Yellowjackets is the next lottery ticket. Let’s hope it’s not a disappointment

Yellow jackets, Showtime’s new thriller, begins with a panicked gasp. The camera hops next to a young woman in a nightdress who is running through the forest; She is barefoot even though there is snow on the ground. Whispers echo behind her, then screams and eerie bird calls. The girl keeps running – for her life, it seems – until she stumbles into a deep pit full of spikes. The camera pans over her corpse; her pursuer looks down at her from above, her face covered in a cloth mask, her shoulders wrapped in animal skins and a ragged football T-shirt.

Then we get a jump in time. A high school girls soccer team stranded in the wild after their private flight crash-landed; only a few survived, and now they are adults, still persecuted but trying to live “normal” lives. Soon we get another flashback into the wilderness, where masked girls tie up the naked corpse of a slaughtered girl and cook it like meat. With this opening Yellow jackets has only just started unveiling the mystery of the strange forests these girls have been stranded in, and from here every episode will be at stake with further revelations and mind-boggling cliffhangers.

Ever since I started watching Yellow jackets at Showtime my mind has been overwhelmed by insane, desperate speculation about what will happen in the next episode. My friends called it “the next one” Lost” and much more LostWatching this show got my brain reading fan theories after every single episode and arguing with my girlfriend about character motivations.

The problem is, I can’t handle another Lost. I’ve walked this trail before and I don’t want to go there again. But the other problem is, it’s too late. Yellow jackets has its cute little spines in me, and it didn’t take long; the bloody, terrifying opening episode made me good, and I haven’t counted since then.

PICTURED: Paul Sarkis / SHOWTIME

Lost Broke my heart with exactly this shit years ago. I remember the excitement I felt at the end of season one of Lostwhen the main characters opened this mysterious hatch. It seemed like anything could happen! And there were so many other great moments on this show. (The polar bears! Not Penny’s boat! “We have to go back!”) Do you remember the speculation, the justification when you could predict something correctly, the persistent feeling that something might happen? But then … do you remember what it felt like watching last season and realizing that it just wasn’t that deep?

Since then, I’ve tried not to invest in puzzle boxes. Finally, if not invested, you cannot be disappointed with the revelations for nowhere. My heart wasn’t broken when Battlestar Galactica and True detective took strange turns. did not like it Western world – not even season 1 – because I felt like I was fucked on purpose. Cliffhanger? I do not know you! No longer.

But now, with Yellow jackets, I’ve returned to my worst impulses. As soon as I finish an episode, I search for “Yellowjackets” on Twitter and Reddit and check back several times a week to see if anyone has noticed any promising details. I text my friends to see if the show catches up with them so we can exchange theories; A friend of mine knows a recreational pilot who, at the end of “Flight of the Bumblebee” (the latest episode at the time of writing), gave us his own theories about what really happened to the plane. Let’s just say that, according to his findings, I am more convinced of it than ever Yellow jackets is supernatural.

Since Yellow jackets airs on Showtime, it’s not as popular as game of Thrones or Lost, but I’m not the only one caught up in the unfolding mystery of this show. And that’s really how it should be, because I need more people to participate in fan theories and quench my thirst for puzzle solutions.

PICTURED: Paul Sarkis / SHOWTIME

I do not know if Yellow jackets will solve everything satisfactorily this season, let alone in future seasons. But at least the show has more to offer than just the puzzle box. Its cast, both teenagers and their adult counterparts, have magnetic chemistry with one another. So I’m not just staying here to learn about the wilderness cult; I’m also here for the stacked cast playing various antihero women who tear each other to pieces in order to survive. Christina Ricci’s terrifying twist as villain Misty – as well as her teenage version played by Samantha Hanratty – gets me deliciously stressed out every week. Then there’s Nat, played by Sophie Thatcher (the teen) and Juliette Lewis (the adult); She makes terrible decisions over and over again, but given her tragic life story, it makes sense (and creates stressful watching). Tawny Cypress and Jasmin Savoy Brown swing effortlessly between solemn and out of joint as adult and youthful Taissa.

The high that I feel about Yellow jackets at the moment it can’t last. But for the first time in ages it feels deserved, and I just want more people to talk to me about how good it feels. More people have to follow Yellow jackets Actress Melanie Lynskey on Twitter where she openly deals with fan theories and makes us all guess (and lose our damn minds). More people have to send me a DM about the glitter downstairs in Shauna’s closet and where it really comes from. And why does Callie stay the night almost every night? Doesn’t that seem suspicious to anyone ?!

Do you understand what I mean? It is hopeless. I am damned I am a warning story. You might as well join me.

Yellow jackets Season 1 now airs on Showtime, with new episodes every Saturday.