How Yellowjackets Season 3 Will "Traumatize Shauna Even More" Explained By Star Sophie Nélisse
Warning: SPOILERS for Yellowjackets season 3, episodes 1 and 2, "It Girl" and "Dislocation"!Shauna has suffered many losses since being stranded in the wilderness, including the deaths of her best friend Jackie and her newborn son, and actor Sophie Nélisse warns that pain will lead to a dark path in Yellowjacketsseason 3. Not being chosen as the leader after going through all that suffering may seem like a petty grievance to some, but it's the straw that broke the camel's back in her eyes. By episode 2, she has defied Natalie's instructions and picked a fight with Mari so bad that the girl ran off into the night and right into Coach Ben's menacing arms.
Not everything in her life is darkness, however, as the end of "Dislocation" suggests she has sparked a fiery and surprising romance with fellow survivor Melissa. But even that silver lining comes with a cloud in the world of Yellowjackets, and Nélisse hints that the dalliance will not end on a high note. Such a tease has roots in the episode itself, which juxtaposed their first kiss with a scene of adult Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) desperately trying to uncover the identity of a mysterious stranger who left their phone in a restaurant bathroom for her to find.
Yellowjackets
Cast
Tawny Cypress
Sophie Nélisse
Jasmin Savoy Brown
Yellowjackets is a television series exploring the survival ordeal of a high school girls' soccer team stranded in the remote wilderness after a plane crash. It interweaves psychological horror and coming-of-age themes, simultaneously depicting their harrowing transformation and its lasting impact on their lives 25 years later.
When ScreenRant interviewed Nélisse about Yellowjackets season 3, the actor had some disquieting words to share about Shauna's arc. Manipulation and power plays seem to be the name of the game, as Shauna reacts to being cast aside by "it" with rancor and resentment. Aside from getting to the heart of Shauna's outbursts in episodes 1 and 2, the star also shared her controversial take on the kiss with Melissa, as well as her method for syncing performances with Melanie Lynskey.
Yellowjackets Season 3 Starts With Shauna More Alone Than Ever
“Anger [Is] Her Only Way To Cope With Everything”
The Yellowjackets season 3 premiere establishes that, despite the relative peace the survivors have obtained since their cabin burned down, Shauna especially has isolated herself from her teammates. In fact, she has been lashing out at those around her in the wake of her son’s death and Natalie’s ascension to leadership – and that bitterness is seen most clearly in how she antagonizes Mari throughout “It Girl.”
“There's a lot of resentment,” Nélisse explained, most of which is directed at Natalie even if it doesn’t reach her directly. “I think Shauna feels that she's been robbed of that position, given everything that she's had to go through in season 2 and the sacrifices that she's committed.” Without someone to confine in and lean on, Shauna finds herself more often than not alone to stew in her misery and spread the blame around. But as Yellowjackets season 3 progresses, can her behavior be attributed to her grief, or is something darker at play? Nélisse thinks it’s “a bit of both.”
Being stripped of societal norms makes it so that she feels definitely free to let out that anger. Who cares what the consequences are? There are no teachers or parents or anyone that says you can't let that out anymore.
But I definitely do think that this anger is mostly there because of all the guilt and shame and sadness that she's been carrying through these past seasons. It's too much for her; the weight is too much on her shoulders. I think she definitely conveys all of those emotions into anger because it's her only way to cope with everything that she's going through.
Yellowjackets Season 3 Sees Shauna’s Dark Humor Come Through In The Wilderness
Sophie Nélisse Gets An Opportunity To Explore More Of Melanie Lynskey's Iconic Line Deliveries
Despite not having leadership bestowed on her, Shauna remains a dominant personality who can stare down Natalie or Lottie any day of the week. With Mari missing in episode 2 and conflict ensuing even with the question of who will search for her where, it’s clear that the power balance is not entirely in Natalie’s favor. Nélisse teased that, “The dynamics through the season will shift,” and potentially split the survivors “into two separate groups.”
I think it already is like that, but between Natalie and a bit of Lottie, Shauna will kind of find her way to the top. I think Shauna's way of doing that is mostly by making people scared of her. I don't know if that's the smartest technique, but it's the one she knows how to use.
Even adult Lottie and Misty, who are themselves quite capable of inspiring fear, readily admit they are scared of Shauna to this day. Her behaviors in the past and present timelines grow much more similar in Yellowjackets season 3, leading to the question of how each actor handles her part. Nélisse was effusive in her praise of Melanie Lynskey, whom she says “definitely has the harder task.”
