Season 3, Episode 4: ‘12 Angry Girls and 1 Drunk Travis’

What does justice look like to the Yellowjackets? It’s not pretty, it’s not logical, it’s often deeply unfair, and it’s all on display in this week’s episode.

The centerpiece is a trial in the woods in the 1990s. The girls, having now found Ben, elect to decide his fate by mimicking an episode “Law & Order.” They choose lawyers — Tai is the prosecutor and Misty is the defense — and fashion a makeshift courtroom.

It’s unclear what they plan to do with Ben if they find him guilty, but death is surely on the table. And yet, they also seem like kids playing dress up — which they are. As is familiar for “Yellowjackets,” childlike behavior and real stakes make for a potent concoction.

We watch as the Yellowjackets’ warped sense of justice extends into the present day. There are two threads that emphasize that. First, there is Jeff and Shauna. Jeff is worried about his and Shauna’s massively bad karma, so he signs them up to volunteer at the senior home where Misty works. That becomes too emotionally intense for Shauna after she winds up locked inside a walk-in freezer, so she decides to replace a local cat that has been missing for years by just adopting a different cat. Sure, that will work.

And then there’s Tai and Van, who find themselves wondering whether they should be the arbiters of life and death. They drop a Queen of Hearts from a deck of playing cards on the ground to see if it “chooses” anyone. When a man picks it up, they follow him back to his apartment and Tai nearly makes moves to kill him, thinking that taking his life will give the cancer ridden Van more time.

Van stops Tai from going that far, but the mere fact that the possibility was on the table is evidence of how much all this Wilderness woo-woo has affected their minds.

And then there’s Adult Lottie, who gives us this week’s big cliffhanger. Throughout the episode, we get only flashes of what Lottie is up to. Looking impeccably glamorous, she visits a bank. She then appears to be rehearsing something in front of a mirror, repeating over and over again, “I understand that I hurt you.” And then she’s dead. Apparently. Her body is found at the bottom of a staircase that has been lined with candles. Was she murdered? Did she sacrifice herself? Whatever it is, there is no doubt that it’s tied back to the Wilderness and whatever it wants.

All of this is merged elegantly with Coach Ben’s trial. There’s something softer about the transitions in this episode; the moves between past and present have a sort of wistfulness about them. It underscores how psychologically important this moment was for the Yellowjackets, how it shaped everything that came after.

Despite this, the trial rehashes a lot of details we already know. There are no huge revelations for the audience, but there is a lot of emotion that is expertly manipulated by the two would-be lawyers. Tai, who we know eventually goes on to law school, is a good prosecutor. At this point it seems pretty obvious to viewers that Ben did not burn down the cabin, but to the angry mob in the woods his guilt is all but predetermined.

Misty, who is assigned to defend Ben, has the harder task. And shockingly, she’s incredibly skilled. Her interrogation of Lottie successfully introduces the concept of reasonable doubt, and it appears that her argument is about to win. That is, until Shauna tells Tai about Natalie’s secret: that she knew where Ben was this whole time.

Still, despite Tai’s cross-examination of Nat, Misty still figures out a way to get people back on Ben’s side. She brings him to the witness stand, where his initial resistance to questioning ultimately leads him to open up. He describes how despite never really wanting to be a coach or a teacher, the job led him ultimately to caring for the girls. He admits he ran away because he was scared, abandoning them just as his parents abandoned him. He sells his innocence to them and us.

And then it comes time for voting. Props to the “Yellowjackets” writers because I truly did not know what was going to happen. The Yellowjackets had decided that they needed a two-thirds majority to convict. That does not happen. So Natalie tries again. The idea is they will vote until they have an answer. They try again and again to no avail.

But then Shauna steps in, against Nat’s wishes. She is furious and passionate, reiterating the obvious case against Ben. It works. Finally there is some movement. First, Gen (Vanessa Prasad) acquiesces, but that seems like the result of pressure from Melissa, who is fully in Shauna’s thrall.

The others who start to raise their hands are under the influence of something different. A cut to a blurry image of leaves swaying implies that the Wilderness is making moves. Lottie raises her hand. Then Travis. Then Akilah. All three are people who have proven themselves susceptible to this force’s powers. Ben is convicted.

There is no real reason for Lottie, Travis and Akilah to change their minds, but something inside of them shifts. For Melissa (and Gen) that something is Shauna and Shauna’s power. But I don’t think that’s what is driving the rest of the votes. Shauna’s anger, however misdirected, comes from a place of human pain; the Wilderness does not necessarily respond to that.

In the world of “Yellowjackets,” justice is not rational or even explicable. That’s the lesson these girls took with them into adulthood, and it’s one that could lead to their downfalls.

More to chew on:

• No, Jeff, a charity does not need your bootleg “Rush Hour” DVDS.

• Speaking of Jeff, I like having him around. He’s such a pro at calling bingo.

• Ella Purnell’s cameo as Ghost Jackie does remind me what a fun dynamic she brought to the teenage group. Miss her.

• Adult Tai and Van’s jaunt to New York City is the most filming-Canada-for-New York thing I’ve seen in a while. Our pretzel carts don’t look like that!

• So is Adult Lottie really dead? Feels like a sort of anticlimactic ending for her.

• I can’t believe we still haven’t met Adult Melissa yet. What a tease!