‘Yellowjackets’ Image That means and Theories Defined

Spoilers forward.

There are a selection of mysteries in Yellowjackets, and that ominous image is without doubt one of the huge ones. Seemingly depicting an impaled lady with a hook for toes, the road drawing is linked to the group’s time within the wilderness, although its precise significance and origin stay unknown…for now. The determine seems each within the ’90s and present-day timelines, that means the grownup survivors of the airplane crash haven’t left it behind.

Let’s revisit the image’s appearances to date and check out just a few theories about its true that means.

The place has it appeared to date?

Season 1

Not lengthy after the Yellowjackets’ airplane crashes, the image seems carved right into a tree on the web site the place they landed. Later, it seems carved into the ground of the attic on the group’s cabin.

In 2021, the image exhibits up on postcards that Nat, Taissa, and Misty obtain from a mysterious sender. It’s additionally in a textual content message they obtain as they’re being blackmailed. Nonetheless, the blackmailer seems to be Jeff, Shauna’s husband, who learn her journals from her time within the wilderness and possibly realized concerning the symbols from there. He was focusing on her classmates to get cash to maintain his sinking furnishings enterprise afloat.

The image additionally appeared on the web site of Travis’ demise. When Misty and Nat purchase police photographs of his suicide, they discover wax marks on the bottom the place he was killed, which, when linked, type the image.

Later within the season, it’s drawn in blood at Taissa’s basement shrine, subsequent to her canine’s severed head and her son’s doll. It’s additionally on a pendant worn by certainly one of Natalie’s kidnappers within the finale episode. They appear to be linked to Lottie because the voiceover asks within the closing scene, “Who the fuck is Lottie Matthews?”

Season 2

In season 2, episode 1, teen Lottie attracts the image within the fog of the cabin window after sending Travis and Natalie off to hunt and seek for Javi. That is the primary time anybody is seen drawing the image within the ’96 timeline. Later within the episode, within the present-day, one of many cult members who attends to Natalie is sporting the image on her pendant too.

In episode 3, grownup Taissa realizes that somebody (almost certainly herself) drew the image on her spouse Simone’s hand following the automotive accident. She notices it as Simone is recuperating within the hospital. Her youthful self additionally sees the image carved right into a tree within the woods. Throughout teen Shauna’s child bathe, Lottie affords a blanket with the image on it as a present. When Shauna’s nostril bleeds onto the image, a flack birds all of the sudden fall useless onto the cabin. What might it imply?!

What does the image imply?

That is the place it will get juicy. Up to now, the present hasn’t supplied any rationalization, however has solely introduced the image with sinister connotations. That hasn’t stopped the web from making an attempt to determine it out themselves, in fact. Like Misty, followers have channeled their internal citizen detectives and give you loads of theories.

“There’s been a whole lot of conjecture concerning the image,” co-showrunner Ashley Lyle advised Thrillist after the season 1 finale. “Persons are digging up all chemical image tables, they’re digging up Hobo Code, they’re digging up trigonometry. Simply the truth that they’re all partaking on that degree of element is de facto thrilling for us.”

One widespread conjecture is that it’s a logo for the women’ cannibalistic ritual within the wilderness. The road throughout the determine’s physique might signify one of many spikes within the tiger entice they used to kill their prey, and the hook on the backside may seek advice from how they hung their victims the other way up to bleed them out earlier than cooking and consuming them. (These practices are proven within the first episode with a yet-unidentified sufferer, which all however confirms the women’ cannibalism.)

One other concept makes use of trigonometry, positing that the image is a mathematical equation that, when solved, can reveal the latitude and longitude of their location and performance as a map to flee the woods. As Reddit person IfKarona identified, there have been just a few mentions of trigonometry all through the primary season, resembling a math trainer saying the women by no means cared concerning the topic, or Laura Lee saying in a eulogy that fallen teammate Rachel Goldman was at all times good at trig. Might trigonometry be a survival ability for the group?

As Lyle talked about, different viewers assume the symbol is a type of “hobo code,” which is sort of a set of symbols vacationers depart to tell or warn one another of what’s in a sure space. Redditor Winter_Yak_9031 posted a breakdown of what a few of these etchings might imply, resembling “halt” for the hook or “man with a gun lives right here” for the triangle.

The Yellowjackets group even bought in on the enjoyable themselves and had the forged weigh in on some theories concerning the image.

As season 2 unfolds, we’ll should see if any of those theories stick, and which new ones will come up.

Erica Gonzales is the Senior Tradition Editor at ELLE.com, the place she oversees protection on TV, films, music, books, and extra. She was beforehand an editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com. There’s a 75 % probability she’s listening to Lorde proper now.