blakesformula

big on time loops and the eternal return and stuff like that

[blakesformula]

yellowjackets theory enthusiast. fascinated by this show like studying a petri dish under a microscope. welcome to my account. buzz buzz buzz

all posts about my time loop theory can be found under the tag blakesformula time loop theory 📋

[blakesformula]

The definition of “best friend” in Yellowjackets always being something different than what it’s “supposed” to mean. Travis and Natalie, Misty and Natalie, Jackie and Shauna. “You’re the best friend I’ve ever had. You know that, right?” “I killed my best friend.” “She was my best friend.” Even Natalie and Kevyn, him calling her his best friend and following it up later with “you had to know I was totally in love with you.” “She was her best friend,” Lottie says to Tai without saying anything else because in the Yellowjackets world, that is a complete justification for anything. “Best friend” as the descriptor that is used when the relationship moves into the undefinable, something more.

[blakesformula]

I do think the season one adult Travnat timeline foreshadows something about Travis wanting to get married and Natalie not wanting to which she comes to regret after his death. There are random mentions of a ring, everyone pointedly asking Natalie if they are family/if she is his wife and her looking almost sick or really angry. Needing to break into his place, bank account, place of work because she isn’t naturally allowed in by law, being constantly reminded that she isn’t.

I think this is also a reevaluation of what we look at as “family” because the running idea is the people in the world you are closest to, whether you like it or not, are your family. The yellowjackets have this “we are connected for life whether we like it or not” family feeling when they get back and they all accept it to some degree, even Shauna or Melissa. I think we see a repeat of season 1 Travnat with Mistynat in S3 where she is constantly being reminded that they are family in all the ways except the ones that matter to regular society. “We’re basically family,” “except not in the legal way, right?” (paraphrasing). I think it’s powerful that they are all connected in some inextricable way (and it’s what makes the show attractive to viewers) and sometimes in a stronger way than other shows’ characters that are even married. It’s what young kids dream about with their friends; staying friends forever no matter what happens, whether they like it or not, knowing that no matter how much you love or hate them, they will always be there.

We see Natalie reject this with Misty, Lottie, Shauna, and maybe she does this with Travis when she gets home. Either way, both her and Travis die with another yellowjacket/a whole group of them. Even if she wanted to, Natalie was never going to die alone- Lottie didn’t even let her. In a way, people consider Natalie to be a “saint” because she is rejects this bond even when it is negative to do so, rejecting comfort from anyone in the teen or adult timeline, but then accepting Tai’s help for rehab in the adult timeline. She was aware of this bond and used it. Misty is aware of this bond and uses it but is regarded as less-than despite forgiving all of them in the name of this bond (Natalie for killing Ben, all of Shauna’s actions, even Lottie). The rest of them look down on Misty for this even though they all do it as well, like Shauna calling Misty to watch Lottie and Callie. Everyone laughing at Misty’s best friends, thinking they can’t possibly be best friends, but Misty’s definition of a “best friend” might be a bit different and closer to “family.” Natalie is arguably the least well-adjusted and won’t accept this bond, while Misty is the most well-adjusted because she implicitly understands that her most important bonds in life are not easily categorized. I also believe that this is why the family montages are not important for any character except for Natalie and Jackie, whose family dynamics get their own respective deep-dives. They both suffer for their connection to their families, while the rest of them are free once they give it up. Misty’s family is never shown and when she is at home, she is alone. She understands this before the crash- that she will find better connection out in the chaos than compared to where “normal” people find connection. Natalie was already seeking this out in older men before the crash but couldn’t process it in the same way Misty can clearly see her differences. Arguably, it’s this sense of self that keeps Misty alive. I think it’s also why the return to home family scenes will be more powerful as montages, as ghostly scenes of people from the outside who they were so desperate to return to, only to find that there is a divide between them that cannot be crossed and the only people who understand them are the ones they were so desperate to get away from.

[blakesformula]

The difference between Travis and Natalie in the adult timeline and the problem that stops them from being together, from what we’ve seen so far, appears to be that Travis is doing drugs in a “I want to see God and my brother again” way and Natalie is doing drugs in a “I want to forget God and your brother again” way. It’s also probably the thing that kept them alive for 25 years because if they both did it Travis’s way (which was taught by Lottie), they wouldn’t have made it a single year without a lethal overdose. This is pretty clearly shown by the fact that neither Travis nor Natalie made it a week while under Lottie’s care.

