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Elijah is a freelance news writer at Polygon. He was an associate editor at The A.V. Club and Paste, and has been featured in outlets like Game Informer, Fanbyte, Unwinnable, and more. He loves media in all forms, from fighting games and horror flicks to slow cinema and visual novels. He's from the Greater Boston area.
This Showtime series is back for a last supper
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One of television’s most unsettling recent shows is approaching its end. Paramount just released the first real teaser trailer for Yellowjackets season 4, and it is quite a doozy, featuring justified freakouts and gruesome flashbacks. We see what remains of the Wiskayok High School girls’ soccer team as they respond to being rescued in a way you might not expect.
Here's the official season 4 description from Showtime:
The Yellowjackets race to bury their sins before rescue arrives — but the Wilderness has its own ideas about who gets out alive. After returning to Wiskayok, their secrets fester under the growing weight of what they’ve done and who they’ve become. Meanwhile in the present, two of the Yellowjackets prepare to kill one of their own as an old flame roars back to town with plans all their own. Turns out not every homecoming is a joyous one, and this one’s going to sting.
Between the trailer and this description, it seems that the new season will be particularly focused on the ‘90s plotline, something that may come as a surprise given where season 3 left off. The show's fourth season begins Nov. 20 on the soon-to-be-sunset streaming platform Paramount Plus.
What is Yellowjackets about?
For those who haven’t watched the series, Yellowjackets is a Showtime original centered on a New Jersey high school soccer team whose plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness. The story is split into two plot lines: one is set in the ‘90s immediately after this crash, while the other takes place in modern day, as the survivors of this horrific ordeal reckon with what they’ve done.
The series begins with an outright bonkers cold open that reveals its true premise: a frightened young woman in a nightgown runs through a forest before plunging into a pit of spikes. Then a girl wearing a tattered soccer jersey and animal furs emerges, retrieves the body, and butchers these remains to serve a ritualistic feast. Close-ups of teeth biting into cooked human flesh drive home the unsettling imagery. This cannibalistic intro sets the stage for a Lord of the Flies-style breakdown that unfolds over the show’s three seasons.
Yellowjackets has received general praise and has been nominated for 10 Emmys, including Outstanding Drama Series. It’s the second-most-streamed program in Showtime history (after Dexter), with the third season drawing the show’s highest viewership yet. Hopefully, the series can end its run with the same bite it had early on.