[This story contains major spoilers from the season three finale of Yellowjackets, “Full Circle.”]
Many things came full circle in the Yellowjackets season three finale, including a premonition that Lottie had about her death.
If you ask Courtney Eaton, who plays Lottie in the Showtimes survival series’ 1996/1997 teenager timeline, the duality of playing a possibly clairvoyant character who has the ability to see the future while she, as an actor, doesn’t know what the showrunners have planned down the line isn’t lost on her.
“That’s the challenge with playing Lottie. She is usually the one to see and foreshadow things, but I don’t know anything as the actor, which makes playing her really fun because I get to make choices that could be interpreted a few different ways,” Eaton tells The Hollywood Reporter of the mystery drama.
An earlier episode of Yellowjackets revealed Lottie’s death in present day as a mystery, setting up a whodunit for the remainder of the season. In the finale, appropriately titled “Full Circle,” it’s revealed that Shauna’s (Melanie Lynskey) daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins) is the one who pushed Lottie to her death, in a moment that Desjardins and the showrunners have described to The Hollywood Reporter as being instinctual yet borne out of fear from an unknown power inside of her.
Simone Kessell, who plays Lottie as an adult, was still digesting being killed off the hit series when speaking earlier in the season. Now Eaton gets her chance to mourn the older version of her character, as well as the actor who plays her, in the conversation below.
“I love that the writers circled back to that scene [of the stairwell premonition],” Eaton says. “It feels right for Lottie. It’s tragic in a very Lottie way. My heart did skip a beat when I realized she wasn’t going to get a plane sequence, like the rest of the characters that have died. But maybe in the Yellowjackets world that means something? I’d like to think she’s exactly where she’s supposed to be.”
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How has it been watching this season play out? Do you follow along with Reddit threads and fan chatter?
I read some of the comments and things I get tagged in, which is usually Nat-Lottie shipping comments, which is amazing! But I haven’t dived into the Reddit world this year. It always kind of scares me because, especially before a season is finished, I can see what peoples’ expectations are for the show and what they really, really want to happen, whether they actually want that to happen. So then I get in my head being like, “Oh no, we didn’t do that!” There are a lot of Lottie supporters, but there are also people who are like, “What the hell is she doing?” So it’s best to steer clear. (Laughs)
Going back to when you found out that the adult version of your character dies this season, how did you react when you read that she’s mysteriously found dead at the bottom of a stairwell?
My brain automatically went, “Another one dead.” Then I realized it was Lottie, and I was like, “No, no, no, but this is going to be a Lottie woo-woo joke thing.” I’m still not convinced, and I think I’m still really in denial. I kind of talked to Simone [Kessell] about it, but I feel weird talking about it with her because if we talk about it then it cements it into happening, of her not coming back. But it is really odd. I got a carrot dangled in front of me of sharing this character with Simone, who’s incredible. The first season I was alone [then she came for season two]. Now it gets taken away again and I’m by myself. So I am in denial about it. It hasn’t settled yet in my brain.
Before you found out who killed Lottie (Simone Kessell) in the finale, who were your guesses?
I thought that maybe it was another survivor, or something shifty with Walter [Elijah Wood]. I don’t know what it is, can’t explain it. Maybe I’ve read too many comments with peoples’ theories about him, that Walter is connected to the scientists and getting his revenge, or that he was a sibling of someone. Especially as episodes go on, you see a slight shift in him. I see red flags!
I also did have a slight hunch that it was maybe Callie, with what had been going on. I didn’t think it was a malicious killing, but that it was probably an accident because Lottie was putting herself where she didn’t belong. But I’m also someone who is annoying to watch a movie with because I can kind of guess what’s going to happen, which is why this season has been so interesting to me, because I didn’t guess the frog scientists coming in and that threw me for a loop. But I am that annoying person who is like, “Oh, he did it.”
So you’re clairvoyant like your character.
Yes. And I also run a cult and eat people! (Laughs)
So when you did find out that it was Callie (Sarah Desjardins) and saw how it played out, did her death make sense to you?
It’s hard because the amount that those girls have been through, they feel like they should be invincible. It did make sense to me with the circumstances that Lottie was chasing. This season, we see her almost addicted to the wilderness and needing to find the answer to have that make her whole. So I think curiosity killed the cat in the end with her.
