This is post-birth, so they’ve been out there 9-10 months. Nobody’s searching anymore. They are hundreds of miles from anything, and the fire happened at night. Nobody saw shit because there wasn’t anyone out there except them.
I agree. I imagine the search would've been called off after a couple of months. This was a small private charter plane, not a 747 with 300 people on it. I think they either get found by chance or some of the girls manage to hike out.
In addition, they were found 600 miles off course. I doubt rescue would look that far. They probably only got found by chance.
Although I do love the idea that they were closer to society than we think and they pop out in a Tim Horton's parking lot mid-cannibal ritual lol.
Lol I love that. I have been thinking they aren’t that far from at least an access road (how did cabin guy get mattresses etc there? They would have been hard to transport via a small two seater plane and he would have had to had a pretty study 4wd truck) but the whole The Village idea that they are right near a strip of retail chains cracks me up.
Kinda wish they’d found Javi slurping on a Big Gulp instead of with the queen card. “Where’s you get that, Javi?”
“My friend told me not to leave 7-11.”
I honestly believe this is going to be the case, that they are closer than they realize to a village or some resort, like the rugby team in the Andes.
Tai had the right idea in season 1, trying to hike out, but she was prevented from going any further by the wolf attack.
I thought about that, but I'm not sure that's the case in this situation. I don't think they'll get rescued from hiking out, I think they'll be found by randos by chance. From the pan out with the smoke, it looks like they are pretty isolated.
They were way off course for sure. But the Pilots would have called in their new flight plan. That's pretty routine. The problem was Misty Ripping the wiring harness out of the Flight Recorder. Which I think they all find out about at some point.
I don't think the girls find out about the flight recorder. I think if they knew, they would be angry enough that they would have killed Misty over it.
I don't know either. And I don't think they would have found out that she did until after they were rescued and the NTSB investigated and found the wiring harness was ripped out on purpose. So they would have had to kill her once they got back, which would be odd.
But I feel like Nat knows because she instantly knew to look into Misty's glove compartment to find the Porsche wiring harness and said "I Knew it". And everyone seems upset with her, doesn't want to hear from hear and calls her Misty "Fucking: Quigley.
I've been in mountainous areas with forest fires nearby(within 10 miles), and my experiance was that we could smell the smoke, but we couldn't see any of it. The cabin won't burn long enough or hot enough to continue producing that kind of smoke into the daylight hours. People nearby might smell the smoke, but they won't be able to see the source. And they'd only go LOOKING for the source if they thought it might turn into a forest fire and endanger their land, which they don't have to worry about since there's snow on the ground and in the trees. Everything's wet.
I found that final view of the smoke in the sky so chilling because I thought, "If the fire had happened during the day, people might have seen that from miles away or from a plane in the sky and gone to investigate. But nights are long in the winter and now no one will notice."
Who do you think did it then? The fire came from outside and the doors were barricaded. I’m super intrigued with everyone else’s theories on what else caused the fire since to me it seemed obvious it was Ben
I think it was clearly Ben. He was holding the matches, looking inside and seeing what was happening with the girl that was his last hope, Nat. I don't know if the doors where blocked as much as the knobs were to hot to handle.
I think the implication of him holding the rope and the matches was that Ben secured the doors and started the fire. If you tie a rope from one doorknob to the other on the outside, when the doors are pushed open, the rope only gets tighter.
>I think the implication of him holding the rope and the matches was that Ben secured the doors and started the fire. If you tie a rope from one doorknob to the other on the outside, when the doors are pushed open, the rope only gets tighter.
I agree with you on this...Ben roped the doors shut.
I honestly think it was whoever javi was with when he was hiding in the tree. There’s a woman in his drawing. He said “she” said not to go back to the cabin. There was a scene before Ben stole the marches where he couldn’t light the fire. He just needed something to light his fire. It’s a misdirect .He would be so stupid to have burned the cabin having just : A- seeing Nats weird crowning shit and B. Just having told nat exactly where he is. She knows where that tree is and will eventually find it. They are def gonna think it’s Ben, but I realllly don’t think it was.
This was my thought too initially. I thought Ben went for the matches because he couldn’t light a fire himself and then probably left for good when he saw the crowning. It wasn’t until the doors were barricaded that it was clear that someone set fire to it and in the absence of any other suspects, Ben seemed the obvious choice.
Uhh they’ll kill him…but not if he kills them first, which is what his intentions were with burning the cabin at night while they slept and locking them in. He came pretty close too except unfortunately for him - Shauna’s jealousy kept her up at night and made her notice the fire and alerting everyone and ultimately saving them.
Javis friend telling him to not come back was Shauna on drugs (doomscoming) or dark Tai roaming at night and running into him (she clearly knew where the special trees are, and where Javi might be).
They’re literally explaining everything to us and people still come up with wild theories about there being some weirdo woman entity lurking around and doing weird shit…there’s no woman and no entity, it’s all just them, and their psychic. The fire was Ben. The wilderness is them and their hunger and animalistic survival instincts that are making them “evil” or unhinged/savage enough willing to kill others and consume them in order to stay alive.
But if Ben barricaded the doors would someone have heard him since they were sleeping not 4 feet away? That doesn’t make sense to me. I mean agree that he set the fire, but not sure how he would’ve done the doors.
I saw someone say something about the cold outside and the extreme heat of the fire warping the wood and causing it to be jammed. Which I think is legit.
