The ending of season 2, episode 4 (“Old Wounds”) finally introduced us to her adult self (Lauren Ambrose), confirming she survived all 19 months in the wild. She’s living the cinephile’s dream: running a vintage video rental store in the middle of small-town Pennsylvania. Tragically, the store doesn’t seem to be paying all the bills.
During the 1996 timeline, Van and Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown) are in a secret relationship. Present-day Tai (Tawny Cypress) is married to a woman named Simone (Rukiya Bernard). Bringing Van back means explaining why she isn’t in Taissa’s life anymore. The next episode, “Two Truths and A Lie,” is a little vague on this — they were together as recently as Shaun and Jeff’s wedding, but have been separated “a long time.” What the episode does dwell on is what brought them back together.
Taissa has been suffering from sleepwalking, hallucinations, and a possible split personality or supernatural possession; Van helped Tai cope with these while they were in the woods, and it doesn’t take her long to realize that’s why Tai showed up at her doorstep.
That’s the reasoning writers found to bring in adult Van; to further Taissa’s development, just like how adult Lottie has been furthering Natalie’s (Juliette Lewis) this season. However, this does risk starting a trend that could harm “Yellowjackets” long-term.
