeing a therapist who advised her to get rid of any attachments to her past, Melissa left the tape at Shauna’s — but adds that she explained all of this in the note included alongside the tape. Shauna has no memory of any note, so her first instinct is to accuse Melissa of lying.
The accusations don’t stop there, as Shauna goes on to blame Melissa for leaving that phone in the bathroom, locking her in the walk-in freezer, and cutting her brakes — and, on top of everything else, killing Lottie (Simone Kessell). Melissa tells Shauna that something is definitely going on, but that doesn’t mean she was involved — besides, she didn’t even know Lottie was dead until this very moment. Melissa then gets very real with Shauna in a way that no one else has had the guts to do yet. Maybe her van is just old, and maybe that freezer door accidentally closed, and someone could’ve innocently left their phone behind in the bathroom. Was Lottie murdered, or did she just struggle with a lifetime of mental health issues? As far as Melissa is concerned, Shauna creates her own problems instead of looking at the more plausible side of things.
As Melissa pauses to get some water, she openly ponders whether Shauna came to kill her, but adds that Shauna may have actually shown her face here because she just wants to blow up her own life. As Melissa hands Shauna a water glass, she goes for the hunting knife, and Shauna suddenly attacks, knocking Melissa to the ground and beginning to pummel her. Melissa starts to get the upper hand when she headbutts Shauna, but then Shauna’s feral instincts kick in, and she bites into Melissa’s bicep, tearing a chunk out of it. She offers up the piece of skin to Melissa, ordering her to “eat it” — or she’ll tell her family who “Kelly” really is.
Jeff and Callie Reach a Painful Conclusion in ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Episode 8

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Season 3 has seen Jeff (Warren Kole) and Callie’s (Sarah Desjardins) relationship ascend to new heights. They were always the closer parent-child relationship in the Sadecki household, but now that Callie has uncovered more about Shauna’s time in the wilderness, she’s coming to her own conclusions about her mother and sharing them with Jeff. While the two are at dinner, Misty calls Jeff and asks if he’s heard from Shauna before explaining that she ditched them all at the hospital — and then begins to quiz Jeff on where Shauna was the day Lottie died. As far as Jeff’s aware, they were with Misty at the retirement home, and he asks what his wife has done now, but Misty hangs up instead of giving him any answer.
Jeff spends the majority of the episode trying to call Misty back and get some answers, but to no avail — and then Callie comes to him with her own theory. She doesn’t think anyone is actually after Shauna, and to her surprise, Jeff agrees. He admits that Shauna jumped to conclusions about someone cutting the brakes on the van, and that the freezer and the phone just don’t add up. Callie points out that whatever happened out in the woods messed up Shauna more than they think, and none of this actually has to do with them. It’s a huge turning point, as Jeff has always been Shauna’s biggest cheerleader, and now he’s starting to falter.

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Tai Has Lost Control in ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3

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After taking Van to the hospital at the end of Episode 7, Tai is getting an update on her condition — but it’s not looking good. There’s nothing more the doctors can do for Van, and it’s time to look into palliative care. This shocks Tai to her core; just a few episodes ago, Van had been in remission, and now she’s dying. The necessity of what Tai might have to do to save Van, or at least give her more time, sinks in, and so Tai tells Misty to follow her to the palliative care unit.
Tai enters a random room with the intention of suffocating the dying man in it, but struggles to follow through. He flatlines anyway, and Tai wonders if it’s enough to save Van. Is it still considered a sacrifice, even if she wasn’t the one who physically took his life? Later on, we see Tai walk into Van’s room, only to be interrupted by incessant knocking. When Tai turns to see who it is, she finds herself on the other side of the door. Suddenly it clicks: Other Tai and the real Tai have split from one another. Other Tai is the one currently standing in Van’s room, and tells the real Tai that she’s the only one who can help Van as a true believer.
The Yellowjackets Find a Way Home in Season 3 Episode 8

