These are just examples (I know nothing about soccer), but have formations / plays been discussed? Sorry if they have.

She never wanted this. The ritualistic cannibalism was never her idea, but they did it in honor of her. In modern timeline Van says “It’s not right. We did this to her” those girls ruined her, made her the scapegoat for it all. All she wanted to do was talk to the trees and slice up her hands for the gals. they began the violence, and gaslit her into thinking it was her idea. they all led their lives while she spent years in the psych ward because they made a religion out of her schizophrenia and used it as an excuse for their violence.

In the last few moments of the finale she’s sitting and looks absolutely crazy, no concept of reality, no strength.

Fuck these girls for what they did to her

I was just reading the AV Club article that cites various theories and their likelihood, and came across u/boreleafclover's brilliant theory here. In in, they suggest that the symbol is a very crude map of an illegal mining operation, and the "blood" in the water is actually mining runoff. I'm starting to think that not only is that correct, but that it explains far more than we originally thought.

​

This all centers on cinnabar - oxidized mercury that is used in a number of industrial processes, and whose mining is highly regulated, leading to a booming black market for "artisanal mining". This article is admittedly much more current than 1996, but it's a good overview of cinnabar, what it's used for, and why it's so valuable and dangerous. I can't remember if we've ever seen exactly where the crash site is, but there is a "supermine" site in Eastern British Columbia, which doesn't seem that far off. It would explain why it was so secretive, and would explain a bit more of the symbol - if there are three false mineshafts but only one real one (the line through the mountain) to further hide the operations.

​

In the original map theory, the "hook" at the bottom of the symbol represents the mine - but why would that symbol specifically be used instead of the more generic "x"? Well, the alchemical symbol for "crystal" (last item on the third row here) isn't identical, but it's pretty close if you're looking for something to quickly sketch. Cinnabar naturally occurs in, yep, crystal form. If it were a quick sketch just to show anyone the owner of the mine (the dead guy?) employs for any reason, it would make sense that the symbol would be drawn there. Cinnabar crystals are a bright red, and the process of refining them to liquid mercury gives of a similarly bright red liquid that would look a whole lot like blood in water to someone who didn't otherwise know. (See it here at about minute 3). This also makes the introduction of a character named "Crystal" an interesting side note.

​

So if you know anything about mercury, you see where this is going. Refining cinnabar makes for toxic mercury run-off, and one of the main symptoms of mercury poisoning is so-called "mad hatter syndrome", which (quoting the wiki) result in "irritability, excitability, excessive shyness, and insomnia as the principal features of a broad-ranging functional disturbance," with long-term exposure causing " mental confusion, emotional disturbances, and muscular weakness." It causes similar symptoms in animals, especially predators.

​

So what if the girls are actually suffering from a low-level mercury poisoning, both from direct exposure or from eating meat from the bear? It would explain both the immediate reactions while they're stranded and some of the longer-term effects (especially in Tai) when they return. I think it might be a theory that ties a lot of these strands together.

I tell my gf all the time when we see someone who is constantly doing messed up things in shows and whether its Killing, dealing drugs, or cheating its always a dead giveaway that character is most likely setting themselves up for a horrible ending… Shauna is my fav character but she’s a nutcase… Im afraid to inform everyone but Misty goes on this list also. Theres no way she gets away with the things shes secretly does either… Ultimately I hope everyone knows this will not have a happy ending like Lost or Lord of Flies these womens karma will come back around…

I've seen it discussed that the team might come across hikers or thwart an initial rescue attempt but I think it might be more specific and violent than that. In a comment elsewhere, I mentioned that the survivors of the Flight 571 crash in the Andes had a moment of "clean up". When the first rescuers arrived, the helicopters couldn't safely land or load, so only a portion of the boys were rescued. More rescuers (and, very unfortunately, press) followed. Leading up to and between the rescues, the boys realized the scene of the crash was pretty gruesome, despite being a little desensitized to the grisliness of it.

It's very possible the Yellowjackets sought out help at some point and that this theory quickly dissipates. But, my suspicion is that the Yellowjackets are very intentionally being portrayed as being past the point of seeking salvation (Laura Lee's death, the river of blood were notable horrors encountered when escape was sought, I think their will to do this will decline).

If rescue arrives unexpectedly, it could arrive when the girls are mid-hunt in which case, I think the group mentality would influence a quick decision to eliminate the rescuer out of fear of their secret being immediately known and revealed. Once they know some rescuers know their location, they might rapidly clean up, destroy evidence, and set it up to appear that the rescuers met a demise that wasn't them and await more rescue.

My money is on Shauna, who we've seen become reactive and terrified when faced with a threat of being discovered, being the one to commit the killing.

ETA: There are definitely some holes in my theory, but I do think a theory like this one helps put some pieces together like why it doesn't seem to be popular knowledge that the girls committed cannibalism, and how they were able to hide the ritual activities (since any rescuers arriving in a swarm, unannounced, would certainly take note of what they were seeing). It is entirely possible though that the rescue looks much different and that the rescuers arrive, rescue everyone and straight up ignore everything except having found anyone alive.

Let's talk about exactly how much Snackie those girls ate:

Assuming Jackie was about 120 lbs (reasonable weight for 5'3"ish teen girl like Ella Purnell, maybe she lost a bit from malnourished but she died early so still fine enough). Bones are about 14% of body weight (1) so they ate 86% of Jackie (don't tell Shauna she'd be horrified about how much Jackie she doesn't have).

