The following story contains spoilers for the Yellowjackets Season 1 finale.
The Season 1 finale of Yellowjackets did exactly what you'd expect the Season 1 finale of a big, expansive, mystery show to do: tie up a few unanswered questions, while introducing so many more. They already have us on the hook—they need to keep us there in a way that's satisfying and invigorating at the same time, right? And that's a problem Yellowjackets doesn't have to worry about, as its brilliantly paced and utterly compelling Season 1 comes to a close. We know enough about our main characters—Shauna, Taissa, Misty, and Natalie—to be firmly in, but clearly there's a whole world here—and, now, a potential main villain in Lottie—that we're only just beginning to explore.
Yellowjackets is only touching the tip of the iceberg so far, but the finale answered enough questions to keep us satisfied for now. Jackie is absolutely dead, but not for the reasons we anticipated (she's not the girl running in the nightgown, but rather was basically exiled out of the cabin by the group before freezing to death overnight). Clearly that is part of the guilt that still weighs heavily on all of our present-day main characters (well, except probably not Misty). It kind of makes you think about Shauna and Jeff's brunch with Jackie's parents from earlier in the season in a whole different light. Our present-day women also seem to have (at least for now) successfully gotten rid of Adam's body, but Shauna's daughter Callie is suspicious, and while Taissa surprisingly won her state senate race, her presumably soon-to-be-ex-wife found a secret room filled with a severed dog head, a voodoo doll, and a heart. Not good!
Misty also seemingly committed a murder (killing Jessica with a Fentanyl-laced cigarette), but that's par for the course at this point. The biggest mystery—and cliffhanger—of our Season 1 finale comes around Natalie, who had reached her all-time low after further thinking and discussing Travis' death. Luckily, the show didn't let Nat's story end there; it's great for story reasons, yes, but also because Juliette Lewis is a joy to watch in this role.
And, oh yeah! They went to a 25-year high school reunion (which has been inexplicably organized by Allie, the freshman who broke her leg before the doomed flight and now inexplicably speaks with a ridiculously bad attempt at a "New Jersey" accent). Fun!
So, while Season 1 of Yellowjackets has come to a close, we do still have a lot to think about before Season 2 (and at least we can keep jamming out to that soundtrack). But first let's talk about all those questions from the cliffhanger ending:
Who is Lottie Matthews? But, like, who is Lottie Matthews?
Obviously, anyone who's been watching Yellowjackets knows who Lottie Matthews of 1996 is. She was the mysteriously-medicated member of the soccer team before the crash—who may or may not have the power of precognition, as she at least once in her youth prevented her parents from getting into what would have been a fatal car accident—who, basically, became one-with-the-wild out in the woods as soon as the team's plane crashed and she ran out of her meds. Laura Lee bonded with Lottie before her own plane exploded, and Lottie seems to be the new de facto leader of the Yellowjackets, particularly after Jackie fell out of favor and eventually froze to death; many of the girls seem drawn to her confidence in talking about and adjusting to their new scenario. If single-handedly killing a bear herself didn't win the other girls over, her confident and assured prayer over its flesh (when they desperately needed some food) likely did. You've heard the term "survival of the fittest"; Lottie, so far, seems to be the fittest of the fit when it comes to our Yellowjackets in the woods.
So, we know who Lottie Matthews is in Yellowjackets in 1996. But we certainly don't know who she is in the present-day, where we now know she's very much alive, and is likely involved, if not directly responsible, for Travis' death.
We don't have any idea what present day Lottie is up to, and all we can really do at this point is speculate about what that is, and '90s legend actress we most want to play her (I personally will lead the campaign for Uma Thurman). But we can put together an idea of where she's headed. Episode 9 of Yellowjackets seemed to just about confirm that Lottie is our "Antler Queen" from the first episode, as she donned the Antler crown on her head as all the girls ganged up on Jackie in their mushroom-induced hallucinogenic state. We also saw those final shots of the season—Lottie is leading a (now small) faction of girls who are giving sacrificial organs to some sort of god of the woods, with Van and Misty in tow behind her. It's very easy to see how this could become the cult of sorts wrapped in furs that we saw in the first episode.
So, again, the question we're wondering: who is Lottie Matthews in present day? We can just go off the evidence we now have. Nat's digging with Suzie has gotten her in some trouble. Just before she was about to reluctantly, heartbreakingly follow in Travis' footsteps to the great beyond, Nat's room is broken into by people with clothes bearing that same symbol we've been seeing all season long (and that was at the location where Travis' body was found). Simultaneously, we hear Suzie's voicemail telling Nat that she feels like she's being followed by someone, and that she doesn't appreciate being brought into whatever the hell all this is. Who the hell is Lottie Matthews? We know who she was, and in Season 2, we're going to find out who she's become.
Who is Suzie again?
Suzie, you may remember, is an acquaintance who Natalie met with back in Episode 8. Misty had suggested that Travis' account had been emptied, and it seemed likely that whoever did this was involved with his death. Nat then hit up her friend Suzie, who works in a bank. Suzie didn't want to help, but then Nat blackmailed her, and, well, you're just going to have to accept that that's how she gets her way sometimes.
At the end of the Season 1 finale, we get our answer: Lottie, or maybe someone associated with her, emptied Travis' account. And it seems we're being led to believe that Lottie is the person responsible for what happened to Travis. Our Antler Queen of 1996 is still causing trouble in present day—and that's trouble that we don't even quite know the scope of just yet.
