In November of 2021, Yellowjackets, a Showtime series, premiered. Since 2021, three seasons have been released, with the most recent season being released on Valentine’s Day. The series follows a girls soccer team from Wiskayok, New Jersey headed to nationals in Seattle in 1996. On the way to Seattle, the plane goes off course 600 miles and crashes in the Canadian wilderness.

In the initial crash, five people died, including one of the coaches and one of the girls. Only eight people survived the next nineteen months in the wilderness following the crash. In the show, there are two timelines, one that follows what happened in the months directly after the crash, and one set in modern day. In the present timeline, the survivors have become adults and reconnect after figuring out they are all being blackmailed with the threat of releasing the secret of what really happened while they were in the wilderness.

Yellowjackets’ pilot episode starts with a shot of a girl running through the snowy woods and falling into a spiked pit while being hunted and then cannibalized by the team. This scene sets the tone for the series and shows how the team spirals into a cult-like group in the months after the crash. Since the show started in 2021, fans have had many speculations and theories surrounding “Pit Girl” and the supernatural aspects of the show. In the season three finale, “Pit Girl’s” identity was shown along with the cannibalization of her body after she died.

Yellowjackets is loosely based on a plane crash in 1972, where a boy’s rugby team also experienced starvation and had to resort to cannibalism after crashing in the Andes mountains. The series also draws inspiration from William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, having similarities in social dynamics and a fast descent into savagery and survival. Certain aspects of Yellowjackets also mimics parts from David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, including surrealist imagery and thrilling, dream-like themes.

Overall, Yellowjackets has complex and memorable characters, an invigorating plot, and a great soundtrack. The show is poised to have five seasons, and fans are waiting in anticipation for each upcoming release.