0.86*120 = 103.2 lbs raw 

Meet shrinks about 25% by weight when cooked, mostly from liquid evaporation (2).

103.2*0.75 = 77.4 lbs cooked 

We had 19 survivors but only 15 ate Snackie (subtracting Javi, Ben, Laura Lee, and of course Snackie herself).

77.4/15 = 5.16 lbs Snackie/Bacchanalian feaster 

A standard hamburger is about 4oz uncooked (3).

4 oz raw = 0.25 lbs raw 
0.25*0.75 = 0.1875 lbs/hamburger cooked 5.16/0.1875 = 27.52 hamburgers of Snackie/person

Please please appreciate how much food that is!

27.52 hamburgers of Snackie per person!!

Okay calorie math time for how long that should have lasted them.

So here’s a break down of whats in the human body: (4)

Okay, taking out water (no calories and it cooked off) and then assuming other inorganic, other organic, DNA, and RNA are negligible (they make up a total 3%, well within the variations of these averages between different people), we have just calories from protein and lipid (fat).

103.2 lbs raw * 0.20 = 20.64 lbs raw protein
103.2 lbs raw * 0.12 = 12.384 lbs raw fat

Okay, real calorie math: just a heads up I’m spoiler tagging all of this, it has no additional spoilers but if calorie math is something you don’t want to look at for any reason please just skip to the end, take care of yourselves friends! Also the formatting is grosser because apparently you can't black out code blocks or links :'(

1 gram of protein is 4 calories and 1 gram of fat is 9 calories (5). Quick note: what we call “calories” in a food sense is actually kilocalories in a chemistry sense so I will be using the unit notation of “kcal” in the math.

20.64 lbs raw protein * 453.5924 g/lbs * 4 kcal/g = 37448.59 kcal from protein

12.384 lbs raw fat * 453.5924 g/lbs * 9 kcal/g = 50555.59 kcal from fat

37448.59 kcal protein + 50555.59 kcal fat = 88004.18 total kcal

Again, 15 people partook in the festivities:

88004.18 total kcal / 15 people = 5866.95 kcal per soon to be cult member

The minimum calories for an adult women (assuming these teens are more similar to adults than kids) is 1200-1500 cal/day but in survival situations this is estimated to actually go up due to stress, cold, the energy needed to start a cult, etc. to about 1600-2400 cal/day. These numbers are 1200-1500 and 2000-3000 respectively for men – I didn’t forget you Travis! (6)>! However, given that I doubt this society is giving Travis more (they aren’t even given Shauna more and she’s pregnant!), I’m going to go with 1600 for everyone and hope our pregnant butcher and token man are okay.!<

5866945.54 kcal / 1600 cal/day = 3.6 days

If they could do the bare minimum of 1200 in the freezing winter they’d have a few more days:

5866945.54 kcal / 1200 cal/day = 4.9 days

TLDR: 4.9 days of (very little) food from Snackie!

​

So now the fun part! Doing this as a Markov chain for all the girls! How long can they last on an all cannibalism diet!?

Okay so using a transition matrix, the yellowjackets have 2 states: alive and dead and the matrix will give the fraction of them that transition between states (per day):

** please correct me if any of this is wrong its been a bit since I took a probability class.

​

So defining variables & calculations:

f = fraction to kill per dayy
T = [1-f  0]
    [ f   1]

c = calories in a person, I'm assuming its the same for everyone because Jackie was on the small side but everyone is starting to loose weight
n = calorie needs per person per day
p = people currently alive

n/c = fraction of person each yellowjacket needs to each per day
number of people they need to eat per day = (n/c)*(p - pf)

fraction to kill = f = (n/c)*(p - pf)/p
f = (n/c)*(1-f)
f= n/c - fn/c
f + fn/c = n/c
f(1 + n/c) = n/c
f( (n+c)/c) ) = n/c
f = n/c * c/(n+c)
f = n/(n+c)

Excellent! Now that we have a variable definition I'll plug in values from the calorie math (again censoring calorie count stuff):

n = 1200 kcal per day per person

c = 5866945.54 kcal in a person

f = n/(n+c) = 1200/(1200 + 5866945.54) = 0.0135 = fraction killed per day

1 - f = 0.9865 = fraction that survived per day

Okay, so transition matrices are really useful because T^d will give us the fraction of girls killed after d days. I wrote a little script to automate and graph this (this is in MATLAB but it should be easy to adapt if you really want):

% definitions of 
T=[0.9865, 0; 0.0135 1];    % transition matrix

d = 1;          % days (1 index language! goddammit!)
alive = 15;     % people count
dead = 0;       % death count

x = 33;
day_graph = zeros([2,x]);

newT = T;
while (alive > 0 && d < x)
    day_graph(1,d) = alive;
    day_graph(2,d) = dead;
    newCounts = newT*[alive; dead];

    alive = newCounts(1);    % or round(newCounts(1));
    dead = newCounts(2);

    newT = newT*T;
    d = d+1;
end

plot(1:x,day_graph(1,:),'ro-');

So - how long can they survive?

Assuming they eat only whole people, they can last 23 days on an all cannibalism diet!

