Warning: This review contains full spoilers for Yaga Season 1, Episode 3. Episodes 1-3 are now streaming on AMC+ in the US and Crave in Canada, with new episodes releasing on Fridays at midnight PT.
Yaga Episode 3 wastes no time diving right back into this eerie, witchy tale, while answering some of our biggest questions after last week’s debut.
We pick up right where Episode 2’s cliffhanger left off – on the beach with Logan’s body – prior to getting confirmation from the police that, yes, it is in fact Logan’s lifeless body (not Henry’s) and that blood was found near a window open in his bedroom. There’s a moment of confusion for the viewer as Rapp sees Logan’s eyes jump open, and we see that they are ice blue – like Henry’s.
By now, we know Rapp has been hallucinating more frequently and this is possibly either from the drugs from the night before (because he honestly looks like he’s still high) or something dark and ominous that’s happening to him.
We see a pattern in relation to “time” in Yaga. This is confirmed when Carson recounts what happened the previous night at Henry’s party where we learn that “a few hours” had passed between seeing Logan disappear into his room upstairs, and Carson finding Rapp on the beach. Originally, it seemed like some time had passed, but nothing substantial.
As we continue on with more unexplained moments in this story, Rapp tries to put a move on Carson in his hotel room, which she rejects. He then goes to lie down on his bed and falls asleep almost too quickly – Carson comes and kneels down next to the bed and we see the clock turn to 3:33 (not the first time we’ve seen this either), while intense, whispering voices begin to take over as she leans in to almost kiss him. Rapp gently opens his eyes and sees Pam, Henry’s ex-girlfriend, seductively pulling a white feather out of his mouth.
He suddenly jolts out of his actual sleep and awakens some time later in the day. We also notice a small circle tattoo on Carson’s wrist before they head over to forensics, which seems to be placed in the shot intentionally for us to refer back to later…
Going to the mortuary, we see Logan’s corpse – well, most of it. In the episode’s biggest WTF moment, we learn Logan’s penis was severed from his body and he was castrated. It turns out he was also stabbed with an ancient knife made out of Obsidian and human bone – which Katherine later classifies as an Aztec ceremonial midwife sacrificial knife, connected to deities with symbols representing sexual desire and fertility. All signs so far point to Logan being murdered, and Carson and the police on staff are searching for more evidence, especially as this new case potentially relates to Henry.
We see Carson walk up to a small church to meet Logan’s mom, Alice (played by Sarah Strange). The dark, moody shots and heavy music come together to create an emotionally beautiful scene of grief between the two women. They sit on a bench in the cemetery together and more is revealed about Logan that we hadn’t known before. That includes Logan changing his hair and working out constantly – like he was trying to become Henry himself, perhaps.
Alice reveals her hate for the Parks and shares how she heard a rumor that Logan and Henry bought one of Pam’s lame hens from her and joked they were going to sacrifice it. She then explains passionately how she could see everything affecting Logan, saying, “Everyday, I’d see that thing growing in him. That thing getting bigger and thicker and darker and pulling him further and further away from God, and closer and closer to the Devil.” Carson asks about Logan’s dad, but Alice dismisses the questions.
While Carson is with Alice, we see Rapp jogging on the beach. Pam happens to be running in front of him. He tries to catch up to her and, as he does, she all of a sudden splits into three versions of herself, distorted in Rapp’s view. She calls his name and he trips over a log, seeing more visions and a sinister mask staring back at him, as he peers up at Pam who is somehow immediately next to him with a cheeky comment.
Before Carson and Rapp decide to head back over to Henry’s house to check for more leads, Carson inquires if Henry and Logan were possibly in a relationship, giving Rapp unintentional fuel to speculate on Carson’s sexuality as well, which she avoids divulging.
As the duo begin surveying Logan’s room, you can see the pile of bloodied sheets next to the window, and they begin slowly uncovering more and more clues as they go along. Interestingly, they find drug powder in a canister with the same triangle symbol we saw from the previous episodes – a symbol known as the Triskelion – which has multiple interpretations. In Celtic mythology it is said to represent sacred femininity and the Triple Goddess archetype: the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone. Baba Yaga in Slavic folklore is known as the “Crone,” so we’ll have to wait and see how that relates (if at all) as the series continues.
Carson and Rapp also notice the chicken foot hanging from Logan’s lampshade, previously in Henry’s room – and we can now pretty safely assume it’s from the chicken he and Henry were rumored to have sacrificed.
Just when they are trying to figure out how Logan disappeared from his room the night before, Rapp discovers the bookshelf is actually a secret door into another room… a small, eerie spot illuminated by red lights, despite the rest of the house having no power. A desk with a tape recorder and an archive of dozens upon dozens of cassette tapes are stacked on shelves.
As they dig in further, Carson and Rapp find out there’s a recording from the previous night in Henry’s bedroom – from when Logan was having sex with the woman wearing the angel wings. We hear Logan demanding to be called “Henry,” making us wonder if Henry was even at the party last night – despite his phone being traced to that location.
Rapp searches through Henry’s room, discovering – disturbingly – a wired bug hidden on his nightstand, which is triggered to record in Logan’s “secret office” whenever someone speaks in the room. Carson plays more of the recording from the prior night and they discover Pam is the one who was having sex with Logan, just hours before his death – making her officially a suspect in Logan’s murder.
As we’re processing that surge of information, Rapp’s eyes suddenly catch on a drop of blood on the floor next to the bed – he drops down and peers under, seeing something bloody smeared on the floor. He quickly pulls the bed back, pushing it out of the way, and as Carson comes into the room we see the Triskelion symbol drawn wide across the floor in blood, with three white chicken feathers near each point in the symbol – seemingly signifying a curse or some kind of spell. It’s even more eerie with the haunting music, which pulls you into its claws and feels like a spell wrapping itself tightly around you, right as Baba Yaga narrates through the end of the episode.
We see solid character development in this episode, with Clark Backo stepping more into her role as Carson and raising the question of where her boundary lies between professionalism and intrigue. Noah Reid as Rapp brings more grit to his role and shows a darker, more intense side to his character – I’m looking forward to seeing how both of these characters expand into this world from here.
Some lingering questions we now have going into Episode 4: Do Henry and Logan have the same dad and is that why Alice despises the Parks so much? Is Pam a witch or maybe Baba Yaga in disguise? Did Logan put the spell under Henry’s bed, and if so, why and who’s really behind it?
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