Summary

• Jackie's death marks a turning point towards a much darker direction for Yellowjackets, as it shattered Shauna and led her to cannibalism and murder.
• The Yellowjackets were unable to bury Jackie's body and ended up devouring it in a haunting sequence, crossing the line into cannibalism.
• Jackie's death created a power vacuum in the group and led to a deeper descent into darkness, as survivors became isolated and divided.

The Yellowjackets season 1 finale shocked audiences when it killed off Jackie (Ella Purnell), and the choice signals how the show will only get darker. The Showtime drama about a high school soccer team who resorts to cannibalism after a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness drew comparisons to both Lost and Lord of the Flies. Yellowjackets was originally conceived as a female-led re-imagining of the latter tale about a group of schoolboys who turn on one another after a plane crash.

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Yellowjackets earned praise for its complex characters and performances by its all-star cast, including Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis, Tawny Cypress, and Melanie Lynskey as the adult versions of the crash survivors living through the aftermath of the tragedy. But the true mystery at the heart of the show is what happened in the mountains after the crash that led the undefeated soccer team, the Yellowjackets, to cannibalism and murder. It was revealed early in the series that Jackie died during the team's time in the wilderness, or at least was believed dead during the present timeline, but the manner of Jackie's Yellowjackets death – and what happened to her body afterward – was shocking and had a major impact on the group.

Jackie Froze To Death In Yellowjackets Season 1

Jackie, who was the first Yellowjackets character to die in an incident unrelated to an escape attempt, had been a key ensemble character in the past timeline. Her death now hints at a turning point toward a much darker direction for Yellowjackets for two reasons. First, Jackie died because she refused to reject the rules of the world they left behind and adapt to the new rules adopted by the group. These rules included basic survival skills, but they also permitted an increasingly overwhelming level of brutality and violence.

Meanwhile, even though tension existed between Jackie and Shauna, they shared a genuine loving bond that grounded Shauna while her world spiraled out of control. But Jackie's death shattered Shauna, and set her on a path that led her to cannibalism and murder in her future. Jackie was tasked with leading the team, and Shauna repeatedly tried to get Jackie to understand their new normal, but she couldn't adapt to a new environment that required wilderness survival skills and manual labor, where social norms were upended.

Jackie desperately clung to the life before, with dance parties, a DIY homecoming, and the notion that they might be rescued. She lost hope, realizing that she didn't possess the skill set to survive. However, she had one last opportunity to use her leadership skills after the team launched a vicious attack on Travis. But the others were unwilling to take responsibility, and when Jackie and Shauna finally had the fight that was bubbling beneath the surface of their friendship, the group took Shauna's side, and in the Yellowjackets season 1 finale, Jackie was literally left out in the cold. She slept outside during a snowstorm, succumbing to the elements.

A dark reading of what happened is that Jackie never tried to learn survival skills. She stopped eating, isolated herself, and completed a bucket list. That reading suggests that although she attempted to light a fire, she weighed the cold against what she knew was coming based on what she'd just witnessed, and she chose to freeze to death rather than face what lay ahead. But Jackie's Yellowjackets death wouldn't be the end of her dark fate.

Jackie Was The First Yellowjackets Cannibalism Victim In Season 2

Due to the ground hardening in the winter, the Yellowjackets were unable to bury Jackie's corpse. Instead, she was kept frozen, a symbol of the girls' unwillingness to process her death. Shauna even talked to Jackie's corpse and did her makeup, imagining her as the living friend she knew. Once this was discovered by Taissa, the group decided to burn the body. However, this ended up being less of a funeral pyre and more of a barbecue.

The famished girls were attracted to the newly-cooked body and ended up devouring it in one of Yellowjackets' most haunting sequences. The series shows snow being dumped on the fire, preventing Jackie's body from being totally burnt, suggesting that if there is a supernatural force in the woods, it wanted to entice the girls into consuming their teammate.Yellowjackets teased cannibalism from its earliest episode, and the feast of Jackie's body marked the first time the girls (and Travis) consciously crossed the lines into eating another human.

Shauna momentarily attempts to justify this, saying "She would want us to", but it could just as easily be seen as the final betrayal of Jackie by the girls who cast her out. It's also clear, from the flash-forward sequences, that this is not the last time the girls engage in cannibalism, with Jackie's Yellowjackets death ultimately serving as a gateway into an even more brutal future.

Jackie's Death Crushed Shauna & Changed The Team Dynamics

Jackie's death was a tipping point for Shauna. In the future timeline, she is haunted by Jackie's death, blaming herself for the tragedy. In the past timeline, Shauna played a critical role in the group. She had a unique power to stand up to Lottie and the Yellowjackets' cannibal faction because as Jackie's influence waned, the team still listened to Shauna. However, Jackie's death broke Shauna, eliminating the last member of the group with the ability to steer the others away from violence.

Following Jackie's death, the group loses its unofficial leader, creating a power vacuum that Lottie fills with her spiritual beliefs. Yellowjackets season 2 shows how the few survivors who remain skeptical of Lottie, such as Shauna and Nat, become isolated and divided from the rest of the group. Shauna's despair at losing Jackie and the subsequent cannibalism hint that Jackie's Yellowjackets death signals a deeper descent into darkness in future seasons.

Yellowjackets’ shocking decision to kill Jackie off at the end of season one, while foreshadowed, signaled an intent to depart from audience expectations. The sudden death signaled to viewers that no one on Yellowjackets was safe. It also portended that the seasons to come would be even darker than what had already occurred.

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  Yellowjackets

  Summary:

  Part survival epic, part psychological horror and part coming-of-age drama, this is the story of a team of wildly talented high school girls' soccer players who survive a plane crash deep in the remote northern wilderness. The series chronicles their descent from a complicated but thriving team to savage clans, while also tracking the lives they’ve attempted to piece back together 25 years later. What began in the wilderness is far from over.

  Release Date:

  2021-11-14

  Cast:

  Juliette Lewis, Sophie Thatcher, Warren Kole, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Tawny Cypress, Steven Krueger, Christina Ricci, Ella Purnell, Sammi Hanratty, Sophie Nélisse, Melanie Lynskey

  Genres:

  Horror, Mystery, Drama

  Seasons:

  2

  Rating:

  TV-MA

  Writers:

  Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson

  Network:

  Showtime

  Streaming Service(s):

  Showtime Anytime

  Showrunner:

  Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, Jonathan Lisco