Yellowjackets is putting its cards on the table

From the promotional materials of Season 2 of Yellowjackets alone, playing cards — specifically the Queen cards — have been given a lot of significance, and that is expanded upon within the show as well.

Yellowjackets Season 2 promotional poster

The Queen of Hearts card features in an ensemble promotional poster next to adult Van (Lauren Ambrose). This poster has a lot of easter eggs, as the shape of all of the elements and characters featured makes the symbol that is seen by them time and time again in the wilderness. There is also a necklace next to adult Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) (interestingly NOT the heart necklace), a voodoo doll next to adult Taissa (Tawny Cypress) and various other intentionally placed things.

Queen of Hearts card in the poster

In the opening credits of Season 2, the Queen of Hearts is again featured, and we have now seen where the clip is from in Episode 4. In this scene, adult Lottie (Simone Kessell) is reading the gratitude entries of the day, and she keeps hallucinating a Queen of Hearts card with the eyes scribbled out amongst these entries, the same one from the promotional poster.

Lottie's Queen of Hearts vision/hallucination from Season 2 Episode 4

Going back to the credits, what follows those images is a short clip of adult Lottie flipping a knife, which is from the scene just after the Queen of Hearts vision/hallucination, and then we see some clips that have not yet been seen. It looks as though young Shauna’s (Sophie Nélisse) eyes are white like she is possessed, and in the next short clip someone (perhaps possessed Shauna?) is burning the Queen of Diamonds.

Short clip from Yellowjackets Season 2 opening credits

The inclusion of more than one Queen shows us that what was seemingly a throwaway line from young Nat (Sophie Thatcher) in Season 1 Episode 8 telling young Travis (Kevin Alves) that there are "no queens in that deck, you know?”, is actually probably significant.

Nat tells Travis about the missing Queen cards in Season 1 Episode 8

This issue of the missing Queens is brought up again in the latest episode, when Akilah (Keeya King) asks Javi (Luciano Leroux) “where’d you find that Queen card?” In this episode, we also learnt that the playing cards are used to choose chores, with a Two being the worst job — emptying the waste bucket.

Javi has found or returned to the cabin with a Queen card in Season 2 Episode 5

After seeing all of these cards, the question that asks itself is: what does it all mean?

1. Are the Queen cards omens warning them about or marking them for death?

Javi has found a Queen card — presumably the Queen of Hearts, as that is the reoccurring and most prominent Queen. Javi is someone who as far as we know didn’t make it back from the wilderness, and the girls chased him away in Season 1, suggesting to us that his unfinished dark fate may be approaching.

If it is an omen, then we also have to take into account the heart necklace, as these items both feature hearts. Jackie (Ella Purnell) does lend the necklace to Shauna, and later after Jackie’s death, Lottie (Courtney Eaton) takes the necklace off Jackie’s body and gives it to Shauna. The necklace is also seen on Pit Girl in the very first scene where an unidentified girl (Pit Girl) is being chased by someone and falls into a pit trap that is set up to kill whoever falls. She is shown to be wearing the necklace when she dies. As Shauna is the one with the necklace as far as we know, it has to pass to someone else who will die wearing it. All this to say that hearts — both the Queen of Hearts card and the heart necklace — do seem to be an omen for death.

Adult Lottie sees the Queen of Hearts in her hallucination/vision. Is it a reminder of what they might have done to Javi? or is it a warning that her death may be in the near future?

2. Do the cards represent characters like they did in Twin Peaks?

The parallels to Twin Peaks in this show keep making themselves known, and watching Season 1 it is hard not to notice them. (Like anyone else would, I searched Twitter to see if others had seen the connections too and as it turns out someone made a thread )

In Twin Peaks, Windom Earle places the Queen of Hearts as whoever will win the Miss Twin Peaks contest, and he also plots her execution. Annie is the character that ended up winning the contest, and is therefore the Queen of Hearts. However, at the time of the scene, the Queen of Hearts is the only Queen not directly tied to a specific character — she is yet to be decided. The other queens are Donna (Queen of Clubs), Audrey (Queen of Diamonds), and Shelley (Queen of Spades).

Windom Earle's playing cards in Twin Peaks Season 2 Episode 18

Although the fact that Annie’s character strongly aligns with Laura Lee (Jane Widdop) is a coincidence, perhaps she could be the Queen of Hearts, as she is the one who appears to Lottie in many of her visions. As the eyes are scratched out, rather than a warning of death, it could represent someone who is already dead, and instead Lottie’s vision could be a forced reminder of the blood that needs to be spilled.

Laura Lee as the Queen of Hearts is not totally convincing as she was meant to die in the Pilot episode, but if we do take the Queen of Hearts to represent her, then there is still the question of the other three Queens. The only other Queen card we have seen so far is the Queen of Diamonds in the opening credits being burned. Jackie is a character we know was burned after being frozen, so it could represent her. In this way, the four Queens could represent four of the girls who died in the wilderness.

3. Is it a role that they embody, and more specifically is it the role of the Antler Queen?

After discussion all of these Queen cards, it is fair to ask where the Antler Queen fits into all of this.

Thinking about the historic ritualistic uses of antlers, shamans would enter a trance state to communicate with animal spirits wearing a costume that identifies them with these spirits. The antlers are the costume that help the girls (Queens?) tap into the spirit.

Not having one specific Antler Queen makes sense in this context, as if it was simply Lottie, we have already seen her donning the costume, and that reveal would have been more significant. Could it be that Lottie is not the Antler Queen, but is one of the four Antler Queens who connect with the spirit?

With every episode, Yellowjackets gives us more and more to think about. I’m sure by the time we get to the next one with Shauna’s wilderness baby making an entry, we’ll have a lot process, and hopefully some more clues about the Queen cards.