Yellowjackets: Who Really Killed... 'That' Character?

**Spoiler warning: this article features spoilers from the latest episode of Yellowjackets. If you have not watched S3 E7, "Croak," come back when you're caught up**

By now, it's no secret that the trajectory and events within the third season of Showtime's wilderness mystery, Yellowjackets, have some viewers a bit peeved. Some fans think the abundance of weirdness has thrown the show off course, while others think the abundance of main character deaths are starting to render things a bit pointless. Either way you think about it, it does appear that things are starting to heat up as we're now just three episodes away from the third season's finale.

Speaking of main character deaths, everyone still seems to be thrown by the unexpected death of Lottie Matthews. However fans view her character both as a teenager or an adult, I don't think anyone expected her adult self to be killed off after just one season. Within the show's universe, the other main characters are just as surprised - especially Misty, who is actively trying to solve the case as a citizen detective.

But who actually killed Lottie?

Initially, Misty was suspicious of Taissa. Given the fact that Taissa has this alternate personality that viewers have yet to really figure out, Misty learned that she was in New York City the day of Lottie's death. However, in true Misty fashion, she is doing her homework. After successfully (but also unsuccessfully) breaking into Lottie's family apartment, she managed to get DNA samples from Lottie's body in the morgue. She also managed to weasel her way in with a DNA testing hookup and now has a new target... Shanua.

The tape that was sent to Shauna with the audio recording from the wilderness feels a bit like a red herring to the viewer. It's an important plot twist for sure, but it also doesn't feel all to relevant when it comes to Lottie. Even though Shauna seemingly wanted to go alone in finding this apparent child of the frog researcher, she didn't hesitate too much when she took Taissa, Van, and Misty along with her. Especially knowing that Misty was sniffing around trying to find Lottie's killer, it seems a bit too convenient that Shauna took all three of them on her way to Virginia, away from the scene of the crime... and away from her husband and daughter.

Did Shauna actually kill Lottie?

While on the car ride, Misty gets a tip from Walter that the DNA sample taken from under Lottie's fingernails matched Shauna. Now, it's no secret that Shauna and Lottie had a major scuffle prior to Lottie's death and that it included Shauna's daughter, Callie. Shauna didn't like how close the two were becoming and she doesn't seem to want Callie to know anything about her time in the wilderness after the plane crash. Is it a coincidence that Lottie winds up dead within a day or so of being thrown out of Shauna's house? Well, probably not.

There are a lot of fan theories floating around after this latest episode. Some people are convinced that Shauna did it, while others still think it could have been Taissa. Others think it could have been whoever sent Shauna the tape, others think it was Walter. Some even think that Lottie committed suicide and made it look as suspicious as she could. If you comb through Reddit, some people even think it was Jeff and/or Callie.

And honestly the more you think about it, the more that theory makes sense.

Could Jeff be the murderer?

In the three seasons we've had, Jeff already has shown himself to be a bit of an oddity. While he comes across as this dorky, lovable suburban husband, he has been involved with enough craziness to be suspicious. In season 1, the main reason Shauna even killed Adam Martin was because of Jeff and his blackmail scheme. Not only that, but he assisted Shauna in covering up the murder in season 2 - a cover that included him being sort of complicit in the death of a police detective.

The fact that Jeff used the Shauna's secrets from her journals to blackmail her, Taissa, Misty, and Natalie leads me to believe that he has always known more than he's led on. Perhaps his passive nature within the Sadecki household is a coping mechanism because he knows so much. Either that or he's legitimately terrified of his wife and is just doing what he has to in order to keep the peace. But going back to Lottie and Callie sparking a relationship... if Jeff has known everything this whole time, that means he knew that teenage Lottie murdered the frog researcher. It means he knows that Lottie started out as the team's leader and that Shauna almost beat her to death after losing the baby. That also means that after adult Lottie tried to kill Shauna at the cult compound, he wanted to make a move and get rid of Lottie once and for all.

Reddit user “grendila_” presents this theory with some backup:

With all of that said, the newly developed relationship between teenage Shauna and Melissa indicates that not only does Shauna need a minion, but that she is fully capable of persuading someone into becoming just that. If she could do it as a teenager, she could do it as an adult. Perhaps after 25 years, Shauna has managed to turn Jeff into her new Melissa.

With his mental breakdown about receiving good karma and his new bedbug-theory stress rash, I agree that there is more than enough information to believe Jeff is responsible or at least involved. It's not really hard to believe Shauna would kill someone else, nor is it hard to believe that Taissa would do the same. But given the fact that they all just lost Natalie and Van has reunited with the group, I don't think killing another one of them off was on their radar. But the introduction of the most clinically unhinged one into Callie's life when she'd already been suspicious of her mom... that was probably too much for Jeff to handle.

Shauna's string of bad luck could also be tied to Jeff. Her brakes being cut, the weird phone in the bathroom of the restaurant that Jeff was also at, Shauna being locked in the freezer in the nursing home that Jeff was also at, etc.

Only time will tell with the remaining episodes and it's definitely dependent on who this character Hilary Swank is playing turns out to be, but I think the top suspect for who killed Lottie Matthews is Jeff Sadecki.

Who do you think killed Lottie? Let us know in the comments!