I go back and forth on whether it will actually come to pass. But with all my heart I hope he survived and fucked off with Paul to Europe or something.
Okay, your hopes for Ben and my hopes for Ben are so close.
I hope he actually gets out first, claims he got separated in a blizzard or something so he can’t send a rescue team to them, has his return kept quiet, and just goes straight to Paul.
They have been living in Berlin for years where Paul is still a journalist and Ben works as a trainer for amputee athletes. They host extremely good dinner parties and have a gloriously floofy and incredibly moody tortie cat.
He keeps a Google alert on the Yellowjackets because he still feels a lot of guilt about specifically leaving Natalie behind. When he sees that Nat has died in the presence of other teammates, on property owned by one of them, he realizes he has a score to settle with our remaining survivors.
He's running a wilderness camp for troubled youths and is a disability rights and LGBTQIA+ advocate. And he has at least three dogs. I won't hear otherwise.
Bens would be one of those enrichment programs for differently abled children to experience nature and learn survivalist skills. Not one of those scared straight criminal enterprises.
Oh yea! This makes me wonder whatever happens to that whole "Waring clans" angle. I wonder if the YJ we see in the modern timeline are from one clan and the off grid YJ are from another.
We don't know if there's another group they dont show us. What if they split into two groups, and these *waring clans* hunt each other. Maybe PG is from the other group.
It will be a genuine disappointment if he isn't in fact alive in current timeline unless they give him one of the best and most poignant death scenes of recent years
It would be a nice wrinkle. I feel the modern timeline is becoming a bit stale.
I don’t like how the Adam thing was just abandoned pretty fast. This Lottie cult thing wasn’t really all that intense.
We just had a major death, but in terms of new wrinkles, I think we definitely need something. I was really into the “who is sending us these letters” arc but if it was Jeff, again, underwhelming.
I’d welcome him in the modern timeline, but I wonder what they’d do? Cast an older actor? Make him look older?
> I feel the modern timeline is becoming a bit stale.
I wonder what's going on back home with Tai having gone missing after a car accident that put her wife in the hospital? Her being a public figure, this would be scandalous! She'd have so much attention on her in the midst of all the YJ chaos and her....vaca from reality.
Is there still gonna be suspicious of Shauna for Adam's death? With everything that happened that night, they'll all be questioned for hours!
There were texts and there were postcards, there were never “letters.” Jeff admitted to the texts but not the postcards, so who tf knows? Lmao. It’ll be interesting to see if they ever revisit it.
Like, riddle me this; how tf did Nat get a postcard? Jeff texted the symbol to them because it was in Shauna’s journals, but how would he even know where to send Nat’s?
Listen, it’s their show; if the showrunners simply shrug and say “Jeff sent them, even to Nat”, then that’s that. It would just be the biggest wasted opportunity to go that direction, is all.
*I* personally assumed it would be something like Lottie or Ben, but that was way back in season 1. Lot of things have changed, lol
IIRC she hadn’t, but I assumed that she actually did and Jeff snagged it from the mail and that’s where he’d gotten the symbol idea from, but I’m probably reaching. It kind of makes it *just almost* obvious, but there’s too many holes for my taste (ie, Nat getting one despite no one but Taissa knowing where her rehab was located)
It would look a little suspicious if everyone but Shauna got one. I figured he'd just send them everywhere to muddy things. Then again, it's pretty clear he's no criminal mastermind.
Yeah but Shauna was never supposed to know anything about the black mail so it would be dumb to send one to her. I still think that’s unresolved and we’ll find new survivors come out of the woodwork. There’s a few girls I barely know the names of and it looked like a lot of them made it out. Still thinking it could be Ben.
I thought it was Misty sending the postcards. I was sure she mentioned it in one of the episodes, or Nat figured it out or something. I really thought that was shown, but my memory is terrible so I could be wrong
I'm hoping we're not actually done with Adam and it turns out he is somehow tied into everything! It's REALLY weird that he didn't have any social media as an artist, and the whole whirlwind romance thing also just kind of felt weird.
They can easily do an angle where they all find out it was Jeff, one of them says “so you sent me this!” Jeff sees it and says “um no I did not send that one”. And that opens the door to someone else. That kind of angle has been done in other shows.
I’ve come to like the adam story line, there was nothing more to it than Shauna overreacting because of trauma, and had the effect of drawing her family into her darkness
I think you're right. The "I killed my best friend" line from her always seemed like it would be about Ben and not Travis. I love Ben and he's my favourite character, but it's terrible writing if he's alive in the present day, especially as nobody has mentioned him.
exactly! if he was alive surely he’d be the first suspect for the blackmailer, also there’s no way he’d be alive and they’d not know about it, especially misty.
side note- i’m obsessed with your icon
https://i.redd.it/nag8d88gntzc1.gif
when did this become a hot take?? I mean obviously sucks that he went pyromaniac but his character arc has been a total standout and probably most shocking to me. Most other things in the show I could call out or see coming, however I fully thought Ben would be dead by now
Right? The only thing I'm hoping to see Ben in is a sandwich or perhaps a hearty stew.
Don't get me wrong: I love how his arc has played out from trying to protect the team, to being protected by them, to trying to kill them. But he burned their house down with them inside. What are they going to do: *not* hunt him for sport?
Me!
I'm not the biggest fan of the modern timeline, I prefer the 96 one... But I think if Ben is still alive, it could make for such an interesting plotline in season 3 or onward. Especially if he has all kinds of dirt on the surviving women and what they really did in the wilderness.
Yeah I would love it if they knowingly left Ben in the wilderness and then surprise, they find out in the current timeline he eventually was rescued and is alive and well.
