[This story contains major spoilers from Yellowjackets season three, episode seven, “Croak.”]
Joel McHale‘s Yellowjackets casting story began at a Built to Spill concert in Los Angeles, when the actor bumped into the show’s co-creator Ashley Lyle at the Troubadour. The pair had met before, but this time they talked Yellowjackets. McHale was a fan of her hit Showtime series, and Lyle said she might have a role for him in season three. “I probably had three IPAs in me,” McHale recalls to The Hollywood Reporter. “I guess I didn’t really take her seriously? We’re here watching Built to Spill and she’s like, ‘Would you be interested?’ Fucking yeah, of course. I’d love to do it.”
That fateful rock concert led to McHale being cast in a key role in the third season — and his arrival in the wilderness timeline in episode seven just shifted the entire trajectory of the series.
Following the cliffhanger ending to episode six, this episode picked up immediately after that “What the fuck?!” moment, when a stranger played by Nelson Franklin stumbled upon the teens in the wilderness having a cannibalistic feast after killing Coach Ben Scott (played by Steven Krueger). When speaking last week about his deceased Coach, Krueger explained to The Hollywood Reporter how pivotal this moment is in the series. “These people show up and if they don’t stumble upon this group of teenagers who are literally feasting on a man’s body, I don’t think there’s that reflex reaction of Lottie [Courtney Eaton] killing one of them,” he said. “All of these things happen because of Coach’s death, which I think is an inflection point in the whole series.”
The episode, titled “Croak,” flashed back to introduce the strangers: two married scientists Edwin and Hanna (played by Franklin and Ashley Sutton), and their wilderness guide Kodiak, played by McHale in his Yellowjackets debut. Edwin and Hanna are in the wilderness to study the arctic banshee frog and record their rare mating event. It’s revealed that the frogs scream while mating — which explains the screeching sounds the teenage Yellowjackets survivors have heard in the wilderness, convincing them that something bigger than them is out there. Does this episode finally answer that there is no mystical force, and that the girls (like Shauna said in her journal to open season three) just all went crazy out there? And now that viewers have seen what they did to Edwin, what will the teens do to Kodiak and Hanna?
McHale weighs in on those major questions below as he talks about entering the wilderness. He also reacts to Edwin’s stunning fate (murdered by Lottie with an axe to the head) and explores what it means that Kodiak and Hanna are now among the group after failed attempts to escape. Meanwhile, all of this plays out as the survivors in the adult storyline believe Hanna’s daughter is blackmailing them with a Digital Audio Tape (DAT) recording of Edwin’s death.
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Ashley Lyle said she saw you at a bar in L.A. and pitched you this Yellowjackets role. Now here you are as Kodiak a.k.a. Kodi, the back country wilderness guide for two frog scientists (played by Nelson Franklin and Ashley Sutton) in a pivotal episode.
We were at a rock show. I had met her before and we started talking about Yellowjackets. She said, “Would you ever want to play a mountain man…” I said yes, of course. I was like, eh, we’ll see if anyone remembers. And she did, and Bart [Nickerson, co-creator] did. I didn’t think I was going to have time because of [my Fox series] Animal Control, but it worked out. Ashley is super kind and cool. She and Bart were there on set. I felt like I had won some raffle at an auction, where they were like, “You get to be on Yellowjackets! And you get to shoot one of them with a crossbow!” [Note: Kodi shoots Teen Melissa (Jenna Burgess) through the shoulder with a crossbow when trying to escape.]
How did Ashley describe this mountain man character?
I think she was like, “He’s a mountain man who stumbles upon them.” She might have said something about guiding the kids. There wasn’t a ton of details. She said he’s cool, he probably smokes and he wears camouflage. I was like, “Yeah, I’ll play a badass mountain man.” It doesn’t happen very much where someone says “let’s do this,” and it actually does happen.
Ashley and Bart told me at the beginning of the season that the storyline around the DAT tape — Hanna’s recording of Edwin’s death that is now coming back to haunt the adults — was something they pitched to Showtime when they first pitched the series. Ashley was excited to finally play it out. Your characters who arrive this episode are key to that storyline. Did Ashley explain to you how your episode basically changes everything on the show?
No. (Laughs.) They have to be really cagey about the scripts and information getting out. They even keep the set a secret because people drive out there and take photos. It’s well-guarded.
When I got the scripts and saw what was happening with Ashley’s character, then I was like, “Oh, so this is going to be a whole thing.” I thought that was really cool. Ashley and Nelson are tremendous people and tremendous actors. But no, I didn’t realize that it was helping to evolve the show, and how Ashley would go on a journey with her character that is transformative to the group. I didn’t really understand the scope. I thought more like I was a catalyst to get them [rescued].
At the end of the episode, Shauna’s daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins) does tells us that all three of you disappeared less than 100 miles from where the Yellowjackets plane crashed in the fall of 1997. So we know your story won’t end well.
Well, everybody dies. I’m just excited to see what happens with mine and Nelson’s characters’ spinoff. I’d be like, “How’s your head, man?”
