Melanie Lynskey Teases Shauna's 'Profound Arc' In Season 2 Of Yellowjackets
This article contains spoilers for "Yellowjackets" season 2.
Shauna Sadecki, née Shipman, seems like the most normal of the Yellowjackets. Played by Melanie Lynskey in the present and Sophie Nélisse in the past, she's a stay-at-home mom 25 years after being stranded in the wilderness alongside her high school soccer teammates. But looks can be deceiving and Shauna is anything but harmless. There's a reason the show's creative team cast Lynskey, who excels at unhinged characters, after all. Last season, she murdered her lover Adam (Peter Gadiot) and covered it up without blinking. The season 2 premiere then revealed the young Shauna was the first of the group to indulge in cannibalism — she ate Jackie's (Ella Purnell) frozen ear.
Speaking to Harpers Bazaar, Lynskey revealed she didn't know the trajectory of Shauna's arc this season when the cameras started rolling. However, by mid-season, she sat down with the series' creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, and co-showrunner Jonathan Lisco so they could fill her in. Lynskey recalled asking, "Where does this end? What's the culmination of all this craziness? And it's really beautiful."
Two episodes into the sophomore season of "Yellowjackets," past and present Shauna have been alienating those around them while keeping secrets. Where can we expect this to go?
The weight of motherhood
While she kept her answer vague and spoiler-free, Lynskey gave some detail on the themes of Shauna's season 2 arc:
"There's a profound arc to her character this season, dealing with grief and motherhood and her experience in the wilderness and whether she thinks she's a good mother or even a good person."
"Motherhood" makes sense, because it's something that's troubling Shauna in both timelines. In 1996, she's pregnant after sleeping with her future husband Jeff (Warren Kole/Jack DePew) before the crash, who happened to be dating her best friend at the time. Worse, she's now miles away from any doctor. After considering an amateur abortion in season 1, she's decided to have the baby and they're set to arrive this season. Now, Lynskey highlighting "grief" as another of Shauna's emotions hints this won't end well. While the cast has confirmed there will be no baby-eating on "Yellowjackets," that doesn't mean the kid will survive either.
In the present, Shauna has become increasingly alienated from her daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins). They were already hostile in season 1, but when Callie learned of Shauna's affair with (and then murder of) Adam, it got worse. Shauna questioning if she's a "good person" or a "good mother" is natural after this. And is she? Under normal circumstances, not really, but she's been through some exceptional circumstances.
Living with guilt
Shauna clung to Jackie, even keeping her corpse around and talking to it, because of guilt. The two had been best friends in life, but their last conversation before Jackie froze to death in the season 1 finale was a fight. It's clear Shauna feels responsible for Jackie's death since she's the one who pushed her to sleep outside. Back in season 1, the adult Shauna was shown to have an annual ritual of meeting Jackie's parents for brunch, something she did only out of obligation. Considering we now know that Shauna literally ate their daughter, her unease around them makes sense.
Once Shauna wakes in episode 3 and realizes what she and the others did to Jackie's body, her guilt will definitely grow ... or will it? The adult Shauna has shown a talent for compartmentalization; she doesn't feel bad about Adam's death (she did kill him because he thought he was blackmailing her), only worried about getting caught. Her experience in the wilderness is what taught her to think like that.
I think of the "Yellowjackets" leads, Shauna has changed the least since high school (well, besides Misty). She's harmless on the surface, but with a vicious streak. Shauna isn't ruthless enough that she lacks regret, but when push comes to shove, she's a survivor. That's why she came back from the wilderness alive. Taking Lynskey's comments into account though, Shauna's repressed guilt might be boiling over soon. Word's out on if her realization of guilt is profound enough to change her for the better.
"Yellowjackets" streams on Showtime on Fridays and airs on television on Sundays at 9 p.m. EST.