Major Yellowjackets cast members are dropping left and right in Season 3, with another fan-favorite character meeting the end of the line in Episode 9.
The Paramount+ show has never been afraid to kill off characters, with many of the teen Yellowjackets losing their lives in their fight for survival in the wilderness.
However, Season 3 of Yellowjackets has been particularly brutal for the characters in the present-day storyline, with the core group of leads rapidly dwindling following Natalie's death at the end of Season 2.
Warning – The rest of this article contains spoilers for Yellowjackets Season 3, Episode 9.
How Does Van Die In Yellowjackets?
Season 3, Episode 9 of Yellowjackets, titled 'How the Story Ends', brought an end to adult Van (played by Lauren Ambrose).
Van had been living on borrowed time in Yellowjackets ever since she revealed she had terminal cancer in Season 2. However, it appeared that sacrificing lives had been appeasing the wilderness and keeping Van alive.
Things didn't look too good for Van right from the get-go in Episode 9, as she hallucinated a conversation with her younger self (played by Liv Hewson) from her hospital bed.
After warning her that "death is around every corner," her teenage version motivated her to keep fighting by telling her she was the hero of the story and comparing her journey to the story of The Goonies.
This led Van to climb out of her hospital bed and depart with Taissa (Tawny Cypress) and Misty (Christina Ricci), where they set out to find Shauna (Melanie Lynskey).
While driving, they come across Melissa (Hilary Swank) stranded on the side of the road following her run-in with Shauna, who they'd all believed was dead until this point.
After capturing Melissa, they return to her house and confront Shauna. The group tries to determine who killed Lottie (Simone Kessell), with suspicion cast on Shauna. However, Shauna passes the blame to Melissa, questioning why she sent her a tape that contained evidence of Hannah's murder.
Unsure who to believe, Misty leaves to confront Walter. While the others decide what to do, Melissa quietly shuts the flue on the fireplace, allowing carbon monoxide to fill the room.
When Van returns from outside, she finds Tai and Shauna unconscious and drags them outside to safety. After confirming Tai is safe and declaring her love for her, Van returns inside to confront Melissa.
Van feels she has to kill Melissa to appease the wilderness and ensure her survival:
Melissa: "That's not the only option Van. I promise you if you leave me alone, it could end now"
Van: "I have cancer, and there's a chance that if I can kill you right now, maybe I'll be allowed to live."
But ultimately, Van can't go through with it. Her good nature proves to be her undoing, as it ends with Melissa stabbing and killing her instead.
Why Did Melissa Kill Van?
An ongoing mystery throughout Yellowjackets (mainly driven by Lottie) is the nature of the wilderness and what it "wants."
In Season 3, Van and Tai presumed it wanted bodies in exchange for the Yellowjackets' continued survival, which led to the strange death of their waiter at a restaurant.
After the group finds Melissa on the side of a road near an "X" sign, this reminds Van of her vision in which her teenage self told her "X marks the spot." Leaning into the conspiracy that this could be a sign of what the wilderness wants, she's tempted to kill and sacrifice Melissa.
However, Melissa manages to talk Van out of it, reminding her that the sacrifices and rewards "weren't real." Van isn't sure and reminds Melissa, "There's a part of you that doesn't quite know either."
Melissa ensures Van that she is different: "There's a goodness in you. There always has been."
Unfortunately for Van, this turns out to be true as she cannot go through with the sacrifice and breaks down crying, "Why can't I be that?"
Melissa appears to comfort Van, but this is a ploy to get to her true goal - the knife in Van's hand, which she plunges into her chest.
As Van begins to bleed out, Melissa tells her, "You don't want to be... but I do. Isn't this what it wants?"
As with so many of the deaths in Yellowjackets, Melissa's reasoning for killing Van circles back to the mysterious wants of the wilderness, which appear to be influencing the group even two decades after their rescue.
When Melissa surprisingly returned as an adult in Episode 8 of Season 3, it was revealed that she had faked her own suicide and started a new life with Hannah's daughter. She seemed to want nothing to do with her old friends and had moved on from that part of her life.
But her murder of Van proves that Melissa, like the rest of the adult Yellowjackets, hasn't moved on from her trauma and is still caught up in that cycle of violence. Whether this cycle is linked to something supernatural in Yellowjackets or is simply bound to their human nature is still a question in the show.
Van's lack of killer instinct and her inherent goodness were assets that ultimately led to her death in Yellowjackets, but her murder also establishes Melissa as a real threat moving forward.
The finale of Yellowjackets Season 3 will be released on Friday, April 11, on Paramount+.