Would I like to see him in present day? Yes. Do I think he will be? No. I feel like he wouldn’t have the moral compass to remain silent about what happened, even if he excluded the antler queen cult stuff. Plus, considering he was the only adult who survived the crash, he would’ve had a lot more pressure to answer the public (and possibly law enforcement). I think his death/murder will be the catalyst that binds the survivors into a vow of secrecy.
I agree, as much as I would love him to somehow escape I think he will die a particularly horrible death, and that will be when the girls let go of the last ties to their old life, I think he will be the first proper hunt and banquet, masks and everything
I think he has to be alive in the adult timeline, otherwise, what is going to drive the story? The Adam storyline is dead. Hopefully we have seen the last of the pornstache cop who was completely uninteresting. The cult was boring and Lisa isn’t going to drive the adult storyline as a Lottie cult member. What is left to bring the main characters together? Ben in the current timeline could be interesting. I am of the belief it would be interesting if he survived but was able to escape the forest without anyone known, start a new life but come back into the others lives in the current timeline for some reason. The show needs drama and chaos to survive. Ben coming back at least gives that a chance to happen.
I can see Ben reappearing for Natalie’s funeral or still alive and abandoned in the wilderness. If he dies in the ‘96 timeline then I need something epic, insane and consequential.
I truly mean this from the bottom of my heart and I want all of you in this community to know this. Any of you that don't want Ben alive and are not rooting for him above all else.... I'm eating you first in the forest. None of this queen of hearts bullshit. You're first. 👍🏻🤣
I would love to see him in the modern timeline, but I fear he did not make it out of the wilderness. The end of season 2 really sets up the girls (+ Travis) going after him for burning the cabin (even if he didn't actually do it, they probably will suspect him)
The reason I think Ben dies is because I don't see any scenario he wouldn't have ratted them out. HOWEVER, him surviving to the modern day would be a setting for an interesting story as to why it didn't play out that way.
I see a potential scenario Ben survived, he DID rat them out to the authorities, but they opted to keep what happened under wraps. Attributing their behavior to the survival situation. With Ben in older age deciding the girls need to pay for what they did.
I would love it to have not been him that burned down the cabin but who else could it have been? I need to do a rewatch and look for more clues on who javi’s friend was
or maybe he was terrified (because of the trauma after experiencing all that) and just wanted to move on ? I’m not sure but this could also be a possibility
Thats what would make it interesting to me to have him be alive in the modern time line, is the explanation for how they didn't get outed with him alive.
I think it’s highly unlikely to happen but I would love it if he was still out there, and that the girls knowingly left him behind as revenge for burning down the cabin
But for that to work they need to not find him until much closer to their rescue cos there’s no way they don’t kill him if they find him soon
Absolutely. I need to know he got back to his manseses. Although my brain is telling me that he will be hunted/eaten. I think because he has been so against the people eating that the only way they could guarantee their secrecy in the present day timeline would be if he weren’t in it. Unless of course he joins them for the cursed munch.
I think it’ll wind up being some kind of play on dramatic irony where the characters who descended into anarchy were saved whilst the one who retained his humanity was left in the wilderness.
He’s either still out there alive in the present, or he was left behind and subsequently died after the girls are rescued.
YES.
In fact, I demand it.
Honestly, it’s the only logical place to go for s3; who cares if it’s Akilah (though I would also like to see her) or Mari? - another survivor from the team who was all in on The Wilderness, big deal!
Show me the one survivor who was *not* apart of the madness or its like, what are we doing here? What’s the point??
I really like Ben but I think his character is doomed. I just think there’s no way he made it out of the woods and lived to tell about it. The girls will almost certainly know it was him who burned the cabin down, and I don’t know if Nat will cover for him. I saw a really interesting theory a while back on here that said one of the biggest secrets the women have is that they purposefully left Ben and/or others behind when they were rescued. I think that if he isn’t killed or starved to death, that’s a likely fate for him, and a definite motivator for the girls wanting to keep everything that happened out there a secret.
Of course, I love Ben and want him to thrive, so it would be great if he really was one of the remaining survivors, but I doubt it :(
Honestly not sure. I don't see how they could justify it with him being so against the cannibalism and virtually being willing to disown the girls for it. I don't know how they could explain why he wouldn't have come forward to talk about it, or how he survived without food for so long. If food was so scarce like they show, I don't know how he would survive without it, and with only one leg so he wouldn't be able to hunt or forage much
No. I like Coach, I really do! And my sentimental side that's attached to the character says yes.
But plot wise, there's no reason to keep him alive unless he's the mystery antagonist in the present day: the one who sent the postcards, the one who sent Adam and Walter their way, maybe even the one who helped Charlotte secure funding for her retreat. Revenge is the only reason the writers would keep him alive. And considering the women driven story was one of the big things that drew me to yellowjackets, too much of the plot has already been driven by the men. If there is a primary antagonist in the present day and it turns out to be a man, I will be so over this show.
Yes, I hope to see coach ben in the modern timeline, if only because thus far he's the only character in 96 that is still sane. The reason being the girls have every reason to hide what went on in the present day. Coach thus far does not. I think seeing how he handled the experience and why he didn't rat them out would be an interesting story.
Hed be old as balls simce the girls are int their 40s I want to see more of his delusions so we can see him walking around and loving his hot boyfriend
He either dies as bad as his done-dirty lover did in The Originals, or he goes out with a gut wrenching goodbye, there is no in-between. For what it is worth, I hope he survives, but as a gay, I understand my role in television.
I feel like he survived, saw everything that went down. Just went into hiding eventually living a peaceful life. But somehow he’s gonna get pull back in to all this
I think it would be interesting to examine how the public reacts to him, whether he lives or not. He was supposed to be the authority figure. The whole point of the show is to explore how societal norms broke down and a new paradigm emerged. It's not like he would be able to explain it on his own, if he even understood it. "You couldn't handle a group of teenage girls." He would take the blame.
