What do you need to know before ‘Yellowjackets’ season 2?

The second season of Showtime’s horror thriller series ‘Yellowjackets’ is set to premiere on streaming networks on Friday, and it’s been a long-time coming since season one ended in January 2022.

With such a long period between seasons, some details may be hazy. Here’s a look at all the information you need to know before jumping into season two.

What is ‘Yellowjackets’ about?

‘Yellowjackets’ follows a group of high school girls who play for their high school’s soccer team. They’re about to make the trip from New Jersey to Seattle to play in a national tournament in 1996.

But their dreams of winning are crushed when their plane crashes, landing in a Canadian forest, leaving most of the team dead, except for a handful of survivors who become the main cast of the show.

This includes Melanie Lynskey and Sophie Nélisse as the adult and teen version of Shauna Shipman, Tawny Cypress and Jasmin Savoy Brown as Taissa Turner, Juliette Lewis and Sophie Thatcher as Natalie Scatorccio, and Christina Ricci and Samantha Hanratty as Misty Quigley.

The girls then face the struggle to survive as their food supply runs out, and they encounter strange symbols in the forest. They survive in the forest for 19 months, resorting to what is heavily implied to be ritualistic cannibalism.

What happens in season 1?

Besides the main cast, who survived into their adulthood, several girls died during the flashback sequences of season one. This includes Laura Lee, a heavily devout girl who dies trying to fly an abandoned plane she found in the woods.

Jackie, Shauna’s best friend, is frequently referenced throughout the first season as being absent during the present timeline.

As the teens are stranded in the forest, Shauna reveals she is pregnant, but lies about who the father is. It isn’t until Jackie reads her diary that she finds out her boyfriend, Jeff, cheated on her with Shauna and that he is the father of her child.

The two fight, and in her anger, Jackie sleeps outside, freezing to death.

Lottie Matthews is another character who isn’t seen as an adult, but it is implied that she survives.

She is seen in season one as being able to predict the future, and as having supernatural abilities, appearing to become a leader of sorts, driving much of the violence the girls encounter in their two years in the forest.

It is also implied she suffers from schizophrenia and runs out of her medication while in the forest.

In the present adult timeline, someone appears to be after the women, threatening to expose what they had to do to survive in the forest to the public.

What to expect for season 2?

Showrunner Jonathan Lisco recently said that he expects season two to be far more intense than the first.

“If we do our jobs right, the eating of a person will not be the most transgressive thing that these young women do in the wilderness,” Lisco said of the new season in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

“If season 1 was about our teen characters learning to adapt to their harsh surroundings, season 2 is where it all just really explodes,” he added.

With Lottie returning as an adult, it’s also being speculated by fans that the new season may have supernatural elements not seen in season one.