There's one rule when it comes to TV mysteries: If someone seems too good to be true, 99.9% of the time, they are. So, when Shauna on Yellowjackets started fooling around with Adam — a seemingly nice guy who listens to her in a way that her husband hasn't in years, if not ever — it raised all the red flags. But it's not merely my cynicism clouding my perception of Adam. He also came into Shauna's life in a very unusual way, having met her after the two were involved in a fender bender. Later, he just so happened to show up at the same hotel where Shauna was spying on her husband and his potential lover — catching her in the ideal vulnerable spot to start an affair. Happy coincidence, or a clue that Adam is trying anything he can to worm his way into Shauna's life?
I'm leaning towards the latter. However, if Adam really isn't trustworthy, the thing we don't know is what his real game is. Just how screwed is Shauna for sleeping with this guy, and possibly confessing her deepest, darkest secrets in the process?
While Yellowjackets isn't likely to deliver those answers ASAP, we can certainly speculate about them. Here are three theories as to what Adam may really be up to — assuming he's not the nice guy he presents himself to be.
Adam Is A Journalist
The "journalist" who first approached Shauna in the pilot episode turned out to be a private investigator hired by Taissa, but that doesn't mean someone isn't seeking out Shauna's story. On their mini golf date, Adam kept pressuring Shauna to tell him something personal and true about herself — which sounds like the sort of thing a journalist seeking a scoop would want to know. Adam would be getting very close to his source here, but hey — it's happened in TV shows before, right?
Adam Is A Relative of One of the Cannibal Victims
After the Yellowjackets get stranded in the woods following their plane crash, they have to scrounge for any source of food they can find. It's revealed that some of the Yellowjackets also killed and ate someone who is (presumably) one of their teammates, though exactly who was part of that macabre dinner party is unclear. One important thing to note, however, is that the murderers likely weren't punished for their crimes — the public still has no real idea what happened in the woods, even though it's speculated that cannibalism was part of it. So, theoretically, that means there could be someone who wants answers about their family member's murder, as well as justice. That person could very well be Adam.
Adam Isn't Even Real
Early on in the season, fans suspected that Taissa's wife was no more than a figment of her imagination — but that theory proved to be false. (At least, so we think.) What if it's actually Adam who isn't real? We know that Shauna has seen a projection of Jackie, her former best friend who may or may not be one of the people eaten by cannibals — maybe Adam is just another person that Shauna sees so that she can cope with the terrible things she did in her past. It's interesting that Adam and Shauna are living out all the things Shauna wanted to do as a high schooler, but couldn't due to the time she spent in the woods — perhaps seeing Adam is a way for her to heal, even if he's not actually there.
Adam Is An Obsessed Fan
Shauna doesn't hide the fact that she's one of the plane crash survivors, even though it's said that the other survivors — with the exception of Taissa, Natalie, and Misty — are living off the grid. Perhaps Adam is well aware of who Shauna is, and her past, and has been stalking her because he's simply obsessed with the story. The car accident and the hotel meet up could have been planned so that Adam could get close to Shauna, in hopes that she would spill all the tea on her time in the woods. Creepy? Totally — but hey, this is a show about cannibals.
Adam Is Adult Javi
One interesting theory from ScreenRant is that Adam is actually the adult version of Travis' little brother Javi. While it's odd that characters wouldn't know what Javi looks like in present day, many of them still live off the grid — if no one saw Javi for the last 25 years, it's quite possible they wouldn't know what he looked like as an adult. If Adam is Javi, what would be his motivation for hiding his identity? It could be that the Yellowjackets did not know that Javi actually survived the wilderness ordeal, and that he's now living under a new identity in order to exact revenge. Hmm...