WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for Yellowjackets’ season 3 finale!The “pit girl” scenes teased back in the pilot episode are given full context in Yellowjackets’ season 3 finale, which changes the meaning of Misty’s smile scene from the series premiere. While cutting between Yellowjackets’ present-day survivors and the titular team preparing to head to Nationals in 1996, the series premiere was intercut with future glimpses into the teens’ sacrificial hunts in the wilderness after their plane crash. Those scenes teased that the girls would eventually reach a feral, nearly inhuman state, but Yellowjackets’ season 3 finale confirms much more was happening behind the scenes of that hunt.
The majority of the pilot’s hunt scenes can now be interpreted differently, and not just because “pit girl” is confirmed to be Mari. Van’s reaction to the death is far more heartbreaking, the yells heard were partially from girls attacking each other during the hunt, Shauna is the ruthless Antler Queen, and Natalie is secretly running to a cliff to find a signal for a satellite phone. After the cannibalism, we still see Misty taking off her mask, putting on her glasses, and smiling into the camera, but the meaning of that grin is far from what the pilot implied.
Yellowjackets’ Season 3 Finale Changes The Meaning Of Misty’s Smile From The Pilot Episode’s Ending
Misty’s Smile Wasn’t Actually Sinister
Originally, Misty’s grin at the end of Yellowjackets’ series premiere was implied to be a smile of reveling in the teens’ bloodlust, cruelty, and feral nature. Back at that time, all we knew about teen Misty was that she was seen as strange by Yellowjackets’ other characters, watched curiously as a rat drowned in her pool, and was bullied by her classmates. As such, the smile appeared to be Misty’s way of embracing a new menacing role in the Yellowjackets’ murderous wilderness community. However, we now know that wasn’t the case.
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Yellowjackets Season 3 Finally Explains Adult Nat’s First Words To Misty Back In Season 1
Natalie’s initial reaction to Misty in Yellowjackets’ adult timeline finally makes sense, thanks to one moment from season 3, episode 9.
In reality, Misty’s smile represented her satisfaction and excitement with Natalie and Hannah’s plan secretly working. While Shauna screamed at the group wondering where Natalie went, Misty smiled due to her secret knowledge that Sophie Thatcher’s character successfully reached the peak to make that phone call, finally giving the teens a chance to be rescued and go back home. Rather than being a twisted and sinister grin, Misty’s smile was optimistic as she redeemed her mistake of smashing the plane’s black box in Yellowjackets season 1.
Misty Turned Out To Be One Of The Least Worrying Characters In The Wilderness
Misty Was A Red Herring For Yellowjackets’ Most Dangerous Teens
Based on how her teen character was portrayed in the series premiere, and the present-day characters’ hesitation around her adult counterpart, it seemed like Misty was going to turn into the most brutal and ruthless figure in the wilderness. While she did still make worrying mistakes with the black box, accidentally killing Crystal, and being naively obsessed with Ben, Misty ended up being far less dangerous than characters like Shauna, “other” Tai, and Lottie. Given how twisted Yellowjackets implied Misty would become, I’m pleasantly surprised that she became one of the most redemptive characters – relatively speaking, of course.
Yellowjackets
7/10
- Release Date
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November 14, 2021
- Network
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Showtime, Paramount+ with Showtime
- Showrunner
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Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, Jonathan Lisco
- Directors
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Benjamin Semanoff, Daisy von Scherler Mayer, Deepa Mehta, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Liz Garbus, Scott Winant, Eva Sørhaug, Jamie Travis
- Writers
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Liz Phang, Sarah L. Thompson, Ameni Rozsa