Pete Chatmon Shares Secrets About "Yellowjackets" Season 3 Episode 6

“Yellowjackets” season 3 has been chock full of shocking twists and reveals. After the loss of Natalie, the adults have been reeling, especially Misty. In the past, the stranded girls have managed to build an encampment after losing the cabin. The girls have built shelters and found ways to cultivate food with Natalie as their leader. However, things took a turn when they convicted Coach Ben of attempted murder for burning down the cabin.

In the sixth episode of season 3, Ben was being held prisoner after Akilah had a vision that he was their bridge home. Things take a turn when Natalie kills him out of mercy, stealing hope from the others who strip her of her title. This results in Shauna becoming the new leader in the past. In the present-day timeline, Shauna believes her family is in danger. With the help of Van and Tai, they listen to a DAT tape that was left at her house. The episode ends with campers finding the girls in the midst of “honoring,” aka consuming, Ben.

Pete Chatmon directed the episode. In a recent live episode of his podcast “Let’s Shoot,” Chatmon spoke with executive producers and members of the cast. Following this, Temple of Geek interviewed Chatmon about his experience directing this episode. Chatmon discussed being an episodic director, his favorite dynamics, and balancing the two timelines.

Pete Chatmon Breaks Down Jumping Into A Pivotal “Yellowjackets” Episode as a Director

Temple of Geek: This is my favorite episode of the season. It’s so good. What is it like coming in as an episodic director with an episode that has so many big moments from what’s been built up and then what’s going to happen in the future?

Pete Chatmon:

Yeah, it’s kind of like the call you want to get. The challenge you want to get having to figure out how to, in this particular episode, honor these characters that have been there since the beginning. Find your unique way into the story while honoring the DNA of the show. And then just making sure you’ve satisfied all parties.

The creators, the writers, the audience, everybody’s kind of on the receiving end of what you’re doing as a director. So you really just want to make sure you can find the balance and walk that tightrope of delivering something that everybody’s going to be like, That’s what I expected. but better.

Temple of Geek: Can you talk to me about the challenges that you face in both timelines and finding that balance?

Pete Chatmon:

Managing the timelines between the wilderness and today, or, I keep saying present day-ish. I guess what’s interesting is that the wilderness is so, once you get to the season, it’s all pretty tight. Obviously there’s a six week montage in the beginning of the episode, but the events of any episode kind of tend to be a finite amount of time on both sides of it.

We were only dealing with maybe a day, I might be off, but maybe a day or two in the present day, and then probably a day or two in the wilderness. So I think the toughest part is just making sure you’re tracking all the storylines and not missing an opportunity because you missed a little thematic connection between a moment that maybe isn’t explicitly on the page, but you could work it into the episode.

For instance, the last scene with Misty texting Walter, because I knew what the pen looked like, where they had Ben. I asked, I got a shot from outside of Misty’s house looking at her through the window because there was just a little bit of these tree branches were arranged like this. I was like, it’ll kind of be a matting frame in terms of what’s within the frame. That’s kind a little opportunity in my perspective to tether the two timelines.

Temple of Geek: Totally. And then this is a really big episode, storywise too, because it’s kind of the first time they make that decision of the cannibalism is not out of survival as necessity. Can you talk about not only shooting that scene at the end where they fully kind of devolve to a degree, but also the little moments that we’re building up to it?

Pete Chatmon:

Yeah, I think the cast knows what’s needed, which is great. It’s kind of hard to be scream like this, you know what I mean? They know where they are and they’re tracking it. So I think in a case like this, I’m looking to make sure it’s in the pocket. Maybe I’m turning trying to get something maybe a little bit more, a little bit less, and trying to shoot it in a way that really connects with it.

So in the beginning of the scene, it’s all really stationary camera until I use Steady Cam to go from Misty to Lottie when she’s at the chair and she puts the plate down. It’s the first steady cam that’s introduced, and it doesn’t come back until the end when I’m going past everyone’s faces as they’re looking back at the campers who walked up on their site. Just trying to make it all connect.

Pete Chatmon Reveals How Sophie Thatcher Helped Show Natalie’s State of Mind

Temple of Geek: Did you have maybe a favorite scene to shoot in a scene that was the most challenging?

Pete Chatmon:

The most challenging was after Natalie killed Ben, and she’s confronted by all the Yellowjackets because it’s like I said, during the podcast, there’s so many people. If you put people in not the best place, you’re adding hours to your shoot, and then you still want it to feel like a Yellowjackets episode and be elevated. So now it’s like, how do I do all of that, be economical with my time, creative, and also place them where they’re in the right proximity?

I’ll give Sophie Thatcher a really great one of a million shout-outs because it was her pitch and her idea to stay on the ground, be pushed down and stay on the ground for that whole time. I was like, that’s actually perfect. As we condense time, no one’s going to be thinking, why didn’t she get up through all that time? It’s just going to be a nice way to visually communicate where she is in the scene and in the world at that moment.

Temple of Geek: They said that this is pretty similar to the director’s cut you turned in. Was there anything that had to be cut that you wish had been able to stay in?

Pete Chatmon:

I mean, this works great. If I were to answer that question, I probably spent a little more time being kind of somewhat poetic with the montage. Dissolves and match cuts and things that kind of really drew it out in a lyrical way that was kind of working maybe against the reality of what was happening. I thought that might be a cool opportunity to highlight this moment. So when you look back at it after you’ve watched the episode, you’ll be like, oh, I see why it was the kind of last swan song between Nat and Ben.

Pete Chatmon Explains Why Adult Tai & Van Was His Favorite Dynamic to Play With in Yellowjackets

Temple of Geek: Was there maybe a favorite between two characters for you that you really were excited to explore?

Pete Chatmon:

That’s a great question. I really did enjoy everybody. I think if you ask me five minutes from now, I probably have another answer. But it was fun to explore the Tai and Van scenes because for the most part, Shauna was on a solo mission of sorts. Misty was on a solo mission of sorts, but Tai and Van were in something together. So I kind of got to work with the adult Yellowjackets together, which I didn’t really get to do with everybody else as much.

Temple of Geek: Are you hoping to come back for season four?