I have been thinking a lot recently about a personal pet peeve of mine that happens quite often in regards to jackieshauna and how their relationship is described
First things first, I like jackieshauna a lot, and they were the reason I watched the show and my first Yellowjackets ship. Obviously, like every other relationship in the show, it’s codependent and toxic as hell. But I feel like a lot of people tend to dogpile all the issues onto Shauna, especially since season three, most likely due to a mix of recency bias and the halo effect
It kind of annoyed me, and I have kinda talked about it before in the past. But Jackie played a much bigger role in causing a lot of the issues than you give her credit for, and if we’re being honest, she was a lot more obsessive and possessive over Shauna than it was the other way around.
Honestly I have a bit more to say, but I decided to do a bit of a character analysis before throwing out statements so you could understand my reasonings better
Firstly, Jackie is a character meant to haunt the narrative. By this definition the role that she is meant to actually play will be minimal by design, but will leave behind a major impact
Their death is meant to move the plot forward as the story cannot function if they are alive and can mess around with the plot.
Jackie is pretty much written to revolve around Shauna, while Shauna doesn’t revolve entirely around Jackie
And before you yell “But Shauna is haunted by Jackie!” Let me explain, I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, I know what I’m saying.
First off, Jackie was raised by parents who were emotionally absent but held high expectations for her. Jackie does feel the pressure of living up to those standards around everyone in her life, of putting on a mask and being Miss World.
The only and first escape Jackie ever had from this pressure was Shauna. Chances are, the first person in Jackie’s life who thought she was the coolest person ever was probably Shauna.
Also, children’s way of loving people and relationships with others are heavily influenced on the way they are loved by their parents. Jackie’s parents love her like a possession more than their child. Jackie is an extension of them, not her own person, as seen in season one episode six, where they present and mourn a version of Jackie that is not the Jackie we know.
It’s interesting how we see Jackie’s parents insist she loves rabbits, only for the following scene with Jackie to be a scene where she shows obvious disdain towards them.
Or even the fact that they immortalize Jackie in a statue shown off to the masses with the words “Taylor Furniture” written on the side, which is weird given the fact that they could’ve put something there about their daughter, and not their business.
To Jackie, she is taught that owning people is the same as loving them, and that might help to explain her controlling behavior when it comes to Shauna
In some way, I think the beginning of their friendship might have been similar to the beginning Bakugou and Deku’s friendship (before the bullying). Bakugou’s ego is stroked by Deku thinking he’s the coolest guy ever, and it goes straight to his head.
Obviously, this isn’t a 1:1 comparison and there are plenty of differences, but chances are, in the beginning of their friendship, Jackie probably took the reins and claimed Shauna as her best friend, and Shauna simply went along with it, accepting that Jackie was definitely the more knowledgeable one.
This behavior is common and pretty normal in five year old children, but it stops being normal when you’re nearly eighteen years old and the dynamics are still very similar.
Jackie probably has abandonment issues and projects them heavily on Shauna, Shauna ends up becoming her emotional support, and a bit of her personal project. She loves Shauna the way she was taught to love, like something she owned.
Obviously I don’t think she actually saw Shauna as property or something, but she definitely saw Shauna as an extension of her. The validation Shauna provided her with when they were children was like meth to young jackie and she craved it to keep her self concept afloat.
She has a very weak sense of self, and since she has built it around Shauna’s acceptance and awe, it is incredibly weak, and very breakable, and heavily reliant on Shauna, which puts the weight of her sense of self on Shauna’s shoulders. Which would be heavy for someone to bear.
Obviously I don’t think she did it to hurt Shauna and saw nothing wrong with doing that. To her, it was a normal way to show love. Because that’s how her parents loved her, you know, the entire love = ownership thing. But to Shauna, who was not raised that way, being owned meant being inferior and that felt like an insult and she took it as such.
Especially when the dependence was also being served alongside random insults and constant negging. Jackie relied heavily on Shauna emotionally while being too insecure and emotionally constipated to even understand some of her less than platonic feelings towards Shauna, so she insulted her instead and assumed Shauna would understand how she felt
“You’re the best friend I ever had, you know that right?”