What do you think Lottie was searching for in the end, in her final conversation with Callie?
Coming off of her in season two not being connected to the wilderness and pawning off her Antler Queen responsibility to Natalie [Sophie Thatcher], I think she’s someone who hasn’t always trusted her brain, and then her family has made her feel a certain way about how she naturally is. I think what her and Shauna [Sophie Nélisse] are experiencing this season is that they have a chance to be their full selves out in the wilderness without any societal pressures on being a teenager or a girl, and letting the darkness come through.
Lottie is a hard one to talk about because I know people get annoyed when I’m like, “She does everything well-intentioned.” But I think she does. I think if you put anyone in those circumstances, I would be unhinged and not know who I am and where I stand in the group, with the power dynamics ever shifting. There is this weird freedom that comes with that, and I think that’s what they’re trying to chase and that feels like the most human version of themselves. We see when Lottie gives a monologue of why she doesn’t think she belongs back home, and I think that stays with her for the rest of her time. We know when they get rescued that she gets sent to a psych ward; she knew exactly what was going to happen. She tries really hard and then the girls come back into her life and ignite everything again.
Which then led to her unraveling and her death. When you put it that way, it’s like she was right to want to stay in the wilderness.
Yes. They could have just left her and Shauna, and they would have had a great time! Also, Sophie Nélisse and I are best friends and we lived together while we filmed. So we would love that. (Laughs)
I spoke with Ben Semanoff, director for episode nine, and he pointed out that we didn’t get to see a Lottie plane scene. We don’t get to see you and Simone on the plane after Lottie’s death, heading to the next plane of existence.
It’s interesting that we don’t because everyone else does [with Nat and Van’s deaths]. Maybe that comes down to the promise that Lottie kept, and she goes somewhere else? But I did clock that. I was like, “Wait, where’s her plane?” But I was hoping that was a good sign. In the finale when we find her in the cave, she’s making a promise. She’s talking to someone or something about “until her last breath.” Those were the only words written and I think there’s something with that at play.
Maybe Lottie’s plane moment was the tunnel. In the first season, where she’s walking up to the candles and sees the deer and it leads her around to the altar. In the finale, you see Lottie in the same circumstances. So maybe that’s her plane, like that moment was coming all along. It makes me sad if she’s not on the same plane as everyone else! But maybe they’re all going to the same destination. I want her to end up on that same Hawaii island [like in Lost]. (Laughs)
What do you think young Lottie would have imparted onto Adult Lottie if we had seen them on the plane together?
Even just thinking about it makes me want to cry. I think she would be like, “You can rest now. You’re one hundred percent whole.” Which is so sad, because I think she went through her whole life fighting and not trusting herself, and when she does, she’s villainized for that. Granted, not all things that she did are positive, but I think they all come from a really vulnerable place.
What have your conversations been like with Simone about Lottie’s ending?
While were filming, Sophie and I always get drinks with Melanie [Lynskey] and Simone to catch up because we never get to work together. Every time we talked, I was like, “We’re not talking about it. Just carry on; you’re coming back.” I love Simone and I think she did an incredible job with Lottie. It’s interesting because all of us had such a different way of sharing our characters. Tawny [Cypress] and Jasmine [Savoy Brown] were really detailed and connected, and broke down scenes of how they could mirror each other with Tai. Whereas Simone and I had one meeting the first season and had dinner and talked a little, and then we were like, “Okay, you got it. We got it.” With Lottie, she is clairvoyant-ish, but knowing too much about what happens to her in the future doesn’t necessarily help me as an actor, so once we realized we both understood her, it was easy to just let her rip.
You said at the start of this season that you bawled your eyes out over a season three death. Was that for Coach (Steven Krueger)?
Yes. Even now I want to cry! I did cry about Simone’s death, too. But with Steven, we’ve known each other for five years now. Steven, Sophie and I call each other “the potats”… for potatoes. It started with Ella [Purnell from season one]. We do dinner nights. He’s like our big brother. Anyone that you talk to about Stephen, their faces just light up. He’s the kindest person and so hardworking. And this season, he put in work. He was skinny-tiny, gaunt [for his death arc]. We were trying to force-feed him pizza and he was like, “No, no — for Ben.”
