Yellowjackets season 3: Co-creator explains Van’s death

If you are still emotional after this past episode of Yellowjackets season 3, let’s just say you are one of many people out there.

Did we know going into this season that there would be some huge, emotional deaths? Absolutely, but that does not make losing Van any easier. For so much of the show, it felt like she had nine lives and would almost always find a way to keep going. However, she was killed in the closing minutes of episode 9 by Melissa, who used the character’s own humanity against her.

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So why kill her off at this point? Speaking to Deadline, co-creator Ashley Lyle explained that so much of it really came down to the person she is:

“To say goodbye to Van was really difficult, but at the same time, the chickens were always meant to come home to roost—to use one of my mother’s favorite sayings—with this world and these characters … She couldn’t cheat death forever, and to our minds, a lot of her story was holding on to who she really is, and her arc this season was about questioning that and really kicking the tires on it for herself in a kind of profound, existential way. If part of her wanted to believe that there was a way to cheat death yet again, the question of whether or not she was willing to do what it takes, was sort of the central question for that character, and I think there’s something really beautiful about her in those final moments deciding, ‘No, that’s not who I want to be.’”

We do also think that a lot of Van’s decisions in the present are connected in a way to what she went through in the past. Every character had their own way of figuring out how to move past what happened in the wilderness and clearly, she had hers — and she did not want to be a part of any more murder.

Related – Be sure to get some more thoughts on Yellowjackets now, including more of what lies ahead

Are you still reeling from Van’s death following this past Yellowjackets season 3 episode?

Go ahead and let us know in the attached comments! Once you do just that, remember to also come back here for some other updates.

This article was written by Jessica BunBun.