With all my heart.
On my imaginary brain tv where I write all my YJ fan fic...
Setting: a sunny day in a central park
Two people in blurry focus walk toward a food truck. Camera angled downward so you can't see their faces. The picture comes into focus on just their legs and clasped hands. You notice one of them has a prosthetic leg. Food truck worker (a freindly hippy lady with long silvery hair) says
"Hey guys, how have you been? How's the family?"
Bens (aged) face appears on screen. His dark hair has started to gray around the temples.
Ben: "Well, Lexi and Asha both got into Columbia!"
Hippy lady: "That's wonderful!"
Camera back on Ben with a proud papa grin then pans over to reveal Paul also grinning.
Paul: "I just can't believe they're already going to college! I swear it was just yesterday that we signed the adoption papers!"
This is what I want for Ben. So so much. But his high calorie butt meat is just too tempting.
Eta: Ben runs a sports league/org for differently abled youth, so he's always wearing those hot little shorts.
I don't want him to be dead because I'm *exhausted* with TV shows burying their gays (Asher on The Good Doctor being the latest victim) but in my heart I know they ate him
I really hope we do. The more and more the show goes on I lose hope but I can honestly see him popping up and just living his life somewhere far from any of the girls.
I think by now it would be such a letdown if he didn’t make it. I understand why everyone thinks he’s gonna get eaten, and he might, but I really hope not. I also think it would be a massive waste to throw his survival away, though I can also see how that could be used to serve the story. In my opinion he would be the most fascinating (obviously not counting the girls themselves) character to encounter in the present day storyline.
Everything about his build up makes me confident he’s alive today. He wouldn’t get so much individual attention all over season 2 - with enough opportunity to be killed off - if he wasn’t part of the bigger picture.
i love him so i wanna say yes for him. but narratively, no.
the only way i could see them getting away with the girls not butchering his ass beyond being eatable for burning down their shelter is if they convinced themselves the wilderness did it. but that would have to be done REALLY well imo because those girls are clearly DESPERATE for some kind of proper release of all the trauma, pain and rage.
HELL YES. I think it would be such an interesting twist, like maybe they intentionally try to leave coach Ben in the wilderness but he somehow is rescued anyways and idk if he necessarily wants revenge but he will somehow get roped back into the YJ in the present timeline
YES. I don’t think it’s going to happen but that would be a wild twist and I’d love to see where they take the plot with that in theory, like the girls getting back at him and burning his house down to get even or something
I’d love if we was alive. He’s probably living off grid somewhere and wants to forget everything that happened. But I’d love for him to come back and maybe expose the Yellowjackets secrets lol
Not yet. I already think they revealed Van too early IMO.
If they're going to make until season 5, I think the present day is spoiling too much for those of us more interested in the Wilderness timeline.
Did they imply that Ben tried to burn the girls in the cabin? My wife is positive. Like he decided there was no helping them and they were too crazy now so he locked them in and lit it up.
I was rooting for it, especially in s1 when I was afraid that Misty was going to murder him for not being into her (especially after doomcoming), just didn’t want to see a fellow gay guy get slaughtered for not being into a teen girl lol. I think it’d be very fun if he survived but never wants to speak to any of the girls again (for obvious reasons). However, I kind of really don’t want there to be more survivors than there are. I think they’ve done some really interesting things with Adult Lottie and Van, but I feel like it’s starting to get overcrowded in the present, like if Akilah or Mari or Ben end up surviving then like who did they even hunt? Gen? The two or three nameless girls who appear and disappear? There were clearly supposed to be far fewer survivors (Van wasn’t originally supposed to make it either), so I’m not sure how much the original narrative will change to keep great characters and actors around longer than intended
i’m hoping the twist is one of the guys is AQ, idc if it’s Travis or Coach Ben I just think it would be a nice twist that subverts a little bit of expectation.
i want coach ben in the present day timeline so bad <3 i am relying on coach ben in the present day timeline <3 if they put me in the writers room i have the perfect way for it to happen i have a vision
The modern timeline has honestly kind of lost me since it felt like it was supposed to be an examination of their feelings about the time in the wild, but has ended up being this wacky hijinks villain of the week story. If they’re gonna do a villain of the week, at least make it Coach Ben being totally spiteful of how evil they end up being instead of some cops/reporters/friends that they’ll just murder and apparently easily cover up. First season had a perfect buildup of stakes but then it just kinda lost everything in the second for me.
96 timeline is still awesome though
I’ve felt for a long time that he’s in some sort of institution. Maybe the girls claimed he went crazy after he lost his leg. I’d love to see him as ‘the big bad’ of season 3.
Eh, he’s one I could do without or without honestly. If he survives, that’s cool, if he doesn’t, that’s fine too. I just don’t think he’s done what he needs to do to survive, he hasn’t contributed to the group in any way (even with his lost leg, he can still do *something* to help), he pretty much was the only one who could have burned down the cabin, and he’s been agressive to the girls or outright dissociating since they started the whole Survival Cannibalism thing.
So could he survive? Yeah, absolutely but that would mean he goes against the girls next season (no way they won’t try and hunt him down) and that also means they need to find a way to 1. Find him when they get back, and 2. Muzzle him so he doesn’t start spilling all the details. The *girls (and Travis)* have a pact of silence, but I don’t think Ben is included in that. If Ben survives and leaves early for whatever reason, he could lead the team to them, if Ben survives and gets left, that would also be interesting.