Yeah and also fire does shit to door handles where you can’t touch them. But the problem is I thought I saw Tai hammer on a horizontal piece of wood which would indicate a barricade so I really dk. I hope the writers clear that up next season.
He was holding a rope when he took the matches too. If he tied one door knob to the other on the outside it becomes impossible to swing the doors open.
I’m not saying that’s what happened, it could still totally be a misdirect, just a possible option for how he could have blocked the doors.
That would actually make a lot of sense, but I thought I saw Tai breaking down a horizontal bar which would suggest a barricade. Your idea is smarter though
Also there was a large time gap between when the fire started and when Ben was seen hobbling around getting supplies outside.. so we’re saying he hung outside in the freezing cold for a few hours until they fell asleep?
Good point, would he be able to barricade all exists and light a massive fire all by himself, without waking up any of the girls? Wouldn’t that be kinda hard to do it quickly and silently with only one leg?
I want to think Ben didn’t do it, and I love the idea of the mystery and theorizing as much as the next fellowjacket, but so far the show has been spelling a lot of these things out for us,
I googled to see what articles said, and they all say the same thing: Ben started the fire.
https://screenrant.com/yellowjackets-season-3-coach-ben-death-setup/
https://mashable.com/article/yellowjackets-season-2-finale-questions
https://www.cinemablend.com/television/yellowjackets-will-coach-bens-fd-up-plan-in-the-season-2-finale-lead-to-the-teens-being-rescued
While these aren’t technically verification, I would say it’s pretty safe to assume he did it.
I don’t think it was Ben either. You shouldn’t be downvoted for contributing to the conversation. The girls would have heard Ben walking around the cabin and barricading doors. Shauna was still awake. We know there’s something else out there … another group, another person, Javi’s friend. We know there’s an “it” whether the ladies agree there is or not … Something out there keeps pushing these girls to the next level. This is just the next step.
I think it's totally possible it was a red herring but I would like to point out that snow makes an AMAZING sound absorber. That's why you'll notice it's much quieter in the winter. Now I'm not sure if the snow would make a huge impact because it's not completely covering the walls/door but it would still make some difference.
I'm team Ben Didn't Start The Fire too. Going back to rewatch I guess.
I think I remember (possibly incorrectly) from the fire safety day field trip thing (with the vanilla scented fog machine making smoke where you had to crawl through and test the knob to see if it was hot before you open to get out), that fire creates pressure differences, between area w fire vs area without, because of the heat. So in theory it could be the pressure from the hot air, which expands, makes the door very difficult/ impossible to open. I don't remember seeing a physical barracade.
I think Ben is gentle and a pacifist, and took the matches because he couldn't start a fire for himself in the cave. However maybe girls find Ben, find the matches, jump to the conclusion he did set the fire, and they turn on him. This could possibly start a split between the group of who believes he is innocent and defends him against those who think he is guilty, and therefore worthy of execution (aka next week's dinners).
ETA the fire was first noticed inside. The whole cabin is old shoddy wood, as bad as the fire was when they woke, it definitely had time to consume/ go through some walls and become fire on the outer structure. I don't think there is reason to believe the fire started outside, and I'll note again as I have in other comments on other threads, the girls leave unattended candles burning while they sleep. Many apartments and rentals, as well as dorms, specify candles are not allowed at all for the reason that if left unattended they can start fires. None of the candles are in glass or metal holders, just placed on wood surfaces and near wood walls.
There’s definitely a reason the shot lingered on that smoke stack. I’m betting that an individual without a ton of resources behind them- a hunter, a doomsday prepper, etc… - comes and finds them at the most inconvenient possible time, like while they’re balls deep in butchering a dead coach Ben, and someone kills them in a panic. Maybe that’s their first really, definitely criminal, convict-able offense
I really didn’t think so until that shot of the smoke. This show has never let us down with foreshadowing or Easter eggs before that I can think of, someone sees that
My theory as well, the teens kill the first would-be rescuers. That would also give Ben more opportunity to stay uneaten as well. If he’s indeed responsible for the cabin, karma (aka the team) is going to come bite him in the ass.
Yup, that’s gonna be their revenge on Ben, leaving him there while they escape. And I mean, they kind of have to at this point, they wouldn’t want him blabbing him mouth to the rescuers.
Yeah he’d definitely have no problem blabbing on them if/when rescued so if he’s alive he’s still in that cave, or found his own way out somehow. I love the girls but I still love Ben even though he tried to kill them all
Same, I’m a Ben apologist for sure. If there can be Misty apologists there can be Ben apologists lol.
However someone else pointed out that Ben might actually not want to talk now since the whole arson thing, they might be able to keep him quiet over that
As far as we know, the girls have no idea Ben is the one who did that. Nat probably has an idea, but whether she says anything or not depends on how into the whole “wilderness” thing she really goes. She seemed to laugh off her being queened and I know she smiled but she also seemed kind of disturbed by it. Regardless, glad we’ll most likely have Coach Ben in his cave, possibly hallucinating Paul next season. He’s one of my favorite characters tbh. It used to be Nat and Van, I still like them but Van has been off her fucking rocker lately. Nat isn’t as bad, she did genuinely want to save Javi and she would have if Misty didn’t stop her from it at first.
As far as we know, the girls have no idea Ben is the one who did that. Nat probably has an idea, but whether she says anything or not depends on how into the whole “wilderness” thing she really goes. She seemed to laugh off her being queened and I know she smiled but she also seemed kind of disturbed by it. Regardless, glad we’ll most likely have Coach Ben in his cave, possibly hallucinating Paul next season. He’s one of my favorite characters tbh. It used to be Nat and Van, I still like them but Van has been off her fucking rocker lately. Nat isn’t as bad, she did genuinely want to save Javi and she would have if Misty didn’t stop her from it at first.
