Review: Yellowjackets, “Dislocated” | Season 3, Episode 2

Among the most galling choices in the season-two finale of Yellowjackets was the heavy implication that Coach Ben had barricaded and burned down the cabin in an attempt to kill the entire Yellowjackets team. It just didn’t ring true to the character as presented, even despite his growing horror at the lengths the girls were willing to go. So the reveal in “Dislocated” that maybe Ben didn’t actually start the fire does go a decent way in undoing one of that finale’s biggest offenses.

That complication gives this episode be a slight leg up on the premiere, even if there still isn’t quite as much urgency as there should be, especially in the present. But most of this episode’s wilderness story revolves about the search for Mari, and it’s a solid enough vector for the tensions currently at play: Misty and Shauna now strongly suspect that Nat knows where Ben is, which will surely play into the ongoing power struggle as Nat’s leadership comes into question.

Mari makes for a good scene partner for Ben; they don’t have much of a strong preexisting personal relationship outside of general mutual irritation, so there are built-in trust issues on both sides, with each afraid that the other wants them dead. But the scene with Ben coaching her through popping her dislocated knee back into place is a welcome bit of that classic Yellowjackets grossness, and it’s satisfying to see them later open up and exchange information, with Ben revealing that he apparently didn’t even know the cabin burned down.