The Dark Turn of Yellowjackets: Exploring Jackie's Death and its Impact

The Shocking Death of Jackie

Yellowjackets season 1 finale shocked audiences when it killed off Jackie (Ella Purnell), and the choice signals how the show will only get darker. The Showtime drama about a high school soccer team who resorts to cannibalism after a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness drew comparisons to both Lost and Lord of the Flies. Yellowjackets was originally conceived as a female-led re-imagining of the latter tale about a group of schoolboys who turn on one another after a plane crash.

Jackie smiling in her jacket in Yellowjackets season 1

Yellowjackets earned praise for its complex characters and performances by its all-star cast, including Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis, Tawny Cypress, and Melanie Lynskey as the adult versions of the crash survivors living through the aftermath of the tragedy. But the true mystery at the heart of the show is what happened in the mountains after the crash that led the undefeated soccer team, the Yellowjackets, to cannibalism and murder. It was revealed early in the series that Jackie died during the team's time in the wilderness, or at least was believed dead during the present timeline, but the manner of Jackie's Yellowjackets death – and what happened to her body afterward – was shocking and had a major impact on the group.

Lottie and Shauna talking in Yellowjackets

Jackie, who was the first Yellowjackets character to die in an incident unrelated to an escape attempt, had been a key ensemble character in the past timeline. Her death now hints at a turning point toward a much darker direction for Yellowjackets for two reasons. First, Jackie died because she refused to reject the rules of the world they left behind and adapt to the new rules adopted by the group. These rules included basic survival skills, but they also permitted an increasingly overwhelming level of brutality and violence.

Teen Travis about to be sacrificed next to Shauna in Yellowjackets

The First Yellowjackets Cannibalism Victim

Due to the ground hardening in the winter, the Yellowjackets were unable to bury Jackie's corpse. Instead, she was kept frozen, a symbol of the girls' unwillingness to process her death. Shauna even talked to Jackie's corpse and did her makeup, imagining her as the living friend she knew. Once this was discovered by Taissa, the group decided to burn the body. However, this ended up being less of a funeral pyre and more of a barbecue.

Frozen Jackie in Yellowjackets

The famished girls were attracted to the newly-cooked body and ended up devouring it in one of Yellowjackets' most haunting sequences. The series shows snow being dumped on the fire, preventing Jackie's body from being totally burnt, suggesting that if there is a supernatural force in the woods, it wanted to entice the girls into consuming their teammate.

Shauna looking at Jackie's ear in Yellowjackets

Yellowjackets teased cannibalism from its earliest episode, and the feast of Jackie's body marked the first time the girls (and Travis) consciously crossed the lines into eating another human.

One of the Yellowjackets looking into the pit in the premiere

Impact on the Team Dynamics

Jackie's death was a tipping point for Shauna. In the future timeline, she is haunted by Jackie's death, blaming herself for the tragedy. In the past timeline, Shauna played a critical role in the group. She had a unique power to stand up to Lottie and the Yellowjackets' cannibal faction because as Jackie's influence waned, the team still listened to Shauna. However, Jackie's death broke Shauna, eliminating the last member of the group with the ability to steer the others away from violence.

Shauna reaching out to Jackie in Yellowjackets.

Following Jackie's death, the group loses its unofficial leader, creating a power vacuum that Lottie fills with her spiritual beliefs. Yellowjackets season 2 shows how the few survivors who remain skeptical of Lottie, such as Shauna and Nat, become isolated and divided from the rest of the group. Shauna's despair at losing Jackie and the subsequent cannibalism hint that Jackie's Yellowjackets death signals a deeper descent into darkness in future seasons.