One of the most interesting parts of “Yellowjackets” is the show’s alternating timeline. The series, which centers around the Yellowjackets soccer team crash landing in the woods, tells the story in both the past and present.
During the first season, it’s revealed that Shauna (Sophie Nélisse/Melanie Lynskey), Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown/Tawny Cypress), Misty (Sammi Hanratty/Christina Ricci), and Natalie (Sophie Thatcher/Juliette Lewis) successfully made it out of the wilderness alive. However, their experience fighting for survival has continued to impact them years later into adulthood. The fact that we only see a few of the characters as adults makes us wonder what happened to the rest of the team following the crash. It’s possible we’ll learn they died in the wilderness sometime later on, or maybe the show is saving their appearance in the present for just the right moment.
For example, Lottie (Courtney Eaton/Simone Kessell) wasn’t revealed to have survived until the finale of season one, and Lauren Ambrose’s appearance as adult Van in season two confirms she also survived to adulthood.
Since two actors play the same character throughout the series, scroll through the slideshow to see how the younger and older versions of the Yellowjackets compare to each other.
1
Sophie Nélisse (Teenage Shauna)
Image Source: Getty/ Steve Granitz
Sophie Nélisse stars as the teenage version of Shauna. Her character is best friends with Jackie (Ella Purnell). In season one, we learn that Shauna was secretly sleeping with Jackie’s boyfriend, Jeff, behind her back, and becomes pregnant with Jeff’s baby. While in the wilderness, Jackie finds out and tells the rest of the group. Following a fight with Shauna, Jackie decides to sleep outside and ultimately freezes to death. In the second season, we see that Shauna feels guilty about what happened and begins speaking with Jackie’s frozen corpse before she and the rest of the team are forced to eat it due to a lack of food. Later in the season, she gives birth to her and Jeff’s baby, though it doesn’t go as planned.
1 / 12
2
Melanie Lynskey (Adult Shauna)
Image Source: Getty/ Axelle/Bauer-Griffin
Melanie Lynskey plays the adult version of Shauna. In the present day, Shauna is married to Jeff, and they have a daughter named Callie. However, Shauna is unhappy with her marriage. After mistakingly believing Jeff was having an affair, Shauna cheats on Jeff with a man named Adam, but when she begins to suspect that Adam is secretly blackmailing her and the rest of the Yellowjackets, she kills him. We later learn that Jeff was the real blackmailer, but Shauna tells her friends it was Adam, which leads the crew to help her dispose of his body. After Adam is reported to have gone missing, Shauna and Jeff continue to try and cover up his murder in season two by trashing his art studio, which includes evidence of Shauna and Adam’s affair. As the police close in, Shauna also makes her way to Lottie’s cult after learning that Natalie and Misty are there.
2 / 12
3
Jasmin Savoy Brown (Teenage Taissa)
Image Source: Getty/ Axelle/Bauer-Griffin
“Scream 6” star Jasmin Savoy Brown plays the younger version of Taissa. During the first season, she becomes close friends with Shauna and even helps her cope with her pregnancy. Taissa also develops a relationship with Van, and at one point, they team up with a few of the Yellowjackets to hunt for civilization. However, after a pack of wolves attacks Van and leaves her with severe wounds, they are forced to regroup with the rest of the Yellowjackets. Because of everything that happens to the girls in the wilderness, Taissa begins to sleepwalk. In season two, Van tries to help prevent Taissa from sleepwalking, but eventually the two begin following Lottie’s spiritual practices. Surprisingly, this seems to stop Taissa’s sleepwalking habits entirely.
3 / 12
4
Tawny Cypress (Adult Taissa)
Image Source: Getty/ Axelle/Bauer-Griffin
Tawny Cypress plays Taissa in the present day. As an adult, Taissa is married to a woman named Simone, and the two share a son named Sammy. They grow concerned over their son when he mentions there is a lady in a tree outside of his window, which turns out to be Taissa, who has begun to sleepwalk again. After realizing this, Taissa tells Simone to give her some space, since she’s afraid she’ll hurt her family. During the second season, Taissa — now a New Jersey state senator — begins to experience hallucinations. As her family crumbles, she eventually travels to the home of her ex, Van, while sleepwalking, and together they wind up seeking out Lottie’s cult.