The idea that Jackie understood her feelings better than Shauna was laughable given the fact that she still had sex with Travis the day before she died
Anyways, it’s pretty obvious that Shauna becomes the only real relationship Jackie ever has. Her relationships with the other characters are not as strong as her relationship with Shauna, Jackie does care about them, but seems distant from them in spite of commanding influence
On one hand, she is sort of the Yellowjackets personal lacy, and the others look up to her cause she seems to have it all, the looks, the popularity, the money, while everyone else lacks that in some way, whether it’s the money (Van, Natalie) being a person of color (Mari, Lottie or Tai), or not being desirable or cool enough to be popular (Misty, Shauna), making them kind of put her on a pedestal and feel jealous, which gives her influence.
On the other hand, which no one likes to acknowledge, Jackie also was purposefully setting a barrier, a polite barrier, but a barrier nonetheless. Jackie used her queen bee charm to set a polite distance from the others and thus came off more as the cool older sister that everyone liked, than an equal.
The only person that Jackie seems to be completely open with is Shauna, and only Shauna. None of the other Yellowjackets knew Jackie outside of her outward image, her parents were in the dark about all her interests, Jeff obviously couldn’t read a room to save his life. Shauna is the only person who ever really knew Jackie past her outward appearance.
Hell, Jackie’s relationship with Jeff was set up by Shauna. Everyone talks about how Jackie haunted the jeffshauna marriage, but nobody talks about how Jackie dragged Shauna into her relationship from day one. Jackie most likely gave her detailed explanations on what they were doing, or complained endlessly about whatever caused their breakup of the week.
Shauna was their unofficial third, probably around them so often, Jeff had enough time to fall for her, and decide that she was more interesting than Jackie.
This obvious dependence is backed up throughout the entirety of season one
The first time Jackie appears on screen, being touched by her own boyfriend, we see a picture of her and Shauna together.
Afterwards, she shows obvious disinterest, and brushes her teeth after blowing Jeff. Her demeanor entirely changes upon seeing Shauna, as she is laughing and excitedly talking about their dorm in Rutgers.
Clearly, Jackie is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here, and it’s obvious that she is at home here, comfortable enough to mess with Shauna’s radio, and even honking her car horn without permission. Everything that is Shauna’s is hers by extension, and that’s how she views it.
It’s kind of sad as when she is with Shauna, it’s the only time she feels heard and not judged, which explains why she takes control of Shauna so often.
And it also mirrors the shaunahat relationship as well. I think people deny this because they don’t like to acknowledge Jackie’s actions as wrong, or as damaging as they were.
She also might have even sent Jeff out of he front window specifically for Shauna to see, given how involved Shauna seems to be in their relationship.
She is left out of the loop during the Allie situation and seems to be more concerned with the party (and dressing Shauna up for the party) than she is about Allie’s broken leg.
This ends up being a thing. It’s not that Jackie doesn’t care about others at all, it’s just that Shauna trumps everything else in Jackie’s mind, she cares about Allie, but she’s more invested on getting Shauna something good to wear.
This continues to happen throughout the season, Shauna always seems to have other concerns while Jackie is primarily focused on Shauna and Shauna alone.
In the pilot, Shauna has interactions with Tai, Natalie, Lottie and Allie as she is involved in Tai’s plan to make sure Allie plays better for Nationals. She stands against Tai when it goes too far and comforts Allie when she breaks her leg.
While Shauna expresses her concerns about Allie, and her leg, Jackie is more focused on getting Shauna something to wear. Jackie, like when she was in Shauna’s car, is comfortable in Shauna’s bedroom as though it’s her own, messing around with her stuff and sitting on her bed.
She compliments everyone on the team, but when it gets to Shauna, she asks if Shauna has forgiven her. Which again showcases her main concern, being in Shauna’s good graces.
When it’s obvious she isn’t mad at her, Jackie is comfortable enough to start negging Shauna again, knowing now that Shauna’s anger is not directed at her.
She insults Shauna a few times, criticizing her music choice, her dancing skills and how she was bad at holding her liquor. But I’m more interested in her compliment
“You’ve always been there for me, you’re the best friend I’ve ever had”
This kind of encapsulates her feelings on Shauna. Shauna is always there for her, she can rely on Shauna. What Shauna wants or her interests aren’t important, it’s Shauna herself.
All she needs is the guarantee that Shauna will always be there to catch her, to be there to serve her emotional needs and that keeps her afloat. That’s why she wants Shauna to follow her to college, her insistence that they attend Rutgers University together and decorate their dorm a specific way is born out of severe separation anxiety.
