Yellowjackets is mostly filled with nothing but complicated relationships. It would be hard to spend 19 months in the Wilderness with everyone getting along all the time, and these New Jersey teenagers are no different.
Their circumstances are far beyond what anyone could contemplate as this team in 1996 is forced to figure out how best to survive with only what surrounds them, as their present day adult counterparts struggle with the trauma, guilt, and grief that surrounds what it took to return home.
But, one of the elements that makes Yellowjackets so significant is how the individual relationships are represented and what the multiple dynamics bring out of each other. What happened when they were teenagers that impacted their relationships as adults so much? Why did some stay in touch and others worked hard to avoid remembering that time in their lives?
Taissa had stayed in touch with Shauna and Natalie over the years, enough for Shauna to have secretly kept her number and for Taissa to have paid for Natalie’s time in rehab. There are connections between them that have not even been fully explored yet, as Yellowjackets is not done undergoing the traumatic events of the teenagers striving to survive, or thrive, in the Canadian Wilderness they have found themselves in.
Certain dynamics, such as that between Natalie and Travis, were teased to have been very complicated before the duo spent any real time together on screen. Others, such as Taissa and Van, appear to have gone through huge changes between the teen and adult timelines.
For as many complicated relationships as this series holds, and nearly every main dynamic holds plenty of it, which are the most complicated?
Misty and Natalie
No one seems to like Misty that much. Still, there are times in both the teen and adult timelines when the rest of the group can not deny that she is needed and useful. Misty is desperate for companionship, wanting so much to be a part of the group.
In 1996, Misty is incredibly useful as the only one there with medical knowledge, even if she is a little too quick to chop off Ben’s leg, or a little too happy about the prospect of trapping everyone in the woods if it means she can be considered useful.
However, the adult counterparts of Misty and Natalie are very interesting to watch, especially as, for most of the teen timeline, adult Misty’s dedication to Natalie does not appear to make it easy to connect the dots. Except, that changes in season two’s “The Chosen,” when Misty chooses to save Natalie over a drowning Javi, and then again in “Storytelling,” when Lottie crowns Natalie as the group’s new leader.
Even though Natalie herself does not seem to view Misty as her closest friend, Misty does. Misty bows dramatically to Natalie in the woods, and as an adult, is the one to accidentally kill her.
While it is not clear yet exactly when season three will jump back into the story of either timeline, season three may show the beginnings of teenage Misty’s devotion to Natalie as their leader, while adult Misty may be feeling the repercussions of Natalie’s death, and how that impacts her moving forward.
Ben And The Teens
As the only adult present in the Wilderness, Ben would be the default leader. Surrounded by scared teenagers, Ben would have been the one to step up and help protect the rest of the team. Instead, he is forced to the sidelines after his leg is chopped off, and those responsibilities are passed off to Natalie as the Hunter and Shauna as the Butcher.
For most of season two, Ben is disassociating from the rest of the group, choosing to live in his mind where he exists in an alternate reality, one where he chooses Paul and their life together over his own fear. Ben’s desire to remove himself from the rest of the group comes after he watches them desperately and ravenously devour Jackie’s body after spending months with little to no food.
While Ben was quick to want to avoid Misty, and seemed to want to find an ally in Natalie, it appeared that at the end of season two, Ben may have made a dangerous move against his players by setting their cabin on fire.
Assuming Ben had been the one to start the fire, tensions would certainly be rising between him and the rest of the teenagers when they eventually meet again. As the teenagers dive further into chaos, it is only a matter of time before Ben will have to meet them again or, perhaps, meet his end.
Taissa and Simone
For the most part, the adult counterparts of the main characters share the same traumatic backstory. So, Taissa and Simone are a fun deviation from the normal dynamic.
Simone had only met Taissa after she had returned from the Wilderness. She never knew who Taissa had been previously, and due to Taissa’s dedication to avoiding addressing the trauma she underwent in 1996, Simone never truly knew who Taissa was as an adult either.
