Season 3, Episode 8: ‘A Normal, Boring Life’

This week, we tackle what the question of a “normal” life looks like for a Yellowjacket. Meet Adult Melissa, otherwise known as Kelly, played by Hilary Swank.

Adult Melissa thinks she has it pretty good. How did she achieve this? First, she faked her own death and changed her name. Then she married Hannah’s daughter, whom she ended up falling in love with despite initially semi-stalking her to make sure she was safe. Now, they have a kid, go to church and live in a house with a cheesy sign that says, “The Kitchen Is the Heart of the Family.” She still likes to wear backward baseball caps.

Melissa-slash-Kelly believes that she is pretty well-adjusted despite it all, and compared to Shauna, who broke into her home to kill her wife, she certainly seems to be. In order to move forward, Melissa erased the past, started completely fresh. And when the past came back to haunt her, she decided to exorcise it again. That’s why she sent the tape to Shauna after she learned about Adult Natalie’s death. It wasn’t, she says, a threat. It was a way to absolve herself, to keep the guilt at bay.

Shauna doesn’t necessarily believe that, and I’m not sure I do either. Melissa is almost a little too at ease with her transformation. But sitting across the table from each other, these former lovers seem like polar opposites. Shauna is jittery and paranoid, constantly thinking someone is out to get her; Melissa is calm, just wanting to maintain the peaceful existence she fought hard to create for herself.

Their dynamic in the present day is mirrored by the fracture we see in the ’90s story line this episode. With the arrival of Hannah and Kodiak, some of the Yellowjackets are thrilled to be heading home, dreaming of the “normal” lives they’ll have when they get back to civilization. Meanwhile, another camp is, perhaps rightly, unsure that normalcy will ever be an option.

All of this is brought into stark relief during a sequence set to Supergrass’s “Alright,” which has the jaunty lyrics “We are young, we run green, keep our teeth nice and clean.” (You might know it best from the “Clueless” soundtrack.) As the song plays, we see how some of the girls fantasize about the creature comforts they’ve been missing. Mari’s water bottle turns into a Slurpee. Misty imagines sitting on a toilet and using real toilet paper. Van falls into a fluffy bed.

But two moments between romantic partners highlight the growing divide among the teens. Tai breaks the spell of Van’s dream by asking the question: What if they can’t be together when they get back? For Tai, the real world comes with homophobia that they haven’t had to deal with in the wilderness. She also recognizes that even if they return to their families, they will not be able to reintegrate easily into society. Van brushes that off; being rescued outweighs all those fears. Tai isn’t going to buy into that. The Man With No Eyes is just over her shoulder.

Teen Shauna and Melissa have a similar spat. Melissa accuses Shauna of having abandoned her after she was shot by Kodiak. She sounds a little childish, but she has a point! Shauna didn’t console her. To Shauna, this all just sounds like whining, and she placates Melissa with a condescending tone, explaining that she wanted to be the person who caught the guy who attacked her girlfriend. The space between them could be seen as merely the kind of thing that happens when one half of a couple is more into the relationship than the other, but the gap here is more complicated.

Melissa, satisfied with Shauna’s answer, asks Shauna what she is excited for when she gets back. As Melissa chatters away about her dreams, Shauna’s mind wanders. Above Melissa’s head she sees a large moth, an omen of sorts. Both Shauna and Tai seem to be visited by spirits.

When it’s finally time for them all to leave camp and follow Kodiak to a way out of the woods, it is Lottie who first plants her feet. Her argument is both personal and universal. Lottie sees a future back home where she is once again medicated, the imbalances in her brain constrained rather than allowed to run wild. She also argues, “We’re safer here.” As Natalie pleads with her to come, Lottie gains allies in Shauna and Tai. Natalie accepts that there are now factions and tries to proceed on her mission. Shauna, terrifyingly, tells her the group is not going anywhere. It’s a devastating blow to the optimism that pervaded the rest of the episode.

So why do the dissenters do it? Is it just that there’s a sense of security in what is now familiar? Or is there something more mystical going on?

As Melissa and Shauna face off in the present day, this debate arises again. Shauna believes she is being threatened, but Melissa is suspicious that this is not just all projection. Were Shauna’s brakes were really cut, or was her car just old? Did someone really try to lock her in a freezer, or was it just an accident? Maybe someone just happened to have a “Queen of Hearts” ringtone. Maybe Lottie’s death was merely the result of her years of mental health struggles.

“This is what you do, Shauna,” Melissa says. “You create your own problems.”

Melissa isn’t wrong. Shauna thrives on drama. Still, the tone with which Melissa says all this is slightly eerie. Perhaps this is just a very good cover.

Accurate or not, Melissa’s assessment succeeds in getting under Shauna’s skin. And then, Shauna breaks. She attacks Melissa and pins her to the ground. She takes a gnarly bite out of Melissa’s arm. Her mouth is filled with blood as she pulls the piece of flesh from her teeth. She dangles it over Melissa’s face: “Eat it,” she demands. If Melissa doesn’t swallow, Shauna will tell her family who she really is.

This is Shauna’s normal. She needs Melissa to stop pretending it’s not hers.

More to chew on

• Teenage Van’s first question for Hannah is whether Mulder and Scully get together. Think of all the TV they are missing!

• Shauna and Melissa stuff was so good that I wasn’t very enthralled by the other present-day plotlines this week. Tai’s quest to save Van is getting a little repetitive. At least Jeff’s spiral was funny.

• Speaking of: Jeff’s insult to Misty was pretty good. “Freaky little four-eyed mushroom.”

• It’s always amusing to me when a TV or movie character’s personal style doesn’t change with age — presumably so the audience recognizes who they are. Hence, Melissa’s baseball cap.

• I like that we still don’t know a lot of the history between Melissa and Shauna in the woods, though I’m not convinced Melissa was never in love with Shauna. She was certainly very into her.

• “Wonderwall” feels like a pretty basic music cue for this show, but it seems intentional. It’s a “normal” song for a dream of normalcy.