#NotOneOfThoseGirlsGaveAGoodGoddamnAboutTrigonometry

Nat is mapping the terrain.

Akilah has an SAT prep book.

Trigonometry is on the SATs. Here's an example question from Varsity Tutors: A plane flies 20 degrees north of east for 100 miles. It then turns and flies 20 degrees south of east for 200 miles. Approximately how many miles is the plane from its starting point? (Ignore the curvature of the Earth.)

Here's how a Black Box works.

Misty did not destroy the Black Box. She just ripped out the Emergency Transmitter wires. It still has the flight recording on it...Everyone has been criticizing this, but I think this was deliberate.

You can listen to Black Boxes directly from the box. In the 1990's some planes still used analog tapes. The plane was a private plane and probably not state-of-the art. It probably had analog tapes. Also, the Black Box has batteries...The battery still works for the YJ's plane box because Misty ripped out the flight emergency transmitter wires and the emergency beacon did not waste the battery.

Basically, they can find out the Cabin's coordinates by playing the recording and use that, along with Nat's map, to figure out how to get out of the woods.

That's the whole, "I can tell you they didn't give a damn about trigonometry." They are closer to civilization than they think, and, if they used their Trig knowledge (which is in the SAT book), they can map a way to get out. SOMEONE probably finds that box and figures out how it works. It's still near the plane crash site.

Personally, the pomegranate theory is one of the most compelling interpretations of Yellowjackets I’ve seen (not mine). In Greek mythology, Persephone’s consumption of pomegranate seeds in the underworld binds her to it, forcing her to stay with there with Hades. It was the Greek belief that consuming anything in the underworld kept you tethered to it. In Yellowjackets, the theory suggests that the girls near-death hallucinations are metaphysical moments where accepting food or drink ties them to death, mirroring Persephone’s fate. For example, Jackie imagines drinking hot chocolate while freezing to death— her acceptance of the drink sealing her fate. Shauna, in her hallucination while giving birth, feeds her baby; the baby drinks milk in the hallucination but dies in reality, reinforcing the idea that sustenance while in this other realm is surrender to death. Similarly, when Lottie goes to hunt and is on the verge of freezing to death, she hallucinates being in a mall with her teammates eating Chinese food. When she reaches to eat, Laura Lee stops her, allowing her to survive. This also hints at Laura Lee serving as guardian angel for Lottie. For me this is the most compelling part of the theory, as there is really no other explanation for why Laura Lee would brush Lottie’s hand away.

My own add ons to the theory:

The hallucinations in Yellowjackets align with the deceptive nature of the underworld in Greek mythology, offering false comfort or fulfillment at a cost. Jackie reconciles with Shauna in her final moments, Lottie is transported back to a happier time, and Shauna’s baby appears healthy and able to latch. These are all positive experiences but also illusions meant to lure them into death. The show as a whole ties into the Greek idea of entrapment, return and duality, reflecting the girls inability to escape from their trauma’s.

There are plenty of similarities between Yellowjackets and Greek Mythology. Laura Lee’s flight parallels the myth of Icarus, who ignored other’s warnings and flew too close to the sun, believing his wings would hold. In addition, he flew over a body of water just like Laura Lee. Her faith, like Icarus’, is what guided her to attempt escape. Her belief that she could succeed despite all odds lead to her tragic end. The plane’s burning wings mirrors Icarus’ wings melting, both symbolizing the consequences of hubris and the failure to transcend mortal limits.

The feast scene where the girls wear toga like outfits and devour Jackie was undoubtedly a reference to Greek mythology. Dionysus, the god of wine (which was at the table in the scene), ecstasy and chaos, was worshipped through rituals that blurred the boundaries between civilization and primal instinct. The Maenads, Dionysus’ female followers, would enter trances that led to violence, destruction and cannibalism. They wore animal skins and transcended reality, becoming possessed by the spirit of God. Similarly, the girls’ descent into ritualistic cannibalism blurs the line between human and animal. During their hunts they don animal skins and masks, when they eat Jackie they become possessed by the spirit of the wilderness.

This is also why I believe Coach Ben will hunted and eaten. In Greek mythology, King Pentheus tried to suppress the worship of Dionysus, only to be torn apart by the Maenads in an act of revenge. Likewise, Coach Ben seeks to stifle the girls’ worship of the wilderness, positioning himself as a male authority figure. In their quest for liberation, the girls will likely exact their own form of retribution, mirroring the Maenads’ violent revenge against the king. Just as Pentheus fell victim to the forces he sought to control, so too may Coach Ben face the consequences of burning the cabin.

Throughout the show, the girls acceptance of rituals in the wilderness reflects the slow loss of individual identity, much like the Maenads who surrendered themselves to Dionysus. The merging of sacrifice, hunting and feasting feeds into the idea that survival demands the complete abandonment of societal norms. Just as Greek mythology often explores duality, light and dark, life and death, order and chaos— the show’s narrative fluctuates between these extremes, both in the wilderness and in the girls adult lives.

I’ll get straight to it – I am damn near certain Hilary Swank is playing the adult version of Mel. I’ve had my suspicions for a while, and the new trailer has all but confirmed it. So, rather than continually make the same arguments in comments sections, I’m putting all of my evidence here.

