Season 2 begins with a montage of the Yellowjackets returning home after being rescued. The catatonic Lottie is institutionalized by her parents and is inflicted with electroshock therapy. Then in the present, Natalie stumbles on her followers in animal masks burying someone. After the premiere, though, these sinister hints stop.
Lottie (Simone Kessell) reveals that Travis’ death was an accident and she had Natalie kidnapped to keep her from hurting herself; it was uncertain at the time if she was being honest but now it’s clear she was. Her cult doesn’t do human sacrifice, but eccentric self-care. Rather than cannibals, they grow their own food, and Lottie herself is vegan.
During season 2’s 2021 timeline, Lottie is plagued by more hallucinations/visions — she’s apparently been keeping them at bay for years with medication, but now they’ve returned. Episode 3, “Digestif,” ends with her seeing blood coming out of beehives and staining her hands. In episode 7, “Burial,” it turns out she’s been hallucinating her therapist.
That’s why she eventually pushes for the random sacrifice and then the hunt; it’s not out of malice, she’s delusional and convinced that the best way to help her friends is appeasing the Wilderness. The Yellowjackets all abdicate some responsibility for what they did — there’s a reason their sacrifice ritual is designed around letting the Wilderness choose. Lottie has to believe in that ritual all the more because she took the idea of a higher power in her head and seeded it to the others.