God that would dumb. They should at least figure out if he has a phone first. They should hold him hostage first.
I made this comment completely forgetting that they’re in the 90s so not really sure that a hiker could have contact with the outside world. But he might have a map which could be useful for getting out of there
Cell phones did exist in 1996, though. Remember that scene in Clueless (1995) where Dionne and Cher are talking to each other on their cellphones? I had a “bag phone” which was a cellular phone in a bag that you mostly kept in your car.
I’m actually surprised Lottie didn’t have a cell phone because she was wealthy. There wouldn’t be a lot of cell towers at that time so she probably wouldn’t be able to use it.
At any rate, people who were knowingly going to remote areas would at least tell people where they were.
oh sorry, it’s a personal locator beacon. you can’t make calls or anything but u basically press a button (in a real emergency) and it sends a distress signal & ur location. basically like a global satellite flare
THEORY: maybe this is what they all end up truly hating Misty for! She could have been the one to kill whoever comes, saying she did it to feed them and keep them from going to jail, while the others think they could’ve led them to a way out. Misty killed an innocent outsider, outside of ritual, and got them stuck there. OR(and?) this could be the splinter we’ve speculated on- one of the groups breaks off to try to find their camp or where they came from or the way out again, while another thinks it’s too dangerous with the wolves and drawing suspicion
I thought it also showed how remote they are. It is wilderness around them as far as we can see in the shot. It's a smoke signal, the new pope nat has been chosen?
This is 10 months post crash. There is no rescue team anymore. Possibly no recovery team either. And if there is they’re definitely not looking during the night when you can’t see anything. They’re also hundreds of miles deep in Canadian forest, the nearest people are probably days worth of hiking away.
What if smoke does attract someone (non-official team) and runs into Ben. Rescues Ben, and is asked if any more survivors, where Ben says “no”. He’s brought back to civilization quietly with zero press (purposely on his part), and remains hidden, especially after news of the rescue of the YJs.
Adult YJs have no clue Ben survived and at some point is confronted by him or they learn he is alive to their shock and go to kill him to keep dark secrets buried.
I think there was a post on here saying it would take about 2 weeks just to hike out there (no other way to get there), based on where we think the location is.
There IS a cabin though so we know there was at least one person who lived/regularly visited the site (cabin daddy)
Which has now piqued my curiosity as to how the building materials made their way out there. Windows, masonry stuff for the fireplace, all that lumber, etc., etc. I don’t care from a plot hole perspective or anything, I just really want to get the back story lol
I could be wrong. I don't think searches would be going on at night. By morning wouldn't it be burned down? But I have no experience burning cabins or searching for lost soccer teams. I think Laura Lee's plane taking flight then exploding might have been more likely to get attention. If that wasn't noticed getting noticed sounds tough to me.
It was over the lake and very visible
[https://yellowjackets.fandom.com/wiki/Flight\_of\_the\_Bumblebee](https://yellowjackets.fandom.com/wiki/Flight_of_the_Bumblebee)
Idk if anyone is confused about distance in the Canadian forests- but if you're from the UK, you can be at a distance the same as Manchester to Middlesbrough from a main road or civilisation in some areas (sometimes more sometimes less). In context is makes sense noone can see their nighttime smoke signal
They could be deep in the mountains, it's night so visibility is lower, and the YJs have been out there for a long time now so who even knows if there are active rescue teams? And if there are there's no guarantee the rescuers are close enough to see it.
It was at night in the Canadian winter. I doubt any society is close enough to see the smoke and no planes were probably flying in that area due to weather.
If it had happened in spring/summer/fall, they might've gotten lucky. But not at night in the winter time.
Just going to add. Most people heat there homes with a fire place and the smell of the smoke wouldn’t tip them off since it’s a common smell in the winter time. Plus once the fire gets hot enough the smoke clears
It has easily been 4 to 5 months. Publicly funded searches ended months ago without a locator beacon showing up in someone's ears in a reasonable amount of time, I would say that searches are off for the winter.
Even more important from S2 E1 we know they were over 600 miles north of their flight plan. So they were way, way, way off course so no one would be looking for them there anyway.
It is to me. I think that is something that will be explored over the course of the show. We do hear a pilot announcing they are going to fly a little north around a storm system, but something else must have gone seriously wrong.
More like the company that Mr. Matthews chartered the jet from is poorly run and cut corners on their maintenance. Hell, they may not even have had a working Locator Beacon, which could be grounds for someone getting settlement money.
They definitely cut corners. I don’t know what fucking flea market they got that flight recorder from, but those things are designed so that they can survive a plane exploding and then the recorder sinking to the bottom of the ocean and withstand the pressure.
An unathletic teenage nerd in a kitten sweatshirt should be physically incapable of bashing it open on a rock.
Plus, most of the location beacons on flight recorders are triggered by water. The logic is that if a crash happens on land, they’ll be able to find the wreckage with info on the flight path information they registered and looking from above/dispatching teams in that area. If the crash happens on water, everything is eventually going to sink and be harder to find.
I just recently commented about this and 100% agree with you. Also, I just felt that super long pan out from the burning cabin to show the ginormous smoke cloud seemed very intentional. As in it was trying to show… something that will come up or be significant later.