4 / 12
5
Sammi Hanratty (Teenage Misty)
Image Source: Getty/ Steve Granitz
“Shameless” actress Sammi Hanratty plays young Misty. While she may have been an outcast at school, Misty becomes a vital part of the group in the wilderness due to her survival skills, which causes her to get newfound attention from her teammates. However, when the Yellowjackets accidentally consume hallucinogenic mushrooms Sammi finds in the forest, most of the crew goes back to shunning her, except a girl named Crystal, who she develops a friendship with in season two — only for tragedy to strike.
5 / 12
6
Christina Ricci (Adult Misty)
Image Source: Getty/ Steve Granitz
Adult Misty is played by none other than Christina Ricci. In the present day, Misty is a geriatric nurse. After she and Natalie discover that all of the survivors received the same mysterious postcard, the two team up to try and find Natalie’s best friend Travis together. They eventually find his body hanging from the hook of a crane and the police have ruled his death a suicide. In the second season, Misty develops an odd bond with a fellow citizen detective named Walter (Elijah Wood) and manages to track down Natalie at Lottie’s compound.
6 / 12
7
Sophie Thatcher (Teenage Natalie)
Image Source: Getty/ VALERIE MACON
Sophie Thatcher plays young Natalie, who has a troubled past. She’s best friends with Travis, whose father, Coach Bill, tragically died in the plane crash. Natalie and Travis are in charge of hunting for food, and after spending so much time together in the wilderness, their friendship turns romantic. Although they end up breaking up, they hook up at the start of the second season. Their relationship hits another rough patch after Natalie pretends that she found his brother Javi’s body, only for Javi to return.
7 / 12
8
Juliette Lewis (Adult Natalie)
Image Source: Getty/ Steve Granitz
Juliette Lewis portrays a present-day Natalie, who struggles with sobriety. After she and Misty discover Travis’s body, Natalie refuses to believe it was a suicide. However, when all her leads come up empty, she starts to suspect that maybe the police were right. Natalie almost dies by suicide, but she gets kidnapped before she’s able to pull the trigger. During the second season, Natalie wakes up to find herself being held captive in a small cabin. She escapes and then reunites with Lottie, who tells her that Travis’s death was an accident. Over the course of the season, she seems to find some solace as part of Lottie’s cult.
8 / 12
9
Courtney Eaton (Teenage Lottie)
Image Source: Getty/ Steve Granitz
Courtney Eaton is teenage Lottie, who we learn in the first season has schizophrenia. Over the course of the series, Lottie frequently has premonitions whenever something bad is about to happen. For example, she has a feeling Taissa and Van’s group will run into trouble when they separate from the rest of the team to look for signs of civilization. By the second season, Lottie becomes a spiritual leader in the group.
9 / 12
10
Simone Kessell (Adult Lottie)
Image Source: Getty/ Robin L Marshall
In season two, Simone Kessell makes her debut as an adult Lottie. Although we don’t know much about her life after escaping the wilderness, she appears to be involved in a cult. She also reveals to Natalie that Travis died by accidental suicide. The night he died, Travis contacted Lottie and told her that he felt like he was in danger, and in order to find some answers, Travis asked Lottie for her help to get as close to death as possible in hopes of communicating with the forest spirit. However, the plan goes wrong, and Travis dies. That same night, Lottie saw visions of Laura Lee, who was her fellow teammate who died in the wilderness after attempting to fly a plane. Later in the season, as her teammates flock to her cult, the older Lottie starts experiencing ominous hallucinations she hasn’t seen the likes of since her wilderness days.
10 / 12
11
Liv Hewson (Teenage Van)
Image Source: Getty/ Steve Granitz
“Santa Clarita Diet”‘s Liv Hewson stars as Van. At the beginning of the first season, Van struggles to get out of her seat on the plane after it crashes. Shauna tries to help, but Jackie tells her to save herself instead. After Van manages to escape the plane, she continues to hold a grudge against Jackie for leaving her for dead. Later on, Van gets attacked by wolves. She survives the encounter but is left with severe injuries. During the second season, Van tries her best to help Taissa with her sleepwalking condition and wonders why she’s survived so many near-death experiences.
11 / 12
12
Lauren Ambrose (Adult Van)
Image Source: Getty/ Axelle/Bauer-Griffin
After the show wrapped up its first season, “Six Feet Under” star Lauren Ambrose was cast as adult Van. She first appears in season two after Taissa sleepwalks to her home, and eventually the two travel to Lottie’s compound, where they reunite with some of her old Yellowjackets teammates — and face some of their old feelings for each other.
