Yellowjackets season 2 episode 6 review and recap: "A shift is coming"

Let's talk about sex, baby. This week's episode is a big one: Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) is in labor. That's right, the cabin in the woods is now a makeshift maternity ward and the closest thing the girls have to a medical professional is assistant coach Ben (Steven Kreuger), who we discover (via a brief opening flashback) is just the person who pressed play on their high school sex education VHS tapes.

In the present-day timeline, Misty (Christina Ricci) is making herself at home at Lottie (Simone Kessell)'s 'wellness center', while Lottie returns to her therapist worrying that she has, in her own words, "never been ill." Or, rather, she worries that her hallucinations have never been just figments of her imagination, and she's wondering whether Nat (Juliette Lewis) and Misty have been sent to her as some sort of sign to prove that the supernatural goings on in the wilderness were real.

Meanwhile, after Kevyn (Alex Wyndham) and 'Jay', AKA Detective Matt Saracusa (John Reynolds) foiled Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) and Callie (Sarah Desjardins)'s plan to frame Randy as Shauna's lover in episode 5, mother and daughter are summoned for questioning at the police station. A good cop/bad cop routine then plays out, as Kevyn handles Callie and Matt goes on the attack with Shauna.

This week is undoubtedly Shauna's episode, with her relationship to motherhood at the forefront of both timelines. Her labor in the wilderness is juxtaposed with her present-day self grappling with her current family set-up – after Matt grinds her down, she admits she never wanted to be a mother and only had Callie in order to save a marriage that she got into out of guilt. She says that she struggles to love either Callie or her husband Jeff – the first time we've heard her admit something so vulnerable since she was a teenager. It's always been clear that the girls were changed by their time in the wilderness, but Shauna in particular has never laid her trauma so bare.

She confesses to having an affair with Adam, which doesn't bode well for her or Callie – until Callie tells Kevyn that she and Matt had sex, thereby plunging him and his investigation into deep water. This, of course, is a lie, as the pair barely kissed, but it seems like the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and Callie is picking up a few tips from her mother.

Elsewhere, Misty calls Taissa (Tawny Cypress) from Lottie's retreat to let her know that she found Nat, and Taissa contacts Shauna. This can only mean one thing: it's reunion time, with Tai, Van (Lauren Ambrose), and Shauna traveling upstate to reunite with Nat and Misty. We finally get more than two of the survivors in the same frame for the first time since season 1 – albeit for a very brief moment at the end of the episode, but one that assures us that the season's endgame is on the horizon.

Back in the wilderness, however, the girls are gathered together for very different reasons. Their attempts to help Shauna give birth are a keen reminder that, despite everything they've been through, they are all still just kids – and they're out of their depth.

The episode's closing scene is an all-timer for this season, with Nélisse giving a series-best performance in one of the show's bleakest moments to date. Despite glimpses of Shauna and the baby throughout the episode, including an emotional moment when she finally got him to feed, she discovers that the baby didn't make it and everything we saw previously was just a fever dream. Shauna's pregnancy felt like the one thing that was holding the group together, and with that now gone, it's clear that a shift is coming.

Yellowjackets season 2 releases weekly on Paramount Plus and Showtime – make sure you never miss an episode with our Yellowjackets season 2 release schedule.