Tamal Kundu
Showtime’s ‘Yellowjackets’ tells the story of the members of a New Jersey high school female soccer team who get stranded in the Ontario Wilderness after the plane taking them to the nationals crashes. As the survivors face a harsh winter with a rapidly deteriorating food supply, they are forced to make drastic choices, including cannibalism.
There was only a handful of boys and men on that plane. Most of them perish in the crash, with only three surviving, Coach Ben Scott, Javi Martinez (Luciano Leroux), and his older brother, Travis. When the second season begins, Javi has been missing for two months, and almost everyone among the survivors believes he is dead. And this is why they are surprised when Taissa and Van bring him back from the woods, looking wild, confused, but very much alive. If you are wondering how that is possible, here is what we think. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Mystery Behind Javi’s Survival
Javi goes missing during what the survivors call doomcoming. Following the death of Laura Lee, Jackie comes up with the plan to organize doomcoming, an acknowledgment of their upcoming doom and being celebratory about it. If they were back home, they would be attending homecoming. So, that adds to the naming as well. Almost all the survivors consume food laced with hallucinogenic mushrooms during the party and attack Travis. Shauna, who has grown close to Javi in the past few months, spots him and tells him to run away, and he does.
At the start of season 2, Travis continues to look for his younger brother, even though snow and ice cover the entire landscape, and most of the others, including Nat, think that Javi, who has no survival training, can’t be alive in these conditions all alone. However, Lottie keeps saying that Javi isn’t dead, much to Nat’s frustration, as she believes that holding on to the hope that his brother is still out there isn’t letting Travis deal with his grief and move forward. So, one day, she takes one of Javi’s clothes, soaks it in her own blood, and shows it to Travis, claiming that she found it in the woods. It has the desired effect: Travis puts the cloth in Jackie’s pyre, finding a sense of closure.
So when Taissa and Van find Javi, Travis realizes that Nat lied to him. Meanwhile, most of the girls celebrate as yet another thing that Lottie said has come true, though Lottie herself looks uncomfortable. Taissa and Van were out in that part of the woods to find more of the mysterious Symbols, which Taissa generally does when she is sleepwalking. This has led Van to believe that whatever is inside Taissa is a force for good, though Taissa has doubts about it.
However, the question remains how Javi survived in the harsh winter weather alone. He doesn’t seem responsive, not even to his brother, so it might be a while before the other survivors learn what really happened. It’s possible that it was sheer luck on Javi’s part that he managed to survive all by himself. His apparent unresponsiveness might be the result of the trauma he endured while being all alone.
In episode 8, we get some answers about it. Nat grows concerned about Javi becoming part of the growing cult around Lottie and speaks to Scott, revealing that she has seen the young boy bowing to one of the Symbols. Scott seems to realize that Javi must have been hiding somewhere around that Symbo0l. That night, he rummages through Javi’s things while others are sleeping and finds drawings of a tree. When morning arrives, Scott sets out in search of the location and eventually comes across the Symbol, carved on a tree. He discovers that there is a cave underneath it. As he ventures inside, he finds water and canned food, making him realize that is where Javi survived for months. Ironically, while Scott discovers an answer to their food problems, other survivors let Javi drown in freezing water.
Read More: Why Did the Birds Die in Yellowjackets Season 2? Theories
