Yellowjackets Emotionally Intense Second Season Delivers Answers Fast

Yellowjackets returns this Sunday for another action-packed romp through the wilderness after a plane crash and the lingering effects of actions haunting survivors 25 years later.

Yellowjackets Season 1 introduced us to the girls' soccer team at the center of the story and the supporting players in their lives decades later, revealing that they may never forgive themselves for what they did to survive the crash.

The first season was addictive, becoming one of the buzziest shows around.

Yellowjackets Season 2 picks up immediately after the events of the Season 1 finale.

It's interesting that when thinking of the finale, it's the adult versions of the survivors who immediately come to mind.

Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) and her husband Jeff (Warren Kole) are navigating the murky waters of the crimes they committed separately and together -- Shauna's murder of Adam, an artist who suffered a case of mistaken identity, and Jeff's blackmailing, which is what got Adam killed in the first place.

The second season finds Shauna and Jeff on solid ground. As it turns out, the error of their ways worked wonders for their ability to understand each other, and they're more firmly committed to their marriage, protecting their daughter, Callie (Sarah Desjardins), and remaining free of charges than you would have thought under the circumstances.

Lynskey and Kole play well off of each other, and despite their various predicaments and the walls closing in around them, they continue to provide plenty of laughs, which work well against the darker plots.

Taissa (Tawny Cypress) is entrenched in one of those darker plots, which, thankfully, are few in the present-day storyline. You'd think she would be on top of the world after winning the election, but her dark side is emerging more frequently, scaring her enough to look up her teenage love, Van (as an adult played by Lauren Ambrose).

Ambrose is exactly what we'd expect her teen counterpart (Liv Hewson) to look like as an adult, so much so it's uncanny. Taissa's relationship with Simone (Rukiya Bernard) is on the rocks and has never had the same spark that Tai shared with Van.

Adult Taissa has spent much of the series further hiding what she's experiencing; reuniting with Van will offer us better insight into what's driving it.

Natalie's (Juliette Lewis) kidnapping is solved early, and her next adventure, which reunites her with adult Lottie (Simone Kessell), begins a journey that's been a long time coming.

Misty (Christina Ricci) is busy with her Citizen Detective group, which introduces Elijah Wood's Walter, as the two work to solve the mystery of Natalie's kidnapping, while Misty hopes to stop any digging into Adam's murder before it can begin in earnest.

Of course, these stories all rely heavily on what the women encountered in the woods all those years ago, and Season 2 doesn't leave viewers hanging for long before providing answers to some of the questions that keep us up at night.

Through the six episodes provided for critics, the series shines a light on two significant impending moments that score a perfect ten in execution.

Winter had just started at the end of the first season, and the survivors are struggling as the weather turns for the worse. Hunting is more difficult, and food rationing does nothing to alleviate the tension in that cabin.

Alliances shift, and new bonds are created, but while the introduction of familiar names in the present works for the overall story, there seems to be a well in the cabin bringing forth new soccer players, many of whom I could swear we have never seen before.

Including them at this point in the story bloats the episodes (all of which weigh in at 1 hour). There's a reason that Lottie and Van were introduced in the present -- their stories were already well formed in the past.

On the teen front, Misty (Samantha Hanratty) benefits from their involvement, finally finding a friend she can, probably for the first time in her life, call bestie. We've seen how attached Misty gets when given some rope, and her new friendship offers more insight into that side of her.

Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) and Travis (Kevin Alves) are growing further apart the longer Javi is missing and presumed dead.

They are also at the core of the group's growing unease at the lack of food. Natalie's pragmatism goes against the grain of a growing faction of believers in Lottie's (Courtney Eaton) unexplained abilities.

Those abilities, which border on the supernatural, will be more prevalent in the sophomore season, for better or worse. There's a continued discussion of the darkness they encountered and the possibility they brought it back to civilization with them.

That means more symbols pop up, and those who are unwilling to invest in the symbolism or Lottie's, whatever they are, have a harder time fitting in with the group.

And, of course, teen Shauna (Sophie Nelisse) grows heavier with child with every passing day, which is difficult enough for any woman, let alone a teen, let alone a teen plane crash survivor in the middle of the woods feeling as alone as she'll ever feel in her life, especially after losing her best friend.

Everyone suffers in the wake of Jackie's death, but Shauna lost her best and oldest friend. Suffice it to say, she doesn't deal with it very well.

The season moves swiftly, even with the character bloat. There are a lot of extraneous characters for various reasons, but only some of them are worth the investment. That's as close as you'll get to frustration with the new episodes.

Also niggling at the back of my mind is that I hope the supernatural side of this, which increases, finally reveals itself to be manifested by trauma and mental illness, depending on the scope of it.

Lottie was off her meds in the woods, and by the time they were out of the woods, many more probably could have used them. It's my hope that there is a logical explanation for all of it, and if I'm right in the theories I'm playing with in my head, it should bear out.

The new season is fast-paced and true to form. Creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson have their eyes on the ball, and showrunner Jonathan Lisco keeps it moving beautifully. They've raised the bar again, outmatching the emotional intensity of the freshman season and increasing viewers' investment in the characters and story.

Yellowjackets Season 2 premieres on Sunday, March 26 at 9/8c on Showtime, and we'll be reviewing the show weekly, so please come back each Sunday for exciting discussions where you can share your thoughts.