The Big Picture

Ella Purnell recently joined Collider’s Perri Nemiroff for a Ladies Night interview in celebration of the release of
Fallout
on Prime Video.
During the interview, Purnell revisited playing Jackie on the Showtime series,
Yellowjackets
.
Purnell revealed her theories on what might have happened had Jackie not frozen to death; would she ever have forgiven Shauna, and would she have any chance of surviving the wilderness?

Despite a slew of very thoughtful and creative theories that emerged after the Season 1 finale of Yellowjackets, Ella Purnell’s Jackie was indeed dead. But, even after her passing, Jackie’s presence was (and remained) strong in a number of ways. First off, of course, she fed her surviving teammates in Season 2, Episode 2, “Edible Complex.” On top of that, Jackie’s death sent Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) spiraling, and changed her forever. Not only did she just lose her best friend, but Shauna also contributed to paving the way to Jackie’s demise by sleeping with Jeff.

Given Jackie’s long gone, that means we’ll never get full clarity on one particular burning question; would Jackie ever have forgiven Shauna for what happened? Had she not frozen to death that night, could their friendship, or rather, sistership, ever be repaired?

While on Collider Ladies Night for the release of Fallout on Prime Video, Purnell indulged my Yellowjackets obsession to run through a few theory questions, one of which was, had Jackie survived, would she ever have forgiven Shauna? Here’s what Purnell said:

“I think she would have. It depends on your definition of ‘forgive.’ I think that she would have forgiven her, but
it would have taken years and years and years to work through that resentment
, and I’m not sure the wilderness is the best place to work through resentment. Like we’ve talked about, when you’re in a sort of adrenalized state of fight or flight, it’s hard to have the brain space to process deep emotions. Maybe some stuff would have come out. It maybe would have gotten a little spicy.”

So, according to Purnell, had Jackie survived, some form of forgiveness could have come, but perhaps it would have had to wait until their adult years. But, that then begs the question, had Jackie not frozen to death, would she have any chance of surviving the wilderness? Would something have gotten her eventually?

The Devastating Reason Why Jackie Never Could Have Survived the Wilderness
Image via Showtime

Purnell had an especially devastating response to this question, one tied to how Shauna’s betrayal impacted Jackie:

“To be honest, I think something would have gotten her anyway. But I think it’s a mentality thing. When she discovered the betrayal, I think part of her gave up. I think part of her just could not — she tried to bend. She tried to change her mind about everything.
She really knew who she was gonna be, and then that whole thing got challenged and she tried to bend and she just couldn’t, and she broke.
So, part of her just gave up, and I think something else would have got her.”

While Jackie’s story may have come to an end in Yellowjackets, the experience lives on for Purnell. Before wrapping up the Yellowjackets portion of our conversation, I asked her what moment of Jackie’s experience has stuck with her the most. Here’s what she went with:

“My favorite scene to film for Yellowjackets was the fight that Jackie and Shauna have in the finale, because — oh god, it will give me goosebumps — the rehearsal, the first time we did it, Sophie actually brought it. The first time, she actually turned it on, because we’re kind of lazy actors; we won’t do 100% in the rehearsal. Neither of us will. But the first time she turned it on, and it was like, ‘Whoa,’ because I had never seen Shauna that way.
The power balance, we had no idea what was gonna happen and it just [flipped] so fast, and it was shocking.
Like, flooring. That is such a special moment.”

Looking for more from Purnell on Yellowjackets, Fallout and more unforgettable titles on her filmography? Check out our full Collider Ladies Night conversation below:

Yellowjackets A wildly talented high school girls’ soccer team become the unlucky survivors of a plane crash deep in the Canadian wilderness.Creator Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson Seasons 2 Network Showtime Streaming Service(s) Paramount+

Yellowjackets is available to stream on Paramount+.

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