There’s no denying that younger Shauna “doesn't know what she's about to face and really just lives it day by day.” This affords Nélisse the opportunity to establish a pattern of reaction as an actor without having to match what her older counterpart is going to do. Lynskey, on the other hand, must absorb Shauna’s past experiences into her performance even though she wasn’t the one to originally act them out.
Melanie has to convey all of the trauma and guilt and everything that Shauna's been through. She's been doing that since season 1 without even having read what we've been up to now in season 3. I always find that very impressive.
However, Nélisse was quick to point out that this wasn’t a hard and fast rule the performers set down for themselves. Their discussions have been less centered on acting tips for specific scenes and more on, “Shauna's essence.” Their views on the character have been in sync since season 1, “so I didn't really want to change anything.” Nothing has changed, that is, except for some of Shauna’s humor making its way to the wilderness.
This season, we've been able to get a lot more humor out of Shauna. There's a lot of dark comedy to that character, and in a lot of Melanie's line deliveries, and that has been sprinkled into my storyline this year. Like with the whole, "I can't believe we didn't eat that b--ch first!" which is a really great line. It's been really fun to incorporate that and see this new side of younger Shauna that meshes with older Shauna.
Shauna Finds Love In A Hopeless Place, But Can It Last?
“You Can’t Love Someone Else Until You Love Yourself”
One survivor manages to chip away at Shauna’s spiky armor and sarcastic jokes in “Dislocation”: Melissa. Shauna surprises both herself and her sparring partner with a kiss in episode 2, a development that elicited a passionate response from Nélisse. Though she cautioned that “it's definitely new for Shauna, and I don't think she really understands how she feels about it,” her thoughts on the matter indicate it will have a lasting impact on Shauna’s development.
What breaks my heart is that this relationship is exactly what Shauna needs. I think she needs someone to hold her and take care of her, and to tell her, "Listen, it wasn't your fault, and you're not to blame. I love you no matter what."
But I do think that the saying is so true that you can't love someone else until you love yourself. Shauna has so much hate for herself that I don't think that she's in a position to love anyone else. So, her feelings for Melissa are quite tricky because I think part of her wants to let her guard down and to open up to someone, and Melissa does see a side of her that the others might not.
There's definitely an honest connection there, but I do feel that Shauna has another agenda in mind, and I think the only thing that's driving her right now is striving for power to take control of the group and to be the leader. So, I think she'll kind of just see Melissa as another pawn on her chessboard to play with in order to manipulate to help her get the other girls in her corner.
Given that Melissa has not been seen or spoken of by the present-day survivors, there’s no doubt that the relationship ends badly, but Nélisse’s words paint an even darker picture. If Shauna throws away an opportunity for pure love away in exchange for a short-term grasp at power, there’s no telling how Melissa will react (should she live through the coming episodes) after realizing she’s been used. A grudge like that can last – and with someone apparently stalking Shauna in the present, it could be Melissa coming back for revenge.
As we wait to find out how a romance with Melissa will affect her future, I am personally invested in how it colors her past – especially her friendship with Jackie which felt like it blurred the lines. Though Nélisse was coy about discussing Jackie specifically, she did acknowledge that her loss was still part of the grief Shauna is dealing with.
She carries this immense sense of guilt; she feels that everything that happened is her fault.
“She's not able to cope with that and to do what we would, which is see a therapist,” the actor continued. Lottie is the only one resembling anything close to a therapist and Natalie is the only avenue for conflict resolution, which can only spell trouble.
All of these emotions are being repressed and, instead, she's taking out that anger onto other people, which will then make her do things and cause things that are actually because of her and her own doing. I think [some] things are going to be even more her fault, and she'll actually have no one to blame this time. And those events will traumatize her even more.
Shauna’s violent outbursts are endangering her fellow survivors, as evidenced by Mari winding up in Coach Ben’s cave, but soon they may lead down an even darker path from which there is no turning back. Of course, viewers know she makes it out of the wilderness alive and remains sound enough to build a happy home with Jeff for several years, but the past still haunts her. Her coping mechanisms haven’t gotten any better, either, which could be a big problem now that her daughter is fully immersed in the world of the survivors.
Check out our other Yellowjackets season 3 interviews:
- Sarah Desjardins & Warren Kole
- Courtney Eaton & Kevin Alves
New episodes of Yellowjackets drop Fridays on Paramount+ before airing Sundays at 8pm ET/PT on Showtime.
Source: Screen Rant Plus
