Yellowjackets Showrunner Explains The Meaning Of Season 3 Episode 3’s Hallucination Sequence

As Yellowjackets season 3, episode 3 took Akilah (Nia Sondaya), Van (Liv Hewson), and Shauna (Sophie Nelisse) into a surprising hallucinatory session, showrunner Jonathan Lisco dives into the deeper meanings behind each girl’s vision. The Showtime and Paramount+ thriller series explores how a high-school soccer team survives being stranded in the Canadian wilderness, and how their older selves hid what they did in the present day. In season 3’s “Them’s the Brakes,” the trio of Yellowjackets survivors inhales gas when searching for the fugitive Coach Ben (Steven Kruger), forcing them to face their darkest fears and familiar faces.

Lisco broke down each survivor’s vision when speaking to The Hollywood Reporter. While many of the remaining survivors could have been focused on during the scene, Akilah was selected to reckon with her relationship with nature. On the other hand, Van had to endure her near-death experiences and survivor guilt, even revealing that several established characters haunted her vision. Read his full comment below:

You have all the characters on the board and frankly, I think we could have taken any of them through that hallucinatory sequence and mined it for a lot of great story. But after kicking the tires on it, we really felt like Akilah, who is a child of nature who loves the plants and animals, was ripe for a subversion of her preconceptions about what is good about the wilderness.

Similarly, Van almost expired, if you recall, in the second episode of the entire series when they were left for dead after the plane crashed. Van has this way of being sarcastic and irreverent and acting like that didn’t really affect them at all and they’ve moved on. But, have they moved on? So their “dream” was to be strapped into that chair, unable to get out while the cabin is on fire. They’re about to expire. And then, if you look closely, it’s the hand of the cabin guy, the hand of Javi [Luciano Leroux, who they let die and ate in season two], the hand of Laura Lee [Jane Widdop, who died in season one] coming in, and it all comes rushing back.

Shauna’s vision would emerge as the most emotional hallucination, dealing with the guilt of her being unable to save her child during her time in the wilderness, about whether she could have done more to help, and if her fellow survivors could have played a part in the tragedy. Check out Lisco’s full explanation below:

Then with Shauna, that one felt the most tragic and poignant, because here’s Shauna having lost her baby and needing to move on as a 17-year-old in the woods, and now she has this moment where she sees the boy on the banks of the lake, swims toward him but is only getting further away. We felt that was incredibly sad and tragic, but equally might stir up some ideas of her own complicity in not being able to save the baby. And that’s subjective; I’m not saying she’s responsible. She lives with this guilt in terms of her own body and her own ability to deliver that baby. Plus, the doubt over if what was explained to her by the others actually happened. She still harbors this suspicion of the other young women about whether or not they’re telling her the truth. And then of course, just the raw pain of having not been able to meet her child. That was beautiful in our minds and also really harrowing.

What Yellowjackets Season 3’s Visions Mean For Upcoming Episodes

The Visions Have Ties To The Present Day Story

While it is uncertain how Akilah’s vision will play into her future, given the absence of her older self from the present-day story, Van and Shauna’s visions parallel their later battles in several ways. Despite Van receiving positive news about her cancer diagnosis, her blossoming reconnection with Taissa (Tawny Cypress) had been upset after she tried to justify their part in a waiter’s death as a necessary sacrifice for their happiness. As such, her vision highlights how death is ever-present in her life, and how those who died while she survived will weigh heavily on her mind.

Meanwhile, the loss of Shauna’s child in the wilderness deeply affected her adult life, confessing to Lottie (Simone Kessell) that her fears of losing another child played a part in her unhealthy relationship with Callie (Sarah Desjardins) and Lottie and her daughter’s growing bond further worrying her. With Shauna’s fears and past accusations of her fellow survivors’ handling of her son, seeing Lottie may remind her of her fears about losing Callie in some form to her teammates. As such, it is likely Akilah’s vision will parallel her own future developments.

Our Thoughts On Yellowjackets Season 3’s Visions

Akilah’s Vision Suggests An Important Role For Her Is Coming

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With each vision loaded with subtext, season 3, episode 3’s visions could play a key role in what is yet to come. Lisco put clear thought into how each vision would not only correlate with their states of mind in 1998 but also resonate with their present struggles. As such, many viewers may be left eager to discover how the episode’s final vision may play into the season’s remaining events.

Related

Shauna, Van & Akilah’s Yellowjackets Season 3 Hallucination Explained: Why THAT Character Returned

Yellowjackets season 3, episode 3 features a weird hallucination segment involving Shauna, Van, Akilah, and the return of a popular character.

While a resurrection of fan-favorite Jackie (Ella Purnell) isn’t likely on the cards beyond her continuous presence in visions, the terrifying vision of Shauna and Van’s injuries in Lottie’s (Courtney Eaton) classroom will likely foreshadow the latter half of Yellowjackets season 3. However, with the ties between Van and Shauna’s visions and the present day, many may be left wondering if Akilah’s role in saving them could be during their ordeal in the wilderness, or potentially set up a return in the present.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

TV Show

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Yellowjackets

7/10

Release Date

November 14, 2021

Network

Showtime, Paramount+ with Showtime

Showrunner

Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, Jonathan Lisco

Directors

Benjamin Semanoff, Daisy von Scherler Mayer, Deepa Mehta, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Liz Garbus, Scott Winant, Eva Sørhaug, Jamie Travis

Writers

Liz Phang, Sarah L. Thompson, Ameni Rozsa