The third season of Yellowjackets has just concluded and as always, conspiracies surrounding the show are spreading across social media like wildfire. Season three’s finale finally revealed which member of the Yellowjackets soccer team was the mysterious “Pit Girl,” whose death started off the entire show. After this aired, fan theorists have been looking for something else to latch onto, a puzzle piece to jam into the show’s complex jigsaw of teenage angst, adult trauma, wilderness survival, cannibalism, and cults. 

So, a new question was raised on forums and for you pages: which of the Yellowjackets will be the last to die? Even the girls who escaped the hostile conditions and human hunts of the wilderness still aren’t safe, with many of the Yellowjackets being killed off in adulthood, mostly by their fellow teammates. That aside, the consensus seems to be that Yellowjackets’ final girl will be Shauna Shipman, played by Sophie Nelisse in her teenage years and Melanie Lynskey as an adult. 

Out of all the morally grey characters in the show, Shauna seems to be the most hated among the fandom. As a serial cheater since her teenage years, both an accidental and intentional murderer, and a neglectful wife and mother, Shauna’s personality rejects every opportunity for redemption. Therefore, the show’s audience find Shauna irredeemable, which is exactly why they believe she will be the last one standing. This is because the previous deaths in the show’s adult timeline have happened to Yellowjackets who made progress, who finally saw a life outside of the wilderness’ clutches, all for it to be taken away by those who remain traumatised. Shauna has not progressed. Shauna is (to the audience at least) still caught in the wilderness’ grip. Shauna is evil. 

Ironically, this collective hatred of Shauna demonstrates what I believe to be the core thesis of Yellowjackets: in mainstream media, the trauma that women are subjected to is for entertainment only. And, if the character happens to react to their experience in any way that defies normality, they will be villainised without hesitation. For example, surviving Yellowjackets like Taissa, Lottie, and Natalie are sympathetic as their trauma responses align with a romanticised version of female suffering: they resort to drugs, sex, and spirituality to deal with their issues. 

However, Shauna, who arguably experienced more trauma than her peers, losing her extremely close “friend” Jackie and her newborn child in a matter of months, is oftentimes viewed as downright evil due to her less romantic response to her trauma. Her flashbacks to the wilderness send her into murderous rages and her constant lies endanger her family. But, after decades of supressing her trauma to integrate into a suburban community, and lacking mental health care, why would Shauna seek redemption from a world that has constantly tried to destroy her? Why wouldn’t she be evil? 

Fans of Yellowjackets are upholding the show to the same standards that its creators are actively trying to dismantle: they see the team’s suffering as entertainment, their trauma as romantic, their deaths as saintly, and anything unconventional as villainous. But truthfully, nothing about the lives of the Yellowjackets is romantic. In reality, when women are rejected by society and left to struggle in silence by doctors, judges, and neighbours, none of their suffering feels romantic. If, like the Yellowjackets, you were freed from all of that societal suffering, if every norm became upturned, just for a while, would you be able to return to your old life? 

If the wilderness called to you, wouldn’t you listen? 

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons