‘Yellowjackets’ Star Talks [Spoiler’s] Demise & These New Characters — Are They Being Rescued?

[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Yellowjackets Season 3 Episode 6, “Thanksgiving (Canada).”]

All of Yellowjackets‘ burning questions are lastly being answered. What actually occurred within the woods? How did they get rescued? Did Coach Ben (Steven Krueger) make it out alive? Season 3 Episode 6 triggers the domino impact that results in the reality. It’s crucial episode of the complete collection up to now, and it’s all due to one other main character’s demise.

Following his responsible sentence within the Episode 4 trial, Ben was saved from execution in Episode 5 after Akilah (Nia Sondaya) had a imaginative and prescient that he can be their “bridge” to salvation. That proved to be true in Episode 6, but it surely got here at a value for the coach who had already paid dearly within the wilderness.

Colin Bentley / Paramount+ with SHOWTIME

The teenagers incapacitated the already bodily disabled Ben by reducing his achilles tendon on his left leg so he couldn’t attempt to get away from his makeshift jail. He then went on a starvation strike to not pressure them to let him go, however within the hopes that he would die. The trauma lastly broke him past restore, and it was made worse when the teenagers force-fed him to maintain him alive after his starvation strike stretched on for weeks. He begged Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) to kill him, and he or she refused at first. Finally, she carried out a mercy killing and stabbed him within the chest beneath cowl of evening. Ben cried tears of aid when he realized was Natalie was doing.

Yellowjackets followers have lengthy predicted that Ben would die within the woods, however some held out hope that he would make it out (loads of Ben survival theories have been shared on social media since Season 1). What they couldn’t have predicted was the teenagers being discovered by outsiders throughout their feast on Ben’s physique. The episode’s last moments revealed Joel McHale, Ashley Sutton, and Nelson Franklin‘s characters (though their identities are nonetheless a secret), who screamed on the sight of Ben’s decapitated head earlier than the episode lower to black.

Right here, Krueger breaks down the pivotal episode and teases what’s subsequent.

Do you know Ben’s destiny from the start, or has his story gone via adjustments since Season 1?

Steven Krueger: I had a earlier relationship with the showrunners, so I’d labored with them for lots of years earlier than this present. So simply in offhanded speaking behind the scenes concerning the character, I had been given the final concept that Coach Ben would in all probability meet his final demise someday in Season 3. I used to be somewhat ready for it from the start. I’ll say to our showrunners’ credit score, they broke protocol somewhat bit this season when it got here to alerting actors to their characters’ deaths [Simone Kessell’s adult Lottie was killed off in Episode 4].

Usually the protocol is, you don’t discover out till an episode or two earlier than while you’re filming that your character is dying. There’s a complete myriad of causes for that which have been established over plenty of years, and I perceive why. Like I mentioned, to our showrunner’s credit score, they referred to as everyone who was dying this season, myself included after all, and gave them months of heads up earlier than we ever began filming, which I believed was actually beneficiant and actually sort. As quickly as I heard the information, my quick query was simply inform me extra, how.

I simply wished it to be a cool demise. I wished it to be impactful. I wished it to imply one thing. That is an inflection level in the complete arc of the collection, in order a lot as I’m an actor who needs to remain on a very wonderful present and hold engaged on it, I’m additionally actually glad that the way in which that is happening results in a complete lot of different issues.

Colin Bentley / Paramount+ with SHOWTIME

My jaw dropped on the reveal of these three new characters. It’s so thrilling, but in addition so tragic as a result of Ben was so near being discovered.

I do know! If Ben had been alive, even when he was in actually tough form, had he simply been alive, tied up within the animal pen, however nonetheless respiratory, none of the remainder of that stuff goes down.

A part of the cool factor about this present, and the factor I at all times chuckle at is plenty of suggestions that I’ve heard this season is, “Oh, man, it’s getting brutal,” and “it’s powerful to even sympathize with a few of these characters at this level.” What did you suppose was going to occur from the start of the collection? The very opening scenes had been teenage women searching one another down, murdering one another, after which stringing them up and draining their blood in order that they might eat them. We’ve obtained to get from level A to level Z sooner or later. That is the pure development of that. Coach Ben, sadly, having to be part of that’s a part of what makes it cool.

