Antler Queen shocker! The mysterious, wilderness priestess in Yellowjackets manifested in the present-day timeline when guru Lottie’s (Simone Kessell) therapist transformed into the figure. Even more chilling? She asked Lottie, “Does a hunt that has no violence feed anyone?” Watch out, purple people.
“We’re completely in the unraveling of Lottie. She’s come apart,” says Kessell who breaks down the seventh episode in our latest The Buzz on Yellowjackets aftershow. “The most haunting vision for her is the antler queen because it really represents what happened to these women. To me, the antler queen is all of them.”
Kessell also shares her take on another big moment in the episode: when adult Tai (Tawny Cypress) and Van (Lauren Ambrose), who’d been lovers as teens, kissed: “There’s been so much pain and trauma and hating and anger, and absolute chaos inside of these women — they’re vibrating with it. That we get a moment of love and holding each other and just being there for each other – that’s a lovely turn and twist as it leads into the finale — and that is huge because it takes yet another turn.”
But it may be Lottie who leads the group in the most dangerous direction. “Lottie’s maniacal extreme choices as the season finishes [are] simply because [she thinks] ‘there is nothing else we can do.’ Every time there is a sacrifice in the past, good things come. And clearly, all these women are experiencing bad, terrifying moments in their lives, so the only option is to make a sacrifice like we did in the past.”
Check out the video to hear Kessell share fascinating inside details about shooting that Antler Queen scene (it’s her voice asking that unsettling question); her take on how much Lottie and Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) remember about what happened between them in the 90s; and how Van and Lottie will respond to hearing their old friends are covering up a new murder.
Yellowjackets, Sundays, 9/8c, Showtime (and Fridays on On Demand and Streaming)
