SPOILERS are ahead for Yellowjackets Season 3, Episode 3: “Them’s The Brakes,” now available to stream with a Paramount+ subscription with Showtime.
Yellowjackets can’t stop, won’t stop tripping us out with scenes that lean into the magical realism side of the show, and the latest episode to air on the 2025 TV schedule was no exception. During Season 3’s third episode, three members of the Yellowjackets had wild hallucinations before sharing the same one that included a cameo from Ella Purnell’s Jackie. I’ve certainly been curious about what the scene meant and why Akilah, Van and Shauna in particular were chosen to be featured in the hallucinations.
Thankfully, when Variety spoke to the episode’s director Jonathan Lisco, he broke down the reasoning behind each character’s inclusion in the wild sequence which he said was influenced by the late, great David Lynch. Let’s break it down.
Why Was Akilah In The Hallucination Scene?
Let’s start with Akilah. The character played by Nia Sondaya since Season 2 is one of the most good-natured people who really doesn’t perpetuate as much drama and intensity as some of the other characters. When Lisco spoke to the hallucination sequence, he said this of her inclusion:
I feel like we’ve portrayed Akilah as being almost like a child of nature. She loves the animals, she’s very close to the Earth, she loves the garden. And so, of course, in the sequence, all of that turns very dark for her at first. There’s a Bacchanalian-like lust for the blackberries, but then they wind up twining around her legs and pulling her into darkness of the Earth, almost like the darkness that is typified in the show.
And hey, only Akilah would think up a llama talking to her. This makes a lot of sense, especially considering the emotional weight of the two other characters in the scene.
Why Van?
Liv Hewson’s Van has gone through a lot throughout the series, including trying to be there for Jasmin Savoy Brown’s Taissa through her sleepwalking bouts that have included her eating dirt. Here’s how Lisco continued:
With Van, obviously, she’s stoic, she’s strong, funny. Let’s talk about it from Liv’s point of view: They are playing a character that is stoic and is trying to push aide the fact that they were left for dead on the airplane in Episode 2 of Season 1. But now, it all comes back to haunt them. I don’t know if you noticed this, but it’s Javi’s hand, it’s the cabin man’s hand and it’s Laura Lee’s hand, all coming back from the dead to bind them into the chair and say, ‘No, you can never physically escape this trauma. It will define you for the rest of your life.’
Between her near-death experience on the plane itself, to her face injury and the recent burning of the cabin, Van’s part of the hallucination definitely seems tied to her trauma.
I also didn’t realize Javi’s hand was there. I’m getting chills.
And, What About Shauna?
That brings us to the inclusion of Shauna, who definitely seems to have another strong arc this season.
In her own hallucination, she’s swimming in a lake when she sees a young boy who seems to be her son, whom she lost while giving birth. As Lisco explained about her piece of the scene:
Shauna has lost a baby. It’s perhaps one of the most traumatic things someone could go through. She’s only a 17-year-old woman in the wilderness, and now, she starts swimming toward this phantom child on the banks of this lake. And not only can she hear the baby — actually, it was a 7-year-old boy, but that’s beside the point — she’s swimming toward him and never can get close enough to save him, and never can get close enough to hug him. And then, from that aerial shot, she’s actually pulled back, as if to say that she might be complicit in what happened, and perhaps she never wanted to have the baby in the first place.
Ugh, so heartbreaking.
I can say confidently I’m not ready for the trauma this season is about to inflict on me and other fans. Between the trailer hinting at one major character’s death to still mourning Juliette Lewis’ conclusion on the series last season, or one major mystery being name-dropped, there’s a lot to look out for this season. Now, these hallucinations have revealed and reiterated the demons these characters hold and possibly haunting futures for them.
You can check out CinemaBlend’s Yellowjackets interviews, and look forward to more episode breakdowns every week here on the site.
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