I wasn’t there on his last day of filming, and both Sophie and I didn’t realize it was his last day. I remember her calling me to say they wrapped Steven, saying, “[Sophie crying] It was his last day and I didn’t know!” We were both just bawling our eyes out on the phone. But we have a group chat where we’re sending sourdough photos and pizza recipes. I think everyone loves him so much that he better come back and haunt us, and I know he’s really close with [showrunners] Bart [Nickerson] and Ashley [Lyle] and Jonathan [Lisco]. In his final scene, he killed it. I did not expect to be so emotional, it was really beautiful.
It’s so nice to hear that, since Lottie savagely eats Coach after his death! Can we talk about your primal scream.
Which one? (Laughs)
When the scientists come upon Coach’s decapitated head and you freak out. How many times did you do that scream and where do you dig to bring that out?
Weirdly, when it comes to this show and Lottie, that scream is just there. I always get told on set that I don’t project well; sound will come and ask me if I can speak a little louder. But for some reason, when you ask me to scream, I can just pull it from the deepest part of me. I think because Lottie and I are similar in the ways we think and feel things that it’s pretty easy to find it. I do scream a lot in the show.
What parts of Lottie do you relate to?
I don’t know about being clairvoyant, but I am hypersensitive to people’s emotions around me whether they tell me or not. One time I couldn’t sit next to someone because they were having a bad day and I could just feel it being dumped on me. So I think we’re similar in that way, and how we don’t trust our brains and are trying to figure out who we are.
Lottie is the biggest believer of not getting rescued. How much is driven by her fear of returning to the reality awaiting her and how much of it is about her belief in this greater power and that her purpose is to be in the wilderness?
Good question. When she gets so excited about like Akilah [Nia Sondaya] pushing Travis [Kevin Alves] so far, I think as a group they all have an inkling that there is something special about them while they’re out here, whether that is in tune with the wilderness or just that they can be their whole selves. On the day when I’m doing things like that, it’s more instinctual.
But when I think about Lottie too much, I can accidentally lean one way or the other and she’s someone that very much has to walk a line on the show. There are definitely times where I play it out of fear of just who she is and who she’ll become if she goes back, because she knows what that feels like. She knows what her family thinks of her and where they put her, and what it’s done to her already. I think it’s 50-50. But when I’m filming it, it definitely leans one way or the other.
How do you explain Lottie not falling into Travis’ Pit Girl trap?
I don’t know if I can explain that. I was reading a book the other day about how luck and circumstance come hand in hand in equal parts, but we tend to give power to one or the other. I think that could be a circumstance where it was just luck. I don’t know how to talk about it, I haven’t had to talk about it yet!
Did you play the scene like she knew the death trap was there?
Once she steps on, I think she knows. But I think she knows when Travis is like, “Can I show you something out in the wilderness?” She’s onto him from the beginning, even with him offering up Akilah. But she’s so hungry for a connection with the wilderness that she’s willing to go along with it. I think she’s always known that he is wavering and playing with her a little. But at least when I was doing the scene, I had an inkling that there was something she was heading towards, just not necessarily that she knew she was going to step into a pit.
I imagine seeing what happens — when Mari (Alexa Barajas) later falls into that same pit to her death — that Lottie’s faith is further solidified right? She knows she walked on water, so to speak, and escaped death.
I think heading towards the end of the season, she’s really finding the answers where she wants to find them. And I think that’s about how when people are desperate or in situations where they need guidance, you can find answers in every spot you look if you really want to.
Fans predicted that Mari would be Pit Girl, but other people like Hanna (Ashley Sutton) came in as red herrings. I know as a cast you all have theorized about this since day one, too. When did you find out it was Mari, when you got this finale script?
We were also in the dark. The pink converse that you see walk up on the pit [that Van wears in the finale]? Those got passed around in the costume department. One day someone would be wearing them, the next day someone else would. So we were trying to break it down as much as the internet detectives. On our show, you get either a call or a lunch when you find out you’re dying. So we all found out that it was Alexa. As the season’s progressed, everyone was like, “I don’t want to be Pit Girl,” as you fall more in love with being on the show. But it’s such a cool way to go out, especially the way that Mari’s story has gone. I love the details of how she’s shimmying off her pants and how she gets to that point [from the pilot], and you see how it happens.