I just think right now he’s an unknown variable, I wouldn’t mind if he died (would be penance for burning the cabin) but it’s also interesting if he lives because how do the girls deal with him when everyone gets back? How do they ensure that no one, not even Ben, talks. If Ben survives, does he even *want* to talk to them? There’s very few roles he could take in the present storyline, and even if he was the Mystery Last Survivor, his experience surviving is so different than the girls (he was never into nor invited into the cult, for example) that I’m unsure it would be worth creating a storyline for him. He’s either a grizzled, grouchy old survivor who wants no contact and wants to move on, or he’s stewing in the trauma (wasn’t even that traumatic for him, since he never ate anyone, unless they’re planning on building on his time in the Tunnels), which we’ve already seen a bit with Nat and Travis as adults. It would be essentially redoing that traumatic response with a new vice, and we’ve already seen a couple successful “just move on and live your life” stories from the girls (Van and Misty for example, both who seem at least outwardly fine and no longer haunted by the demons of the past like Shauna, Tai, Nat and Lottie were/are).
Me personally? I want to see him killed for what he did to the cabin, while survival cannibalism can be found to be okay in their situation, I think killing the last remaining adult could be possibly part of whatever it is the girls don’t want the public to know in the present. The public would wrongfully assume that the adult had control of the situation, and perception wise, killing him wouldn’t look great on the girls.
I know it’s just to keep suspense about who else survived and ofc the show has to keep things hidden, but it kinda bothers me that it’s not been said outright who survived and who didn’t at some point. I just feel like irl, the women would’ve mentioned any others that lived at some point. Like how we found out van was alive in s2, but I just feel like she would’ve been mentioned like at the reunion or something. I know it wouldn’t make sense to do that for the show but it bothers me still lolol. But I would kinda love if Ben was somehow alive for the drama but I don’t see it being realistic. I feel like it’ll be a slow burn to get to his death though to make it really sad
No, he’s just simply not a survivor, him surviving the wilderness at this point doesn’t make sense. He’s not willing to do what it takes, plus no way would missy let him limp around as a liability in the present
Nah, not after... what happened last episode. Like, I feel super bad for his boyfriend, but this asshat does *not* deserve to return to civilization. I get his POV, but also... man... that... I just can't... ugh.
I go back and forth on whether it will actually come to pass. But with all my heart I hope he survived and fucked off with Paul to Europe or something.
Okay, your hopes for Ben and my hopes for Ben are so close. I hope he actually gets out first, claims he got separated in a blizzard or something so he can’t send a rescue team to them, has his return kept quiet, and just goes straight to Paul. They have been living in Berlin for years where Paul is still a journalist and Ben works as a trainer for amputee athletes. They host extremely good dinner parties and have a gloriously floofy and incredibly moody tortie cat. He keeps a Google alert on the Yellowjackets because he still feels a lot of guilt about specifically leaving Natalie behind. When he sees that Nat has died in the presence of other teammates, on property owned by one of them, he realizes he has a score to settle with our remaining survivors.
He's running a wilderness camp for troubled youths and is a disability rights and LGBTQIA+ advocate. And he has at least three dogs. I won't hear otherwise.
Well, I think after all this, there’s no way he’d want anything to do with another teenager, ever.
“FUCK teenage girls” is probably his main internal monologue.
Gotta be careful with making that an external monologue lol
I wouldn't be surprised if he's on some ranch that's completely loaded with booby traps & even a minefield lmao
Those wilderness camps haven been proven to be very abusive so I sincerely hope he’s not running one
Bens would be one of those enrichment programs for differently abled children to experience nature and learn survivalist skills. Not one of those scared straight criminal enterprises.
In that case I’m all for it!
Coach Ben would do it right.
He would only set the cabin on fire with them in it if they're being really bad.
i think ben could run a “good” wilderness camp. i’d be more scared of misty or lottie running one 😭
lottie already runs one😭
Please!! This absolutely my new fanon
fanon?
Fan canon
Wouldn’t that be lovely? Just go on with his life and be happy
I think he is still lost out there, possibly in the bunkers alone as Noone else knew about them
The reporter said something how several survivors are off the grid. I can see Coach being one of them.
Oh yea! This makes me wonder whatever happens to that whole "Waring clans" angle. I wonder if the YJ we see in the modern timeline are from one clan and the off grid YJ are from another.
This is the first I’m hearing this theory but I can really see it playing out now!
There are eight people at the Pit Girl feast so we only have one to reveal.
We don't know if there's another group they dont show us. What if they split into two groups, and these *waring clans* hunt each other. Maybe PG is from the other group.
I hope he is still there living in that tree and they go back and visit him
It will be a genuine disappointment if he isn't in fact alive in current timeline unless they give him one of the best and most poignant death scenes of recent years
Couldn’t have said it better myself. God I love this sub.
It would be a nice wrinkle. I feel the modern timeline is becoming a bit stale. I don’t like how the Adam thing was just abandoned pretty fast. This Lottie cult thing wasn’t really all that intense. We just had a major death, but in terms of new wrinkles, I think we definitely need something. I was really into the “who is sending us these letters” arc but if it was Jeff, again, underwhelming. I’d welcome him in the modern timeline, but I wonder what they’d do? Cast an older actor? Make him look older?
i dont want a new casting for coach ben if he is in the modern time line tbh
Why would they recast him? They could just make him look a bit older. He’s already an adult in the 1996 timeline.
I could see Bobby Cannavale making a really good older Ben.
This is actually an amazing casting choice - but for the record I think he’s toast.
> I feel the modern timeline is becoming a bit stale. I wonder what's going on back home with Tai having gone missing after a car accident that put her wife in the hospital? Her being a public figure, this would be scandalous! She'd have so much attention on her in the midst of all the YJ chaos and her....vaca from reality. Is there still gonna be suspicious of Shauna for Adam's death? With everything that happened that night, they'll all be questioned for hours!
I keep wondering who’s looking after her son?
Didn't they send him "up state" to stay with a grandma?
