Yellowjackets Star Breaks Down Shauna’s Season 2 Evolution

The second season of Yellowjackets has brought even more insanity into Shauna’s journey. The young version of the character featured in the show lost her best friend at the end of Season 1, proceeded to eat her body at the start of Season 2, and is now preparing to have a baby in the middle of the wilderness as the season reaches its halfway point. Shauna has been met with a lot of changes already this season, and there are even more on the way.

Sophie Nélisse, who plays the younger version of Shauna on Yellowjackets, opened up to Esquire this week about her character’s journey this season. 

“The stakes are just so much higher,” Nélisse explained. “I was very excited for us to tap into more desperate, more animalistic behavior. Part of her has grown to love this child and she wants it, but at the same time it’s this constant reminder of all the things that she’s done that she regrets: sleeping with Jeff, which also sort of led to Jackie’s death. At the end of Episode Two, by eating Jackie, she puts the story to rest. But the pregnancy is this constant reminder. It’s a reason to try and survive and try to make it out of the wilderness, because she doesn’t have only her[self] to think about. It brings out this very selfless side to her, but she’s terrified for her life because she most likely could die.”

“She’s already so mad at herself for everything that she’s done that I don’t even think she can bear the responsibility anymore,” she later added. “She’s definitely projecting a lot of her anger, and she’s letting it out on other people because it’s too much for her to handle. As the season progresses, she feels very alienated, because she’s so mad at herself. And she feels very judged by the group, because she didn’t believe in the cause.”

When it comes to the present day, adult version of Shauna, Nélisse believes that the character has reverted back to the version of herself that existed before she got stuck in the wilderness. 

“She’s gotten back into the Shauna that she was before the wilderness,” the actress said. “In my storyline, we see Shauna evolving into who she is, finding her inner strength without all these social norms and hierarchies. Without Jackie there, she’s finally-in some weird, messed-up way-truly free in herself. But because she committed such terrible things, she’s scared of this person. She settled back into the Shauna she used to be before, molding into the person that the other people want her to be. She got back together with Jeff and settled into a family that she didn’t really want. Oddly enough, the Shauna years later is this more hibernated, locked-up version of herself. We see her acting out because she wants to find that voice that she found in the wilderness.”

What have you thought about Yellowjackets Season 2 so far? Let us know in the comments!