I am rewatching season 1 of Yellowjackets and I think there is something interesting about the way Jeff is perceived by Jackie and Shauna in the 90′s timeline versus what we learn from the present.
In the 90′s, he pretty much just fills the role of Jackie’s ‘High School Boyfriend’. His role is to be another thing that Jackie has and Shauna doesn’t: a boyfriend. Does Jackie care THAT much about him? nothing indicates this. We don’t even get the sense that Shauna likes him too much. When she is staring at him and Jackie dancing it is more about Jackie than him. To both of them, he represents the way that Jackie is more popular than Shauna. Shauna sleeping with him is a betrayal of their friendship first of all.
In the past, he is represented as the basic jock high school boyfriend, nothing more. His friend, Randy, is represented as his dumb friend who likes Shauna but is clearly inferior to Jeff.
But in the present timeline, it is shown that Jeff does like Shauna. For real. And he Knew he was always only going to be the high school boyfriend to Jackie. He knew she didn’t really care about him. And Randy, the silly sidekick is his best friend. He’s the person he goes to when he’s really in trouble because he can’t go to his wife because she still doesn’t really see him as his own person. She still sees him in-connection to Jackie. It seems like she is punishing herself for what happened with Jackie by giving herself this life that she never really planned but that reminds her of Jackie.
When it is revealed that Jeff was behind the blackmail it’s the first time that the audience realizes he is not just the cheating husband that Shauna doesn’t deserve. He really is a person who has his own complicated feelings about Shauna and Jackie and the mess he got himself into. Yes he’s sort of a jock idiot but he loves and cares for Shauna in his own weird way.