Liv Hewson ended up wearing the pink converse sneakers.
Yes. There were all of the different masks around and it was like, who’s choosing what? There were theories that it was me, all the brown-haired people, and then once Ashley Sutton came in to play Hanna, people were like, “It could be her.” Even when I had my adult, people were like, “It still could be Lottie.” (Laughs) We know nothing when we’re filming. We find out as we get the script.
We knew it was coming, but it was still brutal to watch what they did to Mari. Shauna may be the vicious Antler Queen now, but Lottie also played a role in Mari’s death. What did this change for you when acting out Pit Girl in finale?
I think for Lottie it cements that she knows exactly where she should be and she’s finally come into herself. As an actor knowing where she’s heading, that freaks me out. It breaks my heart knowing she goes to a psych ward [after they get rescued, as season two revealed]. But I think one of the most interesting things about our show is that the cannibalism isn’t the darkest part. It’s about the power dynamics and how brutal teenage girls can be to each other, like when we see Shauna playing with Melissa [Jenna Burgess] and how Natalie gets treated when they all gang up on her. But Lottie really hasn’t changed much.
I think what will change and what will be interesting to see is their dynamic once they get rescued and how that is going to play out. We forget that they are 16, 17 and don’t have the tools to handle what happened to them out there, or what the world and adults are going to think of them and judge them about once they come back. So that is going to be interesting to see teenagers keeping a secret and trying to acclimatize and get better. Well, for the ones who want to get better.
How much do you imagine Lottie will fight being rescued?
I remember when we did season two, and it was the first scene we filmed [the rescue scene]: I’m getting on the plane and I scream out to the crowd. It didn’t really make sense to me on the day. I remember talking with Bart [Nickerson, co-creator] about it. I was like, “I just feel like there was and anger coming out from it.” And now it makes sense. I’m intrigued to see how she reacts, if she has to be tied up? We know she goes catatonic, so something has to be the final crack.
We got answers this season, like with the frogs. To me, it seems like most things in this show can be explained, and how when you’re going through grief and trauma, you look for things around every corner. But we know from meeting present-day Lottie that she remains a hardcore believer. By the end of this season, did you get your answers about the mystical elements of this show?
I think Lottie is the same as how I approach playing her as an actor. There are times where she’s going to flip back and forth and question: Is this the wilderness or am I just insane? I always feel like such an asshole when I answer this question because I know what people want me to say with Lottie and which way she leans. But once I say that out loud, it takes away her magic and both parts of her, whether she’s mentally ill or if she does believe in the wilderness, it takes away what makes her her.
Hanna seemed to be buying into their wilderness religion, but then flipped when she helped Nat (Sophie Thatcher) with the SAT phone in the end. Has she been playing Shauna for survival?
I think she’s playing them to survive. I think she’s a lot smarter than anyone thinks. She knows where they’re at and maybe because she’s a woman she understands how insane we can go! But I definitely think she’s playing the game to stay alive.
What’s the latest you’ve heard on a season four?
I’ve heard murmurings of things, but nothing locked in yet so, I hope! We all keep talking in the group chat like, “Have you guys heard anything? What’s happening?” Especially coming after this season and how everything clicked with the cast, the writers; everyone just knows what to do so going into a season four would be so much fun.
By the way, what’s the blood made of that was all over your face?
Just makeup special effects blood, but I did have to wear a barrier underneath so it didn’t stain my face, which would have been hilarious because it’s just blood streaks. I looked insane. I was so excited to film that. For anyone in the industry reading this, I am down to get dirty. Put me in blood. I am so down to get weird with that, and that scene was really fun!
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season three is now streaming on Paramount+ With Showtime. Follow along with all of THR‘s season three coverage and finale interviews, including our interview with the showrunners, Alexa Barajas on her Pit Girl reveal, Sarah Desjardins on Callie killing Lottie, Melanie Lynskey on Shauna’s ending, and Tawny Cypress and Christina Ricci on what it all means for season four.
Read the full article here
