‘Yellowjackets’ Reveals Its Antler Queen [Fatal Femmes]
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for season three of Yellowjackets.
Every dark fairytale needs a villain, and every civilization needs a queen. Yellowjackets finds both in its violent season finale by revealing the face underneath the now-iconic antler crown. More than a year after a devastating plane crash left them stranded in the woods of Northern Canada, the surviving Yellowjackets have formed a brutal society centered around a pagan god. What started with merely listening to the sounds of the forest has escalated to the refusal of rescue and outright human sacrifice. And it’s all been led by Shauna (Sophie Nélisse), an unlikely authoritarian who’s shifted to villainy in the latest ten episodes.
“Full Circle” gives context to the series’ opening moments in which a barefoot girl is chased through the snowy woods. After falling into a pit lined with spikes, masked hunters drag her through the forest, then string her body upside down to prepare as meat for a ritual fest. After years of speculation, we finally learn that Mari (Alexa Barajas) is the unfortunate sacrifice and Shauna the cruel queen leading the charge. In fact, season three has taken the once sympathetic character on an uneven journey from meek and withdrawn teen mother to cruel and vindictive Antler Queen.
Her Story
When we first meet Shauna, she lives in the shadow of another kind of royalty. Her best friend Jackie (Ella Purnell) is pretty and popular, effortlessly rising to the top of the social hierarchy. By contrast, Shauna sees herself as invisible and has become accustomed to fading into the background. But everything changes out in the woods. Not only does Jackie’s popularity wane in the grim reality of wilderness survival, but Shauna proves to be a more valuable member of the team. She is the only one willing to process and prepare the animal carcasses brought back to camp, and she quickly cements herself as an anchor of the group.
But Shauna’s time lost in the wilderness is more challenging than most. Shortly after the crash, she discovers that she’s pregnant, the result of a secret affair with Jackie’s boyfriend. This sparks a bitter confrontation that leaves the former queen bee ostracized from the group. Sleeping outside, Jackie freezes to death under the season’s first snowfall, a devastating loss Shauna blames on herself. Adding insult to injury, her baby cannot be saved and dies in a dangerous delivery that nearly claims her own life. Consumed with grief, she begins to distance herself from the rest of the group and lashes out at those who offer compassion. It’s not until gentle leader Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) makes a crucial misstep that Shauna ascends to the wilderness throne.
In the present-day timeline, decades after returning to civilization, adult Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) is an unfulfilled housewife. She’s married to Jeff (Warren Kole), the father of her lost baby boy, and now spends her days cooking and cleaning for their teenage daughter, Callie (Sarah Desjardins). Looking for excitement, she begins an affair with a charming artist, but becomes convinced that he’s blackmailing the team. She murders the man, pulling her friends and family into an elaborate and dangerous cover-up. On the heels of this chaos, season three sees Shauna acting even more erratically. Based on a series of ominous coincidences, she becomes convinced that someone is out to ruin her life and embarks on another deadly trip. The season concludes with Shauna utterly alone. Jeff and Callie both ask for space, and her surviving friends have aligned against her.
Her Weapons
Surrounded by nothing but rubble, survivors of the initial crash are left with little to defend themselves. It’s not until they stumble upon an abandoned cabin deep in the woods that they locate a few valuable weapons. Shauna becomes skilled at using a large hunter’s knife when she volunteers to butcher the carcass of a deer. As the team’s butcher, this blade becomes such a part of her wilderness persona that future girlfriend Melissa (Jenna Burgess) will create a monogrammed sheath as a gift to curry her favor.
But Shauna’s bitterness in the wake of losing her baby causes turmoil among the group. Still grieving, she’s outraged that Lottie (Simone Kessell) seems to have adopted the child as a patron saint of the group’s strange spirituality. Lost in emotion, she pummels Lottie with her fists and feet, beating the teenager within an inch of her life. Lottie encourages Shauna to let out her wrath, but this brutal attack nearly kills the group’s de facto leader. In fact, worry that Lottie will succumb to her injuries sparks their first act of ritual sacrifice.
Though her actions have grown increasingly aggressive, Shauna holds considerable influence with her former Yellowjackets teammates. When Coach Scott (Steven Krueger) is placed on trial for allegedly burning down their wilderness home, Shauna exerts her influence to sway the decision. With his guilt clearly in question, she browbeats her fellow survivors into changing their votes for conviction, essentially securing a sentence of death. She later convinces Melissa to slice the imprisoned man’s Achilles tendon, leaving him stranded and suffering in the animal pen.
Having already laid this groundwork of influence, Shauna is poised to exploit Natalie’s compassion. Unable to bear Coach Scott’s repeated pleas for death, she takes it upon herself to end his suffering, outright defying the will of the group. Sensing a shift in allegiance, Lottie quickly names Shauna the team’s new leader, a position that comes with a powerful tool. The shotgun, once used to hunt for food, now becomes her personal weapon, used to threaten both friends and foes. When Melissa challenges her cruel demeanor, Shauna taunts her with the shotgun in the middle of camp, then fires at close range, ripping a hole in Melissa’s sleeve. The shocked girl escapes uninjured but humiliated, while everyone else looks on in horror.
