Warning: This article contains spoilers for the show “Yellowjackets” (2021). You’ve been warned.
You open your eyes: everything is burning around you. The initial crash is the least of your worries, at least for the moment. The fire around you is continuously spreading, the roaring inferno filling your lungs with the putrid odor of smoke…and despair. Around you, your friends are screaming; everyone’s panicking, shuffling toward the plane’s exit to tear the door open, to escape from the blazing wave of fire that’s blooming from the cockpit.
Your name is Shauna Shipman, and you are the protagonist of this nightmare.
Yellowjackets is a television series that started in November of 2021 and originally aired on Showtime. It’s a show that many viewers, including myself, have compared to William Golding’s famous novel Lord of the Flies. For those who are not familiar with the title, Lord of the Flies is a narrative that centers exclusively around a male cast of characters. A group of boys have crash-landed on an island and are left stranded. However, they find themselves empowered by their newfound independence, and it gives the viewer a glimpse into the notion of children in power. Yellowjackets follows a similar story.
I began Yellowjackets fairly recently with my close friends, and we’ve been having an absolute blast watching it. My initial discovery was through, of course, TikTok. We all have our own little theories about the show, and I’ve even been spoiled a few times because of the internet (ugh). And trust me, this is the type of show you don’t want to be spoiled for. There are a ton of plot twists, and it contains an interestingly written narrative. I was mainly drawn in by the similarities that it shared with William Golding’s work.
The Yellowjackets, an all-girl high school soccer team, have finally made it to nationals. All that’s between them and their big game is a breezy flight from New Jersey to Seattle, Washington. However, the trip is interrupted when their plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness and they are forced to fend for themselves.
The series centers mainly around Shauna Shipman, an emotionally repressed and seemingly insecure high school student who is best friends with Jackie Taylor, the captain of their team. At school, Jackie is a social butterfly and is dating a boy named Jeff Sadecki. It’s also clear that her position as captain of the soccer team bleeds into her personal life, especially in her relationship with Shauna. While the television series has a wide cast of interesting and developed characters, Shauna is considered to be the main character, as she seemingly receives the most attention and screen time.
The way the show is set up is interesting. It’s very similar to the hit television show LOST (2004), where the story provides the viewer with flashbacks and flashforwards. In a nutshell, there are two plots occurring at the same time: the adult plotline and the wilderness plotline.
Between you and me, the adult plotline is a bit boring. I enjoyed it in the first season, but it dragged on a little afterward. I found myself becoming more and more invested in the wilderness plotline, mainly because the stakes are so high. It soon becomes clear that things are only going to get worse for the girls as winter grows closer.
Things don’t get better for them even after discovering an old abandoned cabin where they take shelter. Shauna and a handful of other girls are eventually rescued from the wilderness—as seen in the adult timeline—so we know that they are saved in the end. However, the damage has already been done. What happened in the wilderness changed them forever. It becomes clear to the viewer that something strange is going on in the wilderness, whether it be supernatural or psychological.
Episode 5 in Season 1 is an interesting case when it comes to this idea. Jackie, the team’s leader, proposes holding a séance with the other girls. For context, the girls had discovered the remains of the presumed previous owner in the cabin’s attic. After this discovery, everyone is shaken by the sight, and the stress begins to overwhelm the group.
Despite some initial caution or dismissal, Jackie suggests that “maybe if we can laugh about this, then it would help,” successfully boosting the group’s morale. Even Shauna chimes in, suggesting that perhaps the spirit of the previous cabin owner could help them.
After marking their foreheads with a mixture of dirt and deer’s blood, the ritual begins. At first it is completely unserious; the girls don’t take it seriously and don’t expect anything to happen. However, after Lottie—one of the survivors of the crash—has a breakdown during the séance, tension begins to build among the team.
She suddenly begins speaking fluent French despite her lack of practice or skill and even smashes her head into a nearby window during her hysterical frenzy. Laura Lee, another girl in the group, manages to snap Lottie out of the episode by striking her with a copy of the Bible—a scene reminiscent of The Exorcist (1973)—as Laura Lee even cries out, “The power of Christ compels you!” It was a nice reference.
The entire scene had me on the edge of my couch, and it made the experience even more fun because I had my friends with me for commentary. I laughed, gasped, and was blown away by the panic and comedic chaos unfolding on screen.
However, as the episode concluded, we began debating whether Lottie’s episode was psychological or supernatural. For context, Lottie has schizophrenia. Eventually it is revealed that the medication that suppresses her symptoms runs out, and some theorize that this loss caused her breakdown and the entire ordeal.
But how was she speaking a language she barely knows? Sure, she took French class with Jackie, but even Jackie admits that “Lottie sucks at French.” It’s an interesting case that is intentionally left ambiguous and still makes me scratch my head. Was it mental illness? Was she possessed by a spirit? Or was the wilderness itself responsible for her hysteria?
Some people—including myself—have theorized that the wilderness the girls crash-landed in is somewhat sentient, almost as if it has a mind of its own. Whether it is a spirit or some other entity, it seems to have control over the forest and possibly the animals that inhabit it.
The wilderness seems to crave sacrifices. When the girls first crash-landed, several people died from their injuries. From that point onward, hunting and gathering food became easier. The idea that the wilderness grants the survivors food in exchange for the death of a teammate seems plausible—at least where I currently am in the show.
I’m nearly halfway through Season 2, so I’m a little more than halfway through the series, as Season 4 is still in production. With the events that have transpired so far, I’m inclined to believe that the answer might be a mixture of both psychological and supernatural explanations. It’s a boring answer, I know—but if you’ve watched the show, you’ll understand.
While events in the Canadian wilderness can be interpreted as either psychological or supernatural, there is no doubt that Shauna’s character heavily explores the psychological side of the story. Her actions in both the forest and the adult timeline—the murder, the brutality, the depravity—suggest that violence comes almost naturally to her.
She didn’t learn to be violent. Instead, it feels instinctive, as if it had been latent within her all along. This raises an interesting question: has she always been this way?
So what’s the real explanation? Is it psychological or supernatural?
Personally, I’m leaning more toward psychological explanations, although I agree that some parts of the show can definitely be interpreted as supernatural. Did the forest cause the crash? Did a spirit really possess Lottie during the séance?
Season 4 will hopefully shed some light on these questions. But as I said earlier, I’m only halfway through Season 2, so my opinion could still change. Regardless, this is definitely a story that will stay in my mind for a long time. I can tell.