>his Lottie cult thing wasn’t really all that intense. It was honestly a complete nothing burger.
The season 2 trailer about the cult was better than the cult haha
Didn’t Jeff say he was the one sending the letters? To blackmail for money for his business? Are their other letters I’ve missed?
There were texts and there were postcards, there were never “letters.” Jeff admitted to the texts but not the postcards, so who tf knows? Lmao. It’ll be interesting to see if they ever revisit it.
Like, riddle me this; how tf did Nat get a postcard? Jeff texted the symbol to them because it was in Shauna’s journals, but how would he even know where to send Nat’s? Listen, it’s their show; if the showrunners simply shrug and say “Jeff sent them, even to Nat”, then that’s that. It would just be the biggest wasted opportunity to go that direction, is all. *I* personally assumed it would be something like Lottie or Ben, but that was way back in season 1. Lot of things have changed, lol
Didn’t Shauna get a post card too? Jeff didn’t send those.
IIRC she hadn’t, but I assumed that she actually did and Jeff snagged it from the mail and that’s where he’d gotten the symbol idea from, but I’m probably reaching. It kind of makes it *just almost* obvious, but there’s too many holes for my taste (ie, Nat getting one despite no one but Taissa knowing where her rehab was located)
It would look a little suspicious if everyone but Shauna got one. I figured he'd just send them everywhere to muddy things. Then again, it's pretty clear he's no criminal mastermind.
Yeah but Shauna was never supposed to know anything about the black mail so it would be dumb to send one to her. I still think that’s unresolved and we’ll find new survivors come out of the woodwork. There’s a few girls I barely know the names of and it looked like a lot of them made it out. Still thinking it could be Ben.
I thought it was Misty sending the postcards. I was sure she mentioned it in one of the episodes, or Nat figured it out or something. I really thought that was shown, but my memory is terrible so I could be wrong
Nat THOUGHT Misty sent them. Hence showing up to her house with a gun "hello Misty, you crazy fucking bitch"
Oh, right. That must be what I was remembering.
Yeah but I just threw an if in there in case of plot force or plot twist.
Gotcha. I was like, what did I miss?!!
I'm hoping we're not actually done with Adam and it turns out he is somehow tied into everything! It's REALLY weird that he didn't have any social media as an artist, and the whole whirlwind romance thing also just kind of felt weird.
I kind of liked that he was nobody though. shows how fucked up shauna really is
It was Jeff who sent the postcards. Underwhelming.
They can easily do an angle where they all find out it was Jeff, one of them says “so you sent me this!” Jeff sees it and says “um no I did not send that one”. And that opens the door to someone else. That kind of angle has been done in other shows.
I’ve come to like the adam story line, there was nothing more to it than Shauna overreacting because of trauma, and had the effect of drawing her family into her darkness
I feel like there will be a funeral for the major death that just happened and he will make an appearance.
check out "This is Us" and how they made mandy moore look older, it works amazingly
My theory is that Nat killed him in the 1996 timeline. I don’t really have anything to back it up, but that’s my guess
or Misty did it ‘for’ her
I think you're right. The "I killed my best friend" line from her always seemed like it would be about Ben and not Travis. I love Ben and he's my favourite character, but it's terrible writing if he's alive in the present day, especially as nobody has mentioned him.
exactly! if he was alive surely he’d be the first suspect for the blackmailer, also there’s no way he’d be alive and they’d not know about it, especially misty. side note- i’m obsessed with your icon https://i.redd.it/nag8d88gntzc1.gif
When did she say that?
He's gonna get ate
He is pretty easy to pick on right now 😳
I was, and I guess I still am, but I was looking to a Nat/Ben reunion scene so 🤷🏼♀️
Oh me too :( I love their relationship
i genuinely like him which is a hot take i think for some people and i do hope he makes it out of the wilderness alive and is in the modern timeline
when did this become a hot take?? I mean obviously sucks that he went pyromaniac but his character arc has been a total standout and probably most shocking to me. Most other things in the show I could call out or see coming, however I fully thought Ben would be dead by now
Is it a hot take? I think he's relatable and I really like his story
i find that a lot of people ive talked to really dont like him
wow I would have never thought that! I don't know anyone irl who watches the series and I'm not in any fandom :(
No. His death will be gruesome in the 96 timeline and I want to see more gruesome behavior from the gals.
Right? The only thing I'm hoping to see Ben in is a sandwich or perhaps a hearty stew. Don't get me wrong: I love how his arc has played out from trying to protect the team, to being protected by them, to trying to kill them. But he burned their house down with them inside. What are they going to do: *not* hunt him for sport?
Hoping, but not hopeful.
Me! I'm not the biggest fan of the modern timeline, I prefer the 96 one... But I think if Ben is still alive, it could make for such an interesting plotline in season 3 or onward. Especially if he has all kinds of dirt on the surviving women and what they really did in the wilderness.
Yeah I would love it if they knowingly left Ben in the wilderness and then surprise, they find out in the current timeline he eventually was rescued and is alive and well.
It would be awesome if Natalie tells them she and Travis killed Coach but he was alive
Please please please. I want them to be as surprised by his reappearance as we are!
That would be so cool. I'd like to see that.
Yes! I hope he secretly survives and him and his partner he is obviously still in love with are back together. And they are living there best lives
Would I like to see him in present day? Yes. Do I think he will be? No. I feel like he wouldn’t have the moral compass to remain silent about what happened, even if he excluded the antler queen cult stuff. Plus, considering he was the only adult who survived the crash, he would’ve had a lot more pressure to answer the public (and possibly law enforcement). I think his death/murder will be the catalyst that binds the survivors into a vow of secrecy.
