There are two main ways a series can introduce a “twist” and make it land within the confines of the show’s universe. First, the writers can throw breadcrumbs out along the way to the reveal, things that viewers can go back and discover later once the twist has been revealed (even though this grounding device runs the risk of eagle-eyed fans discovering said twist before the writers wanted – see the season of Dexter where fans figured out that Edward James Olmos’ character was a figment of Colin Hank’s character’s imagination weeks before the show dropped the revelation). And the second is that the writers can spring the twist on the audience, but the series’ own mythology or universe allows for such a situation to occur, so viewers can more easily accept that it is true even if it might seem a bit out of the ordinary or far-fetched. Case in point, the recent revelation on Yellowjackets that there was a group of three strangers camping close to the team who found their way to their camp. We can buy that people could have hiked out there – six days travel from civilization – to study frogs and ended up alongside the Yellowjackets. Totally possible, if improbable, but believable.
Why do I bring this up now? Well, this week we had another revelation that, to me, didn’t feel at all earned. It wasn’t structured as a revelation we could track backward and see coming (despite the fact most fans – including myself – assumed Hilary Swank would be playing an adult Melissa, considering how prominent the teen character became this season). And, considering some key pieces of dialogue in the previous two episodes, this revelation doesn’t pass the smell test for me as well. Was there a way to structure the revelation that Melissa is alive and married to Alex in a way that works within the confines of the universe and its established truths? Yes, and I’ll lay that out in a moment. But as it played out here, this reveal only served to annoy me with its poor writing, bad mechanics, and disappointing choices in terms of what it says to the audience about how much we can trust the writers moving forward when they seem to definitively tell us something about the story.
We saw our central characters twice outline that they were the only remaining survivors in this story prior to the reveal that Melissa is still alive – first, with Tai, Van, and Shauna listening to the tape in the car in episode six and again last episode where our foursome agreed that not only were they the only survivors, but Melissa was, in fact, dead. So, seeing her alive and well was a shock not only to Shauna this week, but also to all of us, who had been told, multiple times, that she was not alive. And I get it, in a show with so many certainties amidst the chaos (when you know who, out of the past, will come out of the wilderness alive, it does cheapen the stakes there a bit), the writers want to be able to pull the rug out from the audience when they get a chance (see Lottie’s untimely death this season, which I’m still frustrated about). But there’s a tacit contract that exists between the writers and their audience – if you tell us something unequivocally, we can trust that you are telling the truth. After this revelation came, seemingly out of left field, well, that contract has some serious tears in it now.
But what really gets me is that there was a way to play this revelation in a way that was a true twist that grounded itself in the story and characters. All they had to do was make it so that Shauna knew Melissa was alive. Instead of having Melissa flippantly mention that she faked her own death with just a suicide note – something that the cops chose to believe even without evidence of her death, which, really, tracks with what we’ve seen of the cops thus far – have it so that Shauna told Melissa to leave and never come back. We know Melissa – and everyone else – is terrified of just what Shauna is capable of (from her actions in the past – which we’re just starting to get a taste of – as well as her composed, but deadly current character). If Shauna told her to fake her death and leave, I have no doubt Melissa would. Plus, that gives the writers something to circle back to in the future when we’re seeing how our characters reintegrated into the world post-wilderness. Then, all that’s necessary is to have the great Melanie Lynskey give us a couple of dubious looks when the seemingly foregone conclusion of Melissa’s death is mentioned (which, for my money, she actually seemed to be doing in those scenes already), and then the confrontation between Shauna and Melissa is all the more charged this episode. Shauna is our angry secret keeper – it’s not a stretch to imagine her giving Melissa an ultimatum for whatever reason, Melissa following it through, and then it leading to this moment.
I would have appreciated that type of writing and storytelling a hell of a lot more than this “oh, guess what – Melissa is alive despite all the evidence to the contrary” writing that we ended up getting this week. It’s the exact opposite of the “show, don’t tell” path of great writing. Add that to the head scratching decision of Teen Shauna to decide that she wants to be queen of the wilderness longer, despite the apparent means of escape at their fingertips, and this shaped up to be a weird episode. At least with that last point, I could somewhat see her reasoning – the keeping of the secrets as to just what happened in the wilderness is something that can only be achieved if the remaining survivors truly trust those they are escaping with. Kodi and Hannah are not, at least yet, integrated nearly enough in the group – and don’t have nearly enough blood on their hands to ensure compliance with whatever vow of silence is demanded – to trust them out in the real world. But hey, kudos to Jenna Burgess on the continued job security, as we now know Teen Melissa gets out of the wilderness alive and mostly well.
As outlined above, this episode frustrated me on a number of levels. Sure, it did give us a chance to see two of the best actors we’ve got in Lynskey and Swank go head-to-head (while I have a lot of issues with this revelation and story arc, the performances of the actors was decidedly not one of them at all), but the story also felt like it was dragging its feet in both timelines. In the past, the team had a chance to potentially escape the wilderness once and for all, and while we all knew that couldn’t happen yet (we haven’t seen Pit Girl’s demise), it was incredibly frustrating to watch Shauna dictate that the team couldn’t leave. And to see that they all listened to her. It doesn’t feel as if Lottie’s supernatural pull exists the way it once did – Shauna is certainly not a believer and only using it so far it provides cover for her own selfish needs to control those around her – so, why not stage a coup? Surely there’s enough support to oust Shauna? And even if there isn’t, there are only so many times I can watch Teen Shauna lord herself over Natalie and her contingent before I start to get fed up myself. And I don’t know how much more of sad Teen Van I can take – that poor girl was crushed at the possibility of staying, and that Tai was in favor of it.
The addition of Hannah and Kodi presents an interesting inflection point for the past arc, in that introducing new, adult characters means that the status quo of the teenagers is ripe to be upended. But as of yet, we’re not really seeing that. Sure, Hannah is definitely in favor of appeasement with Shauna and her rule – she was once a teenage girl and understands that social hierarchies are a dangerous thing to mess with – but Kodi remains a wild card. Where he ends up is a mystery to us as of yet, but I honestly don’t like his chances when it comes to trying to work his way into the good graces of Shauna’s leadership. But we’ll see if the series can find a place for him and use him effectively.
In the present, well, setting aside my disappointment with the Melissa reveal, there’s still a lot to work through there, if the writers want to. The strange psychological with Melissa running away from her past yet marrying the daughter of the woman she presumably had a hand in the death of hint at are legion (she claims she’s worked through her issues in therapy, but like Shauna said, she’s built a house of lies alongside Hannah’s unaware daughter – that’s not normal). Will the series look deeper into those, or will they brush over them like the revelation that she faked her own death without a body? I honestly don’t think we have enough time to give Melissa’s reappearance the runway it needs to be truly impactful. And I don’t really trust the writers to see the missing connective tissue and fill it in effectively. I’ve been willing to give the series a lot of leeway in the past, but this is the first time I’ve genuinely worried that the writing isn’t there in the present arc to actually craft a cohesive narrative long-term. But I guess we’ll see.
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