Yellowjackets Season 3 Director Teases Hannah’s Dark Intentions

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Yellowjackets director Ben Semanoff explains Season 3, Episode 9 shocking deaths, revealing that Hannah has an unseen dark side.

Yellowjackets Season 3 introduced fans to Hannah (Ashley Sutton) and Kodiak (Joel McHale), who were part of a biology expedition to study frogs in the Canadian wilderness. The arrival of outsiders has turned the Yellowjackets’ camp upside down, as the girls realize the researchers could be their way back home. However, Episode 9 complicates the matter by showing how these strangers’ presence might not lead to a happy ending. On the contrary, a shocking decision by Hanna could lead to more wilderness madness than fans could expect. During an exclusive interview with ComicBook, Episode 9 director Ben Semanoff explains Hannah’s motivation, teasing Yellowjackets fans are yet to discover how twisted this new character can be.

“From a story standpoint, because so much of what I do is driven really by the story, [the question] is why Hannah would do this,” Semanoff pondered when discussing one of Episode 9’s most unexpected twists. In Yellowjackets‘ latest episode, Hannah and Kodiak are surprised by Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) when trying to escape the camp. In a desperate move, Hannah stabs Kodiak in the eye, pleading her allegiance to Shauna and asking to join the Yellowjackets as a equal. Hannah doesn’t seem like the kind of person capable of murder. As Semanoff tells us, the character might be more deceitful than she appears.

“I feel like she’s [Hannah] playing a little bit weak,” Semanoff explains. “I think she’s a little bit nervous. I think she’s a little jumpy. I think there are scenes like when she’s being led through the woods by Mari (Alexa Barajas) and then is brought to Natalie (Sophie Thatcher). Natalie has a knife. It seems like she is really scared for her life and is not capable of what happens at the end of the scene where she stabs Kodiak.” That’s the first clue we get about Hannah’s darker nature, which will expand in upcoming episodes, according to Semanoff. “I think what we are going to come to learn from Hannah is that she plays this game very well. I think she’s very, very smart. And I think what she recognizes is that she needs to endear herself to these feral young women who have now lived in the woods, in the wilderness, spending their lives for the past 18 months, or however long it’s been. And so I think when she’s faced with a rifle and the accusation of trying to sneak out of their custody, she makes a very smart move of killing Kodi in order to endear herself to Shana, who clearly gets a kick out of that moment.”

Hannah Killing Kodiak Traps the Yellowjackets in the Wilderness

Jenna Burgess as Teen Melissa and Sophie Thatcher as Teen Natalie in Yellowjackets, episode 2, season 3

Episode 9 introduces a rift in the Yellowjackets camp, with the girls splitting into two groups. One group, led by Natalie, wanted to return home with Kodiak as their guide. The other, led by Shauna, was convinced they must remain in the woods. By murdering Kodiak, Hannah has doomed the girls’ chance of going home, ultimately snuffing the conflict between these two groups. Once she learns her escape plan has been compromised, Natalie is left alone in the woods, processing her despair as the first snow of the year begins to fall.

“That was my favorite scene,” Semanoff told us about this moment. “And maybe also the most challenging because I wasn’t really shooting it as scripted. This transition from the end of the meeting to Natalie alone, crying, and it’s snowing was originally scripted as a separate scene. […] I just thought it would be really beautiful if, as the weight of all of this was landing on her, time sort of became non-existent, and we found her later, you know, essentially having sat there for an hour or two hours taking all this in. […] The point is all of that information sort of lands on her, and then time slips away. And I thought Sophie Thatcher did an amazing job with that scene. Her performance was heartbreaking.”