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When Akilah (Nia Sondaya) and Travis (Kevin Alves) found Kodi in the woods, they saved him on the promise that he would rescue them. We catch up with them in this episode, where Kodi tells the two that it’s a rough hike to the pickup point. Travis isn’t worried, but Akilah is a bit apprehensive about leaving the rest of the team behind. Travis assures her they’ll send help to the others, but this is their opportunity to get out now. Akilah silently goes along with him, but marks their path with pieces of fabric from her clothing. Back at camp, the rest of the team is questioning Hannah about who she is, where she came from, and the most important question of all (from Van): Did Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) finally get together on The X-Files? Hannah explains that she’s a scientist researching a species of frogs, and Nat (Sophie Thatcher) responds that they’re a soccer team whose plane crashed. Some of the details click into place for Hannah, who remembers that people searched for the Yellowjackets for a long time, but this only seems to indicate to certain team members — like Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) — that everyone has given up on them.
Just then, Misty (Samantha Hanratty) comes running into camp to reveal her knowledge of Travis, Akilah, and Kodi’s whereabouts, having found Akilah’s markers. The team catches up with them and demands they come back to camp, where the group redirects their interrogation to Kodi, who says that it will take six days to get to the rescue point. Suddenly, rescue is much more than a dream; everyone is thrilled at the idea, and they start planning what they’ll need for the trip, but Lottie (Courtney Eaton) is insistent that the team can’t go back. They brush this off as Lottie being Lottie, since none of them are particularly thrilled with her after what she did to Edwin (Nelson Franklin) in the previous episode.
As they all pack their things, the teammates imagine different luxuries. Mari (Alexa Barajas) dreams of drinking a Slurpee, Misty dreams of using a real toilet, and Van (Liv Hewson) envisions sleeping in a real bed. It’s Tai (Jasmin Savoy Brown) who interrupts Van’s dream by hitting her with a hefty dose of reality and her own worries about going home. She doesn’t know what their relationship will be like once they get back, and worries that the world hasn’t changed enough to be able to accept them. They’ll also have to kill Kodi and Hannah because they can’t trust them to stay quiet, and even then, one of their own could slip up. As far as Van’s concerned, going home outweighs all the negatives that Tai is considering. Before the scene ends, we see the Man With No Eyes standing right behind Tai, hinting that Other Tai is still in control and is responsible for Tai’s sudden apprehension about rescue.
It’s not just Tai acting strange, as Shauna calls out Melissa for her weird behavior, to which Melissa claims she’s actually being normal, considering the current situation. What’s more, she can’t wait to get away from Shauna, given that Shauna’s first instinct was to run off right after she was shot with Kodi’s crossbow. Shauna tries to make Melissa feel better by insisting that she wanted to be the one to catch the guy who shot her — and that she’s still not ruling out killing Kodi. This softens Melissa a little, and as she proceeds to excitedly discuss what she’s most excited to do once they get home, Shauna just zones out, seemingly distracted by a moth hovering inside the hut.
Home Isn’t Home Anymore in ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Episode 8

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While everyone is packing up to leave, Akilah suddenly experiences a devastating hallucination of all the camp’s animals and crops dying. Something weird is going on now that they’re faced with the opportunity to be rescued. This is proven further when Natalie takes Coach Scott’s (Steven Krueger) belongings to the plane wreckage, apologizing that he didn’t make it to this moment. When she hears a creepy noise, she seems to believe it’s the wilderness taunting her and yells back at it, saying they’re going home — and they’re leaving “It” behind.
Later, as the team prepares for their hike home, Lottie makes the jaw-dropping choice to stay behind. At first, Nat tries to make her reconsider, but Lottie is adamant about her decision, adding that she won’t be well if she goes back — or the version of herself that she became out in the wilderness. After that, Shauna drops her bag and insists on staying, and Tai joins them despite Van’s protests, claiming that she’s been feeling the same apprehension about leaving since Hannah and Kodi first arrived. Despite their reluctance, Nat declares that the rest of the team is leaving — but then Shauna decides to pull the Antler Queen card and tells everyone that they’re not going anywhere. Are the Yellowjackets about to experience a major split?
New episodes of Yellowjackets Season 3 premiere Fridays on Showtime.

Yellowjackets

Yellowjackets Season 3 Episode 8 reveals another survivor in the present day and hints at potential rescue for the team.

Release Date

November 14, 2021

Network

Showtime, Paramount+ with Showtime

Showrunner

Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, Jonathan Lisco

Directors

Benjamin Semanoff, Daisy von Scherler Mayer, Deepa Mehta, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Liz Garbus, Scott Winant, Eva Sørhaug, Jamie Travis

Pros & Cons

Another survivor is revealed.
The Melissa and Shauna confrontation is tense and well-done.

The team seemingly turns away a chance at rescue.