‘Yellowjackets’ Needs To Move On Without Jackie

Editor’s Note: Spoilers ahead for Yellowjackets, Season 3

As a series whose main theme is being both haunted and hunted by the past, it’s not a surprise that Yellowjackets has been showing a lot of Jackie Taylor (Ella Purnell) after her tragic death at the end of the first season. After all, her character stood out among the younger cast, even with her limited amount of screen time. Still, the idea has become more tiresome due to the number of cameos this season, which undermines the emotional impact of her death. The influence and power of Purnell’s performance will always be with us, but her purpose in the story has effectively been served, and we now have other living characters who can fill it even better.

In Death, Jackie Continues to Haunt ‘Yellowjackets’

When Yellowjackets began, Jackie was one of the most important characters in the narrative, and Purnell stood out with her leading, doomed performance during the first season. Of course, her time on the show was always going to be limited, and scenes of the Shipman family meeting her parents made that very clear. Admittedly, her death was necessary to progress the story, since the girls would never have descended to such depths if she had remained their leader, but that still did not make witnessing it any less upsetting. Even if Purnell was gone, however, the show still found small ways to keep her around, and it proved a nice surprise in the second season.

In the world of Yellowjackets, visions or illusions are common, and not only in the wilderness. Back in Season 1, the older Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) had an imaginary conversation with Jackie while returning to her home for the first time in years, making Purnell one of the only members of the younger cast to share scenes with the older actors. However, they become more prominent in the sophomore season, where the younger Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) imagines herself talking to Jackie by posing with her corpse. More than an excuse to have the two girls interact again, it was also the perfect insight into Shauna’s psychology, allowing her deep guilt to manifest in a way she could not show to others. Fittingly, these visions end after her body is devoured, which was revolting to the actress herself and for many viewers, but this was not the last time we saw Jackie, either. Her ghost kept a firm presence in season 3, but it was at this point that problems began to emerge.

The Constant Jackie Cameos in ‘Yellowjackets’ Erode the Impact of Her Death

One small difference between this new season of Yellowjackets and the last is that we already knew Jackie would show up, since she was visible in multiple shots from the teaser trailer. The fact that the show’s marketing openly promoted her feels odd, as if Purnell is still a series regular rather than a guest star, but this might have been overlooked if we had only seen one vision, rather than three. Aside from the number of such visions, there is also the problem of how they have been paced.

When the illusion of Jackie disappears shortly into Season 2, it serves to show viewers that she is gone both literally and spiritually, while also allowing the show to focus more on the survivors. The incredible turn that Shauna makes during her tragic childbirth episode would have been a lot more distracting, for example, if she had kept on seeing Jackie the whole time. By contrast, we’re still getting visions nearly at the end of the third season, and it almost requires viewers to keep reminding themselves that, yes, Jackie is still dead.

For reference, compare this problem to the death of Natalie (Juliette Lewis) from last season, which was rushed in its execution but strong in its impact. She has been mentioned several times, and the nature of her death still deeply haunts Misty (Christina Ricci) enough to make her drink, but never once does an illusion of Natalie physically appear. Like most forms of grief, it just quietly looms over everything, even if it’s rarely spoken aloud. Series creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson have outright said this was fully intentional, and that anything more would feel disrespectful and distracting. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Lyle explained the logic behind such a decision, arguing that the previous situation with Jackie was different:

“We don’t currently have a plan for it in season three, but it’s not something that we’re completely closed off to. We think Juliette is incredible, and her character is really meaningful for the entire world of this show. In season three, it didn’t necessarily make sense to us. With Jackie, it’s her lingering presence that we use and from a narrative point of view, whereas with Adult Nat, it’s her absence that was very important this season. So we didn’t do it here, but I would say it’s not something we’re closed off to for the future.”

As much as Lyle tries to draw a clear distinction, there honestly isn’t one, and the show should be far more consistent with how they treat dead characters. With Natalie, she and Nickerson have clearly shown how to have them haunt a narrative without resorting to cameos, and they need to do the exact same thing with Jackie. One or two visions were already enough, and each one makes her demise feel less like a tragic event and more like a bad dream.

Jackie Has Served Her Purpose on ‘Yellowjackets’

As overused as she has now become in Yellowjackets this season, it would be unfair to call all of them pointless, as her first cameo appearance during the high school dream in the cave made perfect sense when one considers how much she defined that era of their lives. However, the other two visions do very little to advance the story or give new insight into how Shauna is feeling as an adult, something which should be known by now. We’ve already seen her verbally spar with the older Shauna before they meet again in the freezer, and the grocery store scene at the start of “A Normal, Boring Life” is a small repeat of their final confrontation in the cabin that serves as the final break in their relationship. Sure, it’s great to see that the fierce chemistry between Purnell and Nélisse is as strong as ever, but it tells us nothing we don’t already know.

As great as her character was, Jackie also served a specific purpose in the first season of the series, showing how adaptation is crucial to survival and why the girls must now leave their old identities and social order behind. By the end of the first season, such a purpose had effectively been served, and the show simply no longer needed to hold onto Jackie. Neither did Purnell herself, who has already excelled with her big career outside the series. She might have been the standout star when the show began and has rightly become a fan favorite, but the story should always come first, and Jackie is unnecessary to keeping it going.

Ironically, moments after we see Jackie again in “A Normal, Boring Life” with another dream sequence, the series reintroduces us to the adult Melissa (Hilary Swank) as she reunites with Shauna while in hiding. As the one who enabled her most violent impulses and even shared a kiss with, Melissa might be an even better choice than Jackie to remind Shauna of her past choices and mistakes, ones she does not want to think about.

The younger Melissa (Jenna Burgess) was everything that her bond with Jackie could have been, albeit in a much darker way, and now Shauna has the chance to confront her past through a real person of (very edible) flesh and blood. If she wants any chance at healing like Melissa has apparently done, Shauna will have to leave Jackie behind her, and the show could use the same advice.