I don’t suppose something that the writers do on this present is simply, “Ooh, we need to be innovative and shock the viewers.” It’s all consistent with the last word story that’s being informed. It’s a brutal, and at instances very uncomfortable and difficult-to-watch story that we’re telling. That’s simply the character of what we’re doing on the present.

Did understanding that far prematurely that Ben was going to die this season make you crank up your efficiency?

General, my strategy to each episode and each season on the whole is identical. For me, it really works higher when I’ve all the data forward of time. I’ll at all times discuss to the creators, to the showrunners and say, “Hey, what are the touchpoints of the character that I must know in order that I can work out the best way to craft the efficiency over the course of the complete season?” I spent plenty of time doing that with the showrunners main into this season simply because I knew it was going to be a little bit of a meatier arc main as much as the demise — pun very meant.

I’ll say the distinction between my strategy and preparation this season versus earlier seasons, as a result of the episodes had been so heavy, I discovered myself not having the ability to transfer on to the following episode till we had been utterly carried out filming one episode. Our scripts normally come out each two weeks-ish or so as soon as we’re into the center of the season. And it’s at all times a enjoyable occasion as a result of we don’t know precisely what’s happening within the story. The scripts hit our inboxes, and it’s lifeless quiet within the solid tent if we’re on set. Everybody hastily is on their telephones or their iPads studying the script as a result of everyone needs to know what occurs. I discovered myself ready to learn it even for days or every week after the script got here out, as a result of I used to be like, if I begin studying what’s going to occur subsequent, I’m routinely going to be excited about these scenes. And I must concentrate on what’s proper in entrance of me as a result of it was lots to take care of.

You knew when Ben would die, however had been you stunned by the way it occurred?

There have been some stunning issues about it. I at all times had in my thoughts that this was the way it needed to go down if he was really going to be killed. I knew that it needed to be Natalie. I didn’t know precisely what the circumstances can be surrounding it. I additionally suppose that the massive shock for me was simply how brutal it will get all through this final episode. From the force-feeding stuff to the time bounce that we do throughout the episode over the course of many weeks and even months the place we’re going from summer time all the way in which into fall, and simply [Ben’s] deterioration that we see not simply bodily, however psychologically as properly. How a lot they actually went there, that half did shock me somewhat bit. As quickly as I learn it, I used to be like, whew, OK, this isn’t going to be a enjoyable episode to movie.

However I believe that it really was an ideal ending to the character. That is one thing that should occur to ensure that the story to progress. I additionally suppose that that is the primary time they’ve actually crossed the road. That is the inflection level. Up till now, all the things [the teens have done in the woods] could be defined away. That is our first transfer into what actually can be categorized as homicide. And by the top of the episode, the actual jaw-dropping second is, oh my God. After which as we see over the course of the following few episodes, this had a domino impact. This led on to all of the stuff that we’ve been questioning about.

Inform me what it was prefer to movie that force-feeding scene.

It was a difficult scene to movie within the sense that you simply had the motion that’s happening could be very intense and doubtlessly harmful, and also you even have 5 individuals which can be crammed into a really tight space, which may at all times get somewhat bit difficult so far as digicam. So we spent plenty of time rehearsing it. We spent plenty of time determining precisely the place everyone’s palms wanted to be, simply so that everyone felt secure on the day after we had been really filming it. However yeah, I imply, it’s not enjoyable to see or hear.

Colin Bentley / Paramount+ with SHOWTIME

Oddly sufficient, he died slightly humanely all issues thought of. Do you suppose Ben was pondering that when he realized what Natalie was doing? Was he glad about it?

Completely. That’s what he was primarily begging for. He knew it wasn’t going to go properly. He knew that if he continued to remain alive, he was simply going to be handled extra poorly. The man’s in ache, he’s struggling. It’s like, please simply assist me out. And no person else appeared keen to do it aside from Natalie. There’s in all probability plenty of ambivalence in her thoughts of I did the correct factor and but additionally I did simply kill any individual, and why wasn’t she robust sufficient to cease it from attending to that time within the first place? A part of what I like about this season, and this can be a microcosm of it, is that you simply actually do begin to see these contact factors within the characters’ lives within the ’90s storyline that in the end are affecting what they’re doing and the way they’re behaving within the current day. You actually begin to see plenty of these connective tissues being fashioned versus earlier than you simply made the idea that some loopy stuff occurred on the market.

