Note: This story contains spoilers from “Yellowjackets” Season 3, Episode 9.
Hannah, the scientist taken captive by the Yellowjackets in Season 3, Episode 8, makes a split-second decision in Episode 9 to turn on her fellow captive Kody (Joel McHale) to save her own life.
Ashley Sutton, who plays Hannah, talked to TheWrap about how the “sweet and naive” character could go from “zero to 60” so quickly when Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) sees that she and Kody have a knife and are trying to escape.
In a panic, Hannah lies that Kody gave her the knife. He responds by calling her a “c-nt,” and she stabs him in the eye, killing him instantly. And like that, she’s become one of the Yellowjackets. Or, as Sutton phrased it, “We see that side of her where she is very sweet and naive, but she does show up and can play the game too.”
McHale told TheWrap in an earlier interview that the curse word was improvised on the set, so Sutton’s reaction was genuine. “We did that as a surprise,” said the actor. “The [showrunners] said, ‘Hey, will you say that for the last take?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, absolutely.’ And that did seal the deal on the likability of my character. It was like, “Hey, what a touching way to say goodbye.”
TheWrap: Ashley, in that moment, was Hannah thinking, “This is a matriarchy. I’m going to side with them?”
Ashley Sutton: Well, also Shauna is terrifying. She sees in the moment that the right thing to do to make it out is to show Shauna that she’s on her side. I don’t think it’s really thought out in any way. Also Kody calls her a not-so-great word. And there’s a little bit of anger and rage for someone saying something so nasty about her. His eyes rat him out and he feels like I turned on him, which I did.
Would she have fought so hard to survive if she didn’t have a daughter waiting for her at home?
I personally don’t think so. That is the driving force for her. There’s a lot that happens in Episode 8 where she was seeing herself in the Yellowjackets. Because Hannah was so young when she had a kid, there was obviously a lot of trauma of being young and experiencing something so adult. So a lot of 8, in my mind, was connecting with all of these kids that are going through this. And there’s a part that’s fighting for Hannah to see Alex again, but fighting for these kids too, to save them from this experience because she knows it’s going to be traumatic for all of them.
She already showed she trusted them when she left her hiding place in Episode 7.
She sees that they are surviving. So the best case scenario is to side with them and then see if she can make it home. Because that is the end goal. She just wants to make it home.
How did they describe this character to you?
Well, she was sweet and naive. She was very analytical and very smart, and had this drive and determination. In this episode, in particular, we see that side of her where she is very sweet and naive, but she does show up and can play the game too.
It’s so interesting to have a character like Hannah that gets to walk into the wilderness. I feel like she always had the viewer’s perspective, because she’s walking in and she’s seeing the craziness that’s happening, and she gets to be the bit of humanity at that moment. And then we see it slowly fade away. With the Yellowjackets they’ve had two seasons for their humanity to slip away. And Hannah’s kind of goes pretty quickly for her to start making really rash decisions for survival.
It’s like zero to 60.
You’re in that environment, and you kind of have no choice, because they’re already all at 60.
New episodes of “Yellowjackets” stream on Paramount+ on Fridays and air on Showtime on Sundays.