Jackie knows her popularity is a superficial construct tied strictly to the halls of their New Jersey high school. She is terrified of adulthood because she fears that she lacks the depth to survive it by herself.
She doesn’t just love Shauna, she needs her as a safety net and blanket, to soothe her fears and serve her needs
By chaining Shauna to her college life, Jackie ensures she brings her primary emotional life-support system into the real world. Shauna is Jackie’s safety blanket against the reality of the world, and this is showcased the moment that they land in the wilderness.
This behavior is also caused by her social status as well. Jackie was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, and chances are, she probably never even had to make her own bed, let alone do anything by herself entirely. She is probably afraid that she will fall apart by herself even if she wants to be independent and leave her parents
So she tries to have the best of both worlds, by bringing Shauna with her. Kind of like how she dates Jeff for you know, eye candy purposes and status reasons, while making out with Shauna on the down low, and treating her like a spouse and a mother figure all at the same time.
Shauna fills the void that Jeff and her parents and the world can’t fill, she makes out with Jackie, and practically plays Mommy, Therapist, Spouse and Best friend all rolled into one, without any acknowledgment or validation.
It also explains why Jackie gets so easily jealous when Shauna is around anyone else,
When you play all four roles for someone who demands total exclusivity, they view you not as just a friend, but as their personal property and sole emotional life-support system. Anyone else who takes Shauna’s time or attention is seen as a direct threat to her survival.
Because Jackie has an absent mother and no other close friends, she has a massive emotional void. Shauna fills that void by acting as her mom, therapist, best friend, and surrogate spouse.
Since Jackie has built herself around Shauna so heavily, if she gives even a fraction of her energy to someone else, her entire support system collapses. It’s like a threat when Shauna prioritizes someone else over her.
To Jackie, Shauna has to see Jackie the way she sees Shauna. She had to be the most important person in Shauna’s life, because if she wasn’t number one priority, every minute of the day to Shauna that was similar to Shauna not loving her at all. She could not handle being second to anyone, no matter how dire the circumstances.
To Shauna, who has a bad habit of pouring gasoline on issues instead of talking them through, she just makes the situation worse by having sex with Jeff, and never really talking to Jackie about it.
Honestly, by the pilot, it clearly seems as though Shauna has some sort of understanding that being around Jackie forever was just going to make things worse and even prior to the pilot, she seems to hang around the others (Tai and Lottie for instance) given the fact that Tai trusts her judgment, and look to her for help in the Allie plan
She also applies to Brown without telling Jackie, and gets in, which was probably one of the most mature decisions she has ever made, the script says it all
Shauna wants to forge her own identity and leave Jackie’s sphere of influence, while Jackie wants to keep Shauna with her for the rest of her life. This makes it pretty evident who is more dependent on who, and this shows itself throughout the entire season
To give Jackie credit where it’s due, she does give Shauna Valium and her necklace before the plane takes off, and remembers Shauna’s fear of planes. So yeah, her obsession is born of genuine love.
When the plane crashes, Shauna attempts to pull Van out of the burning plane, while Jackie is the one to pull her out physically and keeps her from getting back inside. Usually, I would chalk this down to a fearful reaction driven by fear, but given how often she behaves like this, even in less dire circumstances, it does prove my point
In the immediate aftermath of the plane blowing up, “killing” Van, Jackie’s immediate response is to beg Shauna to understand.
The biggest emergency to Jackie isn’t Van’s supposed death, but Shauna abandoning her in anger. She cares about Van and feels bad about leaving her, but in this moment, Shauna’s anger, no matter how rightful it was, could not be directed at Jackie or else she would implode, it would be like chopping off her lifeline.
(Sounds a lot like foreshadowing huh? 🤔)
She does go back to attempting to lead, once she is sure that Shauna is not angry anymore.
But the imbalance only gets worse now that Jackie is cut off of every other safety net she once had. The already unbalanced friendship becomes even more unbalanced as Jackies reliance on Shauna is more obvious than ever before.
Like this scene in the script
“Jackie tenses at the thought of Van and Shauna getting along”
Jackie honey, I need you to be serious right now, you just left her to die, 😭 you don’t have the right to be acting this possessive.
And then you got both of these scenes, where the mommy part shows itself.
