Yellowjackets Star Talks Coach Ben's Descent Into Madness

Warning! This article contains spoilers for this week's episode of Yellowjackets! This week's episode of Yellowjackets saw the survivors in the wilderness at what might be their lowest place yet. In the aftermath of Shauna giving birth and her baby dying, the survivors are all starving, exhausted, and dealing with the trauma of yet another loss. Everyone is struggling, but for Coach Ben, that means falling further into his hallucinations of a different life with his boyfriend, Paul. One of his hallucinations sends Ben out of the cabin and to the edge of the cliff to jump before he's ultimately stopped by Misty,

While Ben doesn't end it all in the episode, it's clear he's not doing well and, according to Steven Krueger, Ben is on a descent into madness. The actor spoke with Collider before this week's "Burial" and explained that Ben can't control what he's experiencing anymore.

"I know you've only seen through Episode 6, but as it goes along, you kind of realize that this is even more of a descent into madness for him," Krueger said. "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."

Krueger has previously teased that as the season continues, Ben's story gets more and more tragic — and has teased that there are consequences to come.

"I did wonder going into Season 2, where are they going to go with this? What's an interesting way to tell his story? And I thought the creators and the writers just nailed it. Getting to see the one person who is outside the group go internal and really start living in his own mind, it just makes it all the more tragic. It makes his journey all the more heartbreaking."

"You haven't seen the ultimate consequences of what happens as a result of him kind of going into his own psyche, but it's intense," he continued. "And it's sad and it's scary. And I think that people are really going to enjoy it. It gives a nice little inflection and an inside peek at exactly what he's going through."

What is Yellowjackets Season 2 about?

Yellowjackets begins in 1996, as a team of New Jersey high school soccer players travels to Seattle for a national tournament. While flying over Canada, their plane crashes deep in the wilderness and the remaining team members are left to survive for nineteen months. The series chronicles their attempts to survive while also tracking their current lives in 2021. The series stars Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Ella Purnell, Sophie Nélisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, Sammi Hanratty, Steven Krueger, Warren Kole, Christina Ricci, and Juliette Lewis.

Season 2 sees the addition of Lauren Ambrose to the cast as the adult version of Van as well as Simone Kessell as adult Lottie along with Elijah Wood as a new character named Walter, Nicole Maines as Lisa, Francois Arnaud as Paul, and Nia Sondaya as teen Akilah.

New episodes of Yellowjackets hit the Showtime app on Fridays and new episodes air on Showtime on Sundays.