WARNING: Spoilers ahead for Yellowjackets season 1!
Although Jackie died in Yellowjackets’ 1996 timeline, her old diary features excerpts about films that were released after the crash, suggesting another character is behind it. The revelation that Jackie died in the Yellowjackets season 1 finale didn’t come as a major surprise to viewers, but the circumstances behind her death did. Many figured that she was the pit girl from Yellowjackets' opening pilot scene because of her necklace, though it turned out that she froze to death when Shauna exiled her from the cabin during a fight.
Shauna and Jackie were best friends on Yellowjackets’ title soccer team, though the two were plagued with problems right off the bat. Yellowjackets revealed that Shauna (Sophie Nelisse) was secretly sleeping with Jackie’s boyfriend Jeff, who Shauna married in the future, and became pregnant with his baby. After Jackie discovered this by reading Shauna’s diary, the two had a significant fight that led to Jackie deciding to sleep outside rather than in the cabin with the rest of the girls, who essentially exiled her. Jackie then had a vision about being welcomed in the cabin that night, only for Shauna to wake up and find Jackie outside buried in snow and frozen to death. While the aftermath of Jackie’s death in the 1996 timeline is still unknown, Yellowjackets’ 2021 timeline revealed that Melanie Lynskey’s Shauna still grieves Jackie and has conflicted feelings about the circumstances of their friendship before she died.
Yellowjackets episode 6 showed that Shauna and Jeff still go over to Jackie’s parents’ house every year to celebrate her birthday, which proved to be an excruciating experience for all. At the house, Shauna wandered into Jackie’s old room that had been left untouched for 25 years and began to flip through Jackie’s old diary. Along with pages about her feelings, likes, games, and ideas, Jackie’s journal featured a page about which characters she would be from different movies. This seemed like an unimportant revelation, but it turned out that several movies in her journal weren’t released until after 1996, with some premiering much later than Jackie’s death in Yellowjackets' past timeline. Including movies like Titanic (1997), 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), American Beauty (1999), and Bring It On (2000), it would be impossible that Jackie could have written these in her diary. Some have theorized that Jackie’s journal proves she isn’t dead after all, but it seems that the real answer is much less of a plot twist and more about character guilt.
The Movies In Jackie’s Diary Aren’t A Mistake
The citizen detectives at home were quick to catch the movie errors in Jackie’s diary, assuming Yellowjackets’ production had either just made a mistake or were hinting at Jackie’s survival. Yellowjackets showrunner Jonathan Lisco confirmed (via Variety) that the movies in Jackie’s journal are no mistake and that the person responsible for the page will eventually be revealed. Lisco explained that the movies released after Jackie’s Yellowjackets season 1 death were strategically calculated details and will connect to “[Shauna] seeking some kind of reconciliation with the past.” In a separate interview (via THR), Yellowjackets creator Ashely Lyle remarked being astounded by how many people question Jackie’s death, then elaborated that Jackie’s journal will “tie together neatly” with Shauna’s survival guilt later in the series. The creators have explained that Jackie’s journal is an Easter egg for the writers that will be followed up in Yellowjackets’ future as a character exploration, not necessarily a plot device.
Yellowjackets Theory: Shauna Wrote In Jackie’s Diary
Since the theories about the movies in Jackie’s journal being written by Ella Purnell’s Yellowjackets character have been shot down, the most obvious explanation is that Shauna was the one to write this page in her diary. In nearly every interview, Yellowjackets’ creators have referenced the purpose of the movies in her journal in relation to Shauna after the time the girls were rescued. Showtime's Yellowjackets season 1 has proven that 2021’s Shauna continues to harbor guilt and pain about how she treated Jackie in their last few months together as well as feeling partially responsible for her best friend’s death. In 2021, Jackie’s parents are still under the assumption that Shauna and Jackie were really close just before she died and have looked at Shauna as a form of connecting with the deceased Jackie in the 25 years since her death. While Shauna dreads going to their house on Jackie’s birthday, she feels a responsibility to do so not just because they were best friends but also because of the profound guilt she feels for betraying Jackie by sleeping with Jeff and for pushing Jackie to sleep outside on the night she froze to death.
It seems that Shauna had gone over to Jackie’s house every year since the Yellowjackets soccer team returned back home, which likely began as a way to connect back with the Jackie she was best friends with before the plane crashed. Since the movie with the latest release date in Jackie’s journal was 2000’s Bring It On, it appears that Shauna made the list at least two years after she returned home from the wilderness. It’s also clear that the movie page writing in the journal isn’t Jackie’s, as the handwriting is different in the MASH game and song list. Shauna’s grief and survivor’s guilt were likely much worse in the first few years after returning home. She may have used Jackie’s journal either as a way to keep her alive or give Jackie’s parents more glimpses into their daughter’s personality - even if it didn’t really come from the deceased teen Yellowjackets character.
Shauna may have written the movie page when she was about 22 as a way to keep Jackie’s spirit alive and answer the questions as Jackie would have had she lived. Yellowjackets has already shown that Shauna keeps Jackie alive in 2021 when she’s haunted by her ghost, which is also a manifestation of her survivor’s guilt. Perhaps Jackie’s ghost began haunting Shauna soon after returning home, with Jackie’s spirit visiting Shauna when she returned to Jackie’s old room. Yellowjackets episode 6 had a flashback to the girls writing in the journal before the crash. Therefore, the rabbit-killing specialist Shauna may have been visited by Jackie’s spirit (in the imagined sense) when back in her room for Jackie’s birthday in the year 2000 and written the movie list to try to recreate these old memories.
What Shauna Writing In Jackie’s Diary Means For Yellowjackets Season 2
If the theory is right, Shauna being the one to write in Jackie’s diary sets up her internal journey throughout Yellowjackets' future. The creators have already teased that Ella Purnell may return in Yellowjackets season 2 as Jackie’s ghost in the 2021 timeline, but this could also occur in the timeframe when teenage Shauna first returns home. Alongside the mystery of what happens to Shauna and Jeff’s baby and the couple getting married when they’re 22 years old, Shauna will be racked with guilt about Jackie in the first few years after her rescue. Although Jackie is dead, her spirit clearly isn’t gone from either Yellowjackets timeline. In the 2021 timeline, Shauna will still be exploring her survivor’s guilt in regards to Jackie during Yellowjackets season 2, but her grief will be even more profound in the past timeline considering it was just revealed in Yellowjackets’ season 1 finale that Shauna could perceivably blame herself for Jackie’s death.
The character differences between teenage Shauna and adult Shauna already prove how much Jackie’s death has changed her in the years since. If Shauna took the time to write a list of movies in Jackie’s journal about four years after her death, it proves that the guilt she harbors won’t quickly go away during her time in the wild. It’s also been theorized that Shauna will name her first baby Jackie because of her remorse, which would continue to show the lengths that Shauna has gone to keep Jackie alive. At the very least, Jackie’s journal sets up Shauna’s character arc in regards to her survivor’s guilt, changes into a more stoic figure, and wishes to keep the circumstances of how Jackie died a secret in Yellowjackets’ future.