Yellowjackets: Doomcoming
January 9, 2022 10:36 AM - Season 1, Episode 9 - Subscribe

You are cordially invited to The Doomcoming. On the brink of death, the Yellowjackets opt to throw one last rager before careening into oblivion. An increasingly paranoid Shauna struggles between keeping her cool and being Shauna.

What? There's no book club!
posted by Stanczyk (26 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Also, in last week's post, I mentioned a missing gun, forgetting that the safe was where Shauna kept her journals. Assuming there was a gun in there. But, do we get confirmation that Jeff took the journals and then returned them? We did get confirmation that he read them, but he refers to the past. Why were they missing?
posted by Stanczyk at 10:39 AM on January 9, 2022


I watch a LOT of horror movies, and the girls coming for Jackie and Travis is the most terrifying thing I've seen in a long time. The hair on my arms was standing straight up.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 11:14 AM on January 9, 2022 [9 favorites]


Also, it never occurred to me until this episode that maybe Travis fled to the middle of nowhere and changed his name not because he was hiding from stalkers and reporters, but because he was hiding from the Yellowjackets. Maybe he did kill himself after NatalIe called him after all.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 11:23 AM on January 9, 2022 [9 favorites]


I recall Natalie saying they had kept in touch over the years since returning, been there for each other through rehab, and etc. What I can’t recall is what Nat told him when she called… did it indicate that it wasn’t only she calling, but that the team had re-assembled?
posted by armoir from antproof case at 12:28 PM on January 9, 2022


OK, so Paul’s probably not Javi, just an unlucky dude, then. This episode made me extremely anxious, super effective.
posted by LooseFilter at 12:37 PM on January 9, 2022


SCREAMED at the book club line reading but oh man Coach coming out to Misty absolutely belongs on the all time highlight reel
posted by everybody had matching towels at 2:39 PM on January 9, 2022 [9 favorites]


Wow, I did not see that opening scene coming at all!

I still don't think we have the whole story on Jeff. I don't buy that he isn't at least having an affair.
posted by rpfields at 10:27 PM on January 9, 2022 [1 favorite]


Jeff, impossibly hot furniture salesman, whose only sin is borrowing money from a female loan shark... SURELY there's more to the story? He seems shockingly unfazed at the news that 1) Shauna's having an affair, 2) she killed the guy and now needs help dealing with the fallout, 3) completely trusts Shauna and the other Yellowjackets to handle it without him getting involved.

Like, I WANT to believe Jeff is the kind of stand-up guy who would love and stay married to Shauna anyway after reading her cannibalism diaries. These no doubt contain admissions about who was killed and eaten, along with many other awful, life-destroying secrets.

And yet... Nah, there's no way he's that "down" for his wife in this scenario if he wasn't even willing to tell her the business was going to go bankrupt if he didn't borrow money from the mob.

I know many, many married couples that suddenly split up during this pandemic. Couples that realized, hey, we really don't even like each other that much anymore and are staying together for the kids/money/convenience. Spending more time together burst those seams wide open, so you're telling me the stress of covering up a murder, a cannibalistic secret history and ALSO potentially losing the family business (or a broken leg, or cut-off finger -- whatever loan sharks charge in unpaid interest these days) is only going to drive Jeff and Shauna closer together, not apart?

I mean, I stan for that type of commitment, I guess. I just don't see that realistically happening, but I'm loving the surprises that keep these two lovebirds' marriage extra spicy!

Fucking A, Kittens. I honestly thought the girls might bite Travis' member off. That scene was super terrifying, IMO.

I can't wait for next week to see Misty's "Be smart from the very beginning" body disposal episode.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 7:28 AM on January 10, 2022 [11 favorites]


It seems to me that Jeff is eagerly taking advantage of the status quo pivot from "Jeff sucks and used a loan shark and blackmailed his wife's friends" towards a more Jeff-friendly "Jeff is understanding and supportive of his cheating, murderous wife". Jeff knows he just made his straight on the flop and is laying low.
posted by joelhunt at 7:49 AM on January 10, 2022 [12 favorites]


Jesus, I forgot about that body thread.

Misty's delight at being asked to help with the body....has she done this before, post-crash? She seemed pretty well set up to have the reporter chained in her basement.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 8:28 AM on January 10, 2022 [2 favorites]


Apparently it wasn't just my favorite line from the show. From Melanie Lynskey's twitter feed.
posted by Stanczyk at 9:49 AM on January 10, 2022 [1 favorite]


So, was Adam just a fun-loving guy who digs milfs? It certainly seems that way. If nothing else, it doesn't seem likely that he was Javi. Thus far, the aftermath of his death has largely been played for laughs, but if you think about it in terms of a person's life, I feel like Shauna's complete lack of remorse is disturbing. I can accept that she's probably Killed Before, but this someone of whom she appeared at least slightly fond, and...nothing. Nat and Tai didn't know him, and this isn't their first dead body, but Shauna? Who the hell is this person?

Being that Adam does seem to be just some dude, it makes me wonder if perhaps this is not, after all, the kind of show that does Big Twists vis a vis characters' identities. I was halfway expecting some kind of faked-death thing with Jackie (some kind of Don Draper switcheroo is not impossible when you have bodies all over the woods in various stages of explodedness, decomposition, and having been eaten), but now I'm not so sure.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 12:32 PM on January 10, 2022 [2 favorites]


Who the hell is this person?

