Yellowjackets' Steven Krueger Explains Ben's Choice To Opt-Out Of The Jackie Feast
This article contains spoilers for "Yellowjackets" season 2.
Since the pilot episode of "Yellowjackets" where a girl falls into a pit to her death and is (likely) eaten, fans have been waiting to see exactly how the plane crash survivors succumb to cannibalism. Even though it was expected at some point, the final moments of "Edible Complex," the second episode of season 2, are deeply unnerving. Set to the raw, dissonant sounds of Radiohead's "Climbing Up the Walls," the teenage girls and Travis feverishly devour Jackie's burnt body while Coach Ben looks on from the cabin doorway, eventually turning around in horror and disgust.
Co-showrunner Jonathan Lisco explained to Rolling Stone that Ben was originally not the only bystander:
"For a while, there was a discussion of whether or not Natalie should refuse to eat her, because she's not ready to go there, because she is such a strong character. She's the one actually out there hunting for game for them to eat. But we did feel like it would ultimately be much more effective if the whole thing could be a kind of mass bacchanal."
What does it mean for Ben to be the only one in the group who chooses not to eat Jackie? The shot where Ben stands inside the cabin and the Yellowjackets voraciously consume Jackie around the pyre outside clearly illustrates his split from the team — creating a Ben vs. the teenagers situation. In several interviews, Steven Krueger revealed why Ben did not indulge in cannibalism despite his desperate hunger and what that decision has at stake for him.
Losing control
Ben is already separated from the teenagers as the only adult and authority figure to survive the crash. Steven Kruger explained in the "Edible Complex" oral history for The Hollywood Reporter that this makes him feel responsible to guide his students in the right direction and away from any wrong decisions — like cannibalism — that will torment them. As their teacher, he knows that he will face the most repercussions and questions for what they've done in the wilderness if they are rescued. If they start to eat one another, their lives are irrevocably damaged.
However, the moment the Yellowjackets wildly feast on Jackie's body, "he completely loses control over everybody else, and I think that's the most haunting thing for him," Kruger told THR. He elaborated in Variety on Ben's decision not to join in the feast:
"He sees this transformation take place on their faces and in their behavior, and all of a sudden, he recognizes that it's not him and not the way we should be going about this. He's immediately repulsed. That ends up being this inciting incident that lights the match for the rest of the season about how he relates to these girls, about what his position is in the group, and about how he has to deal with the repercussions of almost ostracizing himself from the rest of them."
According to Krueger, the only way Ben would have dined on Jackie was "if there was some logical discussion" about the decision, rather than a feeding frenzy. Up until that point, he tried to maintain order in the volatile wilderness. Ben realizes that once they give in to cannibalism, a certain line between anarchy and socially acceptable behavior has been crossed and there is no going back. In fact, cannibalism may be just the beginning of their savagery.
Will he survive?
Before Ben slams the door on the gruesome sight of his students consuming their friend, Steven Krueger said that he is contemplating his role in the group:
"All of a sudden, I'm completely impotent. I don't really know who I am anymore, I don't really know how to identify myself when I look in the mirror. So if I'm only left with that, it leads to what we see with Coach Ben in the rest of the season, which is him becoming very internal and dealing with his own psyche, because that's really all he has left. He's questioning, where do I go at this point? Who is this person? I don't even recognize him anymore."
After this pivotal moment, Coach Ben stays in bed and enters a dream world where he never boarded the plane and stayed with his boyfriend Paul. Co-showrunner Jonathan Lisco clarified in The Hollywood Reporter that Ben's loss of control over the girls and refusal to eat Jackie may have dire consequences:
"They could potentially view him as someone who had the discipline and didn't want to break that social taboo. But it's more likely they will now see him as more self-righteous and judgy, and therefore consider him outside the circle of their in-group politics. So I think it's in some ways very dangerous for Coach, that he didn't engage in the feast."
The end of episode two probably seals Ben's fate: he's next on the menu. Coach Ben will likely die because he's the only adult (and an injured one), the last symbol of civilized rules before the Yellowjackets descend into a feral, "Lord of the Flies"-esque madness where they hunt one another for food. Ben's refusal to participate in cannibalism is the likely key to this development.