Yellowjackets' Steven Krueger Teases A Dark Turn In Coach Ben's 'Descent Into Madness'
This post contains spoilers for all of "Yellowjackets" so far.
Of all the characters on "Yellowjackets," Coach Ben's continued survival is perhaps the strangest. "Yellowjackets" usually gets described as "that show about a bunch of teen girls trapped in the wilderness," so viewers getting into the show late might be surprised to find that there's also an adult man with them the whole time.
Coach Ben originally served as the show's voice of reason. He was older and more responsible, so he could stop the group from indulging in its worst impulses. But Coach Ben's one-legged status has done a lot of damage to his control over the team: he can't physically help out at all, and in this new environment, usefulness and social capital go hand in hand. By the time the team is devouring Jackie in early season 2, Coach Ben's been struggling with the reality that he has no power left over these girls at all. Survival-wise, he's taught them everything he knows, so at this point, he'll be more useful to them as a meal than as a coach.
In other words: Ben's been in a bad place this season. He's been having hunger-induced hallucinations, all of which seem to only further cement Ben's feelings of regret and paranoia. He can't stop thinking about how much he wishes he'd quit the coaching gig to be with his ex, and he also can't stop thinking about how these girls are probably going to eat him. Last week's "Burial" brings him at his lowest point yet, where he nearly throws himself off a cliff. It's only after Misty tries every tactic she can think of to talk Ben down that he finally changes his mind, but things still don't look promising for him.
'He can't really control it anymore'
In a recent Collider interview, Steven Krueger talked about Ben's emotional journey this season, which is told almost entirely through visions he has of himself with his ex-boyfriend Paul. "As it goes along, you kind of realize that this is even more of a descent into madness for him," Krueger explained. "It starts off as a real flashback and all of a sudden, now some things from the real world are seeping into it, and he can't really control it anymore, and he just kind of loses it a little bit over the things that he's experiencing."
It's in the seventh episode that things truly get worrying, as it seems like Paul is urging Ben to throw himself off that cliff. "You aren't welcome here anymore," Paul says, which is painfully reminiscent of what Lottie said to Jackie back in season 1, shortly before Jackie's death. Paul then says "We all love you, Ben," another parallel to Jackie's pre-death vision where she's welcomed back into the cabin. Although Ben's survived this episode, but winter doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon, the whole team is still starving, and Ben is losing his grip on reality.
Of course, Ben isn't the only one who's losing his marbles. As the hunger grows, pretty much every "Yellowjackets" character has been slowly growing a little insane. But unlike many of the other main characters, there's no sign of Ben in the present-day, and it's hard to imagine him taking part in the cold, methodical cannibalism we got glimpses of in the pilot's flash-forwards. We're rooting for Ben to get a grip on things, to survive the unforgiving wilderness in one piece, but things certainly look bleak.