Look me in my eyes and tell me that doesn’t sound like something a mom would say to their child. Not even Javi, the twelve year old whose dad just died, needs to “close their eyes and pretend it’s bacon”.
Like, you’d expect Shauna to be saying this to Javi, the kid she kind of sees as her child, not Jackie, her best friend who is the same age as her. Afterwards, Shauna votes against Jackie and decides to go to the lake instead of staying at the plane.
Jackie punishes her by insulting her and purposely attempts to make her jealous by hanging out with Mari, clearly stringing her along and using her.
Eventually she has a breakdown and Shauna puts aside her annoyance and hurt feelings and comes to Jackie’s aid.
Shauna does end up being comforted by Jackie, but the intent behind this was to make Jackie feel better, by opening up and being purposefully vulnerable, she’s giving Jackie the upper hand and making her feel more in control, and thus making her feel better and a lot less like a complete loser, at her expense. It’s called altruistic self deprecation.
Funnily enough, Shauna does this with Jeff as well, and I make actually make a post on that soon.
Throughout their time in the wilderness, Jackie doesn’t really do much at all. The others grow annoyed as she sleeps in while the others wake up earlier, and she does nothing while everyone else is pitching in. Shauna ends up covering her work and doing her chores for her instead of telling her to do them herself.
But when everyone starts noticing, she attempts to get Jackie to do something, and tries to teach her how to butcher. Jackie lashes out by purposefully putting Shauna down. “
“Like making people feel judged? Ooh I know! Cutting up dead things!”
Again, the others annoyance about Jackie’s lack of help doesn’t shake her, it definitely does make her feel bad, but she can shake it off and ignore it, but when Shauna calls her out, albeit a lot less rudely than the others, she immediately tears up.
When Shauna realizes she is pregnant, she worries heavily about Jackie’s reaction when she finds out, and her emotional reaction afterwards
Hell Tai literally says that “it’s not worth dying to keep Jackie from finding out”. Pretty much yelling to the audience that Shauna was willing to attempt suicide by abortion to keep Jackie from finding out the truth
Keep in mind, Shauna knows Jackie is an emotional wreck already and was hanging on by a thread. Obviously some of this is coming from of Shauna’s own lack of self worth, but it’s still crazy to think that Shauna was so afraid of Jackie’s emotional reaction that bleeding out in the forest was a better choice.
It gets worse, especially with the context of the caregiver dynamic. In Shauna’s mind, Jackie’s emotional stability is worth more than Shauna’s physical survival. Shauna has been conditioned to believe that she had to be the buffer that protects Jackie from reality. Because she knows that only she can do it. Jackie will not listen to anyone else.
Back in Wiskayok Shauna maintained the dynamic by going to Rutgers or staying quiet when insulted, things that are annoying but harmless. Out in the wilderness however, "keeping the peace" and protecting Jackie’s emotions meant attempting a DIY abortion in a forest. The wilderness, acting as a pressure cooker turns habits built in civilization into an accidental suicide pact.
This highlights how utterly terrifying and volatile Jackie's fragility actually is, and the horrible effect her death would have on Shauna
When Shauna goes upstairs to Tai instead of Jackie, she feels personally betrayed, which kind of fits with what I was saying earlier about her attachment issues.
Tai becomes her new competition for Shauna’s attention, as Shauna grows closer with Tai. This is kind of interesting, given their already established one sided rivalry, as Tai also saw her as someone unworthy of the captain position, and Jackie sees Tai as a thief who had stolen Shauna from her
Even when Tai is going out on an expedition that she might not return from, Jackie is more concerned about her position in Shauna’s life. She sees Shauna’s new relationships with the others like Tai and even Javi as competitors for her place in Shauna’s life.
If she’s not number one in Shauna’s life, then she might as well be chopped liver. Especially without anything else to hold onto. Which is a very unhealthy way to look at relationships guys (please don’t try at home)
When Jackie realizes that Shauna was pregnant and that Tai knew about it before her, that shakes her entire sense of self. She had built her sense of self around being Shauna’s best friend, and Shauna in her mind, not only didn’t tell Jackie about losing her virginity, she told Tai instead of her.
She immediately sets upon figuring out the truth by reading her journal without permission. As a consequence, Jackie finds out the truth, that Shauna had had sex with Jeff and was carrying his baby.