Right? I think this is a show where you like the characters so much, that you can forget that they may not be likeable people. I think Shauna is remorseful for killing Adam, but for her it's an 'oh shit' kind of remorse, simply because her frame of reference for doing horrible things is really skewed. (Like, it's probably far from the worst thing she's ever done.)
posted by LooseFilter at 1:33 PM on January 10, 2022 [4 favorites]


So, are we to believe that it really was just a surprising coincidence that Adam happened to be visiting the bar in the hotel where Shauna was trying to catch Jeff cheating? He was just lying to impress her?
posted by thedward at 5:38 PM on January 10, 2022 [3 favorites]


Adam MARTIN

Javi MARTINEZ

Travis "changed his name to disappear" per Misty

I'm going to be very disappointed if Javi didn't do the same, but of course, we could easily learn Javi died in the s1 finale and then poof, there goes that theory.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 7:30 AM on January 11, 2022


It might be kind of anti-climactic to learn that Adam was Javi at this juncture, now that he's dead...unless of course he's actually not dead, which is probably a bridge too far in terms of plausibility, lol.*

*Depending on how ambiguous they want to keep the supernatural stuff. It dawned on me a while ago that we never actually saw Van escape from the fire in the plane, which -- how the fuck did that happen? And then I was like, "What if this isn't Van?" You know, she could be some woodland spirit. This could explain Van's apparent indestructible nature. But I'm pretty sure this show isn't gonna go that far down the rabbit hole (....Right?).
posted by kittens for breakfast at 9:06 AM on January 11, 2022 [3 favorites]


Kittens, I'll be super-annoyed if this show pulls a LOST on us and all the girls are actually ghosts, stuck in purgatory, woodland spirits inhabiting the girls' bodies post-natural-death, etc.

Then again, not once did any of the adult Yellowjackets consider whether Adam could be Javi once they learned about the dead blackmailer. And Shauna never seemed to think twice about it, either -- surely there's a good reason why she never questioned if Adam could be adult Javi? Or got skeeved out by his tattoos?

Just gonna leave a link to the screenshot of Adam's very suspicious (IMO) back tattoo here.

That said, it's equally plausible that Adam's just a lifelong fan/conspiracy theorist who's been working on a series of paintings or carvings for a Yellowjackets-themed art show, or custom illustrations for an unauthorized "Yellowjackets 25th anniversary tell-all" type book, etc.

I really, really hope we get more answers in the finale next week like we did with this episode's major data-dump.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 9:22 AM on January 11, 2022 [3 favorites]


That back tattoo is suspiciously interesting. Seems terribly anti-climactic for Adam to be killed like that, though, if he was actually Javi. And after that overhead shot of young Javi lying nestled by the fallen tree while the shrooms kicked in, which looked awfully like him lying in a coffin, I fear for his immediate future in 1996.
posted by LooseFilter at 10:28 AM on January 11, 2022 [4 favorites]


That back tattoo is suspiciously interesting.

It REALLY is. Why bother putting that, specifically, on the actor and making sure we see it, you know? Unless it's a misdirect, which I begrudgingly admit is also possible.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 1:34 PM on January 11, 2022 [1 favorite]


But, do we get confirmation that Jeff took the journals and then returned them? We did get confirmation that he read them, but he refers to the past. Why were they missing?

Oh, interesting... Did he maybe also go to to get a book deal? $50,000 isn't going to keep a failing furniture store afloat that long...
posted by Rock Steady at 6:57 AM on January 12, 2022


Shauna planted the journals at Adam's so presumably Jeff gave them back to her, but that doesn't mean he didn't make copies...

How much did Jeff tell Randy?
posted by thedward at 10:03 AM on January 12, 2022 [1 favorite]


From reading the diaries, presumably Jeff also knows about the existence of as well as whatever happened to the baby he and Shauna conceived before the crash.
posted by carmicha at 11:15 AM on January 12, 2022


If Shauna is insufficiently remorseful for manslaughter this episode -- and she really, really is -- learning that Adam is actually Xavi might puncture that ruthless pragmatism. She saved him in the 1996 flashback; it feels (horribly) appropriate if she just gutted him in the present. Deal with your trauma before it deals with you, kids!

This is the first time I've seen bacchantes done well on TV. I guess the key really is the horror part.

Jackie was the only person in the episode not tripping, right? Honestly lmao, imagine her POV of that night.
posted by grandiloquiet at 5:32 PM on January 15, 2022 [1 favorite]


Just binged the whole series. I felt so bad for Travis in this episode. He gets sexually assaulted at a time when there are no words or framework for him to name his experience, then nearly murdered.
posted by pelvicsorcery at 9:11 AM on January 22, 2022 [3 favorites]


Late to the party, but: Shauna is my favorite character, ever. She's such a sociopath: with her husband, with her lover, with her daughter. And please remember she's the one who bled the animals back in the woods…
posted by signal at 7:16 PM on February 3, 2022 [2 favorites]


Holy shit, the maenads.
posted by inexorably_forward at 3:13 AM on July 23, 2023 [1 favorite]


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