Yellowjackets stars Lauren Ambrose and Tawny Cypress have addressed the shocking death that occurred in season three’s penultimate episode, and it appears there’s some mixed feelings.
Spoiler alert: this article contains major spoilers for Yellowjackets season three episode nine.
The writing seemed to be on the wall for Yellowjackets’ Van Palmer (Liv Hewson/Lauren Ambrose) following her cancer diagnosis in adulthood, and recommendations that she moved into hospice care in season three’s eighth episode.
But how Van’s death actually transpired in the season’s penultimate episode has sent shockwaves through the Yellowjackets fandom and, it seems, through the cast, too.
Season three’s special guest star Hilary Swank became a pillar of the season with her character Melissa, as it was revealed that she had faked her own suicide to escape the trauma of the plane crash that kicked the show off. Yet, as her lie was uncovered and she fought to flee from the other crash survivors, she came face-to-face with Van.
After a violent confrontation, Melissa is the one to end Van’s life, turning a knife on her and stabbing her to death. It was a brutal and unexpected end to Ambrose’s tenure on Yellowjackets, and it seems she’s as shocked as anyone else about how her story concluded.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, the actress said that she expected adult Van to stick around for longer in the show, having only been introduced in season two. “Certainly that was how it seemed from being lured onto the show and getting the job”, she shared.
Considering the amount of times Van has had a near-death experience in the show, Ambrose expected a more graceful end.
“Van is this ultimate survivor. Her mother had an abusive nature, then she gets almost blown up by the plane, and then she’s almost killed when she’s attacked by wolves. And then she’s got this cancer that then goes into remission,” Ambrose reflected.
“I assumed it would be the cancer that did her in – this ultimate survivor who is unable to survive this very real and human thing.
“Then it wasn’t that, and reading it was really shocking…. All of a sudden, Hilary Swank is murdering me. I’m like, ‘OK, we’re going to make it work.’”
After teens Van (Hewson) fell in love with her fellow crash survivor Taissa Turner (Jasmin Savoy Brown/Tawny Cypress), much of her adult storyline has been around the pair reconnecting and rebuilding their relationship.
Cypress, then, seems equally devastated to see Van’s story cut short.
“When I read it, it did not feel earned, quite honestly, and I didn’t really understand it,” she admitted.
“Now I see that we’re saying goodbye to one character but introducing another character. It’s the most gruesome way to start [Melissa’s] story, so I get why they did it. But as a fan, I’d have liked it to have gone differently for sure – and as a fan of Lauren, I would have liked for her to stick around.”
Reflecting on Van’s ending scene, which had a huge Taissa-shaped hole in it, Cypress added: “There’s literally no goodbye. It sucks so bad.”
While Ambrose felt she “got what [she] really wanted” out of her short-lived Yellowjackets role, she’s curious about the show’s future direction – especially following adult Nat (Juliette Lewis) being killed off in season two.
“My favourite parts of the show were seeing how the trauma of the past plays on them in their modern lives, and I think Juliette’s leaving opened the door to ‘anything can happen and anyone can die at any time,’” she told Vanity Fair.
“Hopefully they get back to that original thesis of, ‘OK, how do these traumas play out’ – because it expanded very quickly.”
Yellowjackets season three is streaming on Paramount+ now.
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