Is Lottie the Liar Telling Sweet Little Lies in ‘Yellowjackets’?

We’ve learned, sometimes the hard way, that the women of “Yellowjackets” aren’t always the most reliable narrators. We probably aren’t getting the full story from any of them as to what truly went down in the wilderness 25 years ago. It’s hard to form an opinion of a character when you aren’t given all the necessary details. Are they good, bad, misunderstood?

This dilemma rings most true with adult Lottie (Simone Kessell). A “cult leader” wrapped in an enigma, Lottie in the present day is quite a mysterious and powerful figure who raises plenty of questions about her past. How long was she institutionalized in Switzerland? When did she start her “intentional community” (and how did she fund it)? Has she been hearing and seeing things ever since they were rescued from the wilderness?

We've watched younger Lottie (Courtney Eaton) step up to be a spiritual leader in the teen timeline, but as an adult spiritual leader, the cracks started to show as Season 2 reached its climactic end. We still have no idea what's truth and what's fiction with Lottie, but here’s what we do know so far.

One of the biggest debates within the “Yellowjackets” fandom has revolved around Lottie and whether she has a spiritual or psychological gift of some kind. In Season 1, we saw a flashback of Lottie as a young girl screaming in the backseat of her parents’ car while stopped at a red light. As the light turned green, a car accident happened in the intersection right in front of them. Did Lottie somehow see that coming? Did she have a vision that essentially saved their lives?

We later overheard a conversation between Lottie’s parents where her father said he thought Lottie was “sick” and needed to see a mental health professional. From a young age, Lottie was made to believe there was something wrong with her. Her father thought medicating her would lead to a more stable life, and it seemingly did — until, of course, she was thrown into an unstable environment where she no longer had access to her medication.

Lottie ran out of her prescription about three days after the Yellowjackets team was stranded in the wilderness. Upon taking her last dose, she looked unsure of what she was supposed to do next. We're inclined to believe the medication was helping her to an extent because, as time went on, Lottie’s mental state significantly shifted, and she began to have more and more visions.

The visions and dreams haunting teen Lottie led her to search for something tangible that would make it all make sense. In Season 1, she confided in Laura Lee (Jane Widdop) about what she had been seeing. Laura Lee told Lottie that she had been taught visions were a gift from God and that someone had been personally touched by the Holy Spirit. In time, the group started looking to Lottie for spiritual guidance.

Of course, not everyone was convinced that Lottie had some sort of sixth sense about the mysterious things happening around them in the forest. Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown), for example, was highly skeptical, even though girlfriend Van (Liv Hewson) was increasingly a believer. But more and more bizarre acts soon convinced some of the doubters. When Lottie predicted they wouldn't “be hungry much longer,” the very next day, a bear wandered through camp. The group's belief in Lottie only intensified when she took matters into her own hands and easily stabbed the bear in the head.

After killing the bear, Van insisted they say grace and immediately turned to Lottie to do the honors. This was the first time we heard them reference the wilderness directly: “For this gift from the wilderness, we give our thanks. To the spirit of the bear who sacrificed so that we could survive, we give our thanks. And to the ancient gods of the sky and the dirt, we give our thanks.” It was then that Lottie solidified her place as the spiritual leader of the group. Placing the bear’s heart in the same tree stump we saw in “Doomcoming” sealed the deal. It was as if she was making her own offering to the wilderness as a thank you for providing them with sustenance.

During Season 2, Lottie tried to keep the group united by starting a prayer circle every morning and going as far as “blessing” Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) and Travis (Kevin Alves) before they went out hunting and searching for Javi (Luciano Leroux). She was the one who suggested they throw Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) a baby shower, attempting to spark a bright spot in a very bleak situation. She even let Shauna beat her to a pulp so Shauna could take out the aggression she felt after her baby was stillborn (which we found to be the hardest moment to watch of the show thus far).

That's why it was shocking when Lottie made the announcement that she wasn’t meant to be their leader anymore. The girls didn’t question her decision, which showed how deeply they trusted and believed in her. Lottie stepped aside so Natalie could lead them instead — an act that made our list of the show's buzziest moments. This doesn’t mean Lottie’s power and influence within the group will disappear in Season 3. Could she still be their spiritual leader? We think there’s a strong possibility of that.

After the Yellowjackets were rescued, Lottie’s parents sent her away to a mental institution in Switzerland, not knowing how to help their daughter. Using context clues, we’ve established that Lottie was in Switzerland for about a decade. What happened upon her release is somewhat of a mystery. We know Lottie built up her “intentional community,” which had to have taken a good amount of time and money. A person doesn’t develop a cult following overnight. So what don't we know yet about the origins of the Sunshine Honey Wellness Community and what she's been up to all these years?

Much like her followers in the wilderness 25 years ago, present-day Lottie has developed a similar following through her wellness compound, where she's known as “Charlotte.” However, we saw quickly that everything was not as it seemed when it came to Lottie’s community, which seems more like a cult. She controlled all aspects of her members' lives, going as far as confiscating their technological devices when they joined the community and forcing them to wear one specific color of purple. She did seem to be okay mentally — at least until the rest of the adult survivors showed up at the camp. It soon became clear that Lottie was lying to herself about being healed from the trauma of their past.

As adult Lottie started having disturbing moments again, she sought out a therapist to help cope with the resurfaced trauma. We saw a few conversations between them before it was revealed this therapist was a figment of Lottie’s imagination. We have to wonder if the therapist didn’t exist, what else about Lottie and her life is a lie or hallucination?

Perhaps the most suspect story Lottie has told is about what happened the night adult Travis (Andres Soto) died. Lottie's tale raised more questions than answers, especially as Lottie didn’t clue Natalie (Juliette Lewis) into her vision of a demonic Laura Lee that came to her while Travis was dying. Also, we’re not sure about you, but her claim about the equipment buttons getting stuck and causing Travis's death seems questionable to us. Has Lottie convinced herself that's what happened? Does she really believe the story she told Natalie? Or was she lying to protect herself and keep others from finding out the truth about how Travis died?

At the end of Season 2, things looked dark for adult Lottie, a big difference from where we left off with her in the teen timeline. As teenage Lottie seemed more sure of herself, present-day Lottie’s mental state deteriorated by the minute. Never was that more evident than when, in the season finale, Lottie hunted Shauna and was shot by Shauna's daughter. In that harrowing moment, Lottie announced that “it” was with them again, something she echoed as she was later taken away by medical personnel after Natalie's death.

How Natalie's passing and the return of “it” will affect Lottie’s psyche remains to be seen. Will she be hospitalized again or will the adult women somehow come to her rescue — and should they? It’s clear she still believes in the wilderness’s power, but how much of what she says is true? Or is she just Lottie the Liar? We look forward to getting our questions answered when “Yellowjackets” is back on our screens.