Image source: Supreme Image
The opening scene of Netflix’s “Yellowjackets” begins with one of the most haunting TV series in recent memory. A dark-haired girl in a nightgown runs through the frozen forest, looking scared for her life — and for good reason. As she ran, a hole opened at her feet and she fell. Subsequent frames show her limbs nailed to the ground with sticks, then she is hung up by her feet and skinned while a bunch of people in animal skins look on. Finally, after the girl’s remains were placed in front of a gauze-clad figure, the group devoured her.
The specter of that scene haunts all of “Yellowjackets,” which tells the story of a women’s soccer team that falls into a forest and is forced to survive there for 19 months. Interspersing that story with scenes set 25 years later — when the surviving girls are struggling with adulthood — the series is primarily about trauma and its lingering effects. By season two, the wilderness begins to wreak havoc on the team’s minds, making it more and more understandable for them to indulge in ritual murder.
Since the beginning of the show, one of the most pressing questions from viewers has been regarding the identity of the velvet-clad frontman right from the very first scene, whom fans have nicknamed the Antler Queen. While the character’s identity may seem obvious at first, Queen Antler can be a little more complicated than she is – or it – at first appears. Up front, here’s what we know.
Is Lottie Queen Antler?
Lottie (played by Courtney Eaton as a teenager and Simone Kessell as an adult), who suffers from a mental illness and starts seeing the woods as soon as drugs run out, has always been a prime candidate for the Antler Queen. In an episode of season one, she appeared in front of some antlers hanging on the wall, framing her face as if she were wearing them like a headgear. She also sees a deer in the vision she had when Laura Lee (Jane Widdop) christened her, and gave Van (Liv Hewson as a child and Lauren Ambrose as an adult) a deer bone. as a talisman to keep her safe.
Image source: Supreme Image
Then, during the ill-fated, hallucinogenic party in season one’s “Doomcoming,” Lottie actually wears some of the same gauze and shawls as Queen Antler’s. By season two, young Lottie had begun leading the trapped Yellow Jackets team and accompanying them in morning rituals and superstitious rituals. She also seems to have some kind of ability to communicate with what she considers the spirit of the forest. For all these reasons, it is easy to assume that she is the driver of the violent acts the group commits.
In season two, however, we discover that Lottie becomes a cult leader (played by Simone Kessell) as an adult, and oddly enough, the mysterious symbolism the group sees throughout the forest seems to play a role. important role in her organization. Adult Lottie also often refers to an independent force existing in the wilderness while the girls are trapped, and that – combined with some of Kessell’s remarks – leaves Queen Antler’s identity under suspect.
Is Queen Antler a God or a Force?
As it turns out, Kessell has the same questions as all of us about Queen Antler’s identity. In an April interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she provided some insight that could make things less transparent.
“I remember saying, ‘What is an antlers queen? Is it a symbol, it’s a metaphor, is it real?’ And I remember [the creators] walking [no answer]”, she said. “It could be anything we suppose,” she continued. “There’s just so much about Lottie being the Antler Queen. But really now, we’ve drawn to the fact that Queen Antler is part of all of us, and she’s really what keeps these women alive in the wilderness. That’s my interpretation of it. I had a lot of questions, but I tried to stay calm.”
There is a lot of evidence to support this theory. Throughout the second season, adult Lottie and Natalie (Juliette Lewis) often refer to a force or entity they call “it”, which they both seem to believe brought them home from the wilderness. This indicates that Queen Antler in the show’s first scene could be a hallucination, or possibly a real entity that appeared before the group as a cloaked creature.
Judging by all this, it can be said that Queen Antler is more than just one person. It is also clearly a kind of force, energy or spirit. This increases other However, the central question: Is the Antler Queen an entity that actually exists independently of the team’s minds, or is it something that exists in the minds of plane crash survivors, being asked? created by hunger and fear? That question will probably never have a definitive answer, but it’s something to ponder nonetheless.
Are there any other candidates for Queen Antler?
In terms of the gauze-clad character in the first scene, if it’s not an illusion, a real soul, or a Lottie, then “Yellowjackets” could make a difference. Shauna (Sophie Nelisse as a teenager and Melanie Lynskey as an adult), who has always shown comfort in blood and violence, becomes increasingly capricious and the possibility that she can be possessed with enough rage rage to be Queen Antler. However, she has a big problem with Lottie’s ritual practices in season two, so maybe not her. The same goes for Taissa (Jasmine Savoy Brown as a teenager and Tawny Cypress as an adult), who admits to experiencing an hour-long runaway — though Queen Antler’s ritual seems was heavily planned, meaning Taissa probably couldn’t have done it while sleepwalking, though she seems to increasingly believe that Lottie has some kind of special power.
We also know that Misty (Samantha Hanratty as a teenager and Christina Ricci as an adult) is fickle and craves attention to do something like a bloodbath, but we know her she’s definitely not Queen Antler; she’s actually the only one in the original scene who takes off her mask, revealing her face behind that creepy bear costume.
Nat (Sophie Thatcher as a child and Juliette Lewis as an adult) also continues to resist Lottie’s spirituality in her youth, although her hunting partners are Travis (Kevin Alves as a child and Andres Soto as an adult) showed signs of infatuation with Lottie. , so it’s not impossible that Lottie could manipulate him or another teammate into leading the sacrifice. However, given Lottie’s propensity to lead a cult in adulthood and her obvious connection to the supernatural realms, Lottie still seems to be the most likely face under Queen Antler’s shroud. – though, of course, she could be possessed by something much larger.
Knowing “Yellowjackets,” anything can happen, and since the show’s first and second seasons burn slowly, we may have to wait a while to know for sure anything. But whoever the Antler Queen is, one thing is clear: what happens in that forest will not stop tormenting those who survive it.
Episode seven of the second season of “Yellowjackets” premiered on Showtime on May 14.