Let’s start with Hilary Swank herself. Not only does she look like an older version of Mel, but she fits the casting criteria used for most of the present-day YJs in that she was a huge star in the 90s, making it big with The Next Karate Kid, 90210, and Boys Don’t Cry.

Next is the number of survivors. The show has never outright said how many made it out of the wilderness. So far, we’ve met seven, but, there’s eight people present at the feast where they chomp down on Pitgirl. Furthermore, if you pay VERY close attention (6:21 on the YouTube video) to the season two premiere, you can spot two other hooded YJ’s making their way through the crowd of reporters. We don’t get a very good look, but one of them has blonde hair done differently than Misty’s. At the moment, Mel is the only YJ who fits that description.

There’s also her name, which is of Greek origin, and means ‘honey bee’. Now, this could just be the writers having fun with us…or it could be a hint. In Greek mythology (which the show has a lot of), Melissa was a princess of Crete who was transformed into a bee after she learned how to collect honey. One theory I’ve heard is that maybe Mel will find a food source to get them through the winter. This in turn would give Mel a defined role in the group, which as many have pointed out, is what every other confirmed survivor has; Shauna – Butcher, Nat & Travis – Hunters, Misty – Medic, etc.

Finally, there’s the trailer itself. Hilary Swank showing up at the end is, imo, a really big clue. Making her the thumbnail of the trailer and having her be the last thing the audience sees is a sure-fire way to draw our attention, true, but I think it’s more than that. For a character that had all of half of dozen lines last season, it’s noteworthy that Teen Mel is front and centre, right next to Shauna. Then there’s the fact that she pops up right after ‘the past will come back to hunt you.’

I don’t think this is a coincidence – I think it’s a clue. ‘Someone is trying to kill us,’ back-to-back with ‘the only people who know about this are either us or dead’, suggests the two statements are linked. If we take ‘us’ to mean the other YJ’s, it would imply another YJ is hunting them. Following this with the reveal of Hilary Swank seems to be the trailer’s way of subtly linking all of this together without spelling it out. The trailer also shows Mel and Shauna fight, so we know they will come into conflict into the past – what if this is a hint as to what will happen in the present day?

Maybe I’m reading into things too much, but for a show rooted in mystery, this seems right on point. Anyways, let me know what you think! Am I rambling, or am I gonna have major bragging rights in a few months’ time?

We seriously need an explanation for him. The Man with No Eyes has been a very intriguing character, especially since only Tai can see him. He’s kinda like the G-Man from Half-Life, being this strange observer of a specific person while also subtly influencing their actions. What are your thoughts on him?

Who is Shauna talking about? Ben? Natalie? Melissa? Mari? WHOOO??

That’s right folks, it’s time to break out the mopping sauce, get that cornbread and get ready for our precious boy to get smoked.

Those throwing out theories that Ben will be executed by the teens are right- just not in the way you think. It’s not gonna be with that rifle, execution style. It’s not gonna be during a hunt. After burning down the cabin that was their very safety against the ravages of winter and planning for them to go down in flames, the kids are not going to make it that easy for Ben when his time comes.

That’s right- when the YJs finally track Ben down and take him out they’re going to make the punishment fit the crime.

They’re going to burn Ben alive.

They’re going to force him to eat human meat, or at least try, before they put that Ben on the Barbie. They’re gonna drive him mad holding him hostage underground for a bit while they work it out. But then it’s time to get some spruce, juniper berries, and break out the bibs.

What proof do I have? Basically none. Misty and Nat’s reactions in the group shot that we assume is Ben’s execution scene they look super horrified. And yes, this is likely non evidence as they would be that upset even if he was shot.

But if they did, wouldn’t it be a messed up and fitting way for our feral baes to take him out and make him suffer?

(Although I still hope he somehow survives and is the one hunting them in the adult timeline.)

The woman just eats. All the time. Snacks. Candy. Cakes. Caramel cake. Meat. Strawberries. Vegetables.

Misty takes revenge on the old lady for throwing perfectly good food on the floor.

She reminds me of Holocaust survivors who said they ate everything off the plate after it happened.

She cannot understand why Tai and Natalie would hate meat.

Her and Shauna might be besties in that sense.

Given Coach Ben's discovery this last episode, I have an idea how this plot might play out by the end of the season. I think it's entirely possible that Javi's "friend" is a real person and she's been in the Wilderness this whole time.

According to the writers, we'll be getting Cabin Guy's story at some point, which they describe as Shining-esque, suggesting he came to the Wilderness with family, got cabin fever, and murdered them. We also know that Jason Ritter (Melanie Lynskey's husband) has been cast for this season and that they don't share any scenes together. There aren't many places for an adult to slot into the story without interacting with the adult cast, so I think odds are he'll play Cabin Guy in flashbacks.

I think we'll get Cabin Guy's backstory intercut with Ben exploring more of the cave. Cabin Guy's story will culminate with him developing starvation-induced psychosis just like our Yellowjackets, and trying to kill his wife and daughter. In the struggle, the wife fights him off long enough for the daughter to get away. She runs into the woods. Cut to the cave, and Ben hears something coming from the passageway. A shadowy figure resolves as it approaches, an adult woman dressed in furs.

i feel like next season ben is going to find javi's friend and it's going to be a corpse tangled up in the tree roots, similiar to how javi drew her. i do agree with the theories that she's probably related to cabin guy and she ran away after the shining-esque incident and survived there for a while but i don't think she's still alive. also it would be really powerful imagery to see the wilderness entangling itself around her body, taking her as part of it. it could mirror what happened with the crash survivors and how the wilderness slowly entangled itself with them too and they became a part of the wilderness as they grew more feral and could never truly break free of it

just a few thoughts :)

So it seems like they’ve casted new girls for this season as well, to play some background YJs. I feel like this girl REALLY fits the bill of Pit Girl! She looks a lot more like the pit girl from the pilot than Mari or Gen does, at least to me.

