Warning: Spoilers for “Yellowjackets” season 2 are below.
“Yellowjackets” continues to shock and surprise, and finally addressed the girls surviving in the wilderness by eating the flesh of dead teammate Jackie in a sumptuous feast during the most recent episode, boasting the tongue-in-cheek title “Edible Complex”.
Catching up with ET Canada at PaleyFest in Los Angeles, several members of the “Yellowjackets” cast share their reaction to the gruesome scene.
“I think everyone knew the show was going to get there, but how we got there was the most twisted thing ever,” said Kevin Alves, who plays teenaged Travis. “And… the timing, being at the beginning of the season, was super jarring when we read it for the first time. And doing it was probably the grossest thing I’ve ever done in my life. But I think it paid off. I think people are feeling it.”
READ MORE: ‘Yellowjackets’ Cast Talk Surviving The Canadian Wilderness: ‘I’d Be Ready To Eat Someone’
Sophie Nélisse, who plays teen Shauna (who accidentally caused Jackie’s death), admitted she knew the scene would be coming, but was still shocked.
“I mean, I was surprised it was going to come so early in the show,” Nélisse said. “I knew it was happening. I thought it was a very bold move, but I love it. I think that’s what the audience was waiting for desperately. And we’re serving right from the get go.”
Tawny Cypress, who plays adult Taissa, was impressed by the editing and cinematography that went into creating the scene.
“Well, I knew it was coming — I mean, we all knew it was coming,” she said. “I thought they did a beautiful job. I thought it was cut beautifully. And the imagery was beautiful, and it was better than I could have thought it was was going to be.”
READ MORE: ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 2: Inside The Survivors’ Feast On [Spoiler] And Vomiting On Set
That sentiment was echoed by Christina Ricci, who plays adult Misty. “Well, I always knew there’d be cannibalism from the pilot, so I was in,” she shared. “I was really impressed with the way they did the first episode in the air. Like, to me that just, I guess, it like hearkened back to ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and all these things I loved as a teenager. So it had that sort of salacious, like delicious, naughty feeling to it.”
Steven Krueger, who plays assistant coach Ben, admitted he too was surprised by the scene, even though he knew it was coming.
“Well, look, one of the things that they’re so good at is everybody kind of knows what’s going to happen in this show, right? So to an extent, I mean, everybody knows that, like this is where the show is going eventually, you know, we are going to end up killing each other and eating each other,” he explained.
“But even though people know what’s coming, they do such a good job of presenting it and letting the story unfold in a way that’s still shocking, which is kudos to them as writers, because that’s not that easy to do, to still shock people even though they technically know what’s coming. So I remember reading the script for this episode and thinking, ‘Oh my God, like, I would have never dreamed of this in a million years to actually do it this way.’ And we’ve now seen the reaction over the over this last weekend that people are freaking out about it, which is amazing.”
READ MORE: ‘Yellowjackets’ Delivers Top Season Two Premiere Across Showtime Platforms Since 2012
Simone Kessell, who joined the cast in the second season as adult Lottie, also shared her thoughts on the scene.
“There’s a shock element for sure. There’s a shock element to the cannibalism,” she said. “Well, as adult Lottie likes to say, it’s not real. It’s quite easy to just suppress it and pretend it didn’t happen… And we all like to kind of think that that happened back then. It doesn’t affect me now. Yeah, but it’s shocking. It’s shocking. And as somebody who doesn’t even eat meat, I find it quite grotesque.”
