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Warning: This post contains many spoilers from Yellowjackets‘ Season 1 finale. Proceed with caution.
OK, fellow citizen detectives, we’ve got our work cut out for us.
Sunday’s season finale of Yellowjackets answered a bunch of questions (how did Jackie die? did Tai win her state senate election? what became of Biscuit?) but posed a lot more. Where’s Javi? Is there any way in hell that Shauna will get away with killing Adam? Did Lottie survive, and is she a cult leader? And for the love of the Antler Queen, who’s wearing those pink Converse in the flashbacks?
Fortunately, series co-creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson were willing to become our own personal subreddit regarding their buzzy Showtime drama, which already has been renewed for Season 2. Read on for their answers. (And make sure to check out our finale recap here.)
TVLINE | I’ve loved the way the show highlights things like Dateline and the citizen detectives of the world, but also plays with the idea that some things just don’t make sense, that there’s not some master plan or conspiracy. How do you know when to hit one or the other?
BART NICKERSON | We do talk a lot about clues, and we’re trying to create a coherent narrative. But I think, in the end, the thing that is the most important to us is the emotional content of a scene. So ultimately things are being planted, and we’re attempting to structure something that gives that certain kind of experience when it’s finally all deployed, as opposed to having someone step back and be impressed by the analytical tightness.
ASHLEY LYLE | Yes. It’s been really, really interesting watching viewers respond to the show. I will fully admit that Bart and I just took a little vacation, and he had to, like, bodily take the phone away from me, at one point. [Laughs] I’m sitting by the pool, just looking at Twitter, and he’s like, “You have to stop.”
It’s been really interesting because there were certain breadcrumbs and clues that we put in the show. There were other things that were honestly just little tidbits or nuggets that entertained us. I thought one in particular that was really interesting was that we mentioned trigonometry a bunch of times, and honestly, I just hated trigonometry when I was in school. [Laughs] And to watch people go down that particular rabbit hole. I’m like, “Oh no, guys! That’s just an inside joke from the writers’ room!” And there were, honestly, a few little breadcrumbs that we threw in there that nobody’s picked up on, so it’s been really interesting to see what people are latching onto, what they’re not noticing, what they are noticing.
TVLINE | Jackie meets a frosty end in the finale. Is Ella Purnell going to be around in Season 2? Will Jackie have a presence beyond the finale?
NICKERSON | It’s tricky with Season 2 spoilers. I’ll just say: We definitely have an idea for a way to continue to use her, and she’ll certainly be a presence, probably throughout the run of the show at least. The gravity of her character will be felt throughout the constellation, no matter what. And we would love to specifically use her for a few things that we have cooking.
TVLINE | Jackie’s getting ousted from the cabin seems like a harbinger of further splintering of the group. Now that that first fracture has happened, what might divisions among the girls look like moving forward? And can you say whether the divisions will stick, or might they be more dynamic in nature?
LYLE | I think, as is so often the case for things to take a turn, it happens very slowly and gradually… and then all at once. So I think that we’ll see something sort of similar play out in Season 2.
TVLINE | OK, awesome. If it’s OK with you, we’ll do a lightning round of questions.
LYLE | Yeah!
TVLINE | Lottie, who may or may not be the Antler Queen, moves into a power position toward the end of the season. When she brings that really big heart to the altar, how much time has passed since Jackie’s death?
LYLE | That was the bear heart, and that was meant to be the same day.
TVLINE | The guy in the shadows when Jackie dies: His face is in the opening credits of the show. I’m assuming that means he’ll have some importance as we move forward?
LYLE | He will. You know, I am not entirely sure if we should talk about this or not, but I think… Bart, why don’t you do it?
NICKERSON | What I was going to say is that we definitely know who he is, yeah, and we have a whole thing [planned].
TVLINE | In the very first episode, one of the masked characters is wearing the Co-ed Naked Soccer shirt that we’ve seen Van wearing. And the girl who is running and lands in the pit is wearing the same necklace Jackie and Shauna have worn. Can you speak to how communal property might be by that point?
LYLE | Communal property is something we very much planned and wanted to see through the season. So for instance, we very much made sure that multiple characters are wearing those pink Converse [sneakers] over the course of the first season. To my mind — and Bart’s mind, as well — but as a teenage girl, you know, sharing clothes is the most [normal] thing. I did it all the time with my best friends. So, to us, it was both a great way to kind of nod to that experience of female friendship, as a teenager, but also be able to hide the ball a little bit in terms of some of those clues.
TVLINE | The group that grabs Natalie at the end, we don’t see their faces. Have we met any of them already, or are they new characters?
LYLE | These are all new characters.
TVLINE | And the shrine in Tai’s house — that’s Biscuit’s head, I’m assuming, that we see on the altar?
NICKERSON | Yes.