[blakesformula]

Lottie holding Travis’s drawing of “the outcome” with the king of hearts (“the suicide king”) tucked right underneath. His outcome is in her hands as he channels the Wilderness, while she was holding the power anyway, the king of hearts already in her palm. 25 years later, the same repeats, his outcome in her hand, and Lottie, Natalie, and Misty all stand beneath him after he dies by what looks like hanging but, actually, Lottie is the one with the power and holding the king of hearts. His drawing and this moment made real.

[blakesformula]

I’ve been thinking about Travis’s “it’s the outcome” in relation to his outcome. Him showing this drawing to Lottie 25 years before the end of his life is decided by her via hanging. Furthermore, is this the outcome of the King of Hearts (“the suicide king,”) and the outcome of any men that entered the Wilderness with the women. Javi, dying in Natalie’s place while charting his own path to save her. Coach dying by Natalie’s hand after convincing her to kill him. Travis dying by hanging at Lottie’s hand after Natalie’s vision. The only other men that went down with them, the pilots, captaining the plane right into the ground which leads to their own death. Shauna’s child dying in a stillbirth. All men dying by way of falling or entering a place that isn’t theirs, dying accidentally by their own hand, and the other girls taking part in it, being spared by their actions (the girls surviving the crash and not the pilot, Shauna surviving the stillbirth but not her baby), and at least one Yellowjacket being present for their death. Travis’s image shows a person floating above three people: the outcome for all men who entered the Wilderness, the Suicide Kings, and eventually, his outcome.

This image, in Lottie’s hand, with the king of hearts tucked right underneath. Them both holding the outcome.

[blakesformula]

“Slowly, slowly, with a drugged, fathomless calm, Henry bent and picked up a handful of dirt. He held it over the grave and let it trickle from his fingers. Then, with terrible composure, he stepped back and absently dragged his hand across his chest, smearing blood upon his lapel, his tie, the starched immaculate white of his shirt.”

“I stared at him. So did Julian, and Francis, and the twins, with a kind of shocked horror. He seemed to not realize he had done anything out of the ordinary. He stood there perfectly still, the wind ruffling his hair and the dull light glinting from the rims of his glasses.”

Yellowjackets (2025)//The Secret History (1992)

[marisaints]

[dailyclassicart]

Arvid Mauritz Lindström - "Twilight landscape"

[blakesformula]

biblically accurate yellowjackets s3 ep1

[02void]

Thorn Creek

[blakesformula]

lore accurate pit girl sequence from the pilot if she ran by the creek

[robertfagden]

duuude is that a losing dog? *gets out my wallet*

[blakesformula]

me with Misty Fucking Quigley

[hartanddoe]

Consulting the Oracle by John William Waterhouse c. 1884 / Yellowjackets

[hartanddoe]

Lady Macbeth Sleepwalking by Artus Scheiner c. 1900 / Lottie Matthews' Dream in Yellowjackets

[hartanddoe]

Kodiak vs the Yellowjackets / The Killing of the Wooers, by William Russell Flint (a scene from Homer's Odyssey) c. 1924

[blakesformula]

I will literally do anything if you convince me that it’s an Expedition

[blakesformula]

i love media about the Expedition™️ (annihilation, into thin air, house of leaves, the thing 1982)

[stranglingfruitloop]

"Yeah, with regards to the Crawler—growing up, I was drawn to Salvador Dalí. He studied the old masters and acquired techniques so that he could render reality as reality. And then he chose not to. Even when he didn’t, there are still certain elements of the paintings that display the skill of someone who can do mimetic reality, just applied to this larger canvas with a different purpose.

The Crawler is composed of all these incredibly minute, specific details of texture and appearance. They’re kaleidoscoping—some readers use the word 'abstract.' But in actual fact, it is what the biologist is seeing and experiencing. If she has any failing, it’s because she’s trying to convey the tactile experience of constant morphing. That’s a challenge for the novelist: you have to have readers experience it viscerally. You cheat because you can never really be in a character’s head. The biologist, left to her own devices and not required to be the protagonist of my novel, would be doing field notes. But a character is an artificial construct. You’re not including all of them, just trying to get as close as you can so that you’re still creating narrative as opposed to moments.

[James Joyce’s] Ulysses probably gets closest to recording moments. I admire it, but it’s also hard to read because you don’t know what has importance and what doesn’t. To some degree, Ulysses abdicates the novelist’s responsibility to actually choose the elements that are in the novel in favor of some other idea of what a novel is. I admire that as well. Novels are made of approximations—that includes the description of the Crawler. In theory, the biologist might have later done field notes that were more clinical, not this 'in the moment.' But for purposes of a novel, which has to have scenes, you get panoply, montage."

Jeff Vandermeer, The Hegemony of What Was Real, in LARB, November 29, 2024.