‘Yellowjackets’ Cast Reacts to Getting ‘Payoff’ in Season 3 Finale (Exclusive)

Warning: This story contains spoilers from Yellowjackets season 3 finale. 

After another wild season, Yellowjackets has come to a close with many things — even moments from the season 1 premiere — coming full circle as the series answers a bunch of questions while cliffhangers in both timelines set up plenty to explore in the future.

While speaking to PEOPLE, much of the ensemble cast, including Melanie Lynskey, Simone Kessell, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Nélisse and more, share their reactions to all the wild things that went down in the season 3 closer, aptly titled “Full Circle.”

“The finale is so fun. We were very excited about it,” Nélisse, 25, says. 

“I think I dropped my script. I dropped it or threw it, I can’t remember. It might have been both,” Brown, 31, says of her reaction to reading the episode. “It’s a big one. That one’s a doozy. I think people will be screaming at their TVs, like, oh my God, it’s such a good ending.” 

Echoing that sentiment, Courtney Eaton (Lottie) says, “Everyone had a good little scream. It was just like a badass moment in the last episode.”

Kevin Alves (Travis) , meanwhile, says he “felt so satisfied” by the finale. “I think people are gonna feel so good seeing how this season ends,” Alves, 33, says of the show’s fans, before Eaton, 29, jumps in to add that some people will be “a little pissed off.” 

“So happy and then so mad,” Alves quips. 

Not only that, but “it’s nice to finally get some payoff, and I think fans are really going to indulge in that and appreciate the fact that we’ve been teasing out so many things for so long now,” says Steven Krueger, who played the ill-fated Coach Ben Scott before he was killed off in episode 6. “It’s like, ‘Here’s your payoff season.’ ”

So what exactly happened? 

When it comes to the past timeline, audiences finally got an answer to a question first prompted in the opening of the pilot episode: Who was the girl that fell into the trap and then slaughtered by others in the snowy wilderness? As it turns out, Mari (Alexa Barajas) was the latest teammate to get killed and cannibalized by the remaining plane crash survivors. 

That answer came on top of other big lingering questions about the wilderness, such as what were those noises out in the woods? Episode 7 answered that one by revealing it was mating Arctic Banshee frogs. “What are they listening to? I’m excited for people to start to see that,” Alves previously told PEOPLE.  

Meanwhile, that pit Mari fell into was originally created by the researchers and their guide — Hannah (Ashley Sutton), Edin (Nelson Franklin) and Kodi (Joel McHale) — before Coach Ben raided it of its supplies and Travis eventually put spikes in it, making it a deadly trap. 

Of course, Mari could have survived the slaughter if some of the other girls — including Van (Liv Hewson) and Taissa (Brown) — had it their way. In an attempt to stack the deck, it would have been Hannah who they were hunting for. But Shauna (Nélisse) intervened with that plan before later taking over as the Antler Queen and the new leader of the group, leading them in another ritualistic and cannibalistic feast of one of their own. 

Natalie (Sophie Thatcher), meanwhile, got the satellite radio equipment from Van and Misty (Samantha Hanratty) and fled for the mountains, where she’s able to make contact with someone on the frequency. 

Speaking to those revelations in the past, Krueger, 35, says, “We finally get some answers to what happened out there, how it happened, how it’s now impacting the women as they’re older and in later stages of their life.” 

As for the present timeline, it came with its own answers and its own emotional stakes, especially after Melissa (Hilary Swank) unexpectedly killed Van (Lauren Ambrose) in episode 9. 

Reflecting on Van and Taissa’s (Tawny Cypress) arc in season 3, which saw them falling back in love while also finding themselves at odds over whether to make another sacrifice in order to save Van from her terminal cancer diagnosis, Ambrose, 47 says, “Reconnecting with Taissa has been this sort of enlivening, amazing and sort of dangerous poison to play with.” 

She adds, “These two go on this crazy journey together.” 

“When we first started this season, we were like, ‘Let’s just tell the most beautiful love story that we can.’ I think that’s really what we tried to do this season with the characters,” Cypress, 48, says of what their characters went through, especially in the wake of the final two episodes. “It’s up to you guys whether we were successful or not.” 

While the rest of the adult women were still reeling from Van’s death, they were also trying to finally solve who killed Lottie (Kessell). And as it turns out, it wasn’t Shauna (Lynskey) but her daughter, Callie (Sarah Desjardins), who pushed the former survivor and cult leader down a flight of stairs after confronting her over the tape Melissa sent her mother.  

“The interesting thing about the finale is there are a lot of things that are answered, a lot of mysteries about Lottie that are answered,” Lynskey, 47, says of her reaction to “a really exciting” episode.

“We had one of our showrunners direct that episode,” Kessell, 49, says, referring to Bart Nickerson, who co-created the show alongside Ashley Lyle. “So that was good because we could really dive deep into the emotions and the backstory and the understanding of what went on.” 

During Callie’s attempt to get the tape — which features audio of the young survivors killing Edwin and Hannah’s message to her daughter — Lottie tells her to embrace the feeling from the wilderness, which freaks her out because it’s something she’s been struggling with all season. 

“Callie’s very determined to find answers this season because she’s really wanting to look inward and understand herself better and that also means understanding her mom and what the heck is going on,” Desjardins, 30, previously told PEOPLE. 

The latest revelation about Lottie left the adult women — mostly Misty (Christina Ricci) — at odds with each other, while Shauna’s daughter and husband, Jeff (Warren Kole), have left their home and disconnected their phones, seemingly dashing any hope the Sadecki family could finally come back together. 

The episode ends with Shauna finding Melissa’s letter, explaining why she sent the tape in the first place. She then rips it up as she flashes back to all the things she’s done as an adult before breaking down. 

Shauna starts writing a letter about the adult survivors’ struggle to remember exactly what happened out in the wilderness and why they don’t — because it would acknowledge that they had fun doing what they did. Shauna then says that she was a “warrior, a f—— queen” before letting it all slip away from her. “It’s time for me to start taking it back,” Shauna concludes. 

“What’s crazy is that despite everything they do this season and what they’ve done in prior seasons, I think, at the end, you root for them more than ever,” Nélisse says. 

“Everything is coming to the surface now,” Desjardins adds. “Everything is needing to be faced and acknowledged and we’re having to sit in this reality. Like, we can’t go back. There’s no going back.” 

Looking ahead, Lynskey says with the finale, especially where things leave off with Shauna, “there’s still some things that are very much open. Like, it’s really setting the path for things to come in season 4, hopefully if season 4 happens.” 

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Yellowjackets season 3 is now streaming on Paramount+ with SHOWTIME.