TVLINE | OK. Is that also Biscuit’s heart?
NICKERSON | Yes.
LYLE | And also, it’s hilarious because Dave Binegar, who is one of our executives at Showtime, he has a dog named Cheddar, who looks exactly like Biscuit, and it was very traumatizing for him.
NICKERSON | Yeah. [Laughs]
If they have a proper 5-season plan with everything making perfect sense in the end, this could be one of the best TV shows of all time.
As for the Jackie answer both here and in the Deadline interview, not to mention the bit here about the consciously planted breadcrumbs, I am fairly certain that all points to Jackie surviving the hypothermia.
They probably carried her inside, warmed up her body and revived her by the fireplace. Otherwise that scene when Shauna in Jackie’s room was looking at Jackie’s notebook in present day, makes no sense.
Considering the camera made sure we saw Jackie’s “Movie Characters I would be” list, that otherwise would have been irrelevant, that page is clearly a planted clue and it included characters from films released way after the crash that was in the spring of 1996 : the films in question were released in December 1996 (Scream), 1997 (Titanic), 1999 (10 Things I Hate About You, American Beauty), 2000 (Bring It On). One oversight about the release dates ? Maybe. FIVE ? Highly unlikely.
The main reason I think Jackie was rescued with the other survivors and then probably faked her death as an adult (just like the first on movie character list, Rose from Titanic) because she either couldn’t deal with the stigma / rumours and wanted a clean slate or she was terrified of the other survivors.
P.S. I really hope Jackie, Van and Lottie are still alive and they will be cast to perfection. Eva Green, Sarah Paulson / Julia Stiles, Catalina Sandino Moreno, respectively ?
In another interview they hint that Shauna wrote those films down after she came back… perhaps thinking of film’s Jackie would have liked.
I think Lottie will need to perform a miracle in order to have her cult grow in numbers. I’m going to assume that somehow Jackie will be resurrected, which probably explains why Lottie offered the heart at the end of the show. Jackie’s body is frozen and fully intact…. afterall Lottie was able to get a bear to fully sacrifice itself for her. This also explains why the Titanic thing is in Jackie’s notebook in her present day home.
If having a brown bear kneel in her presence wasn’t enough, then I imagine her ability to forecast the future should be more than enough to round up some followers. In fact, I think it’s more likely that everyone would initially be on board until the point at which any problematic aspects of her mental illness reared its ugly head.
My question: why did they feel it necessary to make one of their FEW black main characters amoral & hyper-violent? Of course, I mean Taissa the TYPICAL AMERICAN STEREOTYPES of the amoral, hyper-violent black lesbian (whom Americans love pretending are less than human AND less than women) w/ the demonic black child (that Americans love charging as adults.) I guess American media is bound and determined to portray 14% of the black American population as gay or lecture about them being “homophobic” everytime they’re on tv. I barely see black female characters on tv now w/out them being lesbians. It’s feels like a twofold message for black women to stop having black children w/ black men AND to check off all the “minority” boxes in one: 1. Black 2. Female. 3. Gay. Just stop it. And I guess the show writers thought it was cool to portray one of their FEW black main characters as a hyper-violent, evil criminal from the first episode by having her break an “innocent white female victim’s” leg over a freaking soccer team in the 1990’s. A black girl risking her future over a soccer team *in the 1990’s* & trusting the REST of the white females on that team not to IMMEDIATELY turn on her and tell the principal & the police!? I’ve never seen or heard something so absurd in my life. I guess they thought they could get away w/ portraying a black person as a mindless violent criminal JUST b/c she’s black FEMALE & they somehow thought that would be “empowering” but feminism is supposed to be INTERSECTIONAL. Black females have distinct anti-black misogynistic stereotypes they’ve been fighting for HUNDREDS of years, like the “Strong Black Woman” stereotype that has lead to black females being overworked, overburdened like mules to the pound of dying young from hypertension & stress, being physically manhandled by men, society failing to provide basic normal protections they would for any other female. This show just REAFFIRMED that stereotype by pretending that black women have the SAME gender stereotype issues white women have had about being thought of as weak, delicate, & needing to be protected. This is a racist culture and country. If they kept THAT in mind & consulted w/ somebody, they wouldn’t have made Taissa into TYPICAL racist stereotype of the “evil-for-no reason, violent, black monster.”🙄
I’m looking at the votes here and who the heck voted Fail? I haven’t binged a series in forever, this show was so well put together, each episode I was on the edge AND I watched it alone and was screaming at the TV.. so yeah..SEASON TWO get here faster LOL !!!
I was thinking the EXACT same thing. This show rocks, and that was a great finale.
Thank you! I was so confused when I saw the poll because this is such a great show and so nostalgic for me since I am only a few years younger than the characters. I binged the season over the past 2 days and I wish I hadn’t because now we all have to wait for season 2.