Yellowjackets Season 2 Finally Solves The Mystery of Travis’ Death

Amongst the many mysteries that were left unsolved at the end of season 1 of Yellowjackets, one was the death of Travis.

In the first season, Natalie and Misty go to find Travis to see if he knows anything about the anonymous notes with the strange symbol that they’d been getting. However, when they reach his house, they find him dead.

Travis’ death was ruled a suicide, but Natalie doesn’t believe it because she and Travis made a pact to never take their lives and she knows he would never break it.

The cliffhanger in the finale reveals that Lottie was the one who emptied Travis’ bank account after his death. This initially led us to believe that Lottie was the one who killed Travis; that is, until the truth came out in season 2.

It turns out that Natalie wasn’t completely wrong.

When Natalie confronts Lottie to find out what exactly happened the night of Travis’ death, Lottie admits that she was present when Travis died. But, Travis was the one who unintentionally killed himself.

How did Travis kill himself?

In season 2, we learn that Travis was having trouble dealing with his inner demons, which were a direct result of the horrific events the group were forced to go through in 1996.

Travis then comes up with the idea to get as close to death as possible, without actually dying, so that he can confront that darkness. He sets up a crane to hang himself, and places candles around it in the shape of the strange symbol.

The plan was for Travis to hang himself from the crane until he became unconscious enough to come in contact with the afterlife. Lottie was then supposed to lower him down immediately with a remote, but because the buttons got stuck, she couldn’t do it.

Why was Lottie with Travis?

Travis reaches out to Lottie for her help because he believes in her spiritual powers from when they were trapped together in the forest. Although Lottie is hesitant at first, she agrees to help him.

Lottie was supposed to lower Travis down once he became unconscious, but the malfunction with the remote prevents her from doing so.

Right at that moment, Lottie also has a psychic vision of Laura Lee from the past. She gets distracted by the vision, and by the time she gets out of it, it’s too late to save Travis.

This is the story she tells Natalie.

Is Lottie telling the truth?

It’s hard to say whether Lottie was telling the truth or not because we know the complicated relationship she has with Natalie. We’ve seen Lottie manipulate Natalie before so it wouldn’t be entirely unnatural for her to be doing the same thing now.

Lottie also never explains why she took all the money from Travis’ bank account. It’s not like she was in desperate need of it because she comes from a wealthy family and her “wellness centres” seem to be quite a successful business.

Be that as it may, it doesn’t seem like Lottie had any reason to go as far as killing Travis. If she really did have a psychic vision, then she’s not the only one still being traumatized by her past and this would have actually made her more empathetic towards Travis’ situation.

The story of Travis’ death still feels incomplete and knowing Natalie, she’ll probably be doing some more digging to find out all the facts. Hopefully the next episodes will give us a clearer picture.

Catch episode 4 of Yellowjackets season 2 on April 16, 2023.

About Yellowjackets

Yellowjackets is an American television drama series created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson. 

In 1996, a team of New Jersey high school soccer players travel to Seattle for a national tournament. While flying over Canada, their plane crashes deep in the wilderness, and the remaining team members are left to survive for nineteen months. The series chronicles their survival attempts while also tracking their current lives in 2021.

It stars Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci, Lauren Ambrose, Simone Kessell, and more. The second season is premiering now