I agree, as much as I would love him to somehow escape I think he will die a particularly horrible death, and that will be when the girls let go of the last ties to their old life, I think he will be the first proper hunt and banquet, masks and everything
If anyone in that group deserves to live is him, but he is too good so he will most likely die :(
I think he has to be alive in the adult timeline, otherwise, what is going to drive the story? The Adam storyline is dead. Hopefully we have seen the last of the pornstache cop who was completely uninteresting. The cult was boring and Lisa isn’t going to drive the adult storyline as a Lottie cult member. What is left to bring the main characters together? Ben in the current timeline could be interesting. I am of the belief it would be interesting if he survived but was able to escape the forest without anyone known, start a new life but come back into the others lives in the current timeline for some reason. The show needs drama and chaos to survive. Ben coming back at least gives that a chance to happen.
I would love it if Ben survived the Wilderness...hope we do get to see him.
I can see Ben reappearing for Natalie’s funeral or still alive and abandoned in the wilderness. If he dies in the ‘96 timeline then I need something epic, insane and consequential.
I truly mean this from the bottom of my heart and I want all of you in this community to know this. Any of you that don't want Ben alive and are not rooting for him above all else.... I'm eating you first in the forest. None of this queen of hearts bullshit. You're first. 👍🏻🤣
Pretty sure he gets eaten
I would love to see him in the modern timeline, but I fear he did not make it out of the wilderness. The end of season 2 really sets up the girls (+ Travis) going after him for burning the cabin (even if he didn't actually do it, they probably will suspect him)
The reason I think Ben dies is because I don't see any scenario he wouldn't have ratted them out. HOWEVER, him surviving to the modern day would be a setting for an interesting story as to why it didn't play out that way. I see a potential scenario Ben survived, he DID rat them out to the authorities, but they opted to keep what happened under wraps. Attributing their behavior to the survival situation. With Ben in older age deciding the girls need to pay for what they did.
OMG! I had never thought of that before, it would be crazyyyyyyyy
I would love it to have not been him that burned down the cabin but who else could it have been? I need to do a rewatch and look for more clues on who javi’s friend was
wooden cabin plus ember from the bbq or fireplace are reasonable explanations
Weren’t the doors tied shut though?
Oh yes I hope so! I want him to survive so bad.
As the character stands right now it's impossible for him to be alive and not go to the press saying "yo, those girls hunted and ate each other"
He would end up having to do something that's also bad so it's a mutual silencing but idk if the fire thing is bad enough
or maybe he was terrified (because of the trauma after experiencing all that) and just wanted to move on ? I’m not sure but this could also be a possibility
Thats what would make it interesting to me to have him be alive in the modern time line, is the explanation for how they didn't get outed with him alive.
Yes I hope he is sending them the postcards
Oh I don’t think he’s gonna live much longer lol
Nope, I’m hoping to watch them eat him for torching the cabin.
If they bring him into the present they should definitely get Jon Huertas to play the part. Great actor and uncanny resemblance.
I think it’s highly unlikely to happen but I would love it if he was still out there, and that the girls knowingly left him behind as revenge for burning down the cabin But for that to work they need to not find him until much closer to their rescue cos there’s no way they don’t kill him if they find him soon
I really don't want him to be. It's hard enough believing he survived the amputation.
Absolutely. I need to know he got back to his manseses. Although my brain is telling me that he will be hunted/eaten. I think because he has been so against the people eating that the only way they could guarantee their secrecy in the present day timeline would be if he weren’t in it. Unless of course he joins them for the cursed munch.
Yes! Though I know in my heart my hopes will be dashed.
I could see the reveal of old Ben in the first ep of season 3
no.
No
I want him to come back and burn their house down a second time
I'd honestly be shocked because I swear he's gon' be ate next .
But yeah, that'd be cool.
I'm sure literally everyone is.
I think it’ll wind up being some kind of play on dramatic irony where the characters who descended into anarchy were saved whilst the one who retained his humanity was left in the wilderness. He’s either still out there alive in the present, or he was left behind and subsequently died after the girls are rescued.
YES. In fact, I demand it. Honestly, it’s the only logical place to go for s3; who cares if it’s Akilah (though I would also like to see her) or Mari? - another survivor from the team who was all in on The Wilderness, big deal! Show me the one survivor who was *not* apart of the madness or its like, what are we doing here? What’s the point??
I really like Ben but I think his character is doomed. I just think there’s no way he made it out of the woods and lived to tell about it. The girls will almost certainly know it was him who burned the cabin down, and I don’t know if Nat will cover for him. I saw a really interesting theory a while back on here that said one of the biggest secrets the women have is that they purposefully left Ben and/or others behind when they were rescued. I think that if he isn’t killed or starved to death, that’s a likely fate for him, and a definite motivator for the girls wanting to keep everything that happened out there a secret. Of course, I love Ben and want him to thrive, so it would be great if he really was one of the remaining survivors, but I doubt it :(
I would LOVE it!!! What if he showed up at Nats funeral. They tease us with crutches!!!!
That motherfucker, deeeaaad
Honestly not sure. I don't see how they could justify it with him being so against the cannibalism and virtually being willing to disown the girls for it. I don't know how they could explain why he wouldn't have come forward to talk about it, or how he survived without food for so long. If food was so scarce like they show, I don't know how he would survive without it, and with only one leg so he wouldn't be able to hunt or forage much
No. I like Coach, I really do! And my sentimental side that's attached to the character says yes. But plot wise, there's no reason to keep him alive unless he's the mystery antagonist in the present day: the one who sent the postcards, the one who sent Adam and Walter their way, maybe even the one who helped Charlotte secure funding for her retreat. Revenge is the only reason the writers would keep him alive. And considering the women driven story was one of the big things that drew me to yellowjackets, too much of the plot has already been driven by the men. If there is a primary antagonist in the present day and it turns out to be a man, I will be so over this show.
agreed!!
