For two seasons, Yellowjackets fueled itself with a lot of hot nonsense. The central mystery of how the girls survived in the woods quickly became a question of whether or not they became cannibals, and now that we have that answer (an emphatic “yes”), the new question is whether there is some supernatural force that guided them to, you know, eat people. The show is making a meal (pun intended) of that mystery, drawing out strange occurrences that could easily have rational explanations, leaving us to wonder if our characters are locked in a delusion that ripples from the past to the present or if they’ve been followed into adulthood by a force they call the Wilderness.
I expected to grow tired of this wishy-washy plot by season three, but then the show did something surprising: It slowed the flow of crazy plot contrivances and instead leaned on the incredible cast to develop their characters in new directions. The first four episodes of the season have shown us what the Yellowjackets teammates are like in a period of relative safety, and in doing so revealed that Shauna just may be the show’s big bad.
This is quite a revolution for a character that was originally set up as our protagonist, or at least our point of view. It was easy to sympathize with Shauna in season one. She was a stifled housewife in the present and a stifled best friend in the past. A woman who itched to be more than a supporting player in other people’s stories. In both timelines, her quest for validation led to mistakes — sleeping with her best friend’s boyfriend, whom she married and then proceeded to cheat on — but her poor choices were relatable. She spent most of season two dealing with a teenage pregnancy she eventually lost, and that trauma made it hard to judge her for murdering her secret boyfriend and getting her friends and family involved in the cover-up.
OK, when I write it out like that, I realize it was a huge leap to make, but somehow I was still on her side! It’s probably the Melanie Lynskey effect, which also makes it the Sophie Nélisse effect because the actors are so well-cast as adult and teen versions of each other. So I guess the question is: What changed? How could I root for Shauna through all that and only now start to think she’s the bad guy? Well, the answer is simple. This season, Shauna messed with the wrong Yellowjacket. She hurt Misty.
I could write a separate piece about Misty’s journey from being a comically sincere wildcard to becoming the emotional (if not exactly moral) center of the show. If we’re talking about murder, then Misty has Shauna beat threefold. Still, Misty’s saving grace is her loyalty. She may go to crazy lengths, but it’s always for her friends, even when those friends proceed to take advantage of her. She would probably continue turning a blind eye to it all if Shauna didn’t blame her for tampering with the brakes on her car, and she’d absolutely forgive her friend if Shauna would just apologize, but Shauna won’t budge. What seems like a minor falling-out in a show where people literally eat their friends is actually a huge window into Shauna’s twisted personality. Shauna knows for a fact that her brakes weren’t tampered with, just like she knows Misty wasn’t there to lock her in that freezer at the retirement home. Still, she refuses to admit that she’s wrong and even worse, she somehow still believes she’s right about Misty. What started as Shauna straining to be more than a supporting player is really Shauna’s own main character complex shining through. She can’t be wrong. She’s the hero.
Shauna’s inability to back down from her flawed narratives is echoed in the past when Coach Ben’s kangaroo court conviction highlights the dangers of Shauna’s stubbornness. At the trial’s onset, most of the girls believed Coach started the fire that burned down the cabin, but after a powerful defense coordinated by Misty – including Ben’s own testimony where he apologized for his wrongs while asserting he could never have tried to kill them – enough girls were swayed that Natalie couldn’t get a clean 2/3rds majority vote either way. That’s when Shauna essentially berates her teammates into voting for Coach Ben’s guilt. Not with facts or evidence, but with the impassioned certainty of her version of reality that withstands all rationality. We have yet to see what the punishment will be for Ben’s conviction, but it’s almost certainly not going to be good – and whatever it is, it’ll happen to an innocent man because Shauna willed it.
After the verdict, Melissa says to Shauna, “Do you see what you just did? That’s f*cking power.” And she’s not wrong! It is a sort of power, influencing a group to carry out your will based on nothing but vibes; but it’s not a power Shauna flexes responsibly. Worse, she was able to do it without being the Antler Queen, using her influence to go against Natalie out of jealousy as much as she was going against Coach Ben. After the most recent episode, all I can think about is what the present-Shauna will do now that she is the Antler Queen. She may have alienated Misty but someone is still coming for her – and it may be the same someone that just killed Lottie. Shauna may think she’s the hero of her story, but that’s true of any villain. What’s clear is that she’s definitely not the hero of this story, and may be something much worse.
