‘Yellowjackets’: Jackieshauna is still the show’s best gay ship

Cue the catchy and eerie Yellowjackets theme song and cannibalism in the Canadian wilderness. Yellowjackets is a series that has got many people hooked for several reasons. The series follows a soccer team stranded in the wilderness in the ’90s and what their adult lives look like in the 2020s, and it’s making its return with season 3 on Valentine’s Day!

Yellowjackets is gripping and blends several genres, and the ’90s flashbacks are a huge reason for its popularity. Instead of discussing all of that goodness, though, I’m digging into a specific queer ship in the fandom. There are several queer Yellowjackets ships, like Taivan (Taissa and Van) for example, which is explicitly canon in Yellowjackets.

Meanwhile, one of the top-tier queer pairings in the Yellowjackets fandom is Jackieshauna, the ship that’s comprised of Shauna Shipman (Sophie Nélisse and Melanie Lynskey) and Jackie Taylor (Ella Purnell). While we never see them kiss or become girlfriends, there’s a thrumming of homoeroticism between them, and the ghost of Jackie continues to linger, even to this day, for Shauna.

Jackieshauna forever!

In Yellowjackets season 1, we’re introduced to the girls on their best and worst day as a team. We slowly get to know the nature of Shauna and Jackie’s relationship, including the fact that Shauna is having an affair with Jackie’s boyfriend, and is later revealed to be pregnant. Even though that doesn’t sound like a recipe for queer longing, it absolutely is.

Shauna and Jackie’s relationship is very much that of two people who will do anything but admit their feelings for each other. Shauna is subconsciously torn between wanting to be with Jackie and wanting to be like her (thus her decision to sleep with Jeff). Meanwhile, Jackie looks at Shauna with intense longing but keeps her at arm’s length as friends because it’s easier that way.

Throughout season 1, their relationship unravels in the worst ways because of their circumstances and the secret Shauna tries and fails to keep. Instead of sticking together, Shauna and Jackie drift apart, and it leads to an extraordinary tragedy. It also leads to Shauna being unable to fully grieve or move on from Jackie’s unavoidable death.

Naturally, a chunk of the fandom has latched onto Jackieshauna and hasn’t let go. Why would we when the angst and pain are so rich and intense? Especially when queer angst is something that some of us know all too well.

The ship perfectly captures the conundrum, for girls in this case, of falling for your best friend and how complicated that can be. Combine that with the period and the natural hesitancy anyone would experience during that time, and you get one of the show’s best ships. One might even say that Jackie was dealing with compulsory heteronormativity by being with Jeff (Jack DePew).

It’s not just the angst that makes the ship one of (if not the) best queer ships in the fandom. The shared glances, the intense hugs and touching, the subtle flirtation, Jackie giving Shauna her necklace, Shauna’s reaction to Jackie freezing to death, Shauna flirting with her hallucinations of Jackie and seeing her even when she’s a grown woman, Shauna later consuming Jackie (literally), and the list goes on.

Jackieshauna might not be fully canon like Taivan, which is an intense queer relationship that’s clearly making a comeback in season 3 (if the trailer is anything to go by), but the subtext and clear display of homoeroticism in Jackie and Shauna’s relationship makes it just as worthy of being shipped.

You can watch Yellowjackets on Showtime, Paramount+, or Crave in Canada. The series is available in the U.K. on Sky and Now.