Editor’s Note: Spoilers ahead for Yellowjackets, Season 3
From early on, bears have been an important – and unexplained – symbol inYellowjackets. In Season 1, Laura Lee’s (Jane Widdup) teddy bear catches on fire in the show’s ambiguous fashion, causing her attempt to fly for help to fail, ultimately ending her life. In the first season finale, a bear approaches the cabin. Lottie (Courtney Eaton) creeps toward it with a knife, and it kneels. When it does, she stabs it. Later, she sacrifices the bear’s heart, saying, “Versez le sang, mes beaux amis (translates to shed blood, beautiful friends). And let the darkness set us free.” In Season 2, Episode 4, Lottie stumbles upon Laura Lee’s teddy bear, somehow intact within the plane everyone witnessed explode, and passes into the mall food court vision.The symbolism of these bears so far is ominous, but connected to Lottie each time.
So far in Season 3, bears are important once again. When Lottie takesAkilah (Nia Sondaya) back to the caves for another vision session, Akilah has a vision of an uncanny bear. It approaches and – once it passes into the girls’ camp – it stands and attempts to speak, until a third eye develops on its forehead – a well-known symbol for psychic sensitivity or otherworldly knowledge – and it almost screams. Episode 7’s “Croak” expands on this bear lore and seems to present a valid interpretation of Akilah’s bear vision. One of the people who discovers their camp is a man named Kodiak, better known as Kodi.
Akilah’s Visions May Have Predicted Kodiak
“Croak” introduces a few new characters: a couple who research frogs together, Edwin (Nelson Franklin) and Hannah (Ashley Sutton), joined by a wilderness guide, Kodiak (Joel McHale). The episode acknowledges how Kodiak is a type of bear, with Hannah asking, “So Kodiak… your parents named you after the bear?” He insists he was named for chewing tobacco. The parallels soon pile up. Just as she stabbed the bear who once kneeled to her, Lottie stabs Edwin in the back with an ax. As of now, Edwin has not been eaten like the aforementioned literal bear, but Lottie is at the very least somewhat ritualistically smearing her face with his blood, as she chants, “You’ll see.”
The other elements of Akilah’s vision have — somewhat — come true. She sees the girls running in circles, in a kind of dance. The girls dance around the fire before the frog trio discovers them. A voice says, “Hello” at that moment, a sort of technological beeping enters the score. Tai and Van discovered — and attempted to use — the emergency phone. This is the culmination of more technological sounds entering the score all season, so technology could be more representative of the researchers and Kodi than we know. With Travis (and, by proxy, Akilah) sparing Kodi’s life by helping him off the sudden drop that was fatal for Crystal/Kristen (Nuha Jes Izman),Kodi is likely here for a while longer. And with Edwin’s on-screen death and Hanna’s obituary in this episode,Kodi could be who preserved the tape, if not who is coming after the Yellowjackets now.
So If Coach Ben Didn’t Burn Down the Cabin in ‘Yellowjackets,’ Who Did? We Have a Theory
Your honor, the Wilderness told her to.
With the show’s fondness for animals as everything from metaphors, guides, or possibly red herrings, the fact that bears are a threat not only to bees but to what they produce – honey – points to something deeper than a cameo by McHale. For starters, his physical presence and knowledge of the wilderness and weaponry are not a match for the Yellowjackets during their time in the wilderness. Teenage girls who are self-taught, armed with one gun and a few knives, and have largely been studying the wilderness as they go along, wouldn’t necessarily be able to overtake Kodi. At least not without inevitable injury or worse. In fact, his crossbow proficiency has already left Melissa badly wounded. With Van (Liv Hewson) and Travis (Kevin Alves) in particular,simply having the presence of adults has snapped them out of the wilderness’ spell and made them once again desperate to go home. This alone is enough to completely shift the current dynamic between the teen survivors.
But Kodi is connected to the wilderness in other ways. In a more tangible sense, the supplies in the tent, including the sat-phone, bears (no pun intended) the initials KUH.These were the initials on the rations that Coach Ben found. This may be a misdirection: in Hannah’s obituary, it’s revealed that she went to Keane University, and herpetology is the study of amphibians, which would include frogs. But if it is Kodi’s initials – or if he consistently pairs himself with Keane University students – there’s no way of knowing how many caches he might have access to. It also means that he wouldn’t be reliant on the camp vegetation or livestock. Without these supplies, we’ve seen what winter does to these survivors. On the supernatural end, Kodi has echoed Akilah’s bear vision and its third eye. At one point, he says, “Who can predict the future?”
Joel McHale May Have A Bigger Role Than You Think
Yellowjacketsis deliberately ambiguous with its supernatural meanings. If nothing else, the bear’s third eye might represent general knowledge more than enlightenment. That Kodi certainly has. As he tells Hannah and Edwin, the phone isn’t their lifeline – he is.Spending this amount of time in the wilderness, clearly a repeat visitor to the area, could point to cabin affiliation as well. Whether the show leans in one direction, spreads Kodi across both possibilities, or leaves those questions unanswered,it’s safe to say that Kodi does have knowledge and information that camp cannibal doesn’t.
Outside of any bear affiliations, Kodi might upset the wilderness-weaned hierarchy in other ways. As the trio passes around a joint one night, Kodi tells Edwin and Hannah a story: “Did you guys hear about those frogs looking for a leader?”
It’s one of Aesop’s Fables. The story ofThe Frogs Who Desired A King. In Kodi’s version, Zeus gives the frogs a log when they ask for a god. After a while, the frogs on the log ask Zeus again. They want arealgod. Kodi says that Zeus sends down a heron to eat them. In some versions of the story, it’s a water snake or even a stork, the bird associated with childbirth. Royal titles are hardly neutral inYellowjackets. Power dynamics have already shifted greatly in their time stranded. Jackie’s influence can’t keep up with the survivalist nature that the others take on. Lottie is seemingly chosen by the wilderness, then Lottie believes thatNat(Sophie Thatcher) has been chosen, and then Lottie proclaims thatShauna (Sophie Nélisse) must take control. Each shift has been in some way devastating to the team.
Andthis is not the first mention of a “king.”When the Yellowjackets were deciding who would execute Coach Ben, Van decided the card that would decide was the King of Hearts, “the suicide king,” she calls him. Is it possible that Jeff – or even Travis, who has spared him – will attempt to take up that mantle?
Whatever Happens, ‘Yellowjackets’ Is Sure to Keep Handing Viewers Symbolism
In trueYellowjacketsfashion, every exciting update to symbolism and lore comes with more questions than answers. The bears – and Kodi – are no different. With Kodi seemingly being taken back to camp by the girls at the end of “Croak,” his story isn’t over just yet. It seems in the present-day timeline, the adult Yellowjackets believe Kodi is dead.
But it wouldn’t be the first time theshow has pulled the wool over our eyes, and if anyone can outsmart them, it feels most possible for a grizzled nature guide. Only time will tell if Kodiak’s fate keeps him in the wilderness forever, another mysterious encounter to add to the bear board.
