4. Javi becomes a frozen treat

As the youngest person to survive the plane crash, Javi (Luciano Leroux) is another symbol of innocence that meets a cruel fate. He smartly ran away during the hallucinatory orgy in season one’s “Doomcoming,” where the girls chased and nearly butchered his older brother. He doesn’t appear again until season two, when we learn he was hiding in a cavern warmed by a geothermal spring.

After staying silent and withdrawn for most of the season, Javi springs to action and tries to save Nat from being hunted by the feral Yellowjackets following their first card ritual to decide their next victim/meal. The girls are like sharks, their eyes black and glazed with delight as they chase their potential food. They run and scream after Nat until they reach an ice-filled lake, where Javi suddenly falls in. What’s truly chilling is how readily they let Javi drown. Misty even grabs Nat and pulls her away from trying to save him.

We see him splashing frantically beneath the freezing cold water. In a wide shot, it’s as if we, too, are watching from afar, seeing nothing but his arms helplessly flailing through a small hole in the ice. The girls quickly grab him as he begins to sink, not wanting to lose their next meal, and bring him back to camp tied up on a log to prepare for the feast. The cannibal scenes in Yellowjackets are always horrifying to watch; we are unsettled by the girls’ heartlessness, motivated by a pure survival instinct.