Yellowjackets Season 1 Explained: All About Yellowjackets + Where To Watch

It was four years ago that the SHOWTIME® original drama Yellowjackets premiered, and became a cultural obsession. The survival thriller continues to resonate with fans today thanks to its mix of psychological horror, ’90s nostalgia, and an all-star cast.

Whether you’re just getting introduced to the show or need a refresher before the new season, we’re here to catch you up on Yellowjackets Season 1 – from the major events, to answering all your lingering narrative questions.

But before you read on, be warned: There are spoilers ahead. We’re recapping all the plot points, character arcs, and wilderness mysteries that have been plaguing your mind. So, come along for the ride, and let’s rewind to the very beginning.

What is Yellowjackets about?

Yellowjackets is about an all-girls high school soccer team headed to a national championship tournament when its plane suddenly malfunctions. A crash into the remote wilderness results in the death of the pilots and the team’s head coach, as well as the destruction of the flight recorder box. The surviving passengers band together to provide food and shelter for the group as a whole. But as winter arrives and the woods grow darker and bleaker, there’s less and less team spirit to be felt amongst the athletes …

Fast-forward to the present day, and only a handful of Yellowjackets have survived into adulthood. Though they managed to leave the forest all those years ago, the forest has never left them …

When did Season 1 come out?

Season 1 of Yellowjackets premiered on Nov. 14, 2021. The season finale dropped on Jan. 16, 2022. All episodes are now streaming on Paramount+ with the Paramount+ Premium plan.

Yellowjackets Season 1 recap

The show unfolds across two timelines – one in 1996 following the plane crash into the forest, and another that takes place in the present day.

Yellowjackets Season 1 wilderness timeline

The Yellowjackets, an elite high school soccer team from New Jersey, are en route to a championship game in Seattle when their plane crashes into the Canadian woods. Except for Ben Scott, the group’s 20-something assistant coach, every adult on the aircraft perishes, leaving only a gaggle of teenage survivors – among them, the team’s captain, Jackie Taylor, her best friend Shauna Shipman, the ultra-competitive Taissa Turner, and the team’s equipment manager, Misty Quigley.

The group tries to keep a team mentality, knowing that there’s no telling when they’ll be rescued. They work at becoming proficient at hunting, making fire, and sharing resources, but it quickly becomes clear that the group’s power balance is shifting, and everyone’s sense of right and wrong is going with it.

In the wilderness, fatigue, hunger, and anger start taking over and secrets begin to come out. Shortly after the crash Shauna finds that she is pregnant with the baby of Jackie’s boyfriend, which causes a significant rift between the two best friends. After tending to his severe wounds, Misty confesses that she has a crush on Coach Ben Scott. But despite telling her he feels the same way, he does not reciprocate those feelings because he is gay. Ben’s secret causes him to distance himself from Misty, but he eventually begins to distance himself from the rest of the girls as well because of their growing division and cult-like behavior. Things only get darker when Yellowjacket Laura Lee attempts to get help and dies in a doomed attempt to fly a plane.

Following Laura Lee’s untimely death, the group throws a Doomcoming party where everyone (accidentally) takes mushrooms. Jackie is the only one who doesn’t consume the mushrooms, and while the rest of the girls start hallucinating, Jackie seduces Natalie’s “boyfriend” Travis. Her desperate attempt to stay atop the social pyramid by seducing him turns the girls against them both. After locking Jackie in a closet, the remaining team members set their sights on Travis, attacking him in a drug-induced haze. Jackie later confronts the team, ultimately storming out of the cabin and making the decision to sleep outside, which results in her freezing to death.

Yellowjackets Season 1 present-day timeline

There are four survivors (that we’re initially made aware of) from the soccer team – Shauna, Natalie, Taissa, and Misty – who are still haunted and traumatized by what they experienced in the wilderness all those years ago. To make matters worse, someone is seemingly blackmailing each of them, threatening to expose their secrets by leaving them notes emblazoned with a certain symbol. Each of the women recognizes this symbol from their time in the wilderness as something that was etched in the trees.

