Reason, Desire and Madness - Tai, Other Tai and the Man with No Eyes Analysis
Spoilers up to episode 5 of season 3 of Yellowjackets
There is a lot of discussion about whether or not the show is supernatural. Depending on which way you swing, you could interpret the duality of Tai's personality and the role of The Man with No Eyes differently.
For me, Tai is interesting because her whole person is the embodiment of the dichotomy of human nature that is as old as time: reason and desire. Plato in one of his dialogues, Phaedrus, wrote that:
"Let us note that in every one of us there are two guiding and ruling principles which lead us whither they will; one is the natural desire of pleasure, the other is an acquired opinion which aspires after the best; and these two are sometimes in harmony and then again at war, and sometimes the one, sometimes the other conquers"
Of course, that duality of nature is true for each and every girl. All of them out there in the Wilderness give into their desires and instincts and when we see them as adults, they seem to be having a harder time adapting back to following their reason and taming their desires, as they were able to act freely in the Wilderness. And it seems like they miss that freedom and yearn for it.
But with Tai it is very explicit as even in the Wilderness, Tai does not accept her duality. Which is why we have other Tai. Tai is the symbol of reason - she's practical, she has characteristics of a leader, she's able to make hard calls and strives to win by any means necessary. We see that in many ways. For example, even before the crush, she is ready to oppose Jackie and freeze out a weakling to ensure the team's victory. Jackie too acknowledges Taissa's drive and determination.
This side of Tai also defies the Wilderness and worries about what there is rationally to worry about.
Other Tai on the other hand is much more primal, animalistic and acts purely on desires. She eats dirt and climbs trees like a wilding, something not fully human. It was quite commonly believed in ancient Greece that following your Reason made you fully human while giving into the desires was downgrading you to an animal. That Tai is also a clear believer of the Wilderness as we can see in the scene when she's starting to chant the prayer "we hear the wilderness and it hears us" in the adult timeline in season 3. She is also able to act on Tai's desire to be with Van - she does what Tai wants to do. After all, in the adult timeline, it is Other Tai that kisses Van. The desire is deprived of reason and so a person who follows it will not be thinking rationally or worrying about social expectations.
Tai's nature seems to be fighting all the time which is why we often can't tell when exactly Tai is switching to the other Tai. We do know that Sammy can tell, and he most likely can tell better than Tai or us as the viewers. Other Tai often takes control in sleep as that is when Tai's consciousness can't actively fight off that part. But once Tai starts going to prayer circles, the sleepwalking stops as she's starting to accept the wild nature of herself. At least partly.
But that brings me to the subject of The Man with No Eyes. He is of course associated with Taissa but more so the Other Tai I think. He shows her the symbols on the trees, and we know she saw him when her grandma was dying. I don't have a full explanation of this, but whenever Other Tai acts, Tai can't remember it. It's not an uncommon view of the state of Madness. We can definitely associate it with the relation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. But also with the rage of madness of Heracles that was described by Euripides. Heracles was cursed with madness by the goddess Hera and in turn has killed his whole family. However, he did not recall any of it.
Tai's eyes also say a lot about when the other Tai is taking over, they get more angry. We can see the Madness speaking through them
In case of Heracles, his son too first observed his father's state of possession through the change in his eyes
"Messenger: Victims to purify the house were stationed before the altar of Zeus, for Heracles had slain and cast from his halls the king of the land. There stood his group of lovely children, with his sire and Megara; and already the basket was being passed round the altar, and we were keeping holy silence. But just as Alcmena's son was bringing the torch in his right hand to dip it in the holy water, he stopped without a word. And as their father lingered, his children looked at him; and lo! he was changed; his eyes were rolling; he was distraught; his eyeballs were bloodshot and starting from their sockets, and foam was oozing down his bearded cheek"
I think the eyes and the lack of them in No Eyed Man play an important part in explaining why Tai might not remember her most horrid actions like eating Jackie or killing her dog. When Tai first saw The No-Eyed Man, it was when her grandma was dying and her grandma was scared of that figure (now question if it was truly the same figure is a whole other discussion topic) and so, Tai has somewhat associated his presence with evil. But he lacks his eyes and they enable us to see our actions. I would think here of the Three Wise Monkeys: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. If Tai is not present at all during Other Tai's actions, then maybe the No Eyed Man is truly protecting her from viewing the horrors she's committing. At least things that seem like horrors to people following Reason but not so much Desires. Tai sees no evil, so she is spared from the evil, such as eating her teammate.
So is the show supernatural or no? Both! You can interpret it however you like and this will still make sense really. Especially if you take into consideration that in Ancient Greece the state of Madness that was also associated with lack of reason, was often viewed as a gift from gods: poets who created their works in a maniac state were considered by Plato the True Poets, Oracle of Delphy was mad and spoke some sort of gibberish but she had a gift from a god Apollo and a "sickness" of love has been given to people by the God Eros. And whatever was given by the gods, could not have been bad. But of course, no out of the world entities that influence Lottie or Tai have to come to play for Tai's state to still make sense.
