Warning: SPOILERS lie ahead for Yellowjackets season 3!As Yellowjackets' cast, Melanie Lynskey and Tawny Cypress portray the present-day versions of survivors Sauna Shipman and Taissa Turner.
When speaking to The Hollywood Reporter following the release of theYellowjackets season 3 finale, Lyle and Nickerson weighed in on the importance of Taissa and Shauna's relationship. While Lyle explained how the pair's development parallels one another, Nickerson teased that the two survivors still had plenty of development to find themselves individually in ways that will reshape their dynamic, particularly as Taissa plans to finally take Shauna down with Misty's help. Check out the showrunner's response below:
Lyle: I think that memory is an incredibly powerful tool for the human psyche, both in its ability to take things and learn for them, but also to push things away. We really tried to lay breadcrumbs for three seasons now that the past 25 years, what we’re seeing in the past is not necessarily how they it. They’ve got a really strong wall that they’ve built in various ways, whether it’s Tai and her ambition and looking forward, and Shauna and her stasis and just laying very low and repressing everything. We really wanted to get to a point where we were breaking down all of those layers and breaking down all of those walls. They’ve said many times over the course of the three seasons, like, “Oh, I forgot that” or “I didn’t that.” We wanted to bring them to a place where they’re starting to truly everything, and that’s not just about what happened, but it’s about who they are. I think it will be very exciting moving forward to see their truest selves start to interact with each other and, again, it’s about survival. It’s not just about survival in the wilderness up against hunger and the cold and the elements. It’s protecting yourself, protecting your family, protecting your secrets, and survival is very much still a problem for them in the present day. And I think that will be an increasing problem for them in the present day as we move forward, which is very fun for us as storytellers.
Nickerson: There was a certain amount of careful design as we’re reaching the pilot in the past of wanting to have that loop and that return getting closed in on the present-day storyline as well. You have Shauna reading the journals in the pilot, you have her returning to writing here. You have that scene between Shauna and Taissa in the diner [in the pilot]. We shot that in L.A. [for the pilot], but scoured Vancouver to find something that could be reminiscent of it, including the little jukebox on the table. Shauna and Taissa has been such a core relationship. There has been such an understanding between those two characters. Even when they’re at odds, their conflict has felt different than it has for everybody else, and we’re signaling that we actually don’t fully understand the depths of that relationship as an audience. Because, ultimately, a relationship is not a static thing. It is always evolving, it’s always changing. The things in the past and in the present are always shifting their meaning.
What This Means For Taissa & Shauna's Dynamic In Yellowjackets
The Pair's Bond Has Been Forever Fractured After Season 3
Taissa and Shauna's relationship is a far cry from how things were when they were initially introduced in Yellowjackets season 1. While their lives had taken them on drastically different paths, both had emerged from their hardships relatively well, starting their own families. Though Taissa's political ambitions and Jeff's (Warren Kole) haphazard blackmail scheme complicated matters, they aided one another, while glimpses at the Wilderness storyline showed they had been two of the closest friends on the team. Taissa would go to great lengths to keep Shauna well in both timelines, from covering up murders to handling her first pregnancy.
All 8 Confirmed Survivors In Yellowjackets, Explained
When Flight 2525 crashed into the Ontario wilderness in 1996, only eight of the WHS Yellowjackets team are known to have survived to the present day.
Despite this, both timelines have also seen the pair develop in differing ways, as while Shauna's assumption of leadership over the other survivors saw Taissa remain a close ally, grappling with Shauna's increasing paranoia in the presence has pushed Taissa to her limit, even before Shauna's hunt for Melissa (Hilary Swank) led to the death of Van (Lauren Ambrose). With both women no longer having the of their loved ones in the wake of the Yellowjackets season 3 finale, and Taissa determined to never forget all that happened, nothing may be left to hold each other back from the other.
Our Take On Taissa and Shauna's Yellowjackets Future
The Pair Have Been On Similar Trajectories
Both Taissa and Shauna's present-day spirals have often paralleled one another, the pair of them were desperate to put the wilderness behind them at any cost for the sake of their loved ones, but also carrying a dark side, be it Taissa's "Other Taissa" personality or Shauna's Antler Queen persona. However, Yellowjackets' season 3 finale saw the pair encounter similar decisions and ultimately taking opposing paths, with Taissa vowing to not fall back into her worse ways and Shauna succumbing to hers. As such, the pair have seemingly now been framed as opposing forces for Yellowjackets' future.
Source: THR
Yellowjackets
- Release Date
- November 14, 2021
- Network
- Showtime, Paramount+ with Showtime
- Showrunner
- Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, Jonathan Lisco
Cast
Shauna Sadecki
Tawny CypressTaissa Turner
WHERE TO WATCH
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.
- Directors
- Benjamin Semanoff, Daisy von Scherler Mayer, Deepa Mehta, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Liz Garbus, Scott Winant, Eva Sørhaug, Jamie Travis
- Writers
- Liz Phang, Sarah L. Thompson, Ameni Rozsa
- Main Genre
- Mystery
- Creator(s)
- Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson
- Producers
- Karyn Kusama, Jonathan Lisco, Drew Comins, Brad Van Arragon
- Seasons
- 3
- Streaming Service(s)
- Paramount+ with Showtime
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