‘Yellowjackets’: Sophie Nélisse & Steven Krueger Talk Coach Scott’s “F—ed Up” Trial & Shauna’s Power Grab

SPOILERS: This post contains details about the YellowjacketsSeason 3 episode ’12 Angry Girls and 1 Drunk Travis’

Court is in session on Yellowjackets as the team officially approaches (another) point of no return.

Ahead of this week’s episode of the Showtime series, Sophie Nélisse and Steven Krueger spoke to Deadline about Shauna’s newfound influence and Coach Scott’s “f—ed up” trial after he was accused of burning down the team’s cabin.

“I think Shauna sees this as an opportunity to regain power,” said Nélisse. “Not that she doesn’t care so much about the trial, but I don’t think she’s quite grasping the scope of what she’s doing and understanding the ramifications of what this might imply.”

Although Krueger’s Ben Scott seems to have convinced his former students of his innocence, Shauna (Nélisse) intimidates her fellow teammates into finding him guilty, still resentful over losing her baby in delivery while the emotionally fraught coach didn’t help.

“I don’t even know if she’s actually sat and wondered, does she think he’s guilty or not,” she continued. “I think she just really sees it as an opportunity to take control over these girls and to prove to herself that she’s the leader. So, when she sees that some girls might sway one way or the other, I think she utilizes her strength, and imposes her opinions on other people to scare them in order to vote against coach.”

“That’s f—ed up,” said Krueger, as Nélisse quipped: “It’s Yellowjackets.”

Coach’s trial comes after the team finally captured him in a cave, where he’d been hiding out in fear after they ate Javi (Luciano Leroux) in Season 2, claiming to have no knowledge that the cabin even caught fire. Still, he’s racked with guilt over falling short as the only adult in the group.

“I think he’s failed in more ways than he can even count throughout this entire endeavor, and I think that will probably haunt him till his dying day,” said Krueger. “Unfortunately, that’s the nature of the beast with the circumstances that we’re in and the story that we’re telling.

“So, I think that the important thing for Ben at this point is to salvage whatever he can as far as a life’s purpose goes at this moment. How can he potentially influence these girls in any sort of positive way, even if it ends up leading to his death ultimately, which maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. But there’s still a greater sense of purpose there. There’s still a greater sense of responsibility that he still has over these women, and I think that’s unfortunately one of the tragic things about his story. He so badly wants to succeed in helping these girls, and he just doesn’t really ever get there.”

This week’s episode of Yellowjackets is now available to stream on Paramount+ with Showtime, before airing Sunday at 8pm ET on Showtime.