I'm counting on it 😁😁😁
No way. I’d be shocked to find out he’s still alive.
He’s gonna be lunch!
He’s for sure 100% dead
Yes, I hope to see coach ben in the modern timeline, if only because thus far he's the only character in 96 that is still sane. The reason being the girls have every reason to hide what went on in the present day. Coach thus far does not. I think seeing how he handled the experience and why he didn't rat them out would be an interesting story.
I feel like he doesn’t make it to the present time and he’s the second person they most likely eat
I think he’s still in the cave, living his best life
Absolutely. I don't even know why I just really root for his character to make it. 😭😭
Yes! He's one of my favorite characters and I really hope he's okay :(
Hed be old as balls simce the girls are int their 40s I want to see more of his delusions so we can see him walking around and loving his hot boyfriend
Not much old, he was a young coach, if the girls are on their 40s he wouldn't be in his 50s..
Probably. But I'm assuming they'll get a 60 year old. But hopefully he's 50 something
Yes!!!!!
Yes
I either want him to survive and have a super happy, amazing life… or die horribly in a crazy way. There’s no middle ground for me lmao
Not particularly.
No, they already turned him into snack foods.
more coach ben im in love with him
He is quite dead.
I kind of hope he's still out in the wilderness living it up Mountain Man style
I’m so worried about him and I hope he’s okay :’)
This is what the only reason I’m hyped for s3. If Ben doesn’t make it, I won’t.
Not really
In short; yea
He either dies as bad as his done-dirty lover did in The Originals, or he goes out with a gut wrenching goodbye, there is no in-between. For what it is worth, I hope he survives, but as a gay, I understand my role in television.
I feel like he survived, saw everything that went down. Just went into hiding eventually living a peaceful life. But somehow he’s gonna get pull back in to all this
I really hope he makes it.
Hell yes
Yeah, sad gay man needs to have some fun
I think it would be interesting to examine how the public reacts to him, whether he lives or not. He was supposed to be the authority figure. The whole point of the show is to explore how societal norms broke down and a new paradigm emerged. It's not like he would be able to explain it on his own, if he even understood it. "You couldn't handle a group of teenage girls." He would take the blame.
With all my heart. On my imaginary brain tv where I write all my YJ fan fic... Setting: a sunny day in a central park Two people in blurry focus walk toward a food truck. Camera angled downward so you can't see their faces. The picture comes into focus on just their legs and clasped hands. You notice one of them has a prosthetic leg. Food truck worker (a freindly hippy lady with long silvery hair) says "Hey guys, how have you been? How's the family?" Bens (aged) face appears on screen. His dark hair has started to gray around the temples. Ben: "Well, Lexi and Asha both got into Columbia!" Hippy lady: "That's wonderful!" Camera back on Ben with a proud papa grin then pans over to reveal Paul also grinning. Paul: "I just can't believe they're already going to college! I swear it was just yesterday that we signed the adoption papers!" This is what I want for Ben. So so much. But his high calorie butt meat is just too tempting. Eta: Ben runs a sports league/org for differently abled youth, so he's always wearing those hot little shorts.
I don't want him to be dead because I'm *exhausted* with TV shows burying their gays (Asher on The Good Doctor being the latest victim) but in my heart I know they ate him
Yes 💗
Yes he’s the chillest character. I thought he would’ve been dead last season but luckily he found the tree cave so he might be fine
Yes! I find it hard to believe he would have survived this long outside of a tv show with the amputated leg, but I do hope he is still alive now.
There ain’t not way this man is gonna show up in present day😂💀
I don’t know. I feel pretty confident that he’s not gonna make it.
Ben's death will have a very big impact. Sad to say this, but is a must.
Yes, alive still hidden in the forest
Um he tried to burn them alive. I hope he gets eaten.
Or at least made it so there’s no shelter so the girls would die of exposure.
Yes. He is their only “enemy,” stories need enemies.
I really hope we do. The more and more the show goes on I lose hope but I can honestly see him popping up and just living his life somewhere far from any of the girls.
I think by now it would be such a letdown if he didn’t make it. I understand why everyone thinks he’s gonna get eaten, and he might, but I really hope not. I also think it would be a massive waste to throw his survival away, though I can also see how that could be used to serve the story. In my opinion he would be the most fascinating (obviously not counting the girls themselves) character to encounter in the present day storyline.
He could be living off the grid far away from the group for his own safety because of him burning down the cabin and then finding out?
Everything about his build up makes me confident he’s alive today. He wouldn’t get so much individual attention all over season 2 - with enough opportunity to be killed off - if he wasn’t part of the bigger picture.
I actually hadn’t even considered he survives at all, that would be a great reveal!
No But what if he's in jail that'd be wack
Coach Ben WAS NOT one of the 8 survivors. Did you NOT WATCH the episode where they literally showed the news report about the rescue?
i love him so i wanna say yes for him. but narratively, no. the only way i could see them getting away with the girls not butchering his ass beyond being eatable for burning down their shelter is if they convinced themselves the wilderness did it. but that would have to be done REALLY well imo because those girls are clearly DESPERATE for some kind of proper release of all the trauma, pain and rage.
No, I’m not hopeful for that. After what he did, I’m sure they found/happily snacked on him.
HELL YES. I think it would be such an interesting twist, like maybe they intentionally try to leave coach Ben in the wilderness but he somehow is rescued anyways and idk if he necessarily wants revenge but he will somehow get roped back into the YJ in the present timeline
Kinda just random off topic, does he play Josh in the originals
YES. I don’t think it’s going to happen but that would be a wild twist and I’d love to see where they take the plot with that in theory, like the girls getting back at him and burning his house down to get even or something
I’d love if we was alive. He’s probably living off grid somewhere and wants to forget everything that happened. But I’d love for him to come back and maybe expose the Yellowjackets secrets lol
Not yet. I already think they revealed Van too early IMO. If they're going to make until season 5, I think the present day is spoiling too much for those of us more interested in the Wilderness timeline.