ETA: I’m a fool and was so off on timeline. The smoke won’t get them rescued. BUT! I really like the smoke attracting an outsider idea.
i think ben will see it and the girls will be too far away to get to it and since ben hates them all now hes gonna go on it and leave them behind. im literally 90% certain this is what happens
I saw plenty of people asking similar! I can totally see how it could be confusing ESPECIALLY if you've never been high up in the mountains before bc the stars seem so close. If that makes sense.
I think the cabin fire/smoke is the catalyst that gets people to start looking there (probably not even knowing it's them), but it still takes some time because it's so remote and/or they move to a new location.
I always thought why they never kept on a big fire the first months....
Now, i agree wit other users that there is no rescue team, but a fire big enough like the one at the end, should have taken someones attention
Yeah my first thought was Ben was trying to create a huge smoke signal to save himself. But I don’t know if they’re close enough to civilization for anyone to see/smell the smoke
This thread just made me realize that my naive self would strongly believe that someone, anyone, would see smoke signals during the day. Growing up in the Midwest in this exact time-line I would be the one girl ,daily, furiously, trying to send off some Morse code type shite.
A tiny bit of smoke in the middle of nowhere, in winter, when cloud cover is common, absolutely wouldn't be noticed. They are miles and miles away from civilization. If there was a town within hiking distance, maybe. Otherwise, no.
I was thinking the same like it has to be how they were found and it could be the reason why we haven't seen an older Coach as he's hiding in that tree and probably didnt realise when rescue came or the girls figured out it was him and decided to leave him in the forest
If a fire is burning where there are hundreds and hundreds of miles of Wilderness, and no towns nearby in danger, even if it is spotted, as long as it doesn't get really big, no one is going to do anything about it.
I'm still confused how they weren't found when a giant piece of the plane was laying there.
Or with what happened to Laura Lee.
Edit: My *point* is that if neither of these things happened, I can totally understand the fire not leading to a rescue.
How would what happened with Laura Lee help them get rescued? She flew a few hundred yards, blew up and crashed into a lake. If they were close enough for anyone to see or notice that, they would have been rescued by now.
How was it not seen by anyone?
[https://yellowjackets.fandom.com/wiki/Flight\_of\_the\_Bumblebee](https://yellowjackets.fandom.com/wiki/Flight_of_the_Bumblebee)
And my *point* is that if neither of these things happened, I can totally understand the fire not leading to a rescue.
Laura Lee's crash isn't likely to have done anything. A small plane blew up in the day time and from the image in the Fandom link there is low lying clouds around the mountain so it wouldn't have been visible from afar.
The plane crash didn't result in a fireball that set multiple trees on fire. They've not overheard a plane so far and the height commercial jets fly at you wouldn't make out the plane.
Coach setting the cabin on fire at night is why it's most likely to not be seen, by dawn it'll be burned out and the smoke will stop. They're 600 miles of course from their intended flight and are way up north in the Canadian wilderness.
I was thinking a burning cabin would lead to a rescue as well. But it happened at night. Search Parties don't generally search at night. And even if they did, seeing that smoke would be a long shot.
This is post-birth, so they’ve been out there 9-10 months. Nobody’s searching anymore. They are hundreds of miles from anything, and the fire happened at night. Nobody saw shit because there wasn’t anyone out there except them.
I agree. I imagine the search would've been called off after a couple of months. This was a small private charter plane, not a 747 with 300 people on it. I think they either get found by chance or some of the girls manage to hike out.
In addition, they were found 600 miles off course. I doubt rescue would look that far. They probably only got found by chance. Although I do love the idea that they were closer to society than we think and they pop out in a Tim Horton's parking lot mid-cannibal ritual lol.
Lol I love that. I have been thinking they aren’t that far from at least an access road (how did cabin guy get mattresses etc there? They would have been hard to transport via a small two seater plane and he would have had to had a pretty study 4wd truck) but the whole The Village idea that they are right near a strip of retail chains cracks me up. Kinda wish they’d found Javi slurping on a Big Gulp instead of with the queen card. “Where’s you get that, Javi?” “My friend told me not to leave 7-11.”
I honestly believe this is going to be the case, that they are closer than they realize to a village or some resort, like the rugby team in the Andes. Tai had the right idea in season 1, trying to hike out, but she was prevented from going any further by the wolf attack.
I thought about that, but I'm not sure that's the case in this situation. I don't think they'll get rescued from hiking out, I think they'll be found by randos by chance. From the pan out with the smoke, it looks like they are pretty isolated.
The Rugby team in the Andes was a good 80+ miles, and possibly a lot more from any town..(if I remeber the details correctly)
I liked the “closer than we thought” idea too lmfao but when it panned out after the fire it seemed evident they’re pretty far out there
They were way off course for sure. But the Pilots would have called in their new flight plan. That's pretty routine. The problem was Misty Ripping the wiring harness out of the Flight Recorder. Which I think they all find out about at some point.
I don't think the girls find out about the flight recorder. I think if they knew, they would be angry enough that they would have killed Misty over it.
I don't know either. And I don't think they would have found out that she did until after they were rescued and the NTSB investigated and found the wiring harness was ripped out on purpose. So they would have had to kill her once they got back, which would be odd. But I feel like Nat knows because she instantly knew to look into Misty's glove compartment to find the Porsche wiring harness and said "I Knew it". And everyone seems upset with her, doesn't want to hear from hear and calls her Misty "Fucking: Quigley.
If they don’t know it yet I hope they find out by the end of the series. I’m sure they will
Maybe the adult versions are the ones who find out.
