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Yellowjackets12122021.jpg

'Yellowjackets' is Going There and it's Terrifying

By Genevieve Burgess | TV | December 13, 2021 |

By Genevieve Burgess | TV | December 13, 2021 |


Yellowjackets12122021.jpg

There’s a lot to be worried about on Yellowjackets; the certain doom for some of the young women we’re growing attached to, watching some of the ones we know both as young girls and adults turn into monsters (the ones who aren’t already there, looking at you, Misty!), and whatever other creepy bits are going to be layered on top of all that. But the latest episode introduced an element I’ve been dreading ever since we learned that Coach Ben and Travis survived the plane crash: a pregnancy storyline. The only thing I didn’t anticipate was that we’d start with a pre-existing pregnancy rather than one that began in the woods.

With the revelation that Shauna’s period is late, several of her secrets are at risk of coming out. Mostly that she got pregnant by Jeff, who Jackie thinks is 1. her loyal boyfriend and 2. a virgin. She also thinks Shauna’s a virgin. Jackie’s not very good at paying attention to things that aren’t Jackie, something we are learning about her along with the rest of the increasingly annoyed team. What’s also at risk is Shauna’s health and well-being trying to carry a pregnancy in the wilderness with only other teenage girls and a woefully unqualified assistant coach/teacher to help her. I’m sure the emotional fall-out of Shauna’s secrets will be harrowing but whatever happens to that embryo is weighing far more heavily on my mind.

Ever since I started to worry that the presence of Travis and Ben was setting up an inevitable pregnancy storyline for at least one of the girls, I’ve been terrified of where that might go. Are we going to watch a teenager die in childbirth? Shauna is still alive, so we know that’s not the outcome. We also know that she didn’t come out of the woods with a child, that would have been a pretty major thing to gloss over! At this point, the best-case scenario is a traumatic and dangerous miscarriage because the worst-case scenario is going to a Chris Evans in Snowpiercer place and I am not emotionally capable of watching the show if they go there. I have a seven-month-old baby. Does this make me weak? Probably! Do I think they’ll go there? I really hope not, and that I’ve just watched too many movies and immediately went to the darkest possible place. But if it seems like they are that’s the point I tap out and don’t tap back in.

Am I wrong for even thinking up this possibility? Maybe! But this is a show that OPENED with teenagers hunting and eating one of their own. And hey, kudos to the writers for showing early pregnancy without resorting to random vomiting, both because I hate seeing vomiting on film and because it’s very possible to not have morning sickness. I didn’t! Of course, they still had Ben projectile vomit to make up the difference so you just can’t trust this show.