This shakes her entire worldview as it showed that Shauna was fully capable of building an entire reality where Jackie did not exist. It went against how she saw herself and her reality. Her self concept was built around the belief that Shauna would always be there to support her, and be in awe of her.
On top of that Jackie had no secrets from Shauna because Jackie had no deeper layers to hide. Her life was entirely performative, lived out in the open for public approval. Because she had no hidden interior world, she could not fathom that Shauna had one either. The revelation of Shauna’s diary destroyed Jackie because it proved Shauna had a whole universe inside her that Jackie didn't own.
I saw a fic that kind of said this a little better, but Jackie is not without inner depths, she has just been raised to believe that they weren’t necessary. Her mother for example, tied her self worth to her daughter and her wealth, without looking inward. She lives a lonely life without real relationships because of that.
Jackie has done the same, she has tied her self worth to Shauna’s acceptance and love, and has been empty inside because of it. She is definitely aware of that emptiness, which is probably a main factor in her depression to begin with. But instead of looking inward, she just clung harder to Shauna to escape that feeling.
Even after she finds out the truth, she still can’t stay away from Shauna because of that. She still wears Shauna’s clothes and relies on her for everything. Except that she is more suicidal than ever.
Despite Shauna’s growing pregnancy, she continues to watch over Jackie’s emotional and physical health as it continues to worsen, and then blows up after Doomcoming.
During the argument itself, Jackie treats Shauna like she was the unfaithful spouse, but treats Tai like the other woman
Despite the fact that she has started the fight over Doomcoming, she lashes out at Tai more than Lottie or Mari, the actual perpetrators
Eventually, Shauna finally lets out her grievances at Jackie in the cruelest way possible. Jackie is in absolute shambles, as it completely destroys Jackie’s sense of self
For most people, this would have been heartbreaking but bearable, but to Jackie, this is the end of her world as she knew it. Her sense of self, for over a decade, had been built on Shauna’s love and affection, and now Shauna has told her that she finds her a weak person she felt sorry for, and has confirmed her own insecurities, is absolutely unbearable.
I don’t think she was lying when she said that she couldn’t bear to look at Shauna
Her final attempt at regaining some control or dignity fails, and she freezes to death, waiting for Shauna to come and apologize.
Jackie quite literally could not handle a day without Shauna being there, this looks even worse when you compare her to Javi or Coach Ben. Almost every other character can, to some extent, push forward even when completely alone, in much worse situations.
They have a sense of self, no matter how damaged and twisted, that can withstand the harsh pressure they are subjected to. Shauna didn’t lie when she said Jackie was weak. Compared to practically every other character, she was.
This only becomes worse when you think about how Shauna must’ve felt afterwards. I personally think that after that argument, in some ways, Shauna felt kind of free. She had finally let out years of resentment, and finally proved to herself that she could stand on her own decisions. She probably had a nagging fear in the back of her mind that she might lack autonomy when Jackie was involved, and she finally managed to put her foot down. Only for Jackie to die the very next day.
This is Shauna’s worst fear coming to life. She had already known that Jackie wanted her to come and soothe her ego and prioritize her feelings. And she didn’t do that.
Let me say that again, the one time Shauna outright refused to put Jackie’s wellbeing above everything else, Jackie died. She was supposed to get Jackie, that’s how it always went. And to her, not doing so was the same as murdering her with her own hands, because in her mind that’s what happened.
She knew Jackie would listen to no one but her, that’s she was waiting for Shauna to bring her inside. Even Tai told Shauna to go get Jackie, it was that well known that Jackie would only listen to Shauna. To the rest of the group, anything Jackie related was Shauna’s issue because she would ignore them if they tried.
After Jackie died, Shauna, struggling with grief and incredible guilt, attempts to atone for her failure to prioritize Jackie in life by doing so after her death. She spends time in the meat shed, speaking to a corpse and laughing with her and playing games like old times, and starts to forget about the others
But she fails to completely center Jackie the way that Jackie centered her. When Tai burns Jackie’s corpse, (the jackieshaunatai of it all) she is no longer able to summon Jackie’s ghost the way she used to for the rest of her time in the wilderness. Her inability to entirely center Jackie must’ve only made her feel worse as it would make her feel like a bad friend, and made her feel as though she was failing Jackie once more.
