Note: This story contains spoilers from “Yellowjackets” Season 3, Episode 4.
In this week’s extremely tense episode of “Yellowjackets,” the survivors in the wilderness put Coach Scott (Steven Krueger) on trial for trying to murder them all when he set fire to the cabin at the end of Season 2. But is he actually guilty? And does that even matter?
Sophie Nélisse, who plays Teen Shauna, told TheWrap that the trial is simply an opportunity for her character to gain power at a time when the current leader, Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) appears weak.
Krueger agreed, “It doesn’t really matter whether he burned the cabin down or not,” because once the trial was set in motion, a guilty verdict was inevitable.
Here’s our conversation with the cast about the complex dynamics during the trial:
TheWrap: Why is Shauna so convinced that Coach is guilty?
Sophie Nélisse: I don’t think she is convinced that he is guilty. I think that’s not what matters for her right now. She’s just so desperate to regain power over the group and to gain leadership that she’s willing to bring anyone down in order to have that power. And she sees Ben as an easy target and an easy way to bring the other girls in her corner and to manipulate them. I don’t think she’s actually really taken a second to say, like, “Do I think he’s guilty or not?”
She just is, like, “This is my way to gain power over the group,” and I think that’s what’s so horrible about it, is that if she does sentence an innocent man to death… that’s a line that she’ll cross, that she will never be able to forgive herself for.
Steven Krueger: [Turns to look at Nélisse] Why’d you do it then?
SN: I wanted the crown. I wanted to be the antler queen. Shauna is unhinged. She has nothing else to lose, and I think the only way she’ll feel better about herself is by deflecting all of her guilt and anger and shame and twist it into anger. So, yeah, Shauna has no mercy, whereas Ben is, there’s, good left inside of him.
Steven, do you think that Coach Scott burned the cabin?
SK: I came up with a very specific story in my own head about what happens, and that’s what I use to propel everything that I did this season. I’m going to keep that a secret, just because we never reveal answers. But I will say, the way that it plays out is magical, because it doesn’t really matter whether he burned the cabin down or not.
It’s like all of the domino effects that happen based on people thinking that he did or thinking that he didn’t, it’s just the through line that allows the dynamics to happen that ultimately, lead to all the crazy s–t that goes down.
Misty defends Coach and Natalie is the judge, so neither one of them can vote in the trial. Do you think that if they had voted, the verdict would have been different?
Samantha Hanratty [Misty]: I don’t. Anybody would have been able to give him a fair trial without [Sophie and Misty]. Otherwise, I think it would have gone his way, if Shauna wouldn’t have fought so hard to push everybody.
Do Van and Tai, who was the prosecutor, believe Coach set the fire?
Liv Hewson [Van]: I don’t know if Van knows what she believes. She believes what she needs to in order to survive what’s happening. I think she’s actually very disconnected from her own compass, her own sense of right and wrong.
Jasmin Savoy Brown [Tai]: Yeah, I think Tai went into it firmly believing that he was guilty, and then didn’t totally know anymore after he gave his impassioned plea. But she didn’t have a choice to change her mind because of her pride.
Why do Travis and Lottie end up switching their votes to guilty?
Courtney Eaton [Lottie]: During that episode, which is one of my favorites, with Jennifer Morrison directing the trial scene, there’s so many layers. With Lottie, especially, you can see which way she’s leaning. When she sees a reflection of something in Shauna of the wilderness, it’s almost as if she has to sacrifice her opinion of Ben to follow that again. And so she goes along.
Kevin Alves [Travis]: That was the tough thing about shooting the trial, knowing that it was always going to be a flip, and that he was always going to go with what Lottie wanted. And what was going to keep him alive. It’s a very weird place for him to be in. He is an outsider in many ways. He doesn’t have a connection to almost anyone, except for Lottie, anymore.
Is Travis also afraid of getting eaten if he doesn’t vote with the majority?
KA: We’ll see him fight with that over and over and over again this season. There’s what he believes is right and what he believes will keep him alive, and he will keep teetering.
It seems like the last time Travis stood up for what he believed was right was when he stopped the group from killing Natalie in the Season 2 finale.
KA: He’s bruised. He is hurt. He is a shell of himself now. He saved one person only to let his brother die. How can you trust yourself at that point? What’s the right decision? The person he loves most, he’s wondering if he should have let them die or not. That’s a complicated place to be.
He’s now going to be the last man standing in the group, that has to play his head.
KA: Yeah. He’s become really good at assimilating. He’s done what he’s had to do at any time to survive. He just wants to get home.
“Yellowjackets” releases new episodes Fridays on Paramount+ With Showtime and airs Sundays on Showtime.