Kodi is a very interesting character. Did you give him a backstory?
The description was really good. Clearly, he lives out here. He loves giving people shit. I don’t think he’s the kindest person, and he’s pretty selfish. But he really knows what he’s doing. I think the general flirting with Ashley’s character is halfway just to fuck with Edwin. I think he was probably not the nicest person in high school and was a loner, and he’s at home out here. I was very particular about his clothes and what kind of hunting garb he had. When I get into that stuff, that really helps me. I’m like, “This person sleeps and eats in this outfit.” Also, I actually own a crossbow now.
Really?
I really do. I bought a crossbow, so watch out intruders! A crossbow is an extremely powerful weapon and very quiet. It’s also extremely hard to hit something, especially if you’re hunting an animal. You have to get up close and it’s hard. So I think this guy is very skillful and I think he also can’t believe he’s stumbled upon a bunch of teenagers killing people. It gets really serious. I think he’s like, “What the fuck is happening? We got to get out of here and I don’t care who gets in the way, I will kill them.” The character was really informed in the scripts, I just did backstory of thinking he’s been coming out here for 20 years and he likes fucking with people.
Your arrival is the first time we get any sort of connection to civilization. The scientists are studying what they call the arctic banshee frog. We believe the team crashed somewhere in the Canadian wilderness. Was it written in the script where the Yellowjackets survivors are?
That part [about the 100 miles], I did not know that. That was not in my scripts. There was something in my script about [how far we are from a rescue point]. And there are places like that all over the northwest area, so that was all reasonable and true to me. I mean, Washington state has the last coastline of the West Coast that doesn’t have roads. I’m not saying that’s where they are, but I think people take for granted civilization and how we can get to anywhere all the time.
You hear about people wandering above Glendale to never be heard from again. I totally bought it all. And this guy can survive forever out there. He knows how to live off the land. I think he thinks that Ashley and Nelson researching frogs is silly. But the job will pay for a new hat and crossbow when he finally does get back.
Next episode, when you get back to camp and meet the team, some of them are happy to see you, because you mean the possibility of rescue, and others are not. How is he sizing up these girls?
It’s interesting; it shows immediately. Some are like “Great, let’s get out of here.” And some aren’t. It separates the group. Also, seeing the village is impressive. But at the same time, there’s got to be a side of him that’s like, “What the fuck is happening? These murdering teenagers, what is going on?”
I think when Nelson’s head gets bashed in, he takes it very seriously. He would have no problem killing any of them to get away. I think he has somewhat of a soft spot for Ashley, but I think he would have killed her if he had to choose, because there’s that one scene where we go different directions [when running from the girls]. This was not something that he ever expected, and it’s not fun and games. Anybody out in the woods doesn’t expect to walk into a village of murderers — of cannibal murderers. That’s not usually on the list of things that happen when you’re in the woods. I think he can’t believe that he’s captured and more than happy to kill as many as he can to get away.
You three show up uninvited. In reality, the cast is also very close — they throw funeral parties for each other when someone is killed off. What was it like joining this wilderness set?
It’s a family. They’re all out in the woods, these young actors who are now stars. They all love the show and so they were very welcoming to me, very kind. The hours are long enough on any single camera show and there’s enough horror stories from different sets, but this was so fun. Those crews are making trails, there’s tons of equipment to set up these very elaborate shots — and shooting in the middle of the woods at night is not easy. The business of filmmaking for something like that is incredibly elaborate. Everyone is there for 16 hours, and everyone’s making jokes when you’re dealing with these cannibals who are covered in blood.
These screaming, horny frogs gave us an answer about what’s been going on. As a fan of the show and after starring in these key episodes, do you feel like we now know that there isn’t something mystical, and that these teens just really lost it out there?
Look, I was like, “This frog stuff is pretty X-rated, I hope they can show it.” I was told a lot of different things — and I’m not going to share any of them. They told me where it was going. I know where some of it’s going! I’ll be very vague: The storytelling is really compelling and moves along really well.
Your casting was announced in total secrecy. Have people been trying to get out of you who you’re playing?
People really wanted to know what timeline I was in, so I couldn’t share anything from the set without someone seeing I was clearly in the woods. I only saw Melanie Lynskey once, because of the timeline of the crew shifting from woods to the city and the sets or soundstage [the teen and adult timelines film separately]. I didn’t share anything other than like, “I’m going to be in it.” With those things I always get pretty squirrely. I’m like, “Hope you guys like it; hope it’s good!” I don’t like watching myself. It’s my one of my neuroses. I’m very excited for it.
Before I let you go, what can you say about the status of the Community movie?
We are funded and so we’ve got the money to make it. It’s about finding the time to make it, and I’m hoping it’ll be at the end of the summer. That’s what I’m hoping.
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Yellowjackets season three releases new episodes Fridays on Paramount+, with a linear airing Sundays at 8 p.m. on Showtime. Follow along with THR‘s season coverage and interviews.
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