Burial (Yellowjackets)

Did You Know?

• The episode was written by Rich Monahan and co-executive producer Liz Phang, and directed by Anya Adams.
• This marked Monahan's first writing credit, Phang's fourth writing credit, and Adams' first directing credit.

Plot

The snowstorm ends, but Shauna remains lost in grief over her baby. Some of the other girls start wondering what happened to Crystal and whether Misty had a hand in her disappearance. Misty catches wind of this and rounds up a few of them to go look for Crystal. When she gets to the spot where Crystal fell, the body is gone.

She sees Ben standing at the edge of the cliff, ready to jump because his hallucinations have gotten worse. Misty tries to stop him by saying he was the baby’s father and by threatening to out him as gay, but Ben doesn’t react. Desperate, she begs him to stay, saying she can’t handle another death after failing to save Shauna’s baby. Back at the cabin, Shauna confronts Misty for not saving her baby and punches her.

The other girls try to calm Shauna down. Lottie steps in, saying she understands the pain and tells Shauna to take it out on her. Shauna attacks Lottie brutally. While the others tend to Lottie, Shauna leaves the cabin, shaken.

At the compound, adult Lottie has the girls try different treatments. She talks to her psychiatrist about her visions, now sure that “it” brought them all back together. She senses the presence of the Queen questioning her, but then Lisa interrupts and reveals the psychiatrist never existed—the whole conversation was a hallucination. Adult Shauna picks Self Care and is assigned to look after a baby goat for the day.

The task annoys her, but she figures the compound will just kill the goat once she gives it back. Taissa picks Renewal and gets frustrated because her treatment is just painting a barn. Van picks Forage and joins Taissa for a drink. They kiss, but Taissa feels guilty afterward.

Van then tells Taissa she has cancer and only has a few months left. She won’t get more treatment and hadn’t planned on telling Taissa until she showed up at her store.

Reception

The "Burial" episode of Yellowjackets drew 0.165 million viewers, with a 0.03 rating in the 18-49 demographic on Nielsen’s scale, meaning 0.03 percent of TV-equipped households tuned in. That marked a small uptick from the prior episode, which had 0.158 million viewers and a 0.04 in the same demographic. Critical reception was largely favorable. On Rotten Tomatoes, the episode earned an 88% approval rating based on 8 reviews, with an average score of 7.8 out of 10.

Hattie Lindert of The A.V. Club awarded it an A–, noting that as Lottie pointed out, the group got what they wanted: Shauna survived. Lindert added that self-care culture built on loving thy neighbor feels outdated, though these women would fit right in on a Goop cruise. She wrote that spilling blood might bring luck, but sacrificing a life could yield blessings. Erin Qualey of Vulture gave the episode 4 out of 5 stars, observing that the women, unable and unwilling to confront the brutal truths of their shared history, seem fated to repeat the destructive patterns they followed as teens in the wilderness.

Qualey highlighted Lottie’s line to the Antler Shrink—“We hurt each other”—and suggested that by the episode’s end, someone in the present appears headed for the chopping block. Proma Khosla of IndieWire also gave an A–, arguing that the scene involves more than visceral violence: the girls have shed all pretense of civility, weakened by the constant horrors they endure in the wild. In its place, new and threatening rules take hold. Shauna’s aggression is seen not as savage but as fair and essential for her survival and the group’s. Bernard Boo of Den of Geek rated it 4.5 out of 5, calling it another brilliant installment in a stellar season and hoping the high-quality storytelling continues.

Erik Kain of Forbes wrote that for the second week running, Yellowjackets is back to being excellent, powerful, and profound—terrifying, beautiful, sad, and funny, the whole package.