Who Is Pit Girl? Who Is the Antler Queen? Breaking Down the Most Compelling ‘Yellowjackets’ Theories Ahead of Season 2

Credit: Brendan Meadows/SHOWTIME

Who Is Pit Girl? Who Is the Antler Queen? Breaking Down the Most Compelling 'Yellowjackets' Theories Ahead of Season 2

Buzz Buzz Buzz! After Yellowjackets made its debut on Showtime, its audience was quickly immersed in the questions posed both in the past and the present timeline. The show, created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, follows a team of high school soccer players who end up stranded in the Canadian wilderness after a plane crash. More than 20 years after their rescue, how they survived continues to fascinate and interest people as the remaining team members spark further speculation about what really happened during those 19 months in the woods by choosing to keep the full story between them. According to Nickerson, the writers didn't expect the fans to become so invested in trying to piece together where the show is headed. "Obviously, a part of you fantasizes about, 'Everyone's gonna love this thing that we've been working so hard on.' I don't think even I had the audacity to imagine that there would be this kind of engagement," he told Insider ahead of the season 1 finale in January 2022. "It's just been so fun to see it play out, the creativity and the talent that seems to have been tapped into online. Some of these theories are so elaborate, delicate, and well-researched. They're not right, but they're still cool." Lyle, for her part, found the interest to be a "little terrifying" because of the pressure that came with providing the audience with worthwhile answers. "I feel like the more people engage, the higher the expectations, which is always a little bit anxiety producing," she noted. "But I think my favorite part, like Bart said, is the creativity — not just with all the theories, but there's been really incredible fan art. And I am buying all of it. I am a one woman cottage industry right now." The former Narcos: Mexico writer explained that it was hard for the writers' room to feel like they had fully wrapped up a story line when there was always the potential for more, saying, "I feel a very sort of instinctual reluctance to fully answer it just because you never, as a storyteller, wanna close a door. Even if you think that it's an absolute dead end, you never know what spark of inspiration you may have a couple weeks down the road." Following the season 1 finale, the co-creators revealed that although Jackie's (Ella Purnell) death didn't have any twist to it, the interest for the character would make her live on. "I guess what we can say is that Jackie, not only as a person, but as a figure and a symbol, looms large for all of these women, particularly Shauna, and I don't think that that's going to change moving forward. In fact, it's going to deepen," Lyle said at the time. "I think that this isn't necessarily the last that we've seen of Jackie, I'll put it that way." Yellowjackets was renewed for season 2 in December 2021. Scroll on for the most intriguing Yellowjackets theories ahead of its season 2 return: [podcast_block]

Credit: Brendan Meadows/SHOWTIME

Who Is Pit Girl? Who Is the Antler Queen? Breaking Down the Most Compelling 'Yellowjackets' Theories Ahead of Season 2

Buzz Buzz Buzz! After Yellowjackets made its debut on Showtime, its audience was quickly immersed in the questions posed both in the past and the present timeline. The show, created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, follows a team of high school soccer players who end up stranded in the Canadian wilderness after a plane crash. More than 20 years after their rescue, how they survived continues to fascinate and interest people as the remaining team members spark further speculation about what really happened during those 19 months in the woods by choosing to keep the full story between them. According to Nickerson, the writers didn't expect the fans to become so invested in trying to piece together where the show is headed. "Obviously, a part of you fantasizes about, 'Everyone's gonna love this thing that we've been working so hard on.' I don't think even I had the audacity to imagine that there would be this kind of engagement," he told Insider ahead of the season 1 finale in January 2022. "It's just been so fun to see it play out, the creativity and the talent that seems to have been tapped into online. Some of these theories are so elaborate, delicate, and well-researched. They're not right, but they're still cool." Lyle, for her part, found the interest to be a "little terrifying" because of the pressure that came with providing the audience with worthwhile answers. "I feel like the more people engage, the higher the expectations, which is always a little bit anxiety producing," she noted. "But I think my favorite part, like Bart said, is the creativity — not just with all the theories, but there's been really incredible fan art. And I am buying all of it. I am a one woman cottage industry right now." The former Narcos: Mexico writer explained that it was hard for the writers' room to feel like they had fully wrapped up a story line when there was always the potential for more, saying, "I feel a very sort of instinctual reluctance to fully answer it just because you never, as a storyteller, wanna close a door. Even if you think that it's an absolute dead end, you never know what spark of inspiration you may have a couple weeks down the road." Following the season 1 finale, the co-creators revealed that although Jackie's (Ella Purnell) death didn't have any twist to it, the interest for the character would make her live on. "I guess what we can say is that Jackie, not only as a person, but as a figure and a symbol, looms large for all of these women, particularly Shauna, and I don't think that that's going to change moving forward. In fact, it's going to deepen," Lyle said at the time. "I think that this isn't necessarily the last that we've seen of Jackie, I'll put it that way." Yellowjackets was renewed for season 2 in December 2021. Scroll on for the most intriguing Yellowjackets theories ahead of its season 2 return: [podcast_block]

Credit: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME

The Cause of the Hallucinations

After going through the trauma of being stranded, the survivors have all exhibited various forms of hallucinations. While some of it seems to trace back to the possible supernatural aspect from the woods, a theory from Screenrant also teases another reason.

With cannibalism being introduced right off the bat, the effects of eating human meat could have triggered an infection in the characters, including memory loss, hallucinations and impaired thinking.