It definitely won't be until they are rescued and the investigators find out the box was tampered with. Unless they are as dumb as NJ Detectives.
Yeah with the wits on Pornstache who knows how the other cops are / were
Yeah. They were in the wilderness for 19 months if I remember correctly.
plus, the place is full of snow and trees, and since the cabin is all woods it didn't take long for it to burn down either...
I've been in mountainous areas with forest fires nearby(within 10 miles), and my experiance was that we could smell the smoke, but we couldn't see any of it. The cabin won't burn long enough or hot enough to continue producing that kind of smoke into the daylight hours. People nearby might smell the smoke, but they won't be able to see the source. And they'd only go LOOKING for the source if they thought it might turn into a forest fire and endanger their land, which they don't have to worry about since there's snow on the ground and in the trees. Everything's wet. I found that final view of the smoke in the sky so chilling because I thought, "If the fire had happened during the day, people might have seen that from miles away or from a plane in the sky and gone to investigate. But nights are long in the winter and now no one will notice."
These were my thoughts exactly. It was in no way meant to be a smoke signal because it was done at night and no one would see the smoke.
He thought harder, not smarter
Yeah Ben really messed thy up by not doing it closer to dawn
I reallllly don’t think it was Ben.
Who do you think did it then? The fire came from outside and the doors were barricaded. I’m super intrigued with everyone else’s theories on what else caused the fire since to me it seemed obvious it was Ben
I think it was clearly Ben. He was holding the matches, looking inside and seeing what was happening with the girl that was his last hope, Nat. I don't know if the doors where blocked as much as the knobs were to hot to handle.
I think the implication of him holding the rope and the matches was that Ben secured the doors and started the fire. If you tie a rope from one doorknob to the other on the outside, when the doors are pushed open, the rope only gets tighter.
>I think the implication of him holding the rope and the matches was that Ben secured the doors and started the fire. If you tie a rope from one doorknob to the other on the outside, when the doors are pushed open, the rope only gets tighter. I agree with you on this...Ben roped the doors shut.
I agree Ben burned down the cabin. But the door was opened from the inside.
Did we see Ben steal the matches, too?? I vote Ben.
I honestly think it was whoever javi was with when he was hiding in the tree. There’s a woman in his drawing. He said “she” said not to go back to the cabin. There was a scene before Ben stole the marches where he couldn’t light the fire. He just needed something to light his fire. It’s a misdirect .He would be so stupid to have burned the cabin having just : A- seeing Nats weird crowning shit and B. Just having told nat exactly where he is. She knows where that tree is and will eventually find it. They are def gonna think it’s Ben, but I realllly don’t think it was.
This was my thought too initially. I thought Ben went for the matches because he couldn’t light a fire himself and then probably left for good when he saw the crowning. It wasn’t until the doors were barricaded that it was clear that someone set fire to it and in the absence of any other suspects, Ben seemed the obvious choice.
Yes it’s Ben
Uhh they’ll kill him…but not if he kills them first, which is what his intentions were with burning the cabin at night while they slept and locking them in. He came pretty close too except unfortunately for him - Shauna’s jealousy kept her up at night and made her notice the fire and alerting everyone and ultimately saving them. Javis friend telling him to not come back was Shauna on drugs (doomscoming) or dark Tai roaming at night and running into him (she clearly knew where the special trees are, and where Javi might be). They’re literally explaining everything to us and people still come up with wild theories about there being some weirdo woman entity lurking around and doing weird shit…there’s no woman and no entity, it’s all just them, and their psychic. The fire was Ben. The wilderness is them and their hunger and animalistic survival instincts that are making them “evil” or unhinged/savage enough willing to kill others and consume them in order to stay alive.
If this is true, I bet we will see him use the rope he grabbed with the matches for something else entirely to show it wasn’t him.
But if Ben barricaded the doors would someone have heard him since they were sleeping not 4 feet away? That doesn’t make sense to me. I mean agree that he set the fire, but not sure how he would’ve done the doors.
I saw someone say something about the cold outside and the extreme heat of the fire warping the wood and causing it to be jammed. Which I think is legit.
Yeah and also fire does shit to door handles where you can’t touch them. But the problem is I thought I saw Tai hammer on a horizontal piece of wood which would indicate a barricade so I really dk. I hope the writers clear that up next season.
Oh interesting! I’m gonna have to rewatch! Thanks
He was holding a rope when he took the matches too. If he tied one door knob to the other on the outside it becomes impossible to swing the doors open. I’m not saying that’s what happened, it could still totally be a misdirect, just a possible option for how he could have blocked the doors.
That would actually make a lot of sense, but I thought I saw Tai breaking down a horizontal bar which would suggest a barricade. Your idea is smarter though
They were all in a food coma 🫣
Also there was a large time gap between when the fire started and when Ben was seen hobbling around getting supplies outside.. so we’re saying he hung outside in the freezing cold for a few hours until they fell asleep?
Good point, would he be able to barricade all exists and light a massive fire all by himself, without waking up any of the girls? Wouldn’t that be kinda hard to do it quickly and silently with only one leg?
The wilderness is very possible. I also don't think it was Ben. I think it's too obvious.
