Yellowjackets Season 3: Why Lottie Stopped "Seeing Things" In The Wilderness

Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Yellowjackets season 3, episodes 1 & 2.

Teenage Lottie Matthews (Courtney Eaton) stopped having visions in Yellowjackets and is now looking for someone to fill this void in season 3. In the aftermath of the plane crash in Yellowjackets' past timeline, Lottie begins having visions connected to the wilderness. Lottie's visions and dreams cause many of the other survivors to trust and even revere her, especially in season 1 after she kills a sickly bear with a single stab of a knife, which gives the group food in the weeks to come.

Since Lottie is no longer having visions in season 3, she is now focused on finding other Yellowjackets characters who can see visions of the wilderness instead of her. Travis Martinez (Kevin Alves) is who she mainly focuses on in the season 3 premiere, and she is even willing to let herself be choked if this means Travis getting closer to the wilderness. Lottie now has her eye on Akilah (Nia Sondaya), who Travis says is closer to the wilderness due to her connection with the animals.

Lottie Stopped Having Visions After Natalie Was Chosen As The Antler Queen

Lottie Made Natalie The Group's New Leader

In Yellowjackets season 2's ending, Lottie reveals to the group that she is no longer having visions, and that the group now needs a new leader. She crowns Natalie Scatorccio (Sophie Thatcher) as the group's new leader, the Antler Queen, because she said the wilderness chose Natalie to survive, even when the group tried to kill her. As she explains to her fellow survivors, Lottie believes she stopped having visions because the wilderness does not need her anymore. She never wanted to be the leader, but she thinks the wilderness chose her because she was willing to listen.

From Lottie's perspective, since the other survivors learned how to hear and feel the wilderness, they no longer need her to lead the way. The last time Lottie had visions was after she let Shauna Shipman (Sophie Nélisse) kick and beat her in the aftermath of Shauna losing her baby. Since teenage Lottie still isn't experiencing visions in season 3, she believes that the wilderness is now sending messages through other characters, such as Travis, instead of through her.

Why Lottie Starts Having Visions Again As An Adult In Yellowjackets

The Rekindled Visions Are Connected To The Return Of The Other Survivors

Adult Lottie (Simone Kessell) starts seeing visions again in Yellowjackets season 2 after Natalie (Juliette Lewis) and other survivors begin to surround her again. The return of Lottie's visions is likely due to the unresolved trauma from the wilderness reemerging after years of repressing it, only for these feelings to be unintentionally rekindled by Natalie and the others. Lottie believes she is a changed woman who has transformed her trauma into creating a healing community, but this was only a band-aid for much deeper wounds.

The other survivors are not listening to and hearing the wilderness in the present more than two decades later, which may make it necessary for the wilderness to now communicate through Lottie.

Another interpretation of Lottie's visions returning is that the supernatural power of the wilderness has followed the survivors back to civilization 25 years later. If the wilderness took Lottie's visions away when it no longer needed her, perhaps it has restored this ability now that it needs her again. The other survivors are not listening to and hearing the wilderness in the present more than two decades later, which may make it necessary for the wilderness to now communicate through Lottie.

What Lottie Was Originally Taking Pills For In Yellowjackets

She Seemingly Had Visions From A Young Age

Courtney Eaton as Lottie with medication in Yellowjackets

When Lottie was a child, and she was in the backseat of a car with her parents, she started screaming hysterically. As her parents tried to calm her down, a deadly car crash occurred in front of them, a crash they would have been involved in and probably killed by if not for Lottie's screaming, which suggested she knew the crash was going to happen before it did. After the car crash happened, Lottie was immediately calm, and acted as if nothing out of the ordinary had just taken place.

The flashback with Lottie in the car is shown in Yellowjackets season 1, episode 6, "Saints."

This was the first of several similar occurrences which led to Lottie's parents taking her to see numerous psychologists, who put her on prescription medication so she would stop having hallucinations. The morning before boarding the plane, Lottie is seen taking this medication at home. She finds her medication after the crash, but quickly runs out, and then begins experiencing visions. Lottie starts seeing things that none of the other survivors can see and is able to foresee certain events before they happen, although this is no longer the case for teenage Lottie in Yellowjackets season 3.