【orientalism, eroticism and modern visuality in global cultures】

If you've spent the past few weeks (or days,orientalism, eroticism and modern visuality in global cultures or hours) catching up on Showtime's harrowing and addictive Yellowjackets, your mind is probably buzzing with questions leading up to the Jan. 16 finale.

As the groundbreaking first season comes to a close, a handful of Yellowjacketstheories are gaining momentum, and we need at least a few answers before the long wait for Season 2.

Here are our favoriteYellowjacketstheories and questions from Season 1.

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1. Who is the Antler Queen?

no YOU just peed your pants Credit: Paul Sarkis / SHOWTIME

The most obvious choice so far is Lottie, who stands ominously in front of the mounted antlers in the cabin and has hair long enough to weave through the queen's robe — but also, based on hair alone it seems more than likely that Lottie is the girl killed in the opening scene, and she has the bracelet to match. The queen's robe could as easily be adorned with the hair of her victims. We know it's not Misty, and other girls in those shots appear to be Tai, Van, and possibly Mari. This points to primarily Jackie or Shauna as our flesh-eating leader, and we can't wait to see what that means either way. 

2. Jackie's fate

Yellowjackets would have us believe that everyone besides the four adults we know either died or was murdered for dinner in the woods. That proved to be false when we learned that Travis made it out, and who's to say he's the only one? 

It's been over 20 years since the plane crash, which is ample time for other survivors to have gone off the grid, severed ties with our core four, or passed away for other reasons. Eagle-eyed fans have noticed that the diaries in Jackie's parents' housereference movies that came out afterthe plane crash—and Yellowjacketshas not been the type of show thus far to mess up details like that. We feel comfortable assuming that Jackie left the woods, but died — or faked her death — in the years since.

3. The first victim

Goodbye, Coach Ben. You were a real one. Credit: Showtime

Not that we're all sitting on our couches in nauseous dread until we find out the how and who of when the girls start eating people — but we totally are. Our money is on Coach Ben, if only because he's the only adult in the room and quickly losing the power he wielded over them in polite society. Between the girls' growing desperation and Misty's own dangerous feelings toward him, Ben might not be in this for the long haul, and may soon become the first full meal the Yellowjackets have eaten in some time.

4. The French Canadian

Say what you will about the skeleton in the attic, but let's agree that it is completely unchill. Yellowjacketshasn't pored over this within the show itself, but for a body to die and decompose up there, it had to have been unable to escape. The attic shows no signs of bloodshed or other injury, which means the Canadian was held hostage — even likelier when you consider the disturbing fact that the skeleton is missing fingers.

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Someone or something stopped this person from leaving the woods, not only in the plane but even as far as escaping the cabin and running to the water. This person was possibly maimed by their captor (or a previous injury) and eventually killed or starved while sitting alone in a room. 

5. It

Lottie can u just explain a little Credit: Michael Courtney / SHOWTIME

More than once since the crash, Lottie has referenced a mysterious force or forces, like a higher power operating in the woods. When the girls find the plane, she says “It didn't want him to leave,” and in episode 9 she says "it's in all of us" ("It's already in you," she told Shauna during the seance). Even Nat's hallucination of her father references an "it" that is calling to them as the plane goes down.

Who or what is she talking about? Is it the forest itself? Is it something sinister and supernatural, like the man without eyes, or something to do with Lottie's own mysterious gifts? It's giving major "Boone was a sacrifice that the island demanded" energy from Lost, and that shit is still chilling after 17 years.

6. The man with no eyes

We don't even know where to begin with this other than that the original reveal is one of Yellowjackets' most harrowing scenes by far. Tai first glimpsed a ghostly pale male-presenting figure with bloody and empty eye sockets when she was visiting her sick grandmother. In the years since, she continues to be haunted by this figure, including as recently as during a press conference outside her home. The man also appears in the woods during the opening credits, and while credits scenes aren't necessarily part of the show itself, this at least signifies that the eyeless man, seen or unseen, has followed Tai to Canada. And speaking of the credits…

7. Mystery man in the credits

Vulture's Roxana Hadadi pointed outan unfamiliar man in the opening credits who looks a little like Coach Ben but is clearly a different person. Is this supposed to be the French Canadian? His Captor? This man looks threatening as heck so we'd rather not have him show up to the house unannounced any time soon.

8. Wilderness baby

Shauna might survive the woods, but at what cost? Credit: Kailey Schwerman / SHOWTIME

Obviously one of the biggest questions right now is what happens to Shauna's pregnancy. She chose not to terminate it herself, but that doesn't preclude her from any kind of miscarriage or injury in the woods over the next few months. It's possible that she carries the baby to term and then the girls can't take care of it — or worse, they get hungry.

9. Travis' killer

Episode 8 may have revealed the identity of the "asshole covered in glitter" who blackmailed the Yellowjackets, but we still don't definitively know that this person killed Travis. The blackmailer and the murderer could be totally separate, either connected to the Yellowjackets or outside forces intending to sabotage them. What sort of enemies might Travis have made with his own intentionally obscured Yellowjackets connections? If Javi isn't Adam, is he out there somewhere, seeking revenge on those who stole his childhood, starting with his own flesh and blood? 

10. A piece of the puzzle

If you love Yellowjacketsand theorizing about it, it's critical to keep one thing in mind: We don't know everything. This show openedwith cannibalism, so that's probably not the biggest shock up its sleeve. The adult Yellowjackets are tight-lipped about their time in the wilderness, and this season already showed us a lengthy list of horrors that precede the aforementioned menu options. What else happened out there — and in the 20 years since they came home? What secrets have these women terrified to talk but petrified to take action?

We can't wait to find out.

Yellowjacketsairs Sundays at 10 p.m. EST on Showtime. Catch up on old episodes via Showtime Anytime or the Showtime extension on Hulu and Amazon.

Topics Yellowjackets