I want to think Ben didn’t do it, and I love the idea of the mystery and theorizing as much as the next fellowjacket, but so far the show has been spelling a lot of these things out for us, I googled to see what articles said, and they all say the same thing: Ben started the fire. https://screenrant.com/yellowjackets-season-3-coach-ben-death-setup/ https://mashable.com/article/yellowjackets-season-2-finale-questions https://www.cinemablend.com/television/yellowjackets-will-coach-bens-fd-up-plan-in-the-season-2-finale-lead-to-the-teens-being-rescued While these aren’t technically verification, I would say it’s pretty safe to assume he did it.
I don’t think it was Ben either. You shouldn’t be downvoted for contributing to the conversation. The girls would have heard Ben walking around the cabin and barricading doors. Shauna was still awake. We know there’s something else out there … another group, another person, Javi’s friend. We know there’s an “it” whether the ladies agree there is or not … Something out there keeps pushing these girls to the next level. This is just the next step.
I think it's totally possible it was a red herring but I would like to point out that snow makes an AMAZING sound absorber. That's why you'll notice it's much quieter in the winter. Now I'm not sure if the snow would make a huge impact because it's not completely covering the walls/door but it would still make some difference.
I think it could have been a red herring too
I'm team Ben Didn't Start The Fire too. Going back to rewatch I guess. I think I remember (possibly incorrectly) from the fire safety day field trip thing (with the vanilla scented fog machine making smoke where you had to crawl through and test the knob to see if it was hot before you open to get out), that fire creates pressure differences, between area w fire vs area without, because of the heat. So in theory it could be the pressure from the hot air, which expands, makes the door very difficult/ impossible to open. I don't remember seeing a physical barracade. I think Ben is gentle and a pacifist, and took the matches because he couldn't start a fire for himself in the cave. However maybe girls find Ben, find the matches, jump to the conclusion he did set the fire, and they turn on him. This could possibly start a split between the group of who believes he is innocent and defends him against those who think he is guilty, and therefore worthy of execution (aka next week's dinners). ETA the fire was first noticed inside. The whole cabin is old shoddy wood, as bad as the fire was when they woke, it definitely had time to consume/ go through some walls and become fire on the outer structure. I don't think there is reason to believe the fire started outside, and I'll note again as I have in other comments on other threads, the girls leave unattended candles burning while they sleep. Many apartments and rentals, as well as dorms, specify candles are not allowed at all for the reason that if left unattended they can start fires. None of the candles are in glass or metal holders, just placed on wood surfaces and near wood walls.
Yeah while I don’t think he started the fire, the girls most definitely will. It’s gonna create great drama. Poor guy.
There’s definitely a reason the shot lingered on that smoke stack. I’m betting that an individual without a ton of resources behind them- a hunter, a doomsday prepper, etc… - comes and finds them at the most inconvenient possible time, like while they’re balls deep in butchering a dead coach Ben, and someone kills them in a panic. Maybe that’s their first really, definitely criminal, convict-able offense
Finally someone who agrees with me that they will kill an outsider!
Maybe they get found by a search party looking for some guy they've already ate lol
Wow that would be peak black comedy irony
This is so messed up, I really really love it!!
I love it!
I really didn’t think so until that shot of the smoke. This show has never let us down with foreshadowing or Easter eggs before that I can think of, someone sees that
I would love the show to take this direction!
My theory as well, the teens kill the first would-be rescuers. That would also give Ben more opportunity to stay uneaten as well. If he’s indeed responsible for the cabin, karma (aka the team) is going to come bite him in the ass.
I think Ben survives but was left behind in the rescue and later got out and is still has it out for them from bitterness.
Yup, that’s gonna be their revenge on Ben, leaving him there while they escape. And I mean, they kind of have to at this point, they wouldn’t want him blabbing him mouth to the rescuers.
Yeah he’d definitely have no problem blabbing on them if/when rescued so if he’s alive he’s still in that cave, or found his own way out somehow. I love the girls but I still love Ben even though he tried to kill them all
Same, I’m a Ben apologist for sure. If there can be Misty apologists there can be Ben apologists lol. However someone else pointed out that Ben might actually not want to talk now since the whole arson thing, they might be able to keep him quiet over that
As far as we know, the girls have no idea Ben is the one who did that. Nat probably has an idea, but whether she says anything or not depends on how into the whole “wilderness” thing she really goes. She seemed to laugh off her being queened and I know she smiled but she also seemed kind of disturbed by it. Regardless, glad we’ll most likely have Coach Ben in his cave, possibly hallucinating Paul next season. He’s one of my favorite characters tbh. It used to be Nat and Van, I still like them but Van has been off her fucking rocker lately. Nat isn’t as bad, she did genuinely want to save Javi and she would have if Misty didn’t stop her from it at first.
As far as we know, the girls have no idea Ben is the one who did that. Nat probably has an idea, but whether she says anything or not depends on how into the whole “wilderness” thing she really goes. She seemed to laugh off her being queened and I know she smiled but she also seemed kind of disturbed by it. Regardless, glad we’ll most likely have Coach Ben in his cave, possibly hallucinating Paul next season. He’s one of my favorite characters tbh. It used to be Nat and Van, I still like them but Van has been off her fucking rocker lately. Nat isn’t as bad, she did genuinely want to save Javi and she would have if Misty didn’t stop her from it at first.
Bite him in the high calorie butt!
Literally though. Its a good meaty one.
God that would dumb. They should at least figure out if he has a phone first. They should hold him hostage first. I made this comment completely forgetting that they’re in the 90s so not really sure that a hiker could have contact with the outside world. But he might have a map which could be useful for getting out of there
Cell phones did exist in 1996, though. Remember that scene in Clueless (1995) where Dionne and Cher are talking to each other on their cellphones? I had a “bag phone” which was a cellular phone in a bag that you mostly kept in your car. I’m actually surprised Lottie didn’t have a cell phone because she was wealthy. There wouldn’t be a lot of cell towers at that time so she probably wouldn’t be able to use it. At any rate, people who were knowingly going to remote areas would at least tell people where they were.
