Cypress recalled her initial reaction to Van’s death after reading the script for the episode. “It did not feel earned, quite honestly, I didn’t really understand it.” Cypress explained. “Now I see that we’re saying goodbye to one character but introducing another character. It’s the most gruesome way to start [Melissa’s] story, so I get why they did it,” she continued.
“But as a fan, I’d have liked it to have gone differently for sure – and as a fan of Lauren, I would have liked for her to stick around,” Cypress added. Van dies in Yellowjackets Season 3, Episode 9, “How the Story Ends,” which premiered on April 6. In the episode, audiences watch on as a young Shauna, portrayed by Sophie Nélisse, slips further into a deteriorating mental state, ultimately becoming unhinged and violent.
This is mirrored in the present day, during which the adult Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) is tormenting Hilary Swank’s Melissa, who had previously faked her own death to try and escape the trauma of her adolescent experiences in the wild. After Van hunts Melissa down and proves unable to follow through with killing her old classmate, she is stabbed through the chest and left to be found by her romantic partner, Taissa (Tawny Cypress).
Yellowjackets Follows Two Storylines
Yellowjackets premiered in 2021 to rave reviews. The series features two ensemble casts who portray the teenage and adult versions of the series’ core cast of characters. The story follows the eponymous team of high-school soccer players who barely survive an explosive plane crash and end up stranded in the wilderness, forcing them to take drastic measures, including acts of cannibalism, in order to survive.
The series also follows the team members in their adult lives 25 years after the crash, with the ramifications of what happened in the past continuing to haunt them in the present day.
