#yellowjackets lisa

Yellowjackets is a show full of characters who are very interesting and at the same time obviously flawed. And it explores the different ways different people change and process the trauma they collectively went through as teenagers. I believe that for Yellowjackets blaming a single character for things such as the death of others (in most cases) is incredibly reductive. For most of the bad things that happen in Yellowjackets, it’s a combination of multiple different characters as well as the survivalist situation they’ve found themselves in/ the trauma that they have because of surviving out in the wilderness.

Okay now onto some of the factors that led to Natalie’s death in the present timeline. So pretty obviously the first BIG event that led to Natalie’s death was Lottie’s insistence on the wilderness needing another hunt/sacrifice. Plus everyone who agreed to it, wether their intentions were genuine or not. Then Lisa coming across them during the hunt, because that led to Misty attempting to kill Lisa, finally leading to Natalie sacrificing herself for Lisa. (there could be a couple more factors in the present timeline that I missed, I haven’t rewatched the finale in a bit) But my main point here is that, there are multiple different connecting factors that eventually lead to the death of Natalie in the present timeline, not even mentioning everything that happened in the wilderness. I could see how someone who doesn’t understand Natalie’s death would feel better to have a single character to blame and hate because of that. But that relates to why I think it is reductive when people do that. People could blame Lottie for Natalie’s death because she was the main one who brought up the topic of performing another hunt for the wilderness. Someone could blame Lisa for getting in the way of the hunt. But most people I’ve seen blame Misty because she was in a way, the end of the road that led to Natalie’s death. But that’s exactly it, she was just the final puzzle piece. Without the other factors that came before hand, Natalie’s death wouldn’t have happened.

For my final point, I will go over why Natalie’s death makes sense to me (at least in a way that relates to how the writers ended season 2). Now, I know that we still don’t know the full of what Natalie had to do in the wilderness to survive, but I do know that a significant event that happened to her character was the death of Javi. There are obviously many different factors that lead to Javi’s death as well, but to me it’s quite clear that Natalie holds the guilt of Javi’s death and feels responsible for it. Javi was trying to save Natalie from getting killed by the others, but Natalie couldn’t save Javi. She chose to live, but at the cost of Javi’s life. I feel like the guilt of sacrificing another, especially someone like Javi who she feels a sort of protectiveness over, to save her own life. To me, this is such an obvious parallel to Natalie and Lisa. Throughout season 2 Natalie shows how she’s become protective over Lisa multiple different times. So when Lisa interrupts the hunt, and Misty tries to save Natalie’s life by killing Lisa, Natalie makes a split second decision. She lets herself die in order to save someone else. Something she couldn’t do when she was a teenager, something that left her with so much guilt, she was able to do as an adult. She saved Lisa at the cost of her own life. She chose to jump in front of Lisa! She had agency! Misty did not lethally inject Natalie on purpose, but Natalie purposely jumped in front of Misty to save Lisa.

Now, when I say that, I do not mean to say that Natalie killed herself on purpose and that Natalie’s death is solely her fault. That’s like 100% against the points I’ve been trying to make this whole post.