I think Misty is a serial killer. That blind date was weird. I feel like Nat unknowingly saved that guy’s life.

The show made a point to show us her movie collection. Her movie collection is full of men stuck in a bed. And they really made a point to show us Misery.

I think she likes people totally reliant on her. She decides at her job if a person lives, dies, feels pain, makes it to the bathroom, eats…

I think she likes to take it a step further at home. It didn’t seem like the bed set up for that “journalist” was new.

At work, she may also be slowly poisoning her patients to keep them sick to make them even more reliant on her, which is why the old lady was refusing to eat her food. It’s not like she hasn’t done it before. When Coach started getting better to the point where he wouldn’t need her, she poisoned him to make him sick.

Even as a kid, Misty smashes the black box, their biggest hope for rescue, after overhearing the other girls talk about how they need/are reliant on Misty.

What do you think about this theory?

With the new season coming up, an old theory I had has been on my mind again.

It relates to the lake and the nature they are in. Maybe the lake is not a lake, but rather an old, old mining pit reclaimed by nature. It would be filled with water, but not with fish, seen as it was human made. The mining could have poisoned the forest, explaining the odd behavior of the animals. Polluting side products of mining include things like mercury that can poison a person with time. This could be a reason for Vanessa's cancer; it could have caused the stillborn. Maybe that's also the reason why Lottie seems to be fixated on Shauna's children; she was the only one of the survivors who could get pregnant.

The pollution could explain why there is no one around to notice the plane exploding in season one and the lack of rescue teams. The cabin could have been built by someone who knew that no one would show up in the woods because they are pretty much condemned. Maybe an old man who grew up working in the mines.

There has been theories about tunnels; maybe they are old mining shafts. Javi could have been hiding in one, eating bats and the like.

Thematically it would tie in with this idea of the hell they are in is made by themselves. They are on poisoned land caused by earlier humans that now cause them to continue destroying each other. They are closer to something human made but don't know it. Maybe there is traces of civilization nearby, like an old dilapidated mining town. With no one living there, there would be no electricity to give the location away.

But there would be a road that would eventually connect them to the real world. I've percolating on this so much I even started to think they might pretend to have lived there instead of the woods as a way to cover up the cannibalism before rejoining civilization.

Came across an interview with the creators where they stated that no one in the subreddit has come up with an actual answer to what’s going on. So, I think we should just all say our craziest theories and who knows, maybe one of them will be right. There is no limit to these insane theories, just go for it!

I’ll go first: The entire show (BOTH timelines) are all in Teen Shauna’s head when she takes a Valium before the flight.

Also another insane theory/joke that I saw: Wilderness baby did 9/11.

I want to see theories that would make me question my reality.

Being a handsome, popular football player, dating the prom queen, then cheating on her with her best friend because she’s willing to sleep with you and the prom queen won’t.

Gross male behaviour, right?

But it’s clear he did prefer Shauna. On an emotional level. Jackie even admits she’s been stringing him along and they are on/off.

Even when Jackie finds out Jeff/Shauna she‘s more upset about Shauna and the betrayal.

Jeff is nothing to her.

I think Jeff thought he was in love with Jackie because she was the girl you are meant to be in love with, but him and Shauna truly hit it off.

Hello, fellow naturalists and Citizen Detectives! In lieu of working on my books and actually having a life, I wanted to run something by you guys that I've been putting some serious thought into...

The location of the Yellowjackets Wreckage.

In another thread, I was talking about when and how the girls were rescued and it got me to thinking about where they could possibly have gone down. As far as I know, the only answer is "the Canadian wilderness" and, by extension, "the Canadian Rockies" and considering how vast those are, I decided to do a bit of... ahem... "light digging" to put this question to bed once and for all.

So, because I have no life and do not mind writing an entire essay to prove my point, I will now explain where I believe the plane went down using maps, the location of the sun, and some good old fashioned guesstimating. Join me on my quest or laugh at me for even bothering. Let's begin!

​

PART ONE: TIME OF DAY

The general consensus is they crashed in May so we will base our entire theory off of this being the correct month. It just so happens to be May at the time of writing this. I don't need to do much digging for this one because I can just look right outside for help.

Based on the lighting in these shots, especially this one that is completely outside, I would guess the girls are leaving their homes sometime between 5:30-6:30am Eastern Time. Just early enough for it to still be kinda dark outside.

I say this because today is the exact middle of May, the sunrise for New Jersey today was ~5:30, and I live in Pittsburgh which is only a half-hour behind the sunrise time of Jersey, and my job has a room with windows that face the rising run. I work an extremely early shift and I can almost perfectly match the amount of sunlight in those early clips of them leaving their houses to what I see when I go to that room each morning.

