Goodbye, Ben Scott. Yellowjackets moves forward into new territory with its first official murder as Natalie mercy-kills Ben following his suffering for an extended period of time after Lottie's reveal that Ben is someway, somehow, the group's bridge home. Lottie's declaration is not exactly clear as it entirely relies on Akilah's poison-induced hallucination. But Lottie's word is good enough for the group, and thus, Ben is left to rot for an undetermined amount of time as he begs Natalie day after day to end it already and let him die. The montage presents a heartbreaking consistency of Ben's desperation to die and Natalie's anguish over keeping him alive. But, it is also representative of a new age for the Yellowjackets when Natalie inevitably ends Ben's life after the group force-feeds him.
Natalie's decision goes against the group's agreement to keep Ben alive at all costs for the sake of keeping up a mentality of hope that they will be rescued someday. Naturally, it results in more division as Taissa tries to offer up a fair way to handle Natalie's betrayal, and seeing the bloodlust among the group, Lottie is quick to hand over the reins of leadership to Shauna. Unlike Natalie, who was given leadership out of Lottie's views of the Wilderness having respect, Lottie crowns Shauna out of fear. Rather than punishing Natalie by death or exile, Shauna decides that Natalie's punishment is to prepare the feast they are making out of Ben's body. This decision, while allowing Natalie to have a better understanding of Shauna's role, also gives more weight to season one's scene of the adult counterparts of Shauna and Natalie being together as Shauna cuts up Adam's corpse. As Shauna steps in to fill Natalie's role as leader, Natalie steps up to fill in Shauna's role, which will now give each of them a more intimate understanding of what the other goes through.
Although Ben has not had any real authority over the Yellowjackets since the early days of their crash landing, his death and consumption could also mark the official end of adult authority and childhood innocence. Unlike the previous other casualties, Ben is not an accidental death but killed with purpose. Meanwhile, the group's decision to honor him with a cannibalistic ritual is not a requirement of survival at the height of desperate hunger but because they simply wish to do so. The group has animals around but chooses instead to consume Ben, leaving his head for everyone to see, including two surprising new additions that have the potential to push the Yellowjackets even further down the rabbit hole. After all, appearing at the girls' camp in the Canadian Wilderness as they undergo a dancing ritual to their dead coach is the last thing the hikers expected to stumble upon. Yet, it opens the door for several possibilities in future episodes, including if this is the first step to the group's eventual rescue at the 19-month mark or how long it takes the Yellowjackets to eventually kill them.
The new additions to the Wilderness timeline coincide with the adult counterparts of Shauna, Taissa, and Van listening to a recording of themselves in the Wilderness, which begs the question of who was responsible for sending the tape to Shauna and asking what really happened to the hikers. As the adult timeline starts to see the unraveling of secrets, as Callie still has the recording of Shauna's meeting with Van and Taissa, the Wilderness timeline is potentially headed toward its big rescue, as the group of survivors heads into their final months of their 19-month stay in the Wilderness. The second half of season three has been raising the bar with each passing week, and with such a massive cliffhanger revealed at the end of "Thanksgiving (Canada)," anything is possible as season three heads into its next few episodes.