She’s forced to worry about other things, like her baby’s birth, the food supply, Lottie’s cult beliefs, her baby’s death, the hunt, the cabin fire, trying to be antler queen, hunting Coach Ben, becoming antler queen, the scientists and an assassination attempt.
Jackie is there, of course, but she’s in the back of her mind, not in the front. Even in the adult timeline, she has multiple things to worry about, other people in her life to think about.
This is not to say that she does not love Jackie because that would be a lie, but Jackie is not the only person who has an affect on Shauna.
Jackie is not the only love interest Shauna had that committed suicide (Melissa), she’s not the only person who died after she chased them away (Lottie), she’s not the only dead person whose things Shauna keeps as a memento (Javi), She’s not the only person Shauna hallucinates either, or even the only person who she has opened up to. Jackie isn’t the only person who ever got to know Shauna.
Shauna’s marriage to Jeff is also done for purposes outside of Jackie, like WB, and defanging herself and also punishing herself for other transgressions, like Javi, Mari, Coach Ben
On the other hand, Shauna is the only person who got to know Jackie in a personal way, the apple of her eye and was practically her everything in every single way possible, and practically her lifeline. Which is great for jackieshauna purposes, but it gets really annoying when people try to switch it up.
I think it’s because people prefer Jackie over Shauna, because Jackie’s more likable, but the cold, hard truth of the matter is. Jackie’s life revolves around Shauna, but Shauna’s does not revolve around Jackie, which people tend to dislike.
For example, I saw people take this scene as fact for some weird reason despite how obviously false the statement was
People for some reason were agreeing with Jackie, laughing about how pathetic a liar Shauna was. Even though we quite literally saw physical evidence that Shauna did have a life outside of Jackie
The entire reason the two of them were even having issues was because Shauna did not want her life to orbit around Jackie! The idea of being shackled to Jackie for the rest of her life doesn’t bring emotional security, it just makes her feel inferior and insecure.
Even attempting to live in Jackie’s shadow is done as punishment, and she’s miserable doing it!
Shauna loves Jackie, don’t get me wrong, but it’s been proven multiple times that Shauna is somehow incapable of centering Jackie and Jackie alone. She is miserable when she does it and only attempts to do so as punishment or penance.
This is not regarding being around Jackie on its own, but being with only Jackie and having her as the center of her world
You know how I said Jackie was written to revolve around Shauna, well I also believe that Shauna was written to do the exact opposite, which is what pushes the conflict between the two.
Jackie clings harshly and too tightly and ends up forcing Shauna to cut her off because she’s unable to breathe with Jackie clinging on so tightly, it’s like a greek tragedy
But the issue is when the audience relates too heavily to Jackie, and sees Jackie as an extension of them.
This happens because, firstly, she is the relatable character. It’s hard to relate to a bunch of cannibals, but the one girl who just doesn’t get the wilderness mojo is easy to project onto. Jackie also is palatable, her flaws easy to ignore, because being a lazy person, especially after a plane crash is easy to understand. Having sex with your best friends boyfriend however 😬, yeah not really.
Being cheated on though? Everyone can relate to that! So Jackie becomes the relatable one, and a self insert for a lot of people. And they do not like the idea of Jackie being less than slightly flawed at best.
It’s easy for them to take Shauna’s habit of exacerbating issues and use it to free Jackie of any responsibility. At some points people even go as far as to deny there was an issue.
It’s easier to say that Shauna was just trying to “look like a victim” than acknowledge that Jackie was also just as responsible for the relationship as Shauna.
They see Jackie as a mirror of themselves, so admitting that Jackie was more obsessed than Shauna feels like an insult, especially when Shauna had betrayed Jackie, so they lie and attempt to make Shauna look like a pathetic loser to uplift Jackie and remind Shauna of her place. Which shows how much they missed the point of the entire relationship.
They quite literally behave exactly like Jackie, when the show is telling them that Jackie is an unreliable narrator, and it shows in how they treat all of Shauna’s other relationships, especially her relationship with Melissa
First, answer me this, how often do you see a comment like this?
“Shauna doesn’t care about Melissa”
Jackie is the reason Shauna became evil”
“Shauna only loves (Callie, Melissa, Lottie, or any other character) because they remind her of Jackie”
“Jackie is the only person Shauna ever loved”
“Jackie is the only person Shauna ever cared about hurting”
“Jackie is the only person Shauna is capable of loving”
I have seen all of these, and they drive me crazy. They are my biggest pet peeve, because it just shows how little you understand Shauna as a character and the show as a whole.
