Yellowjackets season three is finally here and new mysteries already await us in its first two episodes. We caught back up with the crew in both 2021 and the wilderness in Spring 1997. Division is brewing among the teen survivors, with Shauna reeling over the loss of her child while the others are praising the wilderness for a new season. In the present, Shauna is processing Natalie’s death and hoping that her poor kid is not forever traumatized nor overly influenced by Lottie. Little does Shauna know that a whole new situation is brewing in her home in Yellowjackets season three after a mystery person left an envelope on her doorstep, which Callie found and is keeping a secret along with the tape inside of it.
What Is in the Mystery Envelope Left for Shauna in Yellowjackets Season 3, Episode 1?
At the end of Yellowjackets season three, episode one, Callie is home alone (or so she thinks) after getting in trouble at school for pouring animal guts on a group of mean girls. (She’s certainly got her mother’s spunky and vengeful spirit.) She hears a noise at the door and discovers that someone left a brown envelope on the porch. The front simply says “Shauna Shipman,” along with that weird symbol from the wilderness in place of a return address.
It’s interesting that whoever left the note decided to use her maiden name instead of Sadecki, her married name. But what’s inside the mysterious Yellowjacketss season three envelope? Well, we get to see that there’s a small audio tape inside, which Callie pockets before her dad sneaks up on her and tells her to go to bed. But we do not get to see or hear what is on the tape.
Episode two of Yellowjackets doesn’t dive into the tape and envelope anymore after that. Callie briefly looks at the mystery tape before Lottie, who is now out of psychiatric hold and temporarily staying with Shauna’s family, enters the room. We never see Callie listen to it in the first episodes of Yellowjackets season three, nor does she tell anyone about the envelope. However, she does attempt to pressure Lottie into telling her about what happened in the wilderness. Lottie mostly evades her questioning, but they seem to bond over a ridiculous TV show by the time Shauna and Jeff get home.
We Finally Learn More About the Tape in Yellowjackets Season 3, Episode 6
In Yellowjackets season three, episode six, Callie finally reveals that tape to Shauna. We learn that it’s no normal tape, it’s an old kind of tape called a DAT tape, which stands for a Digital Audio Tape. This kind of tape was made in 1987. Handily, Van is into nostalgia and vintage tech and has a DAT-player. She shares that garage bands and hunters tend to use them. And then has another thought which alarms her.
Shauna, Tai, and Van listen to the tape. But what exactly is on this mystery Yellowjackets tape? We only get to hear snatches of it so far. The mysterious tape Shauna receives begins with a woman’s voice, and she records, “Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3, Oh my god, what is this.” She sounds a little frightened. Yellowjackets then cuts to the end of the tape. There we hear howling and screeching, presumably, of the girls in the wilderness. And the woman’s voice returns to yell, “Nooooo!” quite emphatically. Did she die? Did she get hurt? Did she see something awful?
Tai, Van, and Shauna seem shaken by what they hear recorded. Van says, “The only people that even know about this are either us or dead.” And Shauna says the tape is clearly a threat. But from who or how so is info that we didn’t get to find out.
We Find Out More About What Is on the Tape in Yellowjackets Season 3, Episode 7
In episode 7, Shauna finally holes up in a cheap hotel bathroom and listens to the tape. It’s a recording that Hannah, the woman who appeared in the woods alongside her partner and their travel guide, had going on during the encounter we saw at the beginning of the episode. The thud of the axe to her guy’s head and Shauna yelling “Holy Shit!” are hard for Shauna to hear, if she even remembers that moment clearly. She fast forwards to hear Hannah recording a message for her daughter, which strikes Shauna because the child could 1) still be alive and 2) be the person who sent that tape. Shauna even looks Hannah up and scrolls through her obituary, which probably means that the group killed her in the Wilderness.
Shauna contacts Van, Tai, and, well, Misty comes along and they listen to the tape together while driving to Virginia, which is where the daughter lives. Shauna doesn’t know it but Callie retrieved the deleted message from her phone that she snuck into Shauna’s person previously. So now Callie is even more suspicious that her mom and the others really did some terrible things in the Wilderness and that Shauna is perhaps a bad person. She’s absolutely right on all fronts.
Hilary Swank Is Melissa and She Sent That Tape to Shauna in Yellowjackets Season 3
In episode eight, we finally get an answer to about who sent the tape. After tracking down Hannah’s daughter Alex in Virginia, Shauna is shocked to discover that Melissa, played by Hilary Swank, is alive. The group previously believed that she died by suicide after coming home from the Wilderness. Not only is Melissa alive, she’s married to Hannah’s daughter and is the one who sent the tape.
Melissa got the tape from Hannah in the Wilderness to give to her daughter, but she obviously couldn’t bring herself to do it. She kept it to as blackmail/a way to frame other survivors if they came looking for her for whatever reason. It’s a weird thought process considering that the tape also incriminates her too.
Melissa said she kept it locked away for years and decided to send it to Shauna after finding out about Natalie’s death. She thought all the sacrificing weirdness was starting again and sent Shauna the tape to tell her that it is okay to let all of the past go. Of course, Shauna never got the letter, only the tape from Callie. Despite Melissa denying any involvement in the weird things happening around Shauna and Lottie’s death, Shauna doesn’t believe any of it. She attacks Melissa at the end of the episode and bites off a piece of her arm.
The mystery of the tape is solved and now we have to see what price Melissa will pay for sending it. Sometimes, it is better to just keep things to yourself.
Originally published on February 14, 2025.
Content shared from nerdist.com.