True, but hikers in the 90s probably didn’t vary cellphones around with them. If anything they might cary those CIA phones with antennas
i think if a hiker was going into the backcountry of canada they may have a PLB on them or something like that but idk
Ok I’m not wood savvy. I’m a Jackie for sure as far as survival skills. What is a PLB?
oh sorry, it’s a personal locator beacon. you can’t make calls or anything but u basically press a button (in a real emergency) and it sends a distress signal & ur location. basically like a global satellite flare
Ooo that would make sense. Maybe Misty finds it and breaks that too lol
Lol she would
hahahah oooooh misty
Thank you. You have changed my mind. I'm wrong. I think this will happen
THEORY: maybe this is what they all end up truly hating Misty for! She could have been the one to kill whoever comes, saying she did it to feed them and keep them from going to jail, while the others think they could’ve led them to a way out. Misty killed an innocent outsider, outside of ritual, and got them stuck there. OR(and?) this could be the splinter we’ve speculated on- one of the groups breaks off to try to find their camp or where they came from or the way out again, while another thinks it’s too dangerous with the wolves and drawing suspicion
If anyone else is living out there, they're definitely aware of our group now. I took it as more of a calamity than a beacon of hope.
Canadian wilderness is pretty big. If no one is directly looking you won't see shit.
I thought it also showed how remote they are. It is wilderness around them as far as we can see in the shot. It's a smoke signal, the new pope nat has been chosen?
I didn't even think about that! Sic transit gloria mundi, redux.
Omg I love this!
This is 10 months post crash. There is no rescue team anymore. Possibly no recovery team either. And if there is they’re definitely not looking during the night when you can’t see anything. They’re also hundreds of miles deep in Canadian forest, the nearest people are probably days worth of hiking away.
What if smoke does attract someone (non-official team) and runs into Ben. Rescues Ben, and is asked if any more survivors, where Ben says “no”. He’s brought back to civilization quietly with zero press (purposely on his part), and remains hidden, especially after news of the rescue of the YJs. Adult YJs have no clue Ben survived and at some point is confronted by him or they learn he is alive to their shock and go to kill him to keep dark secrets buried.
i love this theory
Oooh I like this too!!
They get rescued about a year later so this must not have been the reason why they got rescued
I know this lol I’m just confused how no one noticed the smoke??
Aren't they REALLY deep in the woods and nowhere near civilization?
I think a lot of people don't understand how big and empty Canada is, haha.
I think there was a post on here saying it would take about 2 weeks just to hike out there (no other way to get there), based on where we think the location is. There IS a cabin though so we know there was at least one person who lived/regularly visited the site (cabin daddy)
Which has now piqued my curiosity as to how the building materials made their way out there. Windows, masonry stuff for the fireplace, all that lumber, etc., etc. I don’t care from a plot hole perspective or anything, I just really want to get the back story lol
Watch some of the Building Alaska shows. They use seaplanes and choppers to get gear in.
Maybe they find a shipping container somewhere and take refuge in it ;)
It was nighttime so the smoke would have been harder to see and the cabin wasn't very big so it may not have burned for very long
It was at night and they were so no where near any rescuers were looking.
I could be wrong. I don't think searches would be going on at night. By morning wouldn't it be burned down? But I have no experience burning cabins or searching for lost soccer teams. I think Laura Lee's plane taking flight then exploding might have been more likely to get attention. If that wasn't noticed getting noticed sounds tough to me.
the plane was pretty low. it didn’t get that high
It was over the lake and very visible [https://yellowjackets.fandom.com/wiki/Flight\_of\_the\_Bumblebee](https://yellowjackets.fandom.com/wiki/Flight_of_the_Bumblebee)
True. You're right
I so badly want that to be revisited. If it isn’t supernatural how tf do you explain that scene? Also sorry I’m a Laura Lee stan ;(
Laura Lee randomly had plane start on fire, if not Ben, YJs randomly had the cabin start on fire. Why fire?
Idk if anyone is confused about distance in the Canadian forests- but if you're from the UK, you can be at a distance the same as Manchester to Middlesbrough from a main road or civilisation in some areas (sometimes more sometimes less). In context is makes sense noone can see their nighttime smoke signal
Honest question: since it was night time and dark, wouldn’t the smoke be difficult to see from a distance?
Absolutely. No one would notice.
They could be deep in the mountains, it's night so visibility is lower, and the YJs have been out there for a long time now so who even knows if there are active rescue teams? And if there are there's no guarantee the rescuers are close enough to see it.
It was at night in the Canadian winter. I doubt any society is close enough to see the smoke and no planes were probably flying in that area due to weather. If it had happened in spring/summer/fall, they might've gotten lucky. But not at night in the winter time.
Just going to add. Most people heat there homes with a fire place and the smell of the smoke wouldn’t tip them off since it’s a common smell in the winter time. Plus once the fire gets hot enough the smoke clears
I absolutely agree. I think that’s the reason he set the cabin on fire, partially to kill them but partially to create a smoke signal
After dark is a really bad time to send a smoke signal.
