Is Coach Ben's Dream World Collapsing In Yellowjackets Season 2 Episode 6?
Spoilers for "Yellowjackets" follow.
Few characters on "Yellowjackets" have suffered more than Coach Ben Scott (Steven Krueger). He lost his right leg in the plane crash, leaving him dependent on the teenage girls he used to coach at soccer. He also confessed to Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) back in season 1 that he could've avoided the flight. His boyfriend Paul (François Arnaud) wanted Ben to move to the city with him. However, it's 1996, so Ben is still in the closet, especially since he's a high school instructor. If Ben had the courage to start a new life, he wouldn't be stuck in hell right now — and he knows it.
In season 2's second episode, "Edible Complex," the teenage survivors devoured the roasted body of Jackie (Ella Purnell). Ben was the only abstainer; he couldn't even look at the cannibalism unfolding. Since then, he's started disassociating. Since episode 3, "Digestif," he's been having daydreams/hallucinations of himself choosing to stay with Paul and what his life would be like if he had. "Yellowjackets" costume designer Amy Parris told Digital Spy that she modeled fantasy Ben and Paul's fashion choices on 1990s sitcoms like "Seinfeld" and "Friends." That reflects the pristine artificiality of Ben's mind palace. Everyone knows that even perfect dreams are fleeting.
Ben on the menu
In "Yellowjackets" season 2, episode 6 — "Qui" — Ben's illusion is starting to collapse. He tries to run away into it while Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) is in labor. Despite covering his ears and closing his eyes, he can't quite escape. The imagined room he and Paul are in is halfway between a suburban living room and the cabin; the left-hand wall is the cabin's front door and the back wall is the cabin's fireplace mixed together with a bookshelf.
Does the end of Ben's hallucinations portend his own end? There are few things I'm certain of in "Yellowjackets," but Ben eventually dying is one of them. He's one of the 1996 characters who hasn't shown up in the present day. Since he needs crutches to walk, it'll also be hard for him to fight back or run away if the girls get hungry again.
During an interview with TV Insider, Krueger indicated that Ben can't even count Natalie as a true ally — is their friendship headed for a breaking point? The loss of an adult authority figure would be a needed tipping point for the Yellowjackets to devolve into savagery as we glimpsed in the pilot.
It's easy to picture a scene where Ben dies and then his final thoughts are the imagined Paul fading away forever. Still, "Yellowjackets" is often a show that zigs when you think it'll zag. Maybe Ben's failing imagination will instead be the wake-up call he needs to live in the moment and survive. We'll have to wait and see.
New episodes of "Yellowjackets" stream on Showtime every Friday and air on television every Sunday.