Not every hunt calls for a dangerous chase through the Wilderness. While the 1997 timeline undergoes a desperate chase for the two remaining members of the frog scientist team, the present timeline sees Shauna, Misty, Taissa, and Van experience a hunt of their own, featuring the comfortable seats of Shauna's minivan. "Croak" does not push the plot forward as much as other recent episodes, but it does present a strong look at seeing the Yellowjackets work in tandem as they move toward the shared goal of finding Hannah and Kodiak, the first signs of hope and rescue that they have had since crash landing in the Wilderness the year before. Meanwhile, Taissa, Misty, Van, and Shauna's search for the mysterious person who had a tape recording of their time in the Wilderness works to continue questioning who Lottie's real killer might be while also finally allowing the show's main characters to share space together for a long period of time, rather than small scenes.
The Wilderness timeline demonstrates a mix of danger and vulnerability. The Yellowjackets are more in sync than ever as Natalie leads the group in a hunt for the two people who represent a real chance of going home. Rather than in-fighting, they are working together as a team, dividing and conquering the land they have learned so well, as they work to find and corner Hannah and Kodiak. "Croak" is emotionally hard-hitting in scenes such as Van's instinctual desire to call her mother following finding a phone in the scientists' tent or the surprise, excitement, and anguish upon watching Lottie murder Edwin, the frog scientist, in cold blood.
In terms of moving the narrative forward, "Croak" is not the best example of it. The entire episode surrounds the primary decision to hunt the scientists rather than moving forward with interrogating them immediately. Although this should be a pacing issue among the season's ten-episode run, slowing down the season to demonstrate the different emotions that surround the idea of what it means to finally escape the Wilderness works very well for individual character moments. Van and Taissa's hope of calling for help is dashed upon seeing the phone is broken, a heartbreaking moment to witness in the understanding that at their core, rather than the violent group they have become, in many ways, they are still just kids. Although Shauna was recently named the group's new leader, she easily passes Natalie the reins of leading the hunt. Still, upon finding Hannah, Shauna is quick to suggest that someone will eventually come looking for her, and even if Hannah is dead, the search team will find the Yellowjackets instead, and no one else will survive to know the truth of what really happened to Coach Ben Scott.
The adult half of "Croak" is also one that works better for character narratives than pushing the story forward. Taissa, Van, Shauna, and Misty's road trip gives the survivors a chance to spend the majority of the episode together, traveling to Virginia. The main premise has them tracking down Hannah's daughter to confront her about the Wilderness tape. Yet, it is just seeing the four of them spend time together that works as one of the best parts of the episode. Unfortunately, the adult timeline does not always allow its series leads to all spend time in storylines together, tending to keep them off in their own corners. "Croak" delivers an episode that confines them together to make for one of the most entertaining season three adult timeline episodes yet. Still, the adult timeline would not be what it is without accusing at least one person of murder, and Misty accuses both Other Taissa and Shauna of being Lottie's killer.
As Yellowjackets heads into season three's final episodes, it begs a series of many questions, including if season three is headed toward an ending that sees the survivors rescued from the Wilderness, what really happened to Hannah and Kodiak while they are out there, who is targeting the Yellowjackets in the adult timeline and why, and who is Hilary Swank really playing in the adult timeline. So far, season three has continued laying many foundational aspects of what was witnessed in the pilot episode, including the masks the survivors are wearing, the pit that kills "Pit Girl," and the point at which cannibalism becomes a voluntary act, rather than one done out of desperate hunger and need for survival. Yellowjackets has made a point to work toward showing how the dangerous events of the series premiere unfold. It is only a matter of time before Yellowjackets shows how much of a role, if any, the frog scientist team had in the group's eventual rescue.