Sim one is drastically underprepared for Taissa’s second identity and the dangers she brings with her, such as killing the family dog and holding a ritual sacrifice collection in their basement. As Taissa pushes her wife away, desperate not to hurt her or their son, Simone begs Taissa to get help or let go of her political dreams that are causing her so much stress.
The last time Simone is seen on screen is when she is in the hospital after a car accident while Taissa and Simone are still on bad terms. However, depending on how things go, they still may have more to do with each other because of their son, Sammy.
Taissa and Van
Taissa and Van’s teenage counterparts have remained fairly steady. Van knows how to handle Taissa’s second personality and stands beside her as a strong presence. While they do have their arguments surrounding how much they believe of Lottie’s Wilderness claims, their relationship is stronger than most.
However, as adults, their dynamic is very complicated. Having been broken up for decades, Van is still the only one that truly knows how to deal with Taissa’s second personality, who seems to still be latching onto Van.
Still, there is not much information surrounding what led to the duo’s inevitable break-up. How long after getting rescued were they still together?
The adult portrayals of Taissa and Van offer an interesting look into how Van and Taissa went from an inseparable duo to two people who had not spoken in years.
Sadly, the duo’s recent reconciliation may also be facing a devastating ending upon the revelation that Van is sick and is uncertain how much longer she will live.
Shauna and Lottie
Can it really be considered healthy if at one point in your past, one beat the other to a bloody pulp as the rest of the your friends watched? In the aftermath of losing Jackie and her baby, Shauna is angry and devestated.
It is not entirely clear what the extent of Shauna and Lottie’s relationship was before the plane crashed. Perhaps they were not more than friends through being teammates, as Shauna’s biggest friendship portrayed in the pilot is shown to be between her and Jackie.
But, in season two, as tensions rise between the girls, it also creates a newfound sense of conflict between Lottie and Shauna.
Shauna has hit her limit of what she can stand between the freezing winter and the losses, and needs a way to express her anger. It certainly does not help that Shauna had conflicting issues with Lottie as Lottie seemed a little too excited in Shauna’s view about Shauna’s unborn baby.
In season two, Lottie becomes God-like to select members of the group, and follows through on that mentality by offering herself as a sacrifice to Shauna’s anger. Shauna’s actions cause Lottie to be very injured for a while, and also becomes the catalyst for the group’s first hunting ritual.
As adults, Shauna and Lottie do not reference that incident, and a discussion about questioning how much from that time they have repressed could be part of the answer for that. While the teen timeline shows the events that occurred, as adults, they question just how much they truly remember.
Shauna and Jeff
Shauna and Jeff were complicated from the beginning. As Jackie’s best friend and boyfriend, they were sleeping together behind Jackie’s back. In the teen timeline, Shauna and Jeff only get a handful of scenes together, and the audience must get most of their understanding surrounding their relationship from their adult counterparts.
Jeff is written to be supportive of Shauna, standing beside her and not allowing his knowledge of the events of the Wilderness to impact how he loves her. However, he is also willing to use that first hand experience information from Shauna’s journals to trigger trauma from Natalie, Taissa, and Misty because his furniture store is losing money.
Due to Shauna and Jeff’s relationship initially taking place surrounding a cheating web of lies, Shauna’s initial belief that her husband was cheating made sense, and Shauna admits to Taissa that her affair partner, Adam, makes Shauna feel something extra that she and Jeff do not have.
As season two concludes, Shauna and Jeff continue to be glued together by their shared lies in an attempt to protect their family from jail.
Jackie and The Team
Initially looked at as the celebrated Yellowjackets Team Captain, Jackie quickly falls from grace upon crashing in the Canadian Wilderness. She is more concerned about helping Shauna out of the crash, and in doing so willingly leaves a struggling and stuck Van to die.
Jackie is the last of the group to recognize that help may not be coming for them after all, because if help were coming, wouldn’t the team have been rescued already? However, things become a real problem once the girls find the cabin.
As everyone begins to find their roles amongst the group in hunting, butchering, cooking, and more, Jackie is the main one not taking on any chores or responsibilities, and the other girls begin to notice. and grow irritated with her for it.
