I know the blackmailing got explained with Jeff, but did we get a full explanation for Travis? I know it could either be that he really did just kill himself intentionally or that Lottie's story is true, but did Lottie say anything about the symbol being around him? Because that's the one detail that's still really weird to me. Unless he ended up thinking along the same lines that Lottie ended up thinking - that there really was Something out there with them and he had to give it what it wanted. So maybe he put the symbol there. I genuinely can't remember if we got any explanation for that.
Wait. Wait.
If we accept that one of two options for Travis are true (either he really did commit suicide or Lottie's story was true - and even that has two possibilities. Either Something really did kill Travis OR something with the machine malfunctioned and it was an accident and Lottie interpreted it as supernatural) have we answered all the lingering mysteries and questions of s1 and s2?
We know who the Antler Queen is. We know what the dripping was. We know how the hunting got started.
There's really no loose threads heading into s3, is there? Other than maybe an overall answer of what the symbol is/means and whether there really IS something supernatural out there or not.
Am I missing anything?
I wonder if that's going to hurt s3. S2 still had an element of unraveling the mystery set up in s1, but if we've essentially answered all of that, then all s3 can do is....continue things. Deal with the fallout. And I'm worried that won't be as interesting.
You know, I've been thinking/worrying about this too. On the one hand, I'm glad they didn't leave so many of those mysteries lingering on forever, especially since so many shows never make it to their intended ending. But there is a lot less to discover, moving forward.
We've hit on all the major unknowns and more or less have answers to them. I agree that the only things really undiscovered yet are the symbol and whether or not they'll land firmly on the "it's supernatural" side of things.
I do think that the symbol and what happened in those woods before the Yellowjackets landed there could still be pretty compelling mysteries. My biggest questions are - why was that symbol there before? Who put them there, carved into the trees? Why, in Jackie's death dream, did the man from the attic welcome her, and say they've been waiting for her? Was that just a delusion, or was that a true glimpse into some supernatural "other side" that we haven't fully explored yet?
I think that they could potentially find a really compelling story in explaining a bit more about the cabin, the man with the plane, and what happened to him (and maybe his people/friends/family) that caused him/them to create and spread that symbol around.
Do the symbols all lead to other ways to survive in the wilderness, like Javi's cave? Are these remnants of some other survivors? Who gave Javi the warm clothes??? (I have to let that one go.) Who was Javi's "friend" who told him to stay away from the other survivors?
Does Lottie know the significance of the symbol, or has she just clung onto it after all these years because it's familiar? Or does she keep it around because she can't figure it out, and she's obsessed with the mysticism of it? Do the adults in 2021 even know what the symbol means or why it was there? If they don't know, how will the story tell us?
I read online somewhere (so take it with a grain of salt) that the writers have a five-season plan set for the story. We're about 9-10 months deep in the teen storyline, and we know they get rescued after 19 months. (I'd still be very interested to know how exactly they get rescued, but that story might be more boring than I'm picturing now.) That's a lot of time to fill in the remaining three seasons, especially since we know how the hunt started and how the Antler Queen came to be. We know how they survived the harsh and starving winters, at least in terms of feeding themselves. It's not hard to imagine how they went from a spur-of-the-moment hunt like with Javi, to the more ritualized hunt of Pit Girl. And we have the cabin burning down, so we know that the next several months aren't going to get easier for them.
I think based on all of that, they can probably still squeeze some story out of the wilderness. Will it be three seasons worth, with half of the time in the wilderness already behind us at the end of s2? Maybe not.
(Maybe the final season would deal with the aftermath of the girls being rescued, or something else, to add a little extra space to the teen storyline?? Just speculating.)
I think the part of s2 I struggled the most with was the adult storyline, which really felt like it lacked the focus and tension of the first season's, with Adam Martin and the blackmailing mystery. So I'm most worried about the adult storyline, if I'm being honest.
The most interesting moments from the 2021 characters have been when they're together, and it's becoming a clearly established pattern that the adults only fully come together at the end of the season. If they keep going that way, what in the heck are they going to do with these ladies?? I'll watch them go through the fallout of losing Natalie, but what mysteries remain for them? Mostly just the symbol, and since I'm not sure exactly how much they know about the symbol, it's hard to know where they'll take that in the adult storyline.
But the stakes for the adults especially are at an all-time-low. Shauna and the Sadecki's aren't going to prison for Adam's murder (which I'm fine with, love that dysfunctionally functional family;) Lottie is going to be institutionalized again; Natalie is dead; Misty will completely lack focus without her (but she does have Walter for potential new stories;) Van has her cancer storyline (which I imagine will take center-stage in s3;) and Taissa obviously still has to deal with all the fallout of abandoning her wife at the hospital. (I just remembered that Tai draws the symbol on Simone when she's in a coma - implying that at least Shadow!Tai maybe knows the meaning???)
Like you said... a whole lot of just "continuing on," not a whole lot of answers to be found.
I guess we'll have to see! Production is on hold for the WGA strike still. It's impossible to know how that will impact everything.
Oh and - wrt Travis's suicide, I honestly have no clue. I think that might be one of the places they'll continue to keep some uncertainty around, especially since it connects to the symbol, the one major mystery left. From what I remember, Lottie never touches on the symbol being present at Travis's suicide, or even mentions the symbol being there.
I do think we're supposed to question Lottie's version of things, especially with the hindsight that she is in full psychosis for most of the season - once we know that her "therapist" is just her teenage self, it really calls into question anything and everything that Lottie says about it. Especially given that witnessing Travis's suicide comes with a delusion/vision of Laura Lee. I don't know if we'll ever get a completely clear answer of whether or not Travis's suicide held a supernatural element, was a mechanical failure, or if something else happened entirely - mostly because we'll likely only ever know Lottie's version of it, unless we have some Travis flashbacks or something.
Lots to chew on and think about! I'm definitely still excited for s3, but we are starting to reach that place in television writing where it'll either get even better, or start to suffer a bit from the need to produce more seasons.
