Yellowjackets episode 5 recap: What is happening to Lottie?

Yellowjackets episode 5, “Blood Hive,” focuses on what it feels like to be a teenage girl, from lighthearted dance sessions to everyone menstruating at the same time (except Shauna, who is revealed to be pregnant!) this episode is a good reminder that the survivors are a group of young women forced into extremely traumatic circumstances.

Teenage girls and seances go together like peanut butter and jelly, at least in the horror genre. If you put a bunch of girls in a room together, odds are they will eventually start trying to communicate with the dead. Based on my own personal experiences, that holds true in real life, too.

I’m not sure what the allure is. I guess the mystique of seeing what’s on the other side or if a ghost can tell you if your crush reciprocates feelings for you is too hard to resist. Yellowjackets episode 5, “Blood Hive,” sees the survivors trying to do just that after the girls become convinced the ghost of the former cabin owner is haunting the attic.

What happens in Yellowjackets episode 5?

Jackie, whose popularity is waning due to her not pulling her weight like the others, suggests the idea of a seance so everyone will stop freaking out about the attic space. It starts off innocent enough until Javi asks the “ghost” whether they will all die out there, instantly souring the mood.

Lottie, who has already been acting odd for a while now, likely because she’s run out of her medication, suddenly starts acting possessed. She starts speaking French, as if channeling a spirit, telling them all they must spill blood or something terrible will happen. It’s not until Laura Lee intervenes (hilariously throwing a bible at her when chanting “the power of Christ compels you” doesn’t work) that she comes to.

So, what’s the deal there? It should be noted that they conducted the seance in the room where they previously found a dead body, and they put candles on top of carvings of the mysterious symbol that keeps appearing everywhere. Was it a night of high energy that caused Lottie’s mental break? Or is something supernatural happening?

It’s not all doom and gloom in the 1996 segment this week. Natalie and Travis get closer, sharing a kiss in the woods while on their hunting trip and Taissa and Van appear to be a couple now, in secret. But Misty does take things a step too far with Ben by poisoning his tea in an effort to keep him servile. When confronted by an angry Ben, Misty admits she has feelings for him.

Surprisingly, Ben is quick enough to navigate her admission by claiming he feels the same way about her. It definitely appears that Ben has realized how much of a threat Misty is, and getting angry at her won’t work in his favor in the long run. It’s better he plays along with her for now.

Yellowjackets episode 5 recap: Did Misty draw the symbol found near Travis’s body?

Present-day Misty proves to be just as manipulative. I genuinely love how Christina Ricci is portraying her character. The moment when Misty turns off an old woman’s ECG in the hospital just to spook some kids in the Halloween spirit is the kind of dark humor this show excels at.

After finding out that Travis did not have any drugs or alcohol in his system, courtesy of Kevyn, Nat reaches out to Misty again (listed as “do not pick up” in her phone, of course) to get in touch with her fellow armchair detective who claims he can hack email files. With Stallion99’s assistance, Nat and Misty get their hands on Travis’s police file, containing graphic crime scene images.

But more interesting than the grisly autopsy photos are the ones showing the ground beneath where Travis’s body was found hanging. Misty notices several wax smudges spread across the photographs. Connecting them with a marker reveals the tell-tale symbol. Natalie is adamant that Travis wouldn’t have arranged this since he didn’t believe in any of that stuff. Whatever “that stuff” is, we still don’t know.

In my opinion, Misty worked out that connection a little too quickly for my liking. I’m not convinced she wasn’t involved in this, or, similar to how she acted in the woods, Misty is creating coincidences and conspiracy to continue this little investigation. While I don’t think she necessarily sent the postcards, the text message they receive after threatening to expose their secrets seems like something Misty would do to keep the game going. Misty also manages to slip a camera into Natalie’s apartment under the guise of an aroma diffuser gift.

The text also works as a way to gather the women for the first time this season. Natalie contacts Taissa and Shaun after receiving it to show them the photos while Misty watches and listens in from afar via her spycam.

Yellowjackets episode 5 recap: Will Jeff find out about Adam?

Since it is Halloween in the modern-day storyline, Shauna goes to a party with Adam, telling Jeff she’s attending another “book club” session. While at the club, she runs into her daughter, Callie, who dressed up in Jackie’s old Yellowjackets uniform which she found in Shauna’s closet. Callie, high on molly, actually manages to have a real conversation with her mom while sobering up.

But it all goes down the drain pretty fast the next morning when Callie tries to blackmail her mom using her newfound knowledge of her affair with Adam. Poor Callie has completely underestimated Shauna, who effortlessly makes Callie realize that telling Jeff that Shauna is cheating on him would lead to their mutually assured destruction.

Yellowjackets episode 5 recap: What is going on with Sammy?

Elsewhere, Taissa is dealing with the blowback from her political opponent Phil Bathurst’s continued campaign against her. She finds the word “spill” written on the side of her house in bright red paint. At first, Taissa and Simone assume one of Phil’s supporters did it, with Simone even advising Taissa to go negative and release the intel on his daughter. But then Taissa finds a can of red paint under Sammy’s bed.

He remains adamant that he didn’t do it, that the “lady in the tree” did it. I’m starting to wonder if Taissa might be the lady and not realize it. Either way, it’s clear Sammy is going through something and Taissa wonders if she should drop out of the race to spend more time at home.

She calls a press conference to concede, but seeing the group in front of her and more hallucinations of the man with no eyes, Taissa changes her mind. Instead, she uses the graffiti to her advantage, blaming Phil’s supporters and rallying sympathy and support for a better New Jersey. From Simone’s expression, it’s clear she’s not happy with her wife’s sudden change of heart.