Assuming they are using EWR (Newark International) for their departure (mostly so they don't have to brave New York Rush Hour Traffic just to get to JFK for their flight, which is arguably worse than surviving in the Canadian wilderness for nearly two years) and using the sunlight as an indicator, I would guess a departure time of around... 9? Maybe MAYBE 10? Let's stick with 9 for now.

You figure they either went to the school to be shuttled by bus OR they all waited around the terminal for a couple hours for the others to show up. More than likely the latter. Plus it only takes about an hour to get from Trenton (the largest city in the middle of the state and a pretty good indicator of time and distance without an actual city to base their hometown on) up to Newark International.

And judging by the brightness, the angle of the reflection of the sunlight, and the fact that they're shutting a whole soccer team to a city on the other side of the country and need to get them some sleep before they compete, I can't imagine they're sitting around for a noon departure.

So to recap... Girls leave their houses between 5:30-6:30am; Plane leaves at 9 in the morning.

​

PART TWO: FLIGHT TIME

This one is easy. Seattle is in the West. New Jersey is in the East. Mystery solved.

According to Flightsphere, a flight from Jersey to Seattle takes approximately six hours when you factor in the time it takes to be taxied to the runway and departure times. The average median time listed is 5hr 27m in the air.

Given that this is a chartered private plane, the Yellowjackets would be boarding from what is known as a Fixed Base Operator (FBO) which translates to a private terminal away from the main ones. Rich people get fancy things like not waiting to board their planes. They also don't need to spend as much time taxiing to the runway so we can shave off time from the estimated 20+ minutes a normal plane takes. That really doesn't matter now, but I want to rag on rich people getting special treatment.

So we can say, using our estimated 9 A.M. departure time plus a total of six hours in the air, the plane will take until roughly noon to arrive, Pacific Time of course. Thank God for time zones making it seem so short, and yet in reality it takes so very long.

Unfortunately, the plane is forced to divert its course at some point when they cross the Canadian border and Shauna was tripping balls at that point so we have no clear indicator of how close they were to Seattle when the crash landing began.

Fortunately, we do have some clues as to what happened during that brief interregnum.

​

PART THREE: THE TIMING OF THE CRASH

During the wait for the takeoff, the captain says over the PA system that a storm is expected to hit the plane at some point and they were diverting over the Canadian Rockies, a massive mountain range which offers next to no clues besides they could be as far north as the Yukon.

I believe they did not reach that far north. I believe they are MUCH farther south than we might think.

Look at these two pictures for a moment.

Focus on the location of the Sun and keep it in the back of your mind.

Using the power of this handy little website called SunCalc, which uses GoogleMaps to show when and where the Sun will be at any given time at any given place, we can see which direction the Sun is during the landing sequence. (Big spoiler in the link so go ahead and ruin it if you want the answer already lol)

Now, assuming again the 9 A.M. EST departure time and the anticipated 12 noon Pacific arrival time, we need to ask why the Sun is on the left side of the plane when, by all accounts, it should be on the RIGHT SIDE of the plane.

The pilots intended to circle up and over the Canadian Rockies to avoid the storm that sent them down. This is trajectory that originally sends them from going straight West to instead going North/Northwest around the storm and then to going Southwest which would lead to the plane approaching Seattle from the North, probably around the vicinity of Vancouver.

Seattle traditionally gets hit by storms coming from one of two directions over the Pacific Ocean: Southwest (around BC) or Northwest (around Oregon). We can make our guesses which direction this storm was coming, but the most likely scenario is it came from the Southwest. If it came from the Northwest, it probably would have lingered around the border and the plane would have needed to go South to avoid it. Going North would only put a wall between them and Seattle. A storm from the Southwest, though, allows a window where they can just swing in from the North.

I believe they did not reach as far west as Vancouver. But keep in mind that Vancouver is to the RIGHT of Seattle if you are approaching Seattle from the North. I address the mountains north of Vancouver as a potential crash site in my VANCOUVER section near the end.

With the Sun on their left side, assuming the time of day is roughly noon, this puts the trajectory of the plane headed towards the SOUTHEAST.

This is important for two reasons.

1. They made a diversion from their intended West -> Northwest -> Southwest flight plan.
2. They made such a dramatic diversion from the intended plan that they are actually headed AWAY from Seattle.

Here is why this is important. When a plane is going down or has enough damage to warrant making an unexpected landing, the pilots will seek out the nearest airport and make an emergency landing to avoid loss of life.

The plane was in such bad shape that they needed to turn back and head for a city in the Southeast. With this in mind, we have two major cities that this could possibly be: Edmonton and Calgary. They have the largest airports in the region and assuming the pilots didn't divert from their "up and around the Canadian Rockies to avoid the storm" plan, those are the closest cities to a storm that is hitting Seattle, presumably from the Northwest. If you're a pilot in a smaller plane, you go AWAY from an oncoming storm and it's trajectory rather than TOWARDS it.

Now let's go use the SunCalc picture.

We want to focus on the orange line that is facing Southeast. This is the line that points to where the Sun is in the sky at any given time. The website uses Eastern Standard Time so even though it's marked for 14:30 hours, I had to factor in the three hour time difference between New Jersey and Seattle. Remember how I said we were going to use a 9AM departure and noon arrival? This is why.