Credit: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME

The Pit Girl's Identity

Since the girl who died in the premiere wasn't Jackie, viewers have been trying to pinpoint which other survivor has dark hair and all signs point to Mari (Alexa Barajas). She previously had a fight with Misty (Christina Ricci and Sammi Hanratty) — who gladly served the victim who fell into the pit to the other members of her clan in the flashback.

With Lottie (Courtney Eaton) seemingly making it out of the wilderness, Mari seems to be the only possible choice based on appearances.

Credit: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME

Adam Was Actually Adult Javi

Although the Yellowjackets creators have confirmed that Adam (Peter Gadiot) wasn't secretly part of Lottie's cult, many people still have questions about the dead love interest. He may have just been a nice guy who was interested in Shauna (Melanie Lynskey and Sophie Nélisse), but there were plenty of things that didn't add up.

Since Shauna couldn't find Adam online, Vulture proposed that perhaps Adam was actually an adult Javi (Luciano Leroux) looking to reconnect. His body hasn't been found since he went missing in the flashbacks, but that doesn't mean that he didn't survive the cold and eventually was rescued along with everyone else.

Lynskey later admitted that she wasn't onboard with that theory. “I got to a point where if somebody else wrote to me and was like, ‘I think that Adam [her character's lover] is actually Javi [who is dead],’ I was going to smash my computer into pieces,” the Candy star exclusively told Us Weekly in May 2022. “And people were still doing it! And it’s just not that.”

One month later coshowrunner Jonathan Lisco confirmed that Adam's identity was originally quite different.

“Well, we did entertain the notion that Adam was basically Javi coming back to torment Shauna in a way, or torment the Yellowjackets,” he told Variety in June 2022. “We fairly early on dispensed with that idea. It did not feel organically right to us. It didn’t feel to deliver on the promise of what we actually wanted to dramatize with her affair and their marriage."

Credit: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME

Taissa Is Part of the Cult

For most of season 1, present-day Taissa (Tawny Cypress) seemed to not be aware of the darkness living inside of her. But after she seemingly acknowledged that her political win came from sinister actions, Bustle noted that perhaps Taissa knew more than she was letting on.

Maybe Taissa actually ended up joining Lottie's cult, either in the woods or afterward, and knowingly created that altar in her basement as a sacrifice for her own accomplishments.

Poor Biscuit.

Credit: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME

Jackie’s Dream Was the In-Between

Jackie's heartbreaking death came after a mysterious dream that was possibly experienced by her and Shauna. What seemed like a glimpse at Jackie's biggest wish — acceptance — took a turn when someone credited as "The Hunter" (William Charles Vaughn) appeared.

He told Jackie that they had been waiting for her, which might have been a hint that he was the spirit of the dead body in the attic waiting to take her. Van (Liv Hewson), who is very open-minded when it comes to the supernatural, hinted to Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown) that she ended up in a limbo called the "in-between" before she was rescued from the wolf attack.

Credit: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME

More Than One Faction in the Woods

The season 1 premiere painted a picture of all the remaining survivors coming together to form a tribalistic cult. But what if not everyone was on board with that scenario?

In the present, some characters have vocalized a preference for meat including Misty and Shauna. Meanwhile, Taissa and Natalie (Juliette Lewis and Sophie Thatcher) have showed their disdain for meat since coming back from the woods.

Credit: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME

The Fate of Shauna’s Baby

Many viewers on Reddit have picked up on Shauna having dreams of eating her unborn baby as it turns into various food groups. Since Shauna and Jeff (Warren Kole and Jack Depew) only have Callie (Sarah Desjardins) as their offspring, she had to have lost the baby when she was still in the woods.

While Shauna may have had a miscarriage, the introduction to cannibalism presents another theory.   

In April 2022, Ricci recalled her concerned reaction when she first heard about the possible story line. "I was like, 'Why would we eat the baby?' And then I thought, 'Well, we are really ashamed. Everybody is really haunted by what they did so maybe we do eat the baby,'" the actress shared during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. "So I had to ask the writers, 'We don't eat Shauna's baby, do we?' And she said, 'No.' Nobody's eating any babies."

Credit: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME

The Antler Queen

Even though it is obvious that Lottie took on the role of the Antler Queen, Yellowjackets has not yet confirmed that onscreen. In season 1, there was a slow buildup to Lottie's thirst for power, which ended with Van and Misty supporting her as she appealed to the spirits in the woods.

Since Lottie is still alive and well in the present-day timeline, the reign of the Antler Queen may have continued beyond the Canadian wilderness.

Credit: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME

Could Van and Taissa Be Endgame?

“I am incredibly proud to represent the LGBTQ+ community. I fall under the umbrella. My son is under the umbrella,” Tawny Cypress told Entertainment Tonight in February 2022, gushing about her the younger version of her character’s relationship with Van (Liv Hewson). “And, you know, in my 25-year career, I’d say half the characters I’ve played were lesbians, which is a really cool thing that I get to do and bring to light onscreen.”

Fans have seen the younger versions of both Van and Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and the adult version of Taissa, but where Van ends up in the future timeline has not been divulged.

“I also want an adult Van,” Sammi Hanratty, who plays the younger version of Misty, told the outlet. “I’m excited to see where all that goes. And I truly love working with Liv ‘cause we got to do all that wolf stuff together and it was really intense.”