WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for Yellowjackets' season 2 finale!Yellowjackets’ season 2 finale ends with a shocking twist for Natalie in the present timeline, which links to the tragic reveals about her teenage character in the wilderness. The consequences of the teens’ actions in the wilderness catch up to them more severely as adults in Yellowjackets’ season 2 ending, which concludes in another “hunt” consisting of Lottie, Shauna, Natalie, Misty, Taissa, and Van. After a deeper exploration of Natalie’s grief, guilt, and trauma during her time at Lottie’s commune, Yellowjackets season 2 had been building to a major event in her story arc. These developments finally culminate in Juliette Lewis’s character shockingly giving the sacrifice that the wilderness had always prevented: herself.
After Lottie announces that Sophie Thatcher’s Natalie will be the Antler Queen in the past timeline, their adult counterparts begin their first hunt since being rescued, with Shauna drawing the fatal card. As the wilderness takes over, the women brandish their knives and chase Shauna through the woods, only to be stopped by Callie shooting Lottie in the arm. Amid the chaos, Lottie’s follower Lisa intervenes with a gun pointed at Natalie, leading Misty to charge at her with a lethal dose of phenobarbital – only for Natalie to step in at the last second. Cutting between shots of adult Natalie’s death, her dying visions on the plane, and her teenage coronation, Yellowjackets’ season 2 finale gives a tragic goodbye to Juliette Lewis’s beloved, tortured character.
The Deeper Meaning Behind Natalie's Sacrifice & Death In Yellowjackets Season 2
While it’s upsetting to see the end of Juliette Lewis’s arc on Yellowjackets, Natalie’s death in the present timeline makes sense given her reconciliations with her actions at Lottie’s retreat and survivor’s guilt from the wilderness. Yellowjackets’ season 2 finale confirms that the wilderness chose to save Natalie and kill Javi instead, with this sacrifice still weighing on Natalie’s conscience 25 years later. After being crowned the Antler Queen in the finale, young Natalie appears to be saved from Yellowjackets' ritual sacrifices and hunts that will continue to take place under her leadership. Given how many people died to keep her alive as a teen, adult Natalie refuses to let another life be given for hers when Misty tries to kill Lisa.
The wilderness’s refusal to let Natalie die continued long after being rescued, which was explored in Yellowjackets season 1 through the character’s drug abuse and suicidal tendencies. However, the wilderness didn’t deem it Natalie’s time to go yet, with her death only arriving once she became clean from drugs and worked through her guilt of what happened in the past. Tragically, Natalie's death would then be wrongly labeled a drug overdose by the authorities.
Natalie’s sacrifice is her way of redeeming her role in the deaths that occurred in the wilderness, finally reaching peace with the actions of her younger self, and attempting to stop the cycle of deaths of innocent people that comes with protecting the survivors in the present. Like Adam, Kevyn, and Jessica, Lisa would have been yet another innocent casualty in the name of protecting the surviving Yellowjackets characters’ crimes.
Natalie's Death Vision On The Plane Explained
As Natalie dies in Yellowjackets season 2, she envisions herself on a plane, where three of the show’s younger characters talk her through her death. The characters she speaks to on the plane are Javi, young Lottie, and Sophie Thatcher’s young Natalie, making her acceptance of her death all the more tragic. These three characters are seen by adult Natalie because they have the greatest connection to her descent into the Antler Queen ahead of Yellowjackets season 3, and thus her long-standing guilt about her time in the wilderness.
Yellowjackets’ season 2 finale confirms that Natalie reluctantly allowing Javi to die so that she could be spared was what led to her becoming the Antler Queen, with her throne being built on the bones of the boy who desperately tried to save her. The vision of Javi relieves Natalie’s 25-year-old guilt she has regarding those who died so that she could survive, as he was the one who led to her fully succumbing to the wilderness’s influence.
Young Lottie was the one who gave young Natalie her leadership position and represented her connection to the wilderness, so she appears in the vision to help the dying Natalie accept what she had to do for her survival. Of course, Natalie seeing her teenage self was a reconciliation with her most brutal actions and regrets, with Thatcher’s version telling Lewis’s Natalie that the brink of death was where they had been for years before this moment. While it would have made sense for Travis to appear during Natalie’s dying visions in Yellowjackets’ season 2 finale, it was Javi, Lottie, and herself who she really had to contend with in her last moments.
Why Natalie Never Recovered With The Guilt From Being The Antler Queen
While Lottie had always embraced the wilderness’s power and necessity for survival, the others were more resistant to easily accepting the brutalities associated with it, especially young Natalie. Natalie still believed that their actions were derived from their desperation and uncovered natural brutalities rather than the influence of the “wilderness.” Instead of blaming a supernatural entity or downplaying their rituals as simple survival tactics, the guilt of their crimes hung on Natalie's own shoulders, all the way until her death in Yellowjackets season 2’s ending. Therefore, taking the title of the Antler Queen sealed Natalie’s willing responsibility for the girls’ horrifying actions on a deeper level, as she would be spared from sacrifices while watching those around her tragically contend with the fate of becoming her next meal.