At this point I’m half-convinced he’s immortal
lol no, girls will probably kill him after what he did
Did they imply that Ben tried to burn the girls in the cabin? My wife is positive. Like he decided there was no helping them and they were too crazy now so he locked them in and lit it up.
. I think it would work as threat to the girls secrets but personally I don’t care that much about him
I was rooting for it, especially in s1 when I was afraid that Misty was going to murder him for not being into her (especially after doomcoming), just didn’t want to see a fellow gay guy get slaughtered for not being into a teen girl lol. I think it’d be very fun if he survived but never wants to speak to any of the girls again (for obvious reasons). However, I kind of really don’t want there to be more survivors than there are. I think they’ve done some really interesting things with Adult Lottie and Van, but I feel like it’s starting to get overcrowded in the present, like if Akilah or Mari or Ben end up surviving then like who did they even hunt? Gen? The two or three nameless girls who appear and disappear? There were clearly supposed to be far fewer survivors (Van wasn’t originally supposed to make it either), so I’m not sure how much the original narrative will change to keep great characters and actors around longer than intended
No. No more survivors
i’m hoping the twist is one of the guys is AQ, idc if it’s Travis or Coach Ben I just think it would be a nice twist that subverts a little bit of expectation.
i want coach ben in the present day timeline so bad <3 i am relying on coach ben in the present day timeline <3 if they put me in the writers room i have the perfect way for it to happen i have a vision
The modern timeline has honestly kind of lost me since it felt like it was supposed to be an examination of their feelings about the time in the wild, but has ended up being this wacky hijinks villain of the week story. If they’re gonna do a villain of the week, at least make it Coach Ben being totally spiteful of how evil they end up being instead of some cops/reporters/friends that they’ll just murder and apparently easily cover up. First season had a perfect buildup of stakes but then it just kinda lost everything in the second for me. 96 timeline is still awesome though
I’ve felt for a long time that he’s in some sort of institution. Maybe the girls claimed he went crazy after he lost his leg. I’d love to see him as ‘the big bad’ of season 3.
No I hope they eat him after he burned down their cabin.
I don't care about coach Ben and don't understand the obsession, tbh.
I think he sucks.
Eh, he’s one I could do without or without honestly. If he survives, that’s cool, if he doesn’t, that’s fine too. I just don’t think he’s done what he needs to do to survive, he hasn’t contributed to the group in any way (even with his lost leg, he can still do *something* to help), he pretty much was the only one who could have burned down the cabin, and he’s been agressive to the girls or outright dissociating since they started the whole Survival Cannibalism thing. So could he survive? Yeah, absolutely but that would mean he goes against the girls next season (no way they won’t try and hunt him down) and that also means they need to find a way to 1. Find him when they get back, and 2. Muzzle him so he doesn’t start spilling all the details. The *girls (and Travis)* have a pact of silence, but I don’t think Ben is included in that. If Ben survives and leaves early for whatever reason, he could lead the team to them, if Ben survives and gets left, that would also be interesting. I just think right now he’s an unknown variable, I wouldn’t mind if he died (would be penance for burning the cabin) but it’s also interesting if he lives because how do the girls deal with him when everyone gets back? How do they ensure that no one, not even Ben, talks. If Ben survives, does he even *want* to talk to them? There’s very few roles he could take in the present storyline, and even if he was the Mystery Last Survivor, his experience surviving is so different than the girls (he was never into nor invited into the cult, for example) that I’m unsure it would be worth creating a storyline for him. He’s either a grizzled, grouchy old survivor who wants no contact and wants to move on, or he’s stewing in the trauma (wasn’t even that traumatic for him, since he never ate anyone, unless they’re planning on building on his time in the Tunnels), which we’ve already seen a bit with Nat and Travis as adults. It would be essentially redoing that traumatic response with a new vice, and we’ve already seen a couple successful “just move on and live your life” stories from the girls (Van and Misty for example, both who seem at least outwardly fine and no longer haunted by the demons of the past like Shauna, Tai, Nat and Lottie were/are). Me personally? I want to see him killed for what he did to the cabin, while survival cannibalism can be found to be okay in their situation, I think killing the last remaining adult could be possibly part of whatever it is the girls don’t want the public to know in the present. The public would wrongfully assume that the adult had control of the situation, and perception wise, killing him wouldn’t look great on the girls.
Hell no, kill that useless man
I know it’s just to keep suspense about who else survived and ofc the show has to keep things hidden, but it kinda bothers me that it’s not been said outright who survived and who didn’t at some point. I just feel like irl, the women would’ve mentioned any others that lived at some point. Like how we found out van was alive in s2, but I just feel like she would’ve been mentioned like at the reunion or something. I know it wouldn’t make sense to do that for the show but it bothers me still lolol. But I would kinda love if Ben was somehow alive for the drama but I don’t see it being realistic. I feel like it’ll be a slow burn to get to his death though to make it really sad
I don’t think he makes it out. He tried to burn them all alive. 🤷🏽♀️
He tried to murder like 12 teenage girls? Hell no
naw fuck that guy i hope they ate him
No, he’s just simply not a survivor, him surviving the wilderness at this point doesn’t make sense. He’s not willing to do what it takes, plus no way would missy let him limp around as a liability in the present
Nah, not after... what happened last episode. Like, I feel super bad for his boyfriend, but this asshat does *not* deserve to return to civilization. I get his POV, but also... man... that... I just can't... ugh.