Did Ben actually burn down the cabin? Is that one thing you may speak about?

I’m unsure that we ever really get a transparent lower reply on that. I believe a part of the intrigue is that’s at all times left open to the viewers’s interpretation, which personally I like as a result of it type of doesn’t matter if he burned it down or not. What issues is the truth that these women responded in such a approach that in the end led to plenty of actually tragic sh*t.

I’ll say…I spent plenty of time with an appearing instructor that I work with named Gregory Berger, who I simply adore. He and I began developing with plenty of concepts about is it robust sufficient to simply say, did I or did I not burn down the cabin? And to me, it by no means actually mattered. It was by no means actually a powerful sufficient motivator for me. And so we got here up with some barely deeper stuff that drove me in a sure route. So I can say that in my thoughts, I really suppose I did burn down the cabin. I don’t, nevertheless, suppose that I did it to kill them. Take that for what you’ll, however that was the story I used to be working with the entire time.

If I used to be a viewer, the obvious clarification to me is, this can be a decades-old wood cabin in the course of nowhere with open flames actually in every single place, everyone’s falling asleep, and there’s an enormous hearth. Accidents occur. However the truth that they’re so fast to leap to needing in charge any individual, I believe speaks to the psychological state that these women are in.

I carry on excited about Paul, Ben’s boyfriend again at house. Was Ben excited about him in these last moments?

Yeah. We noticed in Episode 5 him beginning to slip into a few of these daydreams, hallucinations the place he’s listening to Paul’s voice, and I believe that’s one of many issues behind his thoughts is whether or not it’s actual or not. For him, [death] could in the end be the way in which again to Paul. If he has to die and he has to succumb to this explicit finish, then possibly that finally ends up really being factor. On the truth entrance, possibly it provides Paul some peace of thoughts. Perhaps they provide you with a narrative of the way it occurs, which I’m positive they do, and I’m positive we are going to see all of that when the rescue really does happen. I might like to see [Paul] seem on the present somewhat bit extra when the ladies are lastly again and coping with, “OK, what occurred? Anyone give me an evidence. The place did Coach Ben go?”

Teen Natalie is just not but the deeply traumatized grownup Natalie [Juliette Lewis] we knew. Is killing Ben what actually broke Natalie, or are there extra darkish instances forward that can — forgive the pun — twist the knife additional?

Oh, there’s much more forward. This was the primary domino to fall. And had this by no means occurred, then you may in all probability justifiably say that the entire issues that come after it by no means would’ve occurred both. So I believe no matter what Natalie personally does going ahead, there’s lots that weighs on her within the sense that she began this chain response. That’s why the burden on her was so heavy.

Are you able to tease what occurs subsequent after this game-changing ending with Joel McHale, Ashley Sutton, and Nelson Franklin’s characters?

We see these individuals seem, after which just about instantly afterwards beginning within the subsequent episode, we see the knee-jerk response of the ladies to those new individuals displaying up unexpectedly. That’s what units off the domino impact for actually the remainder of the collection. Individuals have been craving, if not begging for some solutions to a few of these questions that we’ve been planting for the reason that starting of the present. How did they get out? How are they in the end discovered? How are they rescued? Right here’s your reply. I like that. I additionally love the truth that we’re getting some solutions to what’s happening within the woods. Is that this a psychological factor? Is that this really a supernatural factor? Is there some kind of clarification? We really begin to get these solutions. I bear in mind studying these couple of scripts and Episode 6, 7, and eight and simply being like, oh, it’s so good.

Our creators, our writers, they don’t seem to be simply throwing sh*t towards the wall and seeing what sticks. They’ve had a plan. That is the story they at all times deliberate to inform, and I’m actually excited that persons are lastly attending to see that payoff.

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