This story contains plot details from episode 2 of ShowtimesYellowjackets.
Do not read unless you have watched the episode!
You talked about fear.
Getty/Kailey Schwerman/Showtime
What did you mean by that?
You know what they say: success belongs to everyone and failure is an orphan.
Weve got to cut out the noise and trust our instincts.
I hope it doesnt sound pretentious, but we are trying not to just be sellers of products.
We want to be writers.
to make it like really do that, you have to have faith in your own instincts.
Otherwise, like I said in my remarks, its really toxic to creativity.
You cant think straight when youre so caught up and tied up into knots.
DEADLINE:Lets talk about the second episode.
Whats it like having the incredible distinction of writing the first full-blown cannibalism episode ofYellowjackets?
How does it feel knowing that youll forever have that on your resume?
LISCO:I guess it depends who you talk to, right?
I think it all depends on your audience.
But I am very satisfied by it because it was a swing.
And thats sort of apropos of what I was talking about in my opening remarks at the premiere.
That seemed really disingenuous to us.
It seemed really manipulative.
When we realized that we could do it early, it was really exciting.
We felt like we could tell it through the prism of young Shaunas character.
We felt like the eating of Jackie wasnt going to be salacious or sensational.
It wasnt just going to be plot.
You actually want to be this person, but youre kind of the second banana.
You wanna destroy this person.
Shauna could also dominate Jackie.
DEADLINE:The moment when everyone smelled something.
They were smelling delicious Jackie, werent they?
You hit the nail on the head.
DEADLINE:Im glad that you brought that up.
LISCO:Well, thats a great question and I love the pun.
That is not what we are trying to do.
Like, we didnt even set out to be a horror show.
We set out to be psychologically and emotionally interesting and to venture to render something truthful.
But we dont want to be salacious or gratuitous about it.
The first impulse was, how are these women psychologically going to handle this?
They were young women growing up in New Jersey in the mid-nineties.
What courses had they all probably taken?
Well, world civilization.
And it was probably Greek civilization like so many of us took in high school.
Their mass delusion takes the form of this kind of broken feast.
And so, what better way to show that they were in need of a protective mechanism?
It erupts into a kind of a hedonistic feast.
DEADLINE:Did you feel like you needed at least one person not to partake?
Thats why you had Ben stay back?
LISCO:We didnt need it.
We thought it was interesting.
All the dumb social conventions had dropped away.
So they look back on it and theres this weird vivid lust for that suffering.
So thats number one.
Ben Scott is outside that circle because hes the grownup.
Hes not ready to break the taboos.
He thinks they can survive without crossing that Rubicon.
DEADLINE:Why did Travis imagine Lottie while having sex with Natalie?
If thats the case, then we have not done our job correctly.
Its a battle for Travis soul at some level.
As a loving gesture, she cuts her own skin.
And thats what I love about the story so much.
She does it because she loves him.
She does it because she sees that Travis is in pain.
So the triangulation in that scene is not just about sex.
Theyre sort of like wrestling for his soul and what he really believes.
Its like faith versus resignation.
DEADLINE:Why did Lottie imagine Laura Lee?
LISCO:That really begs the question, who is Lottie?
Youve got Lottie as a young woman in episode one.
Shes cured and everything is hunky dory.
Remember that baptism scene in season one?
That seems very positive, but now Lottie is seeing the other side of that.
Laura Lee is no longer the harbinger of the light and possible faith in God.
Shes being propelled right into hell.
And shes wondering what it all means cuz Lottie sees her face all disfigured.
There are these subliminal intercuts and when she comes out of it, shes just terrified.
Youve not been cured by the mental institution, youre not all right.
Youre just as messed up as you always were.
DEADLINE:Will there be a fallout from this first moment of cannibalism?
Will they have some second thoughts going forward?
LISCO:We call that the Jackie hangover, if you will.
In episode three, its a tough morning.
They all look like theyve been hit in the head with a rock.
She wasnt even Taissa, she was her bifurcated self.
And so will there be repercussions?
But if were doing our job right, that will be the least transgressive thing that our girls do.
