Spoiler alert:This interview contains spoilers. "Choose", episode 8 of "yellow Jacket"Season 2, now on Showtime.
In the closing moments of the “Yellow Jackets” season 1 finale, viewers learned that Lottie was alive and out there somewhere in the world. In the show's second season, the adult version of Lottie is played bySimon Kessel, it was revealed that she runs a wellness center in upstate New York, and there have been questions about her. Is she believable?
Turns out not.
Lottie's encounter with her therapist is purely in her imagination, and she is still haunted by the Queen of the Horns and her past in the wild.
In episode 8, Lottie's mask literally comes off as she reveals to her fellow Yellowjackets that they must perform a blood sacrifice and that their past has caught up with them.
In a climactic scene, between Shawna (Melanie Lynskey), Misty (Christina Ricci), Natalie (Juliette Lewis), Tessa (Tony Cypress), and Van (Lauren Ambrose), Lottie offers them Russian roulette tea. One cup was poisoned, and even she didn't know which one.
Kessel contypeAbout her own confusion about Lottie's treatment process. "I don't know," admits the actor, who also plays Princess Leia's mother, Breha Organa, on Disney+'s "Obi-Wan Kenobi" and Blackbeard (Taika Waititi) on HBO Max's "Our Flag Means Death."
"My confusion as Simone is very real."
The healing reveal heralds a turning point for the character, says Kessel: "She's unhinged, completely unhinged; something has to change. We're entering another realm of Lottie."
Kessel also shared her thoughts on whether the women really suffered from PTSD or if there were supernatural forces at play.
Going back to therapy for a moment, Lottie's therapy was a figment of her imagination. There's something wrong with the framework that hints at that, but how much do you know?
I didn't know until later. I want to start by saying that we decided that the therapists would use the same color palette as Lottie when they wear casual clothes. She would be happy and Lottie would be happy too. We purposely pair them so that she is subconscious and doesn't click until she clicks.
Someone said, "Well, you know she's not real." I asked him: "Who is not real?" I talked to the director about it, and she was great, because as an actress, he had this illusion, he thought she was real in the first class. The second time, he was a bit confused, and in the third treatment, she became the queen of antlers. So my confusion as Simone is very real.
It gave me chills, because Jennifer Lines [as a therapist] is great. She came out and came back as the Queen of Horns, and I was like, "Wow," because she was dressed in full costume, and she was sitting on a couch, and we shot the scene again. It's very distressing and disturbing because that's what these girls are going through.
So when we see the queen of the horns in her full costume, it means that the past has caught up with the present and the wild is out there. Something has to change because she really sees it.
We get a little clue when Natalie sits on his lap and looks up and sees a shadow. But for the first time, as viewers, we see it as a symbol of the past. I think this is Lottie's big turning point in the season, without a therapist, she's crazy, completely crazy, and she needs to change a few things. We have entered another realm of Lottie.
But aren't they all crazy?
They are all crazy. The others were really fighting her way, and they were all in a bit of denial, but for the most part, Lottie realized that something drastic had to happen before the others. It's not just a sacrifice, it's a blood sacrifice. She was so haunted by the past that she Lottie said, "I would take my own life if it meant we could all escape this pain."
When you think about what girls go through, trauma and PTSD, how do you go undercover with Lottie and unpack her when you don't know what's going to happen?
I have no idea. It's so honest and real. If I could, I'd take a Lottie moment from Courtney Eaton, put it in my pocket, and choose: I wonder, as a 40-year-old woman, will this resonate with her heart?
There is a moment when Shauna, played by Melanie Lynskey, cries when she comes across the goat. My instinct was to touch and hold her because Lottie has a great sense of touch, but I chose not to. Knowing that Shauna beat young Lottie, Lottie took it as a way to feel alive, if you look at Lottie's perspective, which is mine, it was, "Give me some feeling. Bring me back to life because I'm already numb." women are so messy and that's the sacrifice Lottie made when she was young.
That is just the expression of my heart, because there is still a little person who abused you so much. Although Melanie is one of my dearest people, at that moment I decided not to touch her, it was a choice. So you're right, the past caught up with them somehow, and it's our job as actors to find where she plays and where the beat goes.
When they beat you to the bone, it's going to fuck you up anyway. How does that affect Lottie? Does she carry things with her?
Earlier this season, Nicole [Maine, who played Lisa] mauled Juliet [Natalie] with a fork. We see Lottie standing there, looking at her.
All those beats affect where we go. Lottie has this way of looking at everyone. Is it a celebration even when Misty shows up? She knew what Misty had done. She didn't know about fentanyl or reporters, but she knew that crazy things had happened in the past: glass falling off the edge, black boxes from flight cash registers, she knew them all. So, she made this point. I try to include that in Lottie's performance, every moment is part of her in some way. She so she decides to say that cape, so she decides to play it. We can talk about PTSD or a traumatic past, but the truth is that all of these are still very active within you. So it's just a matter of choosing where to play.
I'll go back in time, go back to the girls in the desert, and try to see what I can find. Because those layers are so crucial to getting these performances off the ground, they are not about caricatures, but real women.
ok i askedliz garbus This was after I talked to her about directing Episode 6, but do you know what a stick figure means?
I think we are all going to get confused. It's the screenwriters again, Ashley Lyle and Bart Nixon, who are too cool for school. They'll say, "That's what it means." I don't think there is a right or a wrong.
I'm undecided on this, but I don't think it's supernatural: I think monsters are girls, and what they go through. Where do you stand on this?
I agree with you because I don't think it's supernatural either. I don't think Lottie works in another field, maybe young Lottie does. I think these are mechanisms that they built to survive.
I think it's his karma catching up. I think they are so twisted by what happened. There is no cure for this problem. Lottie Said It: This was a turning point for Nat. She says, "You put me in this community where you can heal and fix me and I have to see and get over Travis, now you're saying there's no cure that can fix the inside out?" from all of us?"
On the subject of Nat, Lottie is always trending on Twitter almost every Friday. Know?
Courtney texts me to say, "Honey, we're hot." I've been reluctant since Elon Musk took over, but from time to time I hold my ground.
I keep coming back to this Lottie and Nat fan base, they love them. They are such thoughtful fans, and for that I am grateful and intrigued. Star Wars is different because it's like a religion, and it's canon. With "Yellow Jackets," the fan base is spectacular and the theories wild.
They will be sad after episode 8.,It is not like this?
When did Nat and Lottie clash? Everyone thought that we were going to be the greatest love in the world and that we were going to get married.
Do you like that reaction?
Am. Juliet has not seen the episodes. She always asks, "What's the vibe like with Lottie and Nat? Are they involved?"
When we were doing scenes, we were so slightly in each other's space. Again, the writers are so open about everything. No one ever said, "You're going too far with this tactile intimacy." If anything, it created this buzz, and the fans were right. It is fun and exciting to play. I think there's a scene where we face each other, so maybe that's what they're reading. But yeah, I think fans will be shocked when they see this episode.
Lottie's mask comes off and Natalie tries to kill her. This annoys a lot of people.
This interview has been edited and condensed.