Rescue doesn’t look like a happy ending in the first teaser trailer for Yellowjackets season 4. Paramount’s new footage shows what remains of the Wiskayok High School girls’ soccer team reacting to their rescue in unexpected ways. Panicked outbursts and gruesome flashbacks set the tone for the Showtime series’ final season.
The next threat isn’t just escaping the wilderness. It’s going home with everything they’ve done. Showtime’s official season description puts that problem front and center:
“The Yellowjackets race to bury their sins before rescue arrives – but the Wilderness has its own ideas about who gets out alive. After returning to Wiskayok, their secrets fester under the growing weight of what they’ve done and who they’ve become. Meanwhile in the present, two of the Yellowjackets prepare to kill one of their own as an old flame roars back to town with plans all their own. Turns out not every homecoming is a joyous one, and this one’s going to sting.”
Together, the footage and synopsis suggest a particular focus on the 1990s storyline, though that balance hasn’t been confirmed. Polygon writer Elijah Gonzalez notes that this apparent emphasis may surprise viewers given where season 3 left off. The rescue timeline makes the return to New Jersey part of the horror rather than an escape from it.
For anyone new to Yellowjackets, the Showtime original follows a New Jersey high school soccer team whose plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness. The story follows two timelines: the immediate aftermath of the crash in the ’90s and the modern day, when the survivors are still reckoning with what they did to survive.
The opening scene establishes how ugly that survival becomes. A frightened young woman in a nightgown runs through a forest and falls into a pit of spikes. A girl wearing a tattered soccer jersey and animal furs then retrieves her body and butchers the remains for a ritualistic feast. Close-ups of teeth biting into cooked human flesh leave little room for ambiguity. That cannibalistic opening sets up the Lord of the Flies-style breakdown that unfolds across the first three seasons.
Yellowjackets has received generally positive reviews and earned 10 Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series. It’s also Showtime’s second-most-streamed program, behind Dexter, and season 3 drew the series’ highest viewership yet. Gonzalez hopes the final season finishes with the same bite it had at the start.
Season 4 begins Nov. 20 on Paramount Plus, which the source reports is itself set to be phased out.
