Caution: Spoilers ahead for Yellowjackets episode 3.

Yellowjackets episode 3 ends with a series of major twists that deepen the mysteries in both the past and the present. Most notably, the episode's final minutes show that Travis, one of the few survivors of the fated plane crash, is dead, and that there may have been foul play. This, along with other strange events at the end of the episode, suggest that there may be more sinister elements of the girls' experiences than were previously hinted at.

Like previous episodes, Yellowjackets episode 3 and its cast of actors weave together the story of a girls' soccer team abandoned in the mountains after a plane crash, and the lives of the present-day survivors of the crash. In 1996, the girls decide to abandon the crash site, finding a lake and a seemingly abandoned cabin. In the present day, Cristina Ricci's Misty and Julliette Lewis's Nat go on a road trip trying to hunt down Travis, while Ty deals with attack ads and her son's unexplained rage, while Shauna's flirtation with the mysterious Adam goes to the next level.

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These plotlines come together to suggest a deeper mystery weaving together the Yellowjackets' past and present experiences. The death of Travis suggests that the present-day Yellowjackets may be in danger from some unexplained force. The finding of a dead body in the attic of the cabin in the 1990s similarly suggests that the teenage Yellowjackets may have stumbled into something sinister that was not of their own making.

Travis' Death Suggests The Yellowjackets Are In Danger

One of the most pivotal events in Yellowjackets episode 3 is when Nat and Misty find Travis's body hanging from a barn. This is far from the first death the Yellowjackets have suffered, but it still has a strong effect on the two women. While the appearance suggests that Travis killed himself, Nat has an intuition that someone murdered him. Misty also finds a notebook in Travis's house reading "Tell Nat she was right", evidently about a subject they had discussed earlier.

It's not immediately clear what motive someone would have for killing Travis. He was very reclusive after returning to civilization following the plane crash, and there's no indication of any personal grudges unrelated to  his experience in the mountains. This means his death is likely related to what happened in the mountains—perhaps someone trying to keep information about what really happened quiet, or seeking revenge. It could be the same person who has been sending mysterious postcards to the other survivors.

If this is the case, then it may mean someone is targeting survivors of Yellowjackets' pivotal plane crash. This would put all of the adult Yellowjackets in danger, unless one of them is responsible, of course. Episode 3 also shows that Ty is trying to suppress information about her past as part of her attempt to run for office, but she doesn't seem ruthless enough to resort to murder. Nat and Misty both seem unbalanced enough to turn violent, but worked together to uncover Travis's body, and wouldn't seem to have a motive for murder. The identity of a killer, and what their larger motivation is, is another mystery introduced into Yellowjackets.

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Shauna's Affair With Adam

Yellowjackets episode 3 also sees Shauna following up on her suspicions of her husband Jeff. After noting an unfamiliar name on his phone in the previous episode, Shauna follows Jeff to a hotel, where she bumps into Adam, the mechanic who she had a minor collision with in Yellowjackets episode 1. Shauna and Adam share a meal, and end up getting a hotel room, presumably to have an affair of their own.

This is the third time Shauna has "bumped into" Adam, and the idea of all these encounters being coincidence stretches belief. Adam seems too good to be true—younger, attractive, familiar with her favorite writers, and very interested in the prickly Shauna. He may be associated with whoever is trying to keep tabs on the survivors of the plane crash, or even hunt them down. In his conversation with Shauna, Adam drops a telling quote from Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night: "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be." Perhaps Adam is worried about the person that he himself is pretending to be, and the violence Shauna is capable of.

Why Ty's Son Has Become Violent

Like Shauna, Taissa's plot in Yellowjackets episode 3 is seemingly more domestic and smaller in scope, but may also have hints to the show's larger mystery. Ty's political opponent runs an attack ad referring to her as "cannibalizing" political funds, a clear reference to the rumors that circulate about what happened when the Yellowjackets were stranded for a year. When a child repeats the rumor, Ty's son Sammy attacks him, and is unapologetic afterwards. The sudden change in Sammy's personality could also be related to the present-day mystery surrounding the plane crash survivors.

In past episodes, Sammy has seen a mysterious figure watching him through the window. It could be the influence of this experience, and the fact that his parents don't believe him, that is causing Sammy to lash out. If there is a broader conspiracy to monitor and possibly target the former Yellowjackets soccer players, then the watcher is probably part of it. The final moments of the episode cut together three different traumatic moments in Taissa's life: the death of her grandmother as a young girl, the discovery of a dead body in the cabin attic as a teenager, and finding Sammy's doll shattered as an adult. While the latter may not seem to have as much impact, it represents the shattering of the idyllic domestic world that Ty has worked so hard to build after the crash.

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The Dead Body in the Attic

In 1996, the Yellowjackets find a cabin by the lake. To their disappointment, the cabin is abandoned and the food gone bad. Lottie, who is suffering from the loss of her medication, begins to have a "bad feeling" about the cabin. This ominous feeling, and the smell, is explained when they find a dead body in the attic. Because Misty destroyed the plane's black box, no help is coming, and the corpse provides a chilling warning of what could befall the team.

There aren't a lot of clues as to the identity of the dead body. It could simply be the owner of the cabin who passed away due to illness or old age. This would explain why the cabin appeared as if it was abandoned partway through a stay, with food left out to spoil. However, there have also been indications that something sinister was happening in the area even before the plane crash. In episode 2, a symbol later connected with the cult the Yellowjackets formed was seen carved into a tree, suggesting it was there before the crash. The same symbol is visible on the floorboards of the attic. The dead body may be another piece in the mystery of the woods.

The first episode of Yellowjackets presented a frightening but seemingly straightforward narrative, of a plane crash that lead to insanity and self-destruction, and the survivors trying to move on with their lives decades later. However, the twists at the end of Yellowjackets episode 3 come together to suggest that there may be a larger conspiracy involving the plane crash and its survivors in both the past and the present.

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