Yellowjackets' Most Disturbing Scene Yet Almost Didn't Make It Into S2's Premiere
The first episode of Yellowjackets’ season 2 has finally premiered.
The story, based in part on the infamous events known as the Andes flight disaster, delves into the darker aspects of the conscious and subconscious mind of high school girls who must go beyond common sense and morality in order to survive.
Two months after the plane crash, no help has arrived, and the women begin to slowly go crazy (or move to other levels of perception of reality?), leading to terrible consequences and, as a result, cannibalism.
We will go straight to the point of no return that Shauna entered, which was both the end of the episode and its climax. Shauna, suffering from malnourishment and going mad, has a hallucinated conversation with dead Jackie and ends up eating the corpse’s ear. We hear a horrible crackling, ending the episode.
Creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson shared their thoughts on the psychology of the scene with Variety. And it looks like it may not have made it to the screen at all.
“I just think it’s hilarious the amount of time that we spent both in breaking writing, and then in editing, deciding how much of the ear — like, should it go in the mouth, should it not go in the mouth? Should there be a chew?” Nickerson remembers. No wonder, as the scene may be quite disturbing for many (although we all expected cannibalism to happen).
According to them, this was a study of the psyche of a person experiencing incredibly (even unhealthily) strong affection. So strong, that love is replaced by a desire to be that person, to possess them. And also a desire to destroy them in order to cope with the overwhelming response of the nervous system.
“We were playing with that kind of plasticity on a psychological and emotional level, and not just have it be about, ‘Oh, I’m gonna eat the ear!’” Lyle says, indicating the level of forethought they put into the scene.
Eating the ear only symbolizes the dark transgression that all surviving members must experience. And in the episodes to come, we will learn even more about the depths of the mind that these exhausted young women will reach.