If you haven't been following Showtime's Yellowjackets, we highly recommend adding it to your 2022 must-watch list. The series has been referred to as a mash-up of Lost and Lord of the Flies, and while those comparisons are valid, it's very much its own, compelling, grim, hilarious, messed-up thing.
Playing out in two timelines, the story focuses on a school soccer team (the Yellowjackets of the title) who are forced to eke out an existence on a remote island when their plane crashes in 1996. We also follow the four main survivors in the present as they struggle with the lengths they had to go to in order to survive over two decades earlier.
Oh, and there's some kind of dark supernatural force at play on the island... or is there?
If you haven't checked out Yellowjackets and are planning to, be warned of spoilers from this point on.
Jackie (Ella Purnell) isn't around in the present, which obviously suggested that she never made it off the island. Sure enough, the poor girl freezes to death after sleeping outside following an argument with Shauna (Sophie Nélisse). Jackie's demise wasn't completely unexpected, of course, but it's still a ballsy move to kill off one of your main characters - played by the most well-known actress among the younger group - in this fashion.
Creators Ashley Lyle, Jonathan Lisco and Bart Nickerson addressed Jackie's death and more during an interview with THR.
“We felt something inevitable to us about [Jackie’s] death and this form of her death; it was a north star,” Lyle says, confirming that Purnell will likely be back in some form for season 2. “Jackie is a character who looms large over everyone else’s lives.”
"Some of it has to cross-pollinate with the business dynamics behind the scenes," said Lisco in a separate interview with Variety. "But Ella loved the show, and loves the show. And I think may come back. Just because she’s dead, and she is dead — a lot of people don’t even trust that she’s dead — that doesn’t mean that she can’t appear, right?"
Several persistent fan-theories were also addressed, but they weren't giving anything away! What do you guys think is going on? Drop us a comment down below.