The women have grown up but have not necessarily moved on. Misty is now a nurse, and part of a citizen detectives group. She grows suspicious of the backmailer and tries to find out who it is. Natalie, meanwhile, has an addiction problem and is attempting to find out who staged the recent suicide of her ex-boyfriend Travis. Taissa is married with a son and is running for a seat in the State Senate, but suffers from sleepwalking and disturbing behavior as a result of her trauma. It is revealed that she harbors a separate “identity” that was developed after the crash and, when asked, has no memory of creating a creepy altar in her basement … crafted around the head of their family dog, Biscuit. Shauna is in a rocky marriage with Jeff and is having an affair with a man named Adam, whom she later kills because she believes him to be the one blackmailing her and her friends in the present day.

Yellowjackets Season 1 ending explained

Things spiral fast at the end of Yellowjackets Season 1. In the wilderness timeline, Lottie – who was already starting to have visions – kills a bear, saying “we won’t be hungry much longer.” The fact that more and more Yellowjackets believe that it’s her mysticism keeping them alive points to the fact that she is on the verge of starting a sort of cult within the group.

It’s during the Doomcoming Party when things begin to come to even more of a head. When the group devours the bear meat, Jackie refuses to partake, ultimately exploding at her teammates for their animalistic behavior. What’s happened to them?

Shauna rebuts that Jackie isn’t innocent, having seduced Travis knowing he and Natalie were an item, Jackie throws her trump card: She read in Shauna’s diary that it’s Jeff’s baby Shauna’s carrying. Shauna explodes, declaring that she’s tired of being Jackie’s sidekick, and that the team would prefer if Jackie left the cabin. With no one standing up for her, Jackie exits. She’s unable to start a fire, or to swallow her pride and beg the girls to let her back inside, and she therefore freezes to death in the snow. With the Yellowjackets team captain now deceased, Lottie steps into the role of leader, feeding into the group’s growing belief that something supernatural is guiding them.

In the present day, Shauna murders her lover Adam because she thinks he’s blackmailing the group, only to realize she may have killed an innocent man. Natalie is kidnapped by an unidentified cult-like group, which is later heavily suggested to be led by Lottie, who (cue suspense music!) is still alive.

It’s the kind of ending that makes one thing clear; no one really escaped the wilderness.

Who dies in Yellowjackets Season 1?

In Season 1 of Yellowjackets, the plane crash claims several lives right from the start. Other key deaths include: Laura Lee, who dies when the abandoned plane she’s flying catches fire and explodes. Jackie freezes to death after being forced to sleep outside following a fight with the group.

In the present day, Travis appears to have killed himself when he is found hanging from a crane at his work site, and Shauna kills her lover, Adam. Misty also poisons Jessica Roberts, who she suspects as the blackmailer but who, in actuality, was hired by Taissa to do background research for her campaign.

Yellowjackets Season 1 cast

The cast is full of popular stars with Melanie Lynskey and Christina Ricci garnering multiple acting nods for their roles in the series.

Yellowjackets (as adults)

Melanie Lynskey as Shauna
Tawny Cypress as Taissa
Christina Ricci as Misty
Juliette Lewis as Natalie

Yellowjackets (as teens)

Sophie Nélisse as Shauna
Jasmin Savoy Brown as Taissa
Sammi Hanratty as Misty
Sophie Thatcher as Natalie

Additional Yellowjackets

Courtney Eaton as Lottie
Liv Hewson as Van
Ella Purnell as Jackie Taylor
Jane Widdop as Laura Lee
Alexa Barajas as Mari
Keeya King as Akilah

More cast

Steven Krueger as Ben
Warren Kole as Jeff
Kevin Alves as Travis
Sarah Desjardins as Callie
Peter Gadiot as Adam Martin
Alex Wyndham as Kevyn Tan
Rukiya Bernard as Simone
Rekha Sharma as Jessica Sharma
Luciano Leroux as Javi
Aiden Stoxx as Sammy Abara-Turner

How many episodes are in Yellowjackets Season 1?

There are 10 episodes in Yellowjackets Season 1. They are:

Where can I watch Yellowjackets Season 1?

You can watch Yellowjackets Season 1 on Paramount+ (any plan), along with Yellowjackets Season 2

But your Yellowjackets binge-watch needn’t stop there: All episodes of Yellowjackets Season 3 are streaming on Paramount+ for Premium plan subscribers. (Visit our help page for more info on what Paramount+ plans are available.)

**How many seasons of Yellowjackets are there?**

Right now, there are three seasons of Yellowjackets – but that’s about to change (for the better!). Yellowjackets has been renewed for a fourth season. Though no release date has been set, you can bide your time by reading our Season 4 guide to get the latest Yellowjackets scoop.