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Well that answers that...we think.
At the end of Yellowjackets season 1, fans were unsure whether Vanessa (Liv Hewson), a.k.a. Van, would make it out of the woods alive. They seemed to get their answer on Thursday, when it was revealed that Lauren Ambrose would be joining season 2 as adult Van.
The Showtime drama—which is nominated for seven Emmys, including Best Drama Series—flips back and forth between the 1990s and present day. In the past, the Yellowjackets soccer team has been in a plane crash, and the surviving members are battling the elements, each other and an increasingly creepy possibly supernatural presence to stay alive.
Twenty-five years later, their adult counterparts—played by Emmy nominees Melanie Lynskey and Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis, and Tawny Cypress—have uncomfortably reunited to reckon with the fallout of what they did in those woods. (Think Lord of the Flies meets Pretty Little Liars meets Alive meets Lost meets the best '90s soundtrack you've ever heard.)
One of the biggest questions of season 1 was whether Jackie (Ella Purnell) made it out of the woods, and the season finale answered it: Nope, she froze to death. The fate of other members of the team—including anxious rich-girl-turned-prescient-cult-leader Lottie—was unclear (though viewers are led to believe that she not only lived but has a thriving community of followers). Now, with the casting of Ambrose, it seems we have one more mystery solved: For adult Van to exist, teenage Van must have made it.
Of course, with Yellowjackets, anything is possible, though the show's official Twitter account seemed to confirm it.
Van lives.
— Yellowjackets on SHOWTIME (@yellowjackets96) August 11, 2022
Welcome to Team #Yellowjackets, Lauren Ambrose. pic.twitter.com/vqmQBihK3B
If Van did survive, here's hoping we'll get to see what it means for her relationship with ex-girlfriend Taissa (Cypress), a.k.a. Tai, who is a married mom and aspiring politico hanging on by a thread. Tai's recent exploits have included climbing trees, eating dirt and (warning) decapitating the family dog.
In an unrelated, sort-of-meta cross-streamer twist, Ambrose's character in Apple TV's Servant, Dorothy, ended season 3 in a precarious and mysterious position herself: specifically, crashing through a rotting banister in her home and falling to the ground. Whether she lives or dies remains to be seen, as Servant is just as complex as Yellowjackets, though Ambrose and co-star Toby Kebbell were spotted filming in Philadelphia in July.
These shows can't come back soon enough. Our (collective) heads hurt.
Newsweek has reached out to Showtime for comment.
