Did Lottie kill Travis in Yellowjackets? Season 2 Episode 2 explained

Yellowjackets Season 2 dives more into Lottie and her intentions, as well as how she is connected to the late Travis – but did she kill him?

2021’s first season of Yellowjackets became a smash hit, with multiple Emmy nominations in 2022, and a green light for Season 2. Thankfully, the second season is easily living up to the first, with our review of the first two episodes already out now.

Fans have been waiting eagerly for said second season, which continues the story of a soccer team that was stranded in the wild for a year after a plane crash, and the ensuing trauma that lives on into their adulthood.

One of the show’s major events is the death of Travis (played by Andres Soto), who was also with the girls during the plane crash. It is then revealed at the end of Season 1 that Lottie, another mysterious figure during the team’s time in the wild, is connected to his death. But how? Well, read on to find out, and of course, spoilers for Yellowjackets Season 2 to follow…

Did Lottie kill Travis in Yellowjackets Season 2?

Technically yes, Lottie did kill Travis. However, she states adamantly that she didn’t.

Going from the beginning, Lottie (played by Courtney Eaton and Simone Kessell) was a fellow member of the Yellowjackets team back in the 1990s, and was the schizophrenic turned psychic in the Wilderness. In Yellowjackets Season 2 it was revealed that when rescued she was placed into a psychiatric hospital in Sweden by her parents in order to “fix” what had happened to her out there. By adulthood she had then become the leader of a wellness compound, AKA a cult, where she helps others deal with their past traumas.

Lottie had become an ominous figure by the end of Season 1, after it was discovered that Travis’ bank accounts had been merged into hers after his death, leading the other Yellowjackets to believe that she had a hand in his death.

However, Lottie reveals to Natalie (Juliette Lewis) that she had tried to save Travis, not kill him. When Natalie confronts her about it, Lottie says: “On the night Travis died, he called me. He said that the Wilderness had come back to haunt him. And he said he knew what he had to do. I asked him what he meant, and he just hung up. I panicked. I drove all night. And by the time I found him, he was a mess. he was terrified, he was paranoid.”

In a flashback, it’s shown that Travis believes that the darkness that the Wilderness brought on him is a supernatural force, and according to him, “when Van almost died, when you did, you both said you saw something. The only way to confront the darkness, to find out what it wants, is to get as close to death as possible.”

While Lottie attempts to talk him down, he’s able to sneak away to a barn, where he ties himself to a crane with candles all around him in an attempt to hang himself. He doesn’t want to die, he simply wants to go unconscious just long enough that he can speak to the darkness. Lottie again tries to talk him down, but he won’t listen, so she agrees to press the button that will lower him as soon as he goes unconscious.

So, she presses the button that lifts Travis into the air, meaning that she did unknowingly put him to death. As during Travis’ time in the noose, Lottie tries to press the button to lower him, but the buttons get stuck, meaning that there’s no way for Lottie to get Travis down, so he dies.

His death is deemed by Lottie a “horrendous accident” and she says: “I didn’t kill him Nat, I was trying to save him.” However, this might not be the end of the story…

Is Lottie lying?

Lottie could be lying about not meaning to kill Travis, or at least hiding parts of the truth. As Natalie says, “I know there’s something you’re not telling me.”

For one, Lottie says: “He left instructions of how to get into his bank account,” but why would Travis do that if he didn’t plan on dying? Secondly, how did she get away unscathed when she was clearly still involved in his death? And thirdly, when Natalie asks why she wasn’t contacted, Lottie responds: “He said you would only make things worse,” but we never hear Travis say this in the flashback.

Even the flashbacks are a point of contention in Yellowjackets Season 2, as despite that suggesting that Lottie is telling the truth, everyone’s mind has been warped by their past, meaning that Lottie could be misremembering, especially since it’s revealed that she had terrifying supernatural visions as Travis was hanging there.

The supernatural does seem to have a hand in Travis’ death, as when Lottie comes back to reality, Travis is hanging much higher up than he previously was. Plus, Travis was in the grip of the darkness, and would have hanged himself no matter what Lottie did. However, that doesn’t change the fact that she did lift him into the air, which was what killed him.

As Natalie says, “Every time that you try to save someone, a lot of bad shit happens. And look at you now, 25 years later, and the same shit is happening again.”

Is Lottie the villain in Yellowjackets?

But is Lottie a villain? No, not really, as while she seems an ominous figure, she doesn’t intentionally want to cause any suffering.

For example, while Lottie kidnapped Natalie, she did it in order to stop Natalie from killing herself. During their time in the Wilderness, while Lottie is connecting more with the supernatural forces out there, she isn’t malicious in her intentions, and she’s not trying to hoodwink people into following her.

And as can be seen in the Yellowjackets Season 2 trailer below, every character becomes capable of monstrous things, so there is no one true villain.

Ultimately, things are never as they seem in Yellowjackets, especially in Season 2. Lottie’s position as a cult leader is a red flag obviously, so she still remains a worrying figure. And as Natalie said, there’s likely a lot more going on that she isn’t telling us.

EDIT: As of the finale of Season 2, no further answers on the topic of Travis’ death have been revealed, only that the surviving Yellowjackets believe that the Darkness still remains in all of them, and it’s out for blood again.

Yellowjackets Season 2 is currently available streaming. Click here to find out when and where you can watch it.