Why Melissa Doesn't Kill Shauna When She Has The Chance In Yellowjackets Season 3's Finale
Warning: This article contains spoilers for the Yellowjackets season 3 finale.
In the Yellowjackets season 3 finale, Melissa has the chance to kill Shauna in the wilderness, but she doesn’t go through with it. Yellowjackets season 3 has ended with episode 10, “Full Circle,” following on from Nat’s discovery that Misty destroyed the emergency transponder in the past timeline and Van’s shocking death in the present-day timeline. The season finale delivered some reveals that fans have been waiting for, like who killed Lottie, the identity of the “Pit Girl,” and — most importantly — how the Yellowjackets got rescued from the wilderness.
During the hunt for Mari, Melissa tackled Shauna and started to choke her. She had the chance to kill the Yellowjackets’ psychotic tormentor if she’d just held on, but she eventually relented and let go, allowing Shauna to live on. Obviously, Melissa wasn’t going to kill Shauna, because we know Shauna survives until at least 2021. But Shauna’s survival relies on Melissa’s decision not to go through with killing her. So, why did Melissa have a sudden change of heart and spare Shauna’s life?
Melissa Isn't A Killer Like Shauna (At Least In Yellowjackets' Wilderness Timeline)
Melissa Is Burdened With Empathy
Based on what we’ve seen in Yellowjackets’ wilderness timeline (and occasionally in Yellowjackets’ adult timeline), Shauna is a cold-blooded killer who has no qualms about taking human lives. If someone crosses her, she won’t think twice about turning a deadly weapon on them. This can partly be blamed on the trauma of being stranded in the wilderness and going feral, but that monster was lurking in Shauna all along, because that hasn’t happened to everyone. Melissa decides not to kill Shauna because she’s not a cold-blooded killer; she’s burdened with empathy.
Why Shauna Calls Melissa "Boring" After Almost Being Choked To Death
Shauna Is Projecting Her Own Fears Onto Melissa
After Melissa has just tried to kill her, Shauna calls her “boring.” This is partly because Melissa has become predictable — she can’t bring herself to take a life — but it also shows Shauna projecting her own fears onto the people around her. Before the plane crash, boringness was the thing that Shauna hated the most about herself. She worried that she wasn’t as exciting as Jackie, which is why she also used the “boring” insult against Jackie in their argument right before Jackie’s death. It’s all projection.
Before the plane crash, boringness was the thing that Shauna hated the most about herself.
Shauna dreamed of leading an exciting life by going to Brown and becoming a writer. Ironically, Yellowjackets’ adult timeline shows that Shauna ended up with the “boring” life she never wanted; the boring life that Jackie was initially destined to lead. Shauna calls Melissa boring after she tries to kill her because, to Shauna, that’s the worst thing someone can be.
Yellowjackets
- Release Date
- November 14, 2021
- Network
- Showtime, Paramount+ with Showtime
- Showrunner
- Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, Jonathan Lisco
- Directors
- Benjamin Semanoff, Daisy von Scherler Mayer, Deepa Mehta, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Liz Garbus, Scott Winant, Eva Sørhaug, Jamie Travis
- Writers
- Liz Phang, Sarah L. Thompson, Ameni Rozsa
Cast
Shauna Sadecki
Tawny CypressTaissa Turner
- Creator(s)
- Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson
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