They see Melissa, and any other character around Shauna as competitors Jackie needs to eliminate. They hate the idea of Melissa being around Shauna. Which is probably the reason why they were throwing a fit over Melissa being a main character in season 4.
Jackie is the only person allowed to be with Shauna! No one else! Anyone else Shauna might like is simply a replacement! Her relationships with the others are simplified and disregarded as less than or unimportant compared to Jackie.
After all no one, no one could possibly compare to Jackie!
Melissa’s existence and her audacity to insult Jackie, and kiss Shauna set her up for many angry fans, who cannot help but act exactly like her.
As for the others, their relationships with Shauna are simply treated as unimportant or less than, to make sure Jackie remains #1. They will refuse the idea of a Jackie-less reason for Shauna to like these characters, the idea of Shauna liking someone for reasons other than “imagining Jackie” are completely absurd.
Obviously Shauna loves Jackie! Jackie was her first friend, her first crush, she loved her and mourned her death intensely. Jackie will always be important to Shauna no matter what. But this obsession with Jackie being #1 in Shauna’s life sounds a lot like something that an insecure Jackie would say.
Shauna did love Melissa genuinely and mourned her fake death, she enjoyed having sex with her, she chased the scientists to get revenge when they hurt her, she spared her life after she attempted to kill her.
Shauna did love most of the others as well, just as deeply. Shauna saw Javi as a little brother and was torn apart when she had to butcher him, and she kept his hat. Shauna puked in the script when she heard Travis died.
Shauna cared about Van enough to run into a burning plane. She cared about Tai and Van enough to run through the forest at night when Van was hurt. Shauna dreamed about Natalie being there for her after her childbirth and saved her life on multiple occasions, she mourned her death and took her loss hard.
Shauna had a dead wife montage of Lottie after her death and cried on her bed, Shauna loved her children so deeply that losing them (WB dying and Callie leaving her) was what drove her off the deep end in both timelines. Shauna visited WB grave more than Jackie’s bones.
I could even argue that she might have even had romantic feelings for some of the others (Lottie, Tai, Mari or Nat). Shauna spent season 3 letting Natalie, Lottie and Mari live in her head rent free and had a private phone to call Tai as an adult.
I don’t understand why I need to explain this to this fandom, but it doesn’t matter what number position Jackie is in because Shauna loves her regardless and always will!
(And let’s be so fr rn, WB and Callie are definitely #1 and #2)
It’s like saying a widow doesn’t love their new partner like their old one
Newsflash, Shauna can love more than one person at a time!
It’s okay that Jackie probably isn’t #1 and that’s okay and thinking that way is defeating the purpose of her character. Jackie was never going to be #1. Jackie spent her whole life trying and failing to be the best, she desperately tied her self concept to outside validation and failed to understand that self validation came from within.
So handing her Shauna, or the team’s validation isn’t going to fix it, it’s just going to make it worse. Jackie as a character is sanctified and twisted into an ideal, a guardian angel by the characters in the show itself, even Shauna, as they let their grief distort who Jackie really was
Jackie was flawed and human, she was an immature, self absorbed teenager, she was lazy and centered herself on someone else’s validation and eventually fell apart. She was possessive and easily jealous. She was not without sin (Doomcoming), and would shut everyone out when they needed her. She wasn’t even the best soccer player on the team.
But she wasn’t a malicious bully, or an evil villain. She was kind to others, and genuinely looked up to the others on the team and had genuine respect for them. She loved Van’s smile and Laura Lee’s faith, she did care about winning nationals and worked hard to get her position in soccer. She did Misty’s makeup, brought Shauna Valium for the flight, and even attempted to sacrifice herself for Van. She died wanting nothing more than to be loved, but the only way she would be loved was as an ideal.
She would be remembered in the one way she never wanted to be, in front of the highschool she feared she would never outgrow
I feel like whitewashing her of her flaws causes us to fall into the same trap that the characters in the show do. Jackie is not above the others, she is one of them.
Honestly, this took forever to write (it kept deleting 😭), but this went from a criticism written in anger to an actual character analysis that reminded me why I liked Jackie (and jackieshauna) in the first place.
