I Have a Theory About Jackie in ‘Yellowjackets’...and It Would Make for a Killer Season 2

Author image: jillian quint, editor-in-chief of purewow

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Published Jan 10, 2022

*Warning: Spoilers ahead.*

Is Yellowjackets the best show on television? Is it simply cannily designed prestige-candy for a certain Gen X and geriatric millennial alt girl, the type who still puts on The Breeders while lacing up her Chucks (guilty)?

Either way, I am in deep on this Showtime series about, you know, high school soccer players who survive a plane crash, land deep in the woods in Ontario and devolve into warring cannibals. While I spent much of the middle episodes worrying we were veering in sci-fi Lost territory, with the ghosts and wood spirits and whatnot, after watching Episode 9, I’m convinced that anything supernatural can be explained away as psychological or drug-induced stress—which I honestly find more compelling anyway. (While I still don’t understand why Misty had a binder full of psychedelic mushrooms with her on a soccer trip—unless she foraged and gathered them in the Canadian woods???—I do buy that the ritualistic human “hunt” began as a mob mentality bad trip.)

Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME

Most compelling, of course, is what the hell will happen in the next and final episode. We know the show has been renewed, so there’s no way everything will get tied up—and besides, we need at least another 10 episodes to get us through the next 16 months before the rescue. So what will be the big reveal/cliffhanger in the finale? I have a theory: Jackie is still alive, and she was working with Adam to somehow get back at Shauna.

Hear me out: The internet is awash in theories that Adam is adult Javi. Both are artists, the ages make sense (12-year-old Javi would be 37 now), sexy topless Adam has a mountain tattoo on his back…. And while I find it a little suspect that Shauna wouldn’t recognize the grownup version of a kid she spent 19 months with in the Canadian wilderness, I do wonder if everybody thinks Javi died, meaning Shauna wouldn’t exactly be expecting to meet/bone him 25 years later. (I do think the show is gearing up for some ritualistic sacrificing of the male characters, starting with poor Coach Ben.)

Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME

All of which brings me back to Jackie. What if Jackie and Javi “disappeared” in the woods and were presumed dead, only to spend the next quarter century hiding out and plotting their revenge? OR, what if Javi disappeared, and Jackie actually didn’t die in the woods, but made it back to New Jersey, as several superfans have posited, which explains why her diary lists favorite movies that didn’t exist when she left in 1996? In that scenario, maybe she disappeared and was presumed dead after the rescue, which explains why her parents celebrate her birthday with a creepy brunch, and still have all that money in her unused college fund. OR, maybe she didn’t die at all, but either estranged herself from her family or was committed to an institution, causing everybody to act like she was dead.

Either way, I think she is alive and well and sending cryptic postcards to the remaining Yellowjackets…and I think she was probably in cahoots with Javi/Adam. Both of them had reason to take revenge on Shauna (who screwed Jackie’s boyfriend and tried to kill Javi’s brother), and both would have plenty of dirt on the other survivors. Plus, from a purely Hollywood perspective, we need another twist. After all, with Adam dead and the blackmail/glitter mystery solved, the series needs a big shocker in the present day to propel us into the second season. This has to be in the form of another surprise remaining Yellowjacket.

Unless, of course, that Yellowjacket is Van or Lottie…

Psst: You can watch Yellowjackets on Hulu or Showtime.

Jillian Quint

Editor-in-Chief

Oversees editorial content and strategy
Covers parenting, home and pop culture
Studied English literature at Vassar College

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