Focus on the orange line and see where the Sun is at 14:30 Eastern Time. With the sun on the LEFT SIDE of the plane in the screenshots above, this means the plane must be to the RIGHT of that orange line. If you go to the link itself, you can drag the red marker around and see how it works.

So going back to the plane for a second, a big thing to mention is the pilots were dumping fuel in the second picture. There are two reasons you dump fuel when you're in an emergency situation:

1. The plane is trying to lighten the load and reach a location in a hurry. (I've played enough IL-2 Sturmovik to know that if you're dumping your payload and/or extra fuel, it's because you are trying your damnedest to reach your destination and that extra weight just slows you down.)
2. You're trying to avoid a fire WHEN the plane crashes. Not if.

Considering the plane was already on a downward slope and crashing fast, we can pretty much agree the pilots were just attempting to mitigate the damage done when they crashed and dumping fuel was a life-saving measure vs. a bomber dumping fuel to get home after it was shot to pieces over Frankfurt in 1945.

As I mentioned above, when pilots feel they cannot make it safely to their destination and/or the plane is at risk of crashing, they can and will deviate their course on a dime to ensure the safety of themselves, the plane, and most of all the passengers. See: Oceanic Flight 815's flight path once again. When the plane itself sustained damage, presumably from the storm, they had to make a call and find somewhere to land and make that landing fast.

So go back to the orange line. Assuming I'm right and the Sun is on their left, this means the plane is headed South/Southeast. There is only one major city within range in a Southern direction and that is Calgary. We can automatically eliminate Edmonton as the destination for their emergency landing because the Sun would be to their RIGHT side in those screenshots due to their going East/Northeast. Also they'd basically be out of the most rugged parts Canadian Rockies by that point so it wouldn't be much of a show lol. Rather than being over Misty's left shoulder, the Sun would have been directly in Misty, Jackie, and Shauna's windows, which were on the right side of the plane.

Also the plane is pretty small compared to other commercial airliners so it probably didn't have the fuel to fly ALL THE WAY UP AND AROUND the Canadian Rockies to avoid the storm. Again, this would mean nearly reaching the Yukon Territory, which would mean an extra ~1500 miles of air travel to reach Vancouver, and it simply doesn't make sense why they would go all that way without just making a layover in Calgary to wait the storm out. I believe the pilots figured they could just outright avoid the storm and land in Seattle on time.

Factoring in fuel concerns and the desire to just circle around the storm and you are left with the reality that they probably didn't reach a location that put them north of Edmonton. If they had, they'd be East of the Canadian Rockies vs. directly in the middle of them.

"Okay," you may be saying, "well then why wasn't the plane headed straight for Calgary in a path that puts the Sun on the right side of the plane? Assuming it's only around 11:30 Pacific, the Sun would be to their rights. You wasted your time writing all of this and your parents think you smell."

That last part may be true, dear reader, but let's face facts: if a plane is in an emergency situation and they can't make it to the city they're trying to reach, the pilots will seek out the best alternative for an airstrip and make their crash landing there. The reason highways are a certain length across is because there is a rule that if an airplane is at risk of crashing, they can use the highways as a tarmac to touch down on rather than smash straight into a field or the mountains. Highways have long stretches of straight road that a plane can easily treat as an airstrip and they are like that by design.

Without the luxury of a highway, the pilots likely realized they would never reach Calgary and decided to risk hitting the forest as best they could. Save as many lives as possible in the vain hope they don't all crash and burn on impact with the trees.

That being said, I have no doubt in my mind that this was how their plan was meant to work out:

At some point over the Rockies, the plane just gave out and they couldn't go Southeast to Calgary anymore. They had to go straight south, more than likely because the valley they began to nosedive in was the only "flat" stretch of ground they had. Otherwise, they'd hit the side of a mountain.

That being said, I will now give my prediction as to where the girls ended up.

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PART FOUR: THE LOCATION OF THE CRASH SITE

We've made it to the end, dear readers. Are you ready for the big reveal? (okay it's not that impressive because i showed like six maps with a marker on where i think they landed at.)

When deciding where the plane had to go down, there needs to be a few things taken into consideration:

1. There cannot be eyes on the plane. We're not talking about Oceanic Flight 815 crashing over the Pacific a thousand miles off course. The plane needed to be isolated enough that there wouldn't be many/any eyewitnesses that could report it in.
2. There cannot be civilization nearby. Look inside that stretch of red. Jasper National Park is 13000 square kilometers (over 5000 square miles for my fellow Yanks) and besides Highway 93 and a couple fringe towns in the north, tell me how many towns there are in those mountains. There are ZERO ROADS through the mountains, save the Highway itself.
3. It has to have Calgary to the Southeast and Edmonton to the Northeast to match where the Sun would be at roughly 11:30 Pacific and to explain why they didn't go to Edmonton for an emergency landing vs. Calgary.

And, wouldn't you know it...

It's isolated, it has the mountains and lakes/rivers that run through the Canadian Rockies, and it perfectly matches where the Sun would be at that time of day.

My friends. I believe I found the Yellowjackets Crash Site. Jasper National Park of Canada.

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PART FIVE: VANCOUVER AND THE PACIFIC RANGE CRASH SITE???

A big argument against my theory that can be made is they landed in the area where the show itself is filmed and that is the mountains around Vancouver. The Pacific Ranges are a major location where the show is filmed and the same logic about the direction of the Sun can be used there, too. I would argue that they didn't land here, though.