As an adult, Shauna continues to use these weapons when she can. She stabs her lover with another large knife and seems to enjoy butchering a rabbit she finds munching on her garden vegetables. When carjackers steal her family van, she infiltrates the illegal chop shop and holds the operation’s boss at gunpoint while rhapsodizing about the feeling of peeling off skin. But adult Shauna saves her most depraved weapon for a violent reunion with adult Melissa (Hilary Swank). After physically attacking the bewildered young woman, Shauna bites a chunk of flesh from her arm, then orders Melissa to eat the meat. The finale plays out with Shauna’s face covered in blood. It seems she’s fallen back into a pattern of violence.
Her Victims
As she gains power among the group, Shauna lashes out at anyone who causes her pain. Jackie and Lottie both find themselves in opposition to the angry young woman, and she resents Natalie for rising to a position of power. Melissa wins her favor with flattery and gifts, but it’s only Tai (Jasmin Savoy Brown) who’s able to earn her trust, likely stemming from support offered throughout her difficult pregnancy.
When researchers stumble upon their camp, the group’s leaders treat them like dangerous outsiders. Lottie kills one immediately while Shauna orders the other two stunned hikers taken prisoner. Hannah (Ashley Sutton) and Kodiak (Joel McHale) try to barter for their survival, promising to take the group back to their own rescue point. But Shauna follows Lottie’s lead and insists that everyone stay at camp. Not only does this order essentially seal the scientists’ fates, but it also dooms the remaining Yellowjackets to another deadly winter.
With tensions high in the aftermath, Shauna encourages another hunt, explaining that a sacrifice will unify the group’s intentions and ensure their protection through another harsh winter. But the increasingly cruel leader tips the odds in her favor. As they begin to draw cards around the circle, she notices that Van (Liv Hewson) has stacked the deck and secretly chosen Hannah as the ritual’s doomed target. Unable to cede control of the situation, Shauna suddenly moves her position in the circle, disrupting Van’s plan and reassigning the card to her rival Mari. The two teen girls have been squabbling for months, and Shauna seizes the opportunity for revenge.
In the present-day timeline, Shauna continues to sew destruction wherever she goes. Convinced she’s being targeted by multiple assassins, she drags the surviving Yellowjackets to the home of Hannah’s daughter, only to find adult Melissa has married the woman and faked her death. A tense conversation reveals no danger, but Shauna refuses to listen to reason. She threatens Melissa’s family and decides that the only way to ensure her own safety is to murder her former girlfriend. There’s no justification for the extremity of her anger, and this suburban attack nearly kills them all.
Her Motive
Both recent timelines in Yellowjackets have been defined by Shauna’s fury and violence, but the heart of this sabotage lies in unresolved grief. Blaming herself for the deaths of her best friend and baby, Shauna responds by pushing everyone away. As an adult, she describes resistance to loving her daughter Callie, likely PTSD from her first horrific delivery. While teen Shauna drowns her pain in acts of aggression, her adult counterpart leans into personal destruction. She’s terrified of allowing herself to love someone else and keeps even Jeff at arm’s length. Rather than deal with her traumatic past, she begins throwing grenades into each room of her life. It might hurt her just as much as everyone else, but at least she’s in control of the wreckage.
When the chance for rescue arises, teen Shauna balks, finding in Lottie an unexpected ally. Both are escaping powerless lives where they’ve been dismissed, diminished, and ignored. Lottie has a history of mental illness and a rocky relationship with her wealthy father, while Shauna struggles with expectations for who she should be. She knows she can’t compete with the Jackies of the world and fears going back to a life in the shadows. Both have found personal empowerment while lost in the forest and value it more than returning home. They also have justified concerns about reactions to what they’ve done to survive. As women, they’re already held to a higher standard and will be vilified for exerting their power. The wilderness has offered them freedom from the patriarchal oppression that dominated their lives. And they’d rather die than give it up.
Her Legacy
When we first meet Shauna in Yellowjackets, she’s meek and submissive, quietly accepting an inherited vision of who she should be. Seasons one and two allow both versions of this complex character to redefine herself while removed from the limiting high school ecosystem. Season three takes the character on a villainous turn as she becomes drunk with the unquestioned authority of a violent dictator. But deep pain still colors her actions and Shauna finds herself lashing out rather than searching for productive empowerment.
Yellowjackets has always been a story about a matriarchy born out of trauma and the old establishment falling away. But as flawed human beings, the girls find themselves making mistakes as they wrestle with how to form a community. Though understandable, Shauna’s rage-fueled actions are the essence of patriarchal control. She does not want to work within the matriarchy she’s helped to create and solves all of her problems with violent control. The wilderness crown offers intoxicating dehumanization and Shauna finds comfort in the persona of a heartless queen.
But this unchecked aggression now threatens to destroy the lives of everyone she knows. The wilderness camp teeters on the edge of destruction, and the adult Yellowjackets are plotting her murder. Only time will tell if the Antler Queen can maintain her power and rediscover her lost humanity.
Categorized: Editorials
