Yellowjackets episode 3 recap: Who killed [SPOILER]?

Taissa takes center stage in the past, present, and even the distant past in Yellowjackets episode 3. This week’s episode, titled “The Dollhouse,” sees the plane crash survivors beginning to realize the direness of their situation while in the present, Shauna tries to confirm Jeff is having an affair and Taissa struggles with a political attack ad.

All in all, a lot is going on between the dual timelines and the first half of Yellowjackets season 1 is setting up for a lot of horrifying reveals and twists in the back of the season. Let’s just hope the show knows how to handle all of these mysteries because, so far, each episode is dropping a lot more questions than answers. But wow, it’s so gripping. I really wish we had the whole season to devour in one sitting!

Yellowjackets episode 3 recap: Stay at the plane or go to the lake?

The 1996 timeline begins with the girls three days into being stranded in the woods. They hold a brief ceremony for the deceased (and Coach Ben’s leg). Shortly after, they’re faced with one of their most significant decisions yet: stay at the plane in case a rescue team arrives or move toward a lake Taissa found several miles away?

Jackie is the most vocal advocate for remaining by the plane but put to the vote, she’s quickly overruled. Even Shauna votes that they move to the lake, a decision that causes a rift between the two best friends.

Considering they are desperately low on food and water, migrating toward freshwater sounds like the best plan. They write a note on the plane that they’ve gone to the lake in case anyone arrives looking for them (unbeknownst to the group, Misty busted the flight recorder).

Along with finding a lake, the group stumbles upon an old cabin in the woods. It’s a good place to find shelter, but all the food is already long gone or rotten. Lottie gets a particularly bad vibe from the cabin and has to be forced inside by Taissa. That night, we find out why: there is a dead body rotting in the attic. Whoever died there has been dead for a long time.

Yellowjackets episode 3 recap: What is going on with Sammy?

In 2021, Taissa has her hands full between her son acting out and a political attack ad launched against her by her opponent. Taissa considers going negative until Simone reminds her that she set out to make a difference, not get caught up in the dirty politics of it all. Easier said than done when the political ad insinuates she’s dangerous (even using the word “cannibal,” which feels like an ominous clue as to what happened during her time in the woods).

At the playground, Sammy attacks another kid for making an offhand remark about Taissa. Yet Sammy doesn’t show much remorse at home. If anything, he just doubles down on the creepiness we saw from him last week, claiming that Taissa “is not the bad one.” So who is? Simone? Someone else?

We find out that Taissa is in cahoots with that “reporter” Jessica, who has been shopping around. Not wanting any sudden surprises to ruin her political future, Taissa hired her to see if any of the other survivors would talk for the right around of money. While chatting, Jessica gives Taissa a valuable tip about her opponent’s daughter.

Recently turned 18, she’s already done several stints in rehab. It’d be gross for her to go after someone’s kid but armed with that knowledge, Taissa threatens her political adversary not to run anymore attack ads against her, or she’ll plaster his daughter’s face and her history with drugs all over the newspapers.

Perhaps the most frightening part of Taissa’s storyline this week is a strange, potentially supernatural reveal that something has been haunting her since she was a child. A flashback-within-a-flashback shows a toddler-aged Taissa visiting with her dying grandmother, who suddenly starts freaking out after seeing a spectral image in the mirror.

A chilling reveal that parallels all three versions of Taissa plays out by showing the toddler version of Taissa lifting her grandmother’s eyelids at the funeral to check her eyes, adult Taissa entering the basement and stepping on a doll eye torn from Sammy’s doll Manny, and teenage Taissa finding the dead body in the cabin’s attic.

Yellowjackets episode 3 recap: Who killed Travis?

Misty and Natalie continue their road trip in Yellowjackets episode 3. It doesn’t take long for Natalie to confirm her suspicions that Misty messed with her car to ensure they could take the road trip to see Travis together.

Travis’s cabin is dilapidated and messy as if no one has been there in a long time. Since no one answers, Natalie breaks a window to go inside and take a peek. They’re arrested shortly after. Natalie calls Taissa, who regularly gets Natalie out of scraps and even paid for her rehab. But she has too much going on this time to be Natalie’s savior. Misty gets them out of jail by calling Kevyn Tan.

Apparently, she’s been pretending to be Natalie ever since she noticed that Kevyn was basically salivating all over Natalie when they ran into him at the bar. It works, he bails them out. From the jail, Natalie and Misty drive to Travis’s place of work and find him hanging from the rafters inside a barn. Natalie is immediately convinced that Travis didn’t kill himself. Someone else did.

Misty chooses that moment to give her a note she found in Travis’s house, the last thing he wrote: Tell Natalie she was right. Right about what? Natalie isn’t sure, but she is sure Travis was murdered.

Yellowjackets episode 3 recap: Is Jeff cheating on Shauna?

In the previous episode, Shauna read a text from a woman named Bianca on Jeff’s phone. The two made plans to meet up at their “usual spot.” Shauna follows him to a hotel to confirm her suspicions that he’s having an affair and runs into Adam while there.

The two get martinis, and Shauna obsessively watches the door for her husband. She finally sees him exit with a blond woman who must be Bianca. The episode ends with Shauna and Adam going into a hotel room together.

Odds & Ends in Yellowjackets episode 3

• We know the show has been implying some romantic feelings between Shauna and Jackie, but this episode also leaned heavily into something bubbling between Taissa and Van in the past.
• What’s the deal with the pills Lottie keeps taking?