Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Yellowjackets Season 3 Episode 4.
At its core, the flashback storyline ofYellowjacketsforces us to ask what exactly constitutes a society, and this episode does so through the lens of the legal system. Although the title of the fourth episode is a clear reference to the film, “12 Angry Men and 1 Drunk Travis,” it instead takes the plotline of12 Angry Menand flips it on its head. The trial of Coach Ben (Steven Krueger) is actually quite fair at first, but this is still a new society trying to determine its own rules.Both stories follow quite similar arcs, but each has a different outcomecreated by their individual circumstances, and it proves that the girls still remain very far from civilized.
Neither ‘Yellowjackets’ Nor ‘12 Angry Men’ Occur in a Vacuum
In 1996, when the high school girls' soccer team crashes in the wilderness, we see them being primarily focused on survival. Thanks to a couple of shocking decisions, though, the team is left destined to stay there — not for weeks or even months, but a year and a half. Once their basic needs are met, they quickly find meaning and community in religion, andthose who cannot adaptor try to leave never make it. What they have never had to deal with, however, is wrongdoing by one of their members. In this society, cannibalism might bea sadly necessary act,but murder is still taboo, and the burning of the cabin left the girls back at square one. For that very reason,many members of the group are ready to kill Coach Ben right then and there, but Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) still has the final say as the Antler Queen and is sympathetic to Ben, so she demands a trial to prove the allegations.
Compare this to12 Angry Men, where the rules and legal tradition are firmly established. Here, there are no doubts about how to proceed and only the question of determining guilt. While the United Stateshas centuries of tradition and custom, the Yellowjackets have none, and remain their own society to begin with. Now,they have an almost impossible taskof proving the guilt of a man while still making up the rules as they go along.
Ironically, it’s in this context thatYellowjacketsjustifies one of the most common complaints about many legal dramas, decrying their inaccuracies. Although it’s still a great examination of how the legal system works andone of the best law movies of all time, even12 Angry Menis not completely immune from this trend, and invents things for the sake of drama. The violations in the trial of Coach Ben are blatant, like Natalie testifying as a witness despite also being the judge. When Misty (Samantha Hanratty) calls this unprecedented, she is totally right, but neither is Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown) when she replies, “All of this is unprecedented.” Other changes, like having a supermajority for conviction instead of a unanimous jury,have since become unconstitutionalbut are done here as an explicit compromise. These are not minor decisions either, as the lower threshold and lack of deliberation prove decisive to the final outcome.
‘Yellowjackets’ Is An Inverse of ‘12 Angry Men’
When comparing the two stories,12 Angry Menis both extremely similar and very different from “12 Angry Girls and 1 Drunk Travis.” Both of them follow a similar arc,with doubts beginning to grow about the guilt of the accused killers, but in different ways. While12 Angry Menfocuses solely on the juror deliberations,Yellowjacketsdoes the exact opposite, and the jury is held to repeated public votes. Instead, the possible innocence of Ben is shown through testimony, which remains very convincing in spite ofhis deterioration into madnessin the last season. As his reluctant defense attorney, Misty does a decent job of creating reasonable doubt, but Tai matches her blow for blow, and the testimony of Natalie proves especially devastating. As a story meant to verify the legal system,12 Angry Menseeks to give a decisive answer, whereas the trial of Coach Ben denies itand leaves viewers wondering ifsomeone else in the groupcould have been responsible.
On a smaller note, the episode title is another indicator of just how different proceedings are, since Yellowjackets never forgets exactly what it’s portraying here. Like its inspiration, the girls attempt to follow all the traditional customs of a real trial, with evidence and testimony,but they are still teenagersat the end of the day. Small moments, like when Natalie places the girls under oath but is too annoyed to remember the words, are genuinely funny and provide a brief moment of levity in a serious episode. That being said, for teenagers with no legal experience, they still do extremely well for themselves, and things appear to go quite smoothly until the very end.
Ultimately, while the semantics remain different, both stories have a similar climax to the verdict. In the film, one of the jurors remains prejudiced against the poor, including the main defendant, though his exact background is never actually disclosed. Once he remains the final holdout,his breakdownis one of the most famous in cinematic history, and it remains the final nail in the coffin for the case. Likewise,Yellowjacketshas a similar outburst, but by Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) as a witness, and it proves just as decisive. Her decision condemns Ben,almost certainly to his death, and it feels fundamentally wrong on some level. In her mind,his actual crime was abandoning them, especially during her failed childbirth, and that is enough to prove his guilt to most of the team.
Has “Other Tai” Been in Control This Whole Time on ‘Yellowjackets’?
Maybe there’s a reason for this character’s strange behavior.
Unlike ‘12 Angry Men,’ Power Reigns Over Law in ‘Yellowjackets’
One of the most criticized moments in12 Angry Menis the scene where the main protagonist (Henry Fonda) pulls out a second knife identical to the presumed murder weapon, which the film itself acknowledges was illegal. Despite being grounds for a mistrial,the film largely ignores this moment, even portraying it as justifiedto reach the proper outcome and spare the life of an obviously innocent man. The Yellowjackets also experience something very similar, long before the verdict is given, but it feels much more profound. As mentioned before,the testimony of Natalie is truly disastrous for Ben, and it would never have been allowed in a criminal trial. Still, this is not a normal courtroom, and instead of just using these minor changes for drama, the episode takes them to their logical conclusion. Rather than a mere detail, such twists and turns are subtle warning signs about the final decision.
At the beginning, everything appears fine when the trial starts, and it seems like Coach Ben might actually get a fair trial after all. Having already learnedhow to leverage her power, Natalie exudes authority in her crown and robes, but her testimony destroys her credibility as a neutral observer. What Shauna realizes is that if they can change the rules in the middle of the game, then she can too. Of course, Natalie and Misty protest, but the passage of time and pressure by Shauna changes just enough votes to fully condemn Ben. Just as one juror goes for acquittal in12 Angry Menso he can get back to a baseball game,the show reminds us that deciding a case on any other basis than the evidence can cost a person their life, even if they’re indeed guilty.
Despite being the judge, Natalie seems to know how much her own power has faded during the trial, and finds herself unable to stop the others. Many of the girls have been consumed by bloodlust for a while now, and many fans have been surprised Benhas lasted this long, but if they learn he was actually innocent, the guilt could destroy them. Already, we know what the girls arelater destined to become, and there is not a trace of law or civilization left by the time they finally get rescued. Ironically,giving a fair trial to Ben might have been the most civilized thing the team has done, but they’re not just as they like to think. As a story,Yellowjacketsis not trying to condemn the law, but the societies we create to enforce it. With time, all the girls will discover the animals we truly are, and from that point, there will finally be no going back.
New episodes ofYellowjacketsSeason 3 premiere Fridays on Showtime.
Yellowjackets
A wildly talented high school girls' soccer team become the unlucky survivors of a plane crash deep in the Canadian wilderness.