During Doomcoming, Jackie triggers another set of issues between herself and the others when she decides to have sex with Travis, when everyone knows there is something already happening between Travis and Natalie.
While Jackie is certainly reacting to their circumstances in her own way, it is not one that helps the group as a whole survive, and Jackie’s inability to step up only hurts her later during her last confrontation with Shauna.
Between Shauna being an active member of playing a role in their survival and her pregnancy and Jackie’s refusal to do much of anything, none of the team members really think much about allowing Jackie to sleep outside as winter approaches.
Natalie and Lottie
While one believes in hope and the mysterious entity of the Wilderness, the other strives for cold hard facts. Natalie and Lottie are on as different sides of the spectrum as two people could get for their beliefs on how to handle their predicament, and it makes for an incredibly interesting dynamic.
As teenagers, their viewpoints never quite line up, at least in the first two seasons. While they care about each other, their split perspectives are noticeable between them, and those who are their thought process.
While Lottie’s gut beliefs tend to be right about significant things including Javi still being alive after being missing for months and that the group will not be starving for long as a bear soon stumbles upon them, Natalie can not go by hopeful gut feeling.
It hurts Natalie to see Travis be so hopeful that Javi could still be alive out in the freezing cold even though Jackie could not survive one night and they have no evidence to support that Javi is alive.
As adults, Lottie is still looking out for Natalie, having her cult members race in and preventing Natalie from ending her own life. Lottie is the key to understanding how Travis really died. Lottie placed antlers on Natalie’s head and declared her the new group leader, even though she claims the Wilderness had chosen.
Natalie and Travis
In the adult timeline, Taissa, Shauna, and Natalie tease the toxicity of Travis and Natalie’s adult relationship. Constantly on-again-off-again, and more often than not, high or drunk, Natalie and Travis could never find real consistency in their relationship. But, one of the biggest conflicts in their dynamic was never determined until “The Chosen.”
When Natalie picks the Queen of Hearts, and is expected to die for the group, she stands tall in front of Shauna’s blade. Shauna’s hesitation is all Travis needs to tackle Shauna and beg Natalie to run. Except, when Natalie is immediately chased after by the rest of the group, Travis sends his brother Javi out to help her, and it was ultimately the decision that changed everything.
Javi’s race to Natalie did save her life, but her life was saved at the expense of his own. When the rest of the girls arrive back to the cabin, Travis is forced to face the devastating reality that his brother died saving Natalie, and he lost someone he loved anyway.
Javi’s sacrifice could not go to waste for the survivors, but Natalie and Travis could probably never be left alone together afterward without Javi’s death weighing heavily on both of their minds. How could they be together knowing it only happened because of Javi’s death? How could they break up when Javi died for them?
Travis and Natalie’s pact to never take their own lives played into Natalie’s devastation and confusion surrounding how Travis died, as she is more certain than anything that Travis did not kill himself. Ultimately, Natalie was right, and Travis’ death was a tragic accident.
Shauna and Jackie
Even though Jackie dies at the end of the first season, very early into the group’s 19 months in the Wilderness, Shauna and Jackie’s dynamic remains one of the most complicated in the show.
Shauna may have loved Jackie, but she was still sleeping with her best friend’s boyfriend. Shauna, potentially having spent years feeling like she was in Jackie’s shadow, thrived as she grew into her own in the Wilderness, stepping up in unexpected ways.
However, Shauna and Jackie’s final altercation resulted in Shauna undergoing such guilt and grief that she was never truly able to move on. As an adult, Shauna is haunted by hallucinations of Jackie’s ghost because she was never able to move on from the horror she felt surrounding her role in Jackie’s death.
In season two, audiences learn where Shauna’s hallucinations of Jackie’s ghost began, and how Shauna was the one to give the rest of the group permission to devour Jackie’s body.
Jackie and Shauna’s relationship always had an extra layer of complications to it, and regardless of whether Jackie was alive or dead, she had an impact on Shauna that no one else was capable of replicating.
