Warning: Contains spoilers for Yellowjackets episode 3.
There are plenty of mysteries to solve in Yellowjackets, but at the end of episode 3, the show reveals the death of another survivor, and Nat (Juliette Lewis) is eager to find his killer. While characters have died in the plane crash and during the opening flashback, this is the first character to be shown dead in 2021. There are several possible suspects who killed Travis in Yellowjackets, assuming that the killer is someone the show has already introduced.
In Yellowjackets episode 3, Nat and Misty (Christina Ricci) take a several-hour road trip from New Jersey to New Hampshire to find Travis, who has been living off the grid and changed his name. Their fellow survivor has very few personal belongings at his house and doesn’t seem to be home. Nat and Misty are arrested, and while in prison, Nat calls Taissa (Tawny Cypress) for help while Misty calls Kevyn Tan (Alex Wyndham). When they get free and head to the ranch where Travis worked, they find him dead from an apparent suicide, but Nat is convinced he was murdered.
Many of the Yellowjackets mysteries have been ambiguous, with few clues given to their resolution. In 1996, the survivors have found an abandoned cabin that is deserted except for a long-dead body. Symbols carved on the trees have not been explained and appear on postcards in 2021. Even Taissa and Simone’s son, Sammy, is acting strangely with little explanation of what might be happening. However, when it comes to Travis’ murder, if Yellowjackets is playing fair and has made the mystery solvable, then suspects abound. The biggest question surrounding Travis’ murder (assuming that Nat is right that he was killed) is “why now?”–it’s been 25 years, so why kill him when Nat and Misty are headed to find him? Here’s every suspect that might have killed Travis and the theories behind how and why they would murder the survivor.
Adam (Peter Gadiot)
Adam is the man that Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) meets in 2021 when she rear-ends his truck in Yellowjackets episode 1. The meeting appears to be happenstance, and Adam insists that he just goes where life takes him. He is generally portrayed as a nice guy who wants to help, even if he is not concerned with playing by the rules. However, his meeting of Shauna seems too coincidental; he pushes the relationship and even strangely turns up at the hotel where she has tailed her husband, Jeff (Warren Kole). It seems likely that he has an agenda and knows exactly who Shauna is in relation to the Yellowjackets.
In Yellowjackets, Adam is a suspicious character who will likely turn out to be too good to be true for Shauna down the line and has likely been manipulating and gaslighting her from their first meeting. He could have killed Travis as part of a plan relating to uncovering the truth about the Yellowjackets’ plane crash. However, assuming that Yellowjackets is presenting events as they happen, he was extremely occupied in a hotel in New Jersey when Travis was killed in New Hampshire, so while he might be involved in a larger conspiracy, Adam cannot be the killer himself.
Kevyn Tan (Alex Wyndham)
Kevyn Tan was one of Nat’s friends from high school before the plane crash in Yellowjackets episode 1. Together, they would hang out and drink and do drugs. In his adult life, he has become a police detective in New Jersey. When he sees Natalie and Misty in a bar, he approaches them and seems enamored with Nat and flirts with Misty by text, thinking that it’s Nat. When Misty and Nat are arrested, Misty calls Kevyn to bail them out.
Kevyn’s position as a police detective means that he could be privy to information that others are not, and he might have overheard Misty and Nat talking about Travis in the bar. Relatively little is known about who he is and where his allegiances might lie, and Misty has already been shown to behave in manipulative ways. It is possible that when Misty calls Kevyn in Yellowjackets episode 3, Kevyn uses their time in jail to kill Travis to help keep the Yellowjackets secret. While Kevyn could easily have the means and opportunity, his motivation is a little shaky for this, but he remains a possible suspect in Travis’ murder.
An Unseen Survivor
Throughout Yellowjackets, it is clear that there are other survivors alive in 2021 beyond the central four or Shauna, Nat, Misty, and Taissa. While none of those four would have had the opportunity to kill Travis by their own hand, it is possible that another of the survivors could have. A conversation between Taissa and the woman introduced as Jessica Roberts suggests that the other survivors are also living off the grid and would be opposed to the truth about the Yellowjackets’ time in the wilderness ever coming out, in line with the promises they made each other.
It is possible that Travis was planning on revealing the truth based on the note that he left reading, “tell Nat she was right,” and they could have worked to murder Travis before Nat had a chance to talk to him. This is especially likely if one of them is secretly part of Misty’s group of “citizen detectives.” However, as none of these other survivors have been shown on screen in 2021 yet, having one of them be behind the killing in Yellowjackets would be narratively unjust as the viewer cannot solve the murder based on that information.
“Jessica Roberts” (Rekha Sharma)
Rekha Sharma plays a reporter that approaches Shauna and offers her a book deal in Yellowjackets episode 1. She introduces herself as Jessica Roberts; however, Shauna can find no record of her working for the Star Ledger as she claims to, and this may be a false name. In Yellowjackets episode 3, it is revealed that Jessica is working for Taissa and appears to be a private detective who offers additional services, telling Taissa, “if you want me busting kneecaps, it’s gonna cost extra.”
Jessica has been shown that she is clearly willing to go above and beyond to do Taissa’s dirty work. Beyond putting pressure on the other survivors to try and find out if there’s a risk of one of them talking and damaging Taissa’s shot at a State Senate, she has also dug up dirt on Taissa’s political opponent, seemingly without being asked to. If Jessica found that Travis was willing to spill the beans about what happened with the Yellowjackets, it is possible that she killed Travis at the end of Yellowjackets episode 3 to stop him. If this is unclear, it begs the question of whether Taissa asked her to or if Jessica acted of her own volition.
Jessica is the most likely suspect for killing Travis for two key reasons. First, she was available to be in New Hampshire and commit the crime. In Yellowjackets episode 3, she is only shown when talking on the phone and is at a gas station, so she could already be following Nat and Misty as part of her investigation. Second, she answers the crucial question of “why now?” When Nat calls Taissa from jail in Yellowjackets, she tells her that Travis lives in Eden Falls. As Nat notes that he has been hard to find, this might be the first time Taissa has known where he is and could have sent Jessica to check him out, ultimately leading to Travis’ murder.
Yellowjackets releases new episodes Sundays on Showtime.
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