Christina Ricci Sees Something Strangely Relatable About Her Yellowjackets Character
This post contains spoilers for "Yellowjackets" season 1.
On Showtime's "Yellowjackets," Misty Quigly, played by Christina Ricci as an adult and Sammi Hanratty as a teenager in flashbacks, is an outcast with a twisted character profile. As the equipment manager for the WHS Yellowjackets girls' soccer team, Misty is unpopular. Yet she has an overwhelming desire to fit in and is willing to go to some very questionable lengths to make that happen. When the team's plane crashes in the wilderness en route to a tournament, Misty's knowledge of first aid gains her more acceptance, and it feels so good to be needed that she secretly smashes the plane's flight recorder, thereby eliminating any chance that they will be located and rescued.
Despite this and other moves that go against the good of the group (and later, the welfare of her patients as a nurse), Ricci sees something in Misty that keeps her weirdly relatable even as she acts out in crazy ways.
In an interview with GQ for the "Yellowjackets" season 1 finale, Ricci said,
"People really do connect with that need [Misty] has that motivates everything, which is to be accepted, to be a part of the group. But what's interesting about this character and what I think these writers do so adeptly is, they show you how badly she wants to be there, and then they show you the reason why she deserves to be kicked out."
In the wilderness, the teenage Misty develops unrequited feelings for the Yellowjackets' assistant coach, Ben (Steven Krueger), who falls under her care after she's forced to amputate his leg. Though Ben privately self-identifies as gay, Misty dotes on him and is not above tripping him or even poisoning him if it means ensuring that he will still need her help.
'She has that need, still'
This early tendency toward a kind of Munchausen by proxy behavior on Misty's part propels her toward a job as a care assistant in a nursing home as an adult. By then, Misty has reached the point where she demands respect and is even willing to withhold morphine if a patient gives her trouble.
"The thing I actually like most about this character," Ricci continued, "is how she has that need, still. It's still the thing that — almost subconsciously, probably, at this point — drives her to operate. But she's also, after years and years of being stepped on and dismissed and not accepted and punished for who she is, very much at a point where she's like, 'Well, no one's ever going to give it to me. So I'm going to f****** take it.'"
Holding private detective Jessica Roberts (Rekha Sharma) hostage in her basement shows how dangerous Misty is, but at the same time, there's still a needy aspect to her, which sees her latching onto her fellow Yellowjacket, the adult Natalie (Juliette Lewis). In Ricci's view, Natalie serves as an idealized version of someone who's an outsider but cool, the way Misty always wished she could be. She concluded:
"[Misty] really has a fascination with Natalie, which I think is born out of the fact that Natalie was also an outsider when they were teenagers, and that she's the best version of that Misty could imagine being, you know what I mean? She's like, 'Right. I'm an outsider too. And look how cool that outsider is. So, that must mean being an outsider is really cool.' I think she's always really coveted who Natalie is."
"Yellowjackets" season 1 is now streaming on Showtime.