Note: This story contains spoilers from “Yellowjackets” Season 3, Episode 10.
Since the very first episode of “Yellowjackets,” which showed a girl with dark hair running for her life before falling into a spiked pit and dying, fans have been trying to guess her identity.
The Season 3 finally revealed whose rotten luck it was to end up as Pit Girl. Was it one of the original survivors who drew the dreaded Queen of Hearts card? Or newcomer Hannah (Ashley Sutton), a scientist who stumbled across the feral group and proved she was as ruthless as the rest of them after killing outdoor guide Kodiak (Joel McHale)?
TheWrap spoke with showrunners Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson and Jonathan Lisco, as well as Sutton, about the clues the show gave us and the deliberate misdirection they hoped kept viewers guessing before the final reveal that Pit Girl was none other than Mari (Alexa Barajas).
TheWrap: So Mari was Pit Girl. Was that always the plan?
Ashley Lyle: It was the plan. We love Alexa. She did an incredible job this season.
Bart, you directed the premiere and the finale. The premiere had Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) and the rest chasing Mari as part of a game, not a cannibalistic hunt. So it was foreshadowing and yet distracting.
Bart Nickerson: I feel like that’s one of our sweet spots, foreshadowing yet distracting. We do our best to keep people guessing. That was a lot of fun, both chase sequences. Shooting the first one not knowing that I would be a part of shooting the last one, but knowing that that was coming, that we were going to end with that, and then being able to reference the way the pilot opened was a lot of fun.
Jonathan Lisco: We like organic, earned twists. When Bart directed the premiere, a lot of people said, “Oh, it’s probably going to be Mari.” And then when we got to the herpetologist storyline with Hannah and a lot of them stepped off of that belief, which was, hopefully, good storytelling. Because there was a very legit chance, in their minds, that Hannah was going to be Pit Girl and then we returned to our fundamental principles, as they say, and stuck to them.
It would have been Hannah right if Shauna hadn’t interfered, correct? Do you go on Reddit and see what the fan theories are?
Lyle: I used to be on Reddit a lot more, and I’ve taken a bit of a step back, because I realized it’s not for me, it’s for them. I know some of our actors and writers look occasionally.
It’s always a very fine line to walk, because you don’t want it to be obvious. You don’t want to not surprise your audience. But there’s nothing that irritates me more than when the answer is completely out of left field. I find that deeply unsatisfying. How do you make the answers something that you could have known and that makes sense, but still find a way to keep the audience guessing and keep it satisfying from a mystery perspective? I hope people feel that we walked that line right.
Ashley, did you enjoy people guessing that it was Hannah?
Sutton: Yes, I’ve been enjoying all of the guessing from the very beginning. My favorite theory, before they found out who I was, was that I was going to play Shauna’s mom after they get rescued.
And then it was Pit Girl, because of the hair, which was really great. I love that there’s so many fan theories. I love that the fans are citizen detectives themselves, trying to figure everything out. I love seeing where their minds go. And sometimes I’m like, “Oh, you’re on it. You’re going in the right direction.” And then sometimes it’s, “No, but that’s a great idea…”
Hannah quickly became one of the Yellowjackets almost as if she’d been there the whole time. Can you talk about her outfit for the hunt?
Sutton: When I went in for. my last fitting, and the costume designer asked, “Do you want to wear some of Edwin’s clothes?” And so in 10 I’m actually wearing some of his clothes, which I thought was such a cool idea, because Hannah hasn’t been able to come into terms with anything that happened. So wearing some of his clothes is a way for her to hold on to him as long as possible.
As we wrap up the season, Hannah is still alive and it looks like they’re all about to be rescued… Can we expect to see you in Season 4 if the show is renewed?
Sutton: I have no idea what happens. I have no idea at all. I’m not contracted technically, but if they’ll have me back, I’d be happy to go back. But I have no idea where the story is going to go. At the end of this season, we started getting a lot of answers to questions we’ve been asking for a really long time. So I’m very excited to see where the creators and the writers go from here.
“Yellowjackets” Season 3 is now streaming on Paramount+.
