What to Make of the Mysterious New Character in Yellowjackets Season 3

Warning: This post contain spoilers for the first two episode of Yellowjackets Season 3.

If there's anything Yellowjackets loves to do, it's introduce potential new threats for the adult survivors to deal with in the present-day timeline. In the first two episodes of Season 3, now available to stream on Paramount+ for subscribers with the Showtime plan ahead of their Sunday debut on Showtime at 8 p.m. ET, Yellowjackets wastes no time setting up fresh mysteries.

Episode 2, titled Dislocation, features an unidentified character following Shauna (Melanie Lynskey). When Shauna accompanies her husband Jeff (Warren Kole) to a restaurant for a meeting with his potential new business partners, she excuses herself to use the restroom. In the bathroom, Shauna finds an abandoned cell phone that has a ringtone set to play "Queen of Hearts" by Juice Newton—an apparent reference to the teen Yellowjackets' penchant for selecting their next meal by having everyone draw a random card and hunting down the person who drew the queen. Whoever left the phone probably knows what happened in the wilderness.

Is the new character an old Yellowjacket?

A follow-up sequence showing an increasingly paranoid Shauna calling the restaurant to demand they tell her who claimed the phone is intercut with a scene from the past timeline that hints a former teammate might be the one who is following her. In that scene, teen Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) makes out with Melissa (Jenna Burgess) for the first time. Up until this point, Melissa has been a background character in the past timeline with no real storyline of her own. Now, she appears to be on track to become a potential ally—and romantic partner—for Shauna as she works through the trauma of the death of her son. An adult version of Melissa has not yet appeared in the present-day timeline.

We know Hilary Swank has been cast in a recurring guest role for Season 3 and could potentially be playing the adult version of one of the teens, which makes her our current best guess for the role of Melissa. But considering we haven't yet heard anything about Melissa in the present, if that is who left the phone, Shauna's nervous reaction indicates they may not have parted on the best of terms.

The adult Yellowjackets may need to gear up for another showdown.