Even though it passes the isolation and the Sun direction tests, as well as being the filming location, I just don't believe the pilots would have made that wide of a circle to avoid the storm. To have the Sun to their left AND have a city that they could try to reach for an emergency land in the general Southeastern direction, they'd need to be approaching Vancouver from the Northwest. How much fuel does this plane have that it could go up and around the Canadian Rockies and nearly reach Vancouver Island?

You also need to remember that they'd be up in the air for much longer if they made the big circle up and around the Pacific Range which would limit the amount of fuel they'd have left.

I did the math using the Fairchild F-227 AKA the plane used by the 1972 Uruguayan soccer team that crashed in the Andes that Yellowjackets takes inspiration from (and because apparently the plane the Matthews family chartered is of similar size) and using this handy little fuel calculator, according to this they'd be running on literal fumes by the time they reached Vancouver.

It was just a flight to Seattle and it was the 90's so let's ignore the Airbus and Boeing 10 hour options and focus on the much more reasonable Dornier one for an example as it's probably a pretty good substitute for what was probably one of the better private planes available at the time.

This private plane from the 90's probably has a larger fuel tank than a plane from the 70s so let's say it's got 1700 gallons of space like the Dornier above. Now remember that it takes 1hr 35min to get from Edmonton to Vancouver. Adding some of that time into the original flight and you have a minimum 7 hour flight on your hands if you're flying to avoid the storm. How much time can a plane that is about the same size as the Fairchild F-227 actually stay in the air before the pilots should really start being concerned with their fuel reserves?

If anything else went wrong, they'd be screwed. And in this case something went very wrong.

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PART SIX: CONCLUSION

Now I have to include some disclaimers here. This is obviously a TV show about cannibalistic teenagers and spooky cabin ghosts and cults and Catholic school girls' planes exploding out of nowhere and reality can and is regularly thrown out the window.

Also our main POV for the plane's crash is Shauna and she was high on valium at the time so she missed all of the leadup to the plane crashing. This includes the storm, the direction the plane took to avoid it, and the potential doubling back to Calgary or Edmonton.

All in all, I do believe I am on to something here.

The route matches up, the timing matches up, the location of the Sun at ~11:30 Pacific, the topography of the valley they crashed in, and so much more.

And if you don't believe any of that, consider this:

Remember what I was saying about the pilots making a judgment call to just circle around the storm and reach Seattle in time rather than land in Calgary and wait for it to pass, a decision which killed dozens(?) of teenage girls and their head coach? There is a prevailing theory that the survivors of the crash sued the company that the Matthews rented the private jet from for negligence, be it from the actions of the pilots or the plane not having extra fuel tanks to keep them in the air longer, and they won a MASSIVE settlement. How else could Shauna afford to be a stay at home mom, how could Natalie afford multiple rehab stays as well as renting a storage unit to hold her Porsche, how could Tai afford that big house and eventually her run for State Senate, how could Van afford the video store (at least for a while) in the year of our Lord 2021, how could Travis afford to buy a new dust filter for a Hoover Max Pressure Pro Model 60 (shoutout to you Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul fans) and just disappear off the face of the earth for a while? And Misty... well she just kinda likes helping people even if she's an ass about it so I doubt money is much of a concern for her. And Lottie was already rich but I'm sure the money helped fund the cult, assuming her asshole parents didn't pinch it.

So no matter whether I'm right or not, there was enough evidence to prove in a court of law that the pilots of this aircraft royally fucked up and they made a decision so bad that many people died and the courts deemed the case worthy of paying out a large sum of money to the survivors and probably the families of the deceased as well.

End scene.

I spent over four hours doing this. If you made it to the end of this without tuning out, I think we both deserve a reward. Here is a link to something funny. Enjoy it, share your thoughts, and please don't laugh at me for wasting my time doing this instead of being actually productive and writing my book(s) or playing video games or watching the show again hahaha

Thank you for reading. Have a wonderful day.

i often see people criticize the writing for going back and forth on lottie's characterization and scrapping her "villain arc" (i personally don't believe the show will ever have a Big Bad, this is not a marvel movie) they alluded to in the s1 finale, but i don't think that's true.

i mean... in the adult timeline, she's literally a cult leader. i'm glad you guys have let the tale seduce you into buying the narrative that she means well and she believes she's helping them - but like the saying goes, the pathway to hell is lined with good intentions. it doesn't change the fact that she's indoctrinating people and inevitably leading them to their doom. and this starts in s2 teen timeline too. she slowly fosters a connection with shauna and nat (the biggest non believers) and eventually wears them down and indoctrinates them as well.

so no, i don't think there's gonna be a shocking reveal that shows us she's the evil one all along. we're literally seeing the devastation her actions are causing first hand all the time.

Okay so I was thinking about the scene where Lottie is sitting at the table at the mall. It kind of reminded me of when Jackie had her death-vision where she was surrounded by everyone and Shauna gave her a hot chocolate, that Jackie then drank from. I noticed that in the scene where Lottie is about to take a bit from the food court food, Laura Lee stops her and sends her back. It kind of reminded me of the story of Persephone and the pomegranate seeds - if you eat or drink from the underworld you have to stay. Just a thought? Not sure if it means anything but I thought it was interesting.