The Major Yellowjackets Plot Twist That Almost Happened
Showtime's "Yellowjackets" was easily one of the best new series of 2021, and a huge part of the show's appeal was the weekly theorizing many of us did regarding the show's mysteries. The show's dueling timelines focus on a girls varsity soccer team stranded in the Canadian wilderness after a plane crash in 1996 who may or may not have resorted to cannibalism, and the way the event continues to haunt the survivors 25 years later. With season 2 getting ready to start production, show creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, as well as co-showrunner Jonathan Lisco, have finally started talking about how it was to be in the eye of the conspiracy storm. Thanks to an interview with Variety, I feel a lot less guilty about my insufferable (and Very Online™) theorizing.
"It was surreal," Lyle told Variety. "You hope that people will watch the show and respond to the show, but the level of passion and enthusiasm that the fans of the show were just bringing to the table was astounding. It was a little mind-blowing." Even more mind-blowing was how every once in a while, one of the theories from us superfans would be right on the money. "When all those people are saying something about the show, somebody is going to be right," Lisco said. "It was really interesting how the audience predicted certain things that we either did in the show, or that we noodled in the writers' room and dispensed with." As it turns out, the most hotly debated albeit disproven fan theory almost happened.
WE KNEW IT! ADAM WAS ALMOST JAVI!
In the present-day timeline, Melanie Lynskey's Shauna starts having an affair with a random guy she's met named Adam. Not much is known about him, so obviously, all the die-hard fans were buzzing with theories. The most common one was Adam was actually Javi, the soccer coach's son all grown up, as the 1996 timeline shows Javi growing really attached to Shauna. The theory was disproved by both the show and the creators in interviews, with the reveal being that Adam is just a guy, and he SPOILER ALERT is murdered by Shauna due to her own paranoia running amok. Variety asked the creators what they were most surprised by, and those playful devils joked around a bit before Lisco confessed that we were all right, that they almost did make Adam Javi all grown up.
"We chose not to, but some people called it and were, I think, eager to see it happen," Lisco said. "Then it creates the scenario where, 'Well, did we disappoint those people or did we delight them?'"
As much as I would have loved to have been proven correct, I actually think the end result of Adam being just a guy madly in love with Shauna was the better call, because in my opinion, it's much more realistic that someone would develop a romantic obsession with Lynskey after knowing her for five minutes than it is for someone to wait 25 years to enact a revenge plot.
Regardless, Alexa, play "Vindicated" by Dashboard Confessional. Is that the third time I've made that joke regarding a "Yellowjackets" prediction on /Film? Yes. Do I care? No. The "Spider-Man 2" soundtrack rules. Fight me.