Been thinking a lot about the first episode of Yellowjackets—specifically, how it frames Jackie and Shauna’s dynamic. People always paint Shauna as the obsessed one (which, yeah, she is), while Jackie is the oblivious, repressed, straight girl. But let’s be real: Jackie Taylor knows exactly what she’s doing.
That scene where Shauna is getting dressed, and Jackie is telling her what to wear? It reminded me of Mean Girls, but with a key difference. Regina George wouldn’t even let her disciples own clothes she didn’t approve of. But Shauna? She has options—Jackie just rejects them one by one until she finally hands her the outfit she picked.
Because Jackie loves Shauna. And not just the polished version she presents to the world—she loves all of her. The nerdy, book-reading, soccer-hating, flannel-wearing Shauna. The parts of her she tries to control aren’t the ones she wants to change, but the ones she wants to hide. Not out of embarrassment, but obsession. She wants that version of Shauna to belong to her.
She doesn’t want Randy fucking Walsh to get that part of her. Doesn’t want anyone to see Shauna as more than an extension of Jackie Taylor, because the second someone else sees Shauna for who she really is? Jackie loses her. And that terrifies her. It’s not about needing Shauna to be her sidekick. It’s about needing Shauna to be hers.
And let’s talk about Jackie’s sexuality for a second. Someone who spends years obsessing over how they want to lose their virginity, how special they want it to be, but never once considers their boyfriend of four years? Until they decide to just “get it over with,” and suddenly, now he’s an option? That’s not straight behavior. That’s not oblivious behavior either.
Jackie is waiting. For Shauna. For the flannel-wearing wordsmith in the driver’s seat to figure out how to say it first, so she can finally let herself say it back.
TL;DR: Jackie Taylor is just as obsessed with Shauna Shipman—if not more. And the way they handle those obsessions is exactly what rips them apart.