In ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 2, the girls take charge in the Canadian wilderness

Beyond the cannibalism, the deaths, the creepy stick figures carved into trees and the other elements that keep viewers buzzing about TV series “Yellowjackets,” something else is going on in the Canadian woods where its key characters are stranded: female empowerment.

“Yellowjackets” became an “it” show after debuting in November 2021, the kind of mystery-infused series that had fans picking apart every twist and debating theories on Reddit and Twitter.

It’s about a girls’ high school soccer team in 1996, the Yellowjackets of the title, whose plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness en route from New Jersey to the national finals, stranding them for 19 months. It also follows some of the survivors 25 years later as the darkness they experienced in those woods continues to infiltrate their lives.

And as the second season begins Friday on Crave, the girls are fully in charge in the abandoned cabin where they’re holed up as winter settles in.

“The first season was like everything was happening to us and we kind of just lived it as it was going on,” said Sophie Nélisse, who plays teenager Shauna. “We’re more the ones taking action in this (season). We’re deciding and we’re more in control.”

“They’ve settled into this world that’s been given to them,” added Samantha Hanratty, who plays teen Misty.

The world of “Yellowjackets” is decidedly a matriarchy and not just in the ’90s timeline, where only three males survived the crash, including assistant coach Ben Scott (Steven Krueger) and the sons of the late head coach, Travis (Kevin Alves) and Javi (Luciano Leroux).

“We’re all sort of subjugate to matriarchies in our own storylines,” said Warren Kole, who plays Jeff, Shauna’s husband in the present-day timeline, referring to himself, Krueger and Alves during a Q&A. “All of our characters are somewhat humbled and react in their own ways to that … which is very interesting.”

Indeed, a grown-up Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) and her fellow survivors Misty (Christina Ricci), Taissa (Tawny Cypress) and Natalie (Juliette Lewis) have been driving the action since the first season, sometimes in violent ways: first trying to stamp out a blackmail scheme that threatened to reveal what really happened in the woods all those years ago, and now trying to confront the unsettling consequences of their shared past.

We already know the stranded teammates engaged in cannibalism and likely even murder based on the glimpse we got in the first episode of the young women in animal disguises eating another girl who died after being chased into a spike-filled trap.

The girls haven’t gone fully feral yet in Season 2, based on the six episodes that were provided to TV critics, but tension is building.

“I think that there is a stillness to this season that is more eerie, more creepy, more unhinged,” said Hanratty.

“Everyone’s a little bit on edge,” added Jasmin Savoy Brown, who plays teen Taissa, in a different Q&A (there were five altogether with 15 cast members). “And so you add to that minimal food and, like, psychosis from being so hungry and being in the elements, I think all relationships sour a bit.”

“There’s certain people who become more submissive and more dominant, and the leaders and the followers, and they really just fall into their positions, you know?” said Hanratty.

Coach Ben, for one, has been relegated not just to follower but virtual nonentity.

This season, Ben is “kind of delving inward because he’s so ostracized from the group at this point,” Krueger said. The actor was keen to explore “what that does to somebody and how they go from being an authority figure to not really mattering at all.”

When it comes to being one of a handful of men in an overwhelmingly female cast, however, Krueger is fully on board.

Besides the young actors who play the teen Yellowjackets, including Nélisse, Hanratty, Brown, Courtney Eaton (Lottie), Sophie Thatcher (Natalie) and Liv Hewson (Van), there are the adult counterparts: Lynskey, Ricci, Lewis, Cypress, and new arrivals Lauren Ambrose and Simone Kessell as adult Van and Lottie.

“You almost never see a show where, like, the first male on the call sheet is 10th down on the list,” said Krueger. “Hopefully people are watching our show and recognizing like, yeah, this is amazing.”

It’s definitely been a rarity for Ricci, who had her first screen role at nine. (Also, a fun fact: she played on a soccer team in New Jersey when she was a teenager in 1996.)

“Just sitting and looking around our green room I was kind of amazed: five women in their 40s, interesting, talented, strong women carrying the show and that’s not something that I’ve experienced before,” Ricci said.

“And also, we all really love each other and … we’re supportive and able to talk about our work with each other, and so it really was for me a very unique experience.”

That support has come in handy in a show that goes to places as dark as “Yellowjackets.”

“No matter how intense it is, they call cut and we are giggling like schoolgirls,” said Cypress.

The younger women have also drawn on laughter and togetherness to counter the intensity of some of the scenes.

Yet, they also welcome that intensity, particularly as it relates to frank portrayals of subjects including trauma, PTSD and mental health issues.

“I was excited to dive more into Lottie’s mental state this season,” said Eaton. “Lottie always walks this fine line of: is it mental health; is it the wilderness … or is it all these things they are going through, these girls?”

Added Cypress: “I think that a lot of times you get post-traumatic stress disorder (in a TV show) and it’s a box, you know, this woman’s feeling post-traumatic and she’s hysterical or whatever. And this show’s really good at showing the different shades of what trauma does to you.”

The important thing, the actors said, is that the characters are allowed to feel whatever they’re feeling without having to conform to stereotypes of how a woman is supposed to be.

“I think that it’s so rare to see a show that embraces female rage and in such a non-judgmental way,” said Brown.

Ricci said she’s had roles over the years that were “not as complex as people naturally really are,” so she appreciates all the complexities of Misty, who can turn from sweet to threatening on a dime.

“I think (this) season is so much more intense and wild and surprising. And delves even deeper into that question of: Is it their trauma (causing the strange phenomena the characters experience) or is it real?” Ricci said.

Lynskey noted the girls can be “their sort of truest, freest selves (in the wilderness because) all of the hierarchies and everything are gone.”

“The thing I’m interested in is when the show comes back to the world, how do they fit back into that world after having been in that position where they didn’t have to be anything that society demanded of them? And then what does it look like to come back and have to perform the role of survivor and young woman? I’m excited for when that comes.”

Debra Yeo is a deputy editor and a contributor to the Star’s Entertainment section. She is based in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @realityeo

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