The Yellowjackets finale left fans with more questions than answers, with perhaps the biggest one of all being — "What the hell, Taissa?!"
In the final moments of the Showtime series' freshman season, it's revealed that Taissa has been keeping a major secret from her wife Simone. At least, that's how it seems right now. In the basement of their house, Simone discovers a whole secret shrine — complete with the head and heart of the family dog on a makeshift alter, as well as their son's creepy doll. It's all clearly connected to whatever the hell went on in the wilderness decades earlier, as evidenced by the presence of that recurring symbol. But does it mean that Taissa is straight-up evil, and fooling everyone — audience included — into believing she's just a troubled mom dealing with trauma?
The answer is a strong "maybe."
One thing that's clear: Taissa isn't well. We know that Taissa has had multiple bouts of sleepwalking in the past, including in the wilderness, when she found herself snoozing in a tree while her girlfriend Van was being ravaged by wolves. She also devoured dirt. In the present day, she had visions of wolves in the middle of a fancy party, and was the feral woman that her son Sammy saw watching him from his window. Taissa needs to see a doctor for a lot of reasons, but she's keeping a lot of these issues to herself because they're all connected back to the big secrets her and the rest of the Yellowjackets are keeping from everyone else in their lives.
If we're giving Taissa a big benefit of the doubt, it's possible she did create the shrine, but had absolutely no idea she was doing so. Maybe she has a dissociative disorder, or did all these things while she was sleepwalking. This seems like the most likely theory, as we've seen Taissa act horrified (while alone!) by her odd behavior — sure, she could have faked all of that for the other Yellowjackets and her wife, but for the audience? There would be way too much to explain.
There is another theory, however, that might absolve Taissa of all blame: What if she didn't make that altar at all?
For one thing: That secret room in the basement wasn't the easiest to find. Maybe Taissa had no idea it was there — and it was set up by someone else in order to "help" (or possibly even harm) Taissa and her family. It's strongly suggested that Lottie is now the ringleader of some sort of cult who uses the symbol, and given that this group just kidnapped Natalie (and possibly even killed Travis), it's not impossible to think that they also secretly crafted a room in Taissa's basement. In fact, that might be why Sammy, Taissa and Simone's son, is behaving so strangely: Perhaps he knows that there are people hiding in his house, and that no one will believe him. Taissa's sleepwalking could even be nothing more than a red herring.
Then again, maybe the answer is a bit more complicated. Perhaps the Taissa that we mostly see — the one running for state senate, who has it more or less together — is just one side of Taissa's true self. The other side could be a follower of Lottie's cult — and the two personalities might never interact. The "cult" Taissa could be working to bring success via the supernatural to the Taissa who is running for public office, in hopes that once Taissa is there, the "cult" Taissa could finally take over and thrive.
Far-fetched? Maybe — but Showtime did air The United States of Tara, so, you know, there's some precedent to this split personalities thing on the network.
While we didn't get all the answers we were looking for in Yellowjackets Season 1, the series is renewed for a sophomore season — which means whatever Taissa's deal is, we'll figure it out soon enough. Let's hope New Jersey is in okay hands with its newest state senator.