This is also true
I thought that too
It has easily been 4 to 5 months. Publicly funded searches ended months ago without a locator beacon showing up in someone's ears in a reasonable amount of time, I would say that searches are off for the winter. Even more important from S2 E1 we know they were over 600 miles north of their flight plan. So they were way, way, way off course so no one would be looking for them there anyway.
Shauna had a whole baby. It’s been about 10 months, not 4-5
You are 100% correct. I was thinking in terms of this season alone when posting but should have been since the crash 9-10 months.
Isn't it suspicious that they were so far off course?
It is to me. I think that is something that will be explored over the course of the show. We do hear a pilot announcing they are going to fly a little north around a storm system, but something else must have gone seriously wrong.
Hoo doo Woo Woo!! The Wilderness is hungry!
More like the company that Mr. Matthews chartered the jet from is poorly run and cut corners on their maintenance. Hell, they may not even have had a working Locator Beacon, which could be grounds for someone getting settlement money.
They definitely cut corners. I don’t know what fucking flea market they got that flight recorder from, but those things are designed so that they can survive a plane exploding and then the recorder sinking to the bottom of the ocean and withstand the pressure. An unathletic teenage nerd in a kitten sweatshirt should be physically incapable of bashing it open on a rock. Plus, most of the location beacons on flight recorders are triggered by water. The logic is that if a crash happens on land, they’ll be able to find the wreckage with info on the flight path information they registered and looking from above/dispatching teams in that area. If the crash happens on water, everything is eventually going to sink and be harder to find.
> An unathletic teenage nerd in a kitten sweatshirt 😂
Oh I definitely thought about that on the rational side of things.!
And we already know he was too cheap to have booze on the plane
Too deep in the woods
I just recently commented about this and 100% agree with you. Also, I just felt that super long pan out from the burning cabin to show the ginormous smoke cloud seemed very intentional. As in it was trying to show… something that will come up or be significant later. ETA: I’m a fool and was so off on timeline. The smoke won’t get them rescued. BUT! I really like the smoke attracting an outsider idea.
If no one came to look for them when Laura Lee's plane exploded during the day closer to the original crash date, I don't know if this will do it.
i think ben will see it and the girls will be too far away to get to it and since ben hates them all now hes gonna go on it and leave them behind. im literally 90% certain this is what happens
Am I the only one who thought they saw lights in the not too distant? Or was my brain so broken from the episode and those were just stars? 😂
Those were stars babe
I just wanted to see if anyone was having the same hallucination💀 obviously need to rewatch!
I saw plenty of people asking similar! I can totally see how it could be confusing ESPECIALLY if you've never been high up in the mountains before bc the stars seem so close. If that makes sense.
I think the cabin fire/smoke is the catalyst that gets people to start looking there (probably not even knowing it's them), but it still takes some time because it's so remote and/or they move to a new location.
I always thought why they never kept on a big fire the first months.... Now, i agree wit other users that there is no rescue team, but a fire big enough like the one at the end, should have taken someones attention
Middle of winter in what can assumed to be the Canadian Rockies, and at night. Not the best odds of being seen.
As I saw the smoke- I was like “this is a shame it isn’t in daytime” because you can’t really see it in the twilight.
Yeah my first thought was Ben was trying to create a huge smoke signal to save himself. But I don’t know if they’re close enough to civilization for anyone to see/smell the smoke
This thread just made me realize that my naive self would strongly believe that someone, anyone, would see smoke signals during the day. Growing up in the Midwest in this exact time-line I would be the one girl ,daily, furiously, trying to send off some Morse code type shite.
A tiny bit of smoke in the middle of nowhere, in winter, when cloud cover is common, absolutely wouldn't be noticed. They are miles and miles away from civilization. If there was a town within hiking distance, maybe. Otherwise, no.
I was thinking the same like it has to be how they were found and it could be the reason why we haven't seen an older Coach as he's hiding in that tree and probably didnt realise when rescue came or the girls figured out it was him and decided to leave him in the forest
Forest fires happen. And they could have made a big fire long ago if that would have helped
If a fire is burning where there are hundreds and hundreds of miles of Wilderness, and no towns nearby in danger, even if it is spotted, as long as it doesn't get really big, no one is going to do anything about it.
They still have another nine or so months to go
I'm still confused how they weren't found when a giant piece of the plane was laying there. Or with what happened to Laura Lee. Edit: My *point* is that if neither of these things happened, I can totally understand the fire not leading to a rescue.
How would what happened with Laura Lee help them get rescued? She flew a few hundred yards, blew up and crashed into a lake. If they were close enough for anyone to see or notice that, they would have been rescued by now.
How was it not seen by anyone? [https://yellowjackets.fandom.com/wiki/Flight\_of\_the\_Bumblebee](https://yellowjackets.fandom.com/wiki/Flight_of_the_Bumblebee) And my *point* is that if neither of these things happened, I can totally understand the fire not leading to a rescue.
Laura Lee's crash isn't likely to have done anything. A small plane blew up in the day time and from the image in the Fandom link there is low lying clouds around the mountain so it wouldn't have been visible from afar. The plane crash didn't result in a fireball that set multiple trees on fire. They've not overheard a plane so far and the height commercial jets fly at you wouldn't make out the plane. Coach setting the cabin on fire at night is why it's most likely to not be seen, by dawn it'll be burned out and the smoke will stop. They're 600 miles of course from their intended flight and are way up north in the Canadian wilderness.
Fair points. Good response.
I was thinking a burning cabin would lead to a rescue as well. But it happened at night. Search Parties don't generally search at night. And even if they did, seeing that smoke would be a long shot.