Shauna gave birth to her son in the recent Yellowjackets episode, and the birth scene seemingly references a very iconic 60s horror film. All is not right in the wilderness, and the characters are starting to pick up on this. At first, it seemed that so much time spent away from society was causing the characters to disassociate and behave outlandishly. Now it seems something much more sinister is occurring in the woods, and all the hallucinations and strange incidents, like Taissa eating dirt and not remembering, are tied to a dark power that the wilderness possesses.
In the Yellowjackets Season 2 Episode 6, Shauna finally gave birth to her son, only for her friends to hand him to her and regretfully inform her he had died during birth. Shauna is understandably distraught. Her baby’s fate has been a major mystery since the show’s first season, as present-day Shauna has a teenage daughter who couldn’t be the baby she was pregnant with as a teenager because the timeline doesn’t match up. There are still many unanswered questions surrounding Shauna’s son’s birth, and some of the answers may lie in a classic horror film that Yellowjackets seems to be referencing.
Shauna’s Birth Is Reminiscent Of Rosemary’s Baby
Shauna’s son’s birth feels suspiciously similar to Roman Polanski’s 1968 film, Rosemary’s Baby. When Shauna gives birth, she first believes her son has survived, and she is taking care of him. However, she’s horrified when she sees Lottie rocking her son. Lottie seems connected to some of the supernatural happenings in the woods, and Shauna doesn’t trust her with her son. However, she later has a vision that her friends are all eating her son before waking up to everyone telling her that she has given birth to a stillborn baby.
The exact scenario happens in Rosemary’s Baby when Rosemary is told she has given birth to a stillborn baby, only to later discover her baby has been stolen from her by the cult. Yellowjackets share a lot of themes with Rosemary’s Baby as it also explores cultism with Lottie’s character, and with everything going on in the wilderness, it could be connected to witchcraft, which was a huge theme in Polanski’s film. One of the biggest signs, as Reddit user starrysaffron pointed out, was a scene from a previous episode.
When Taissa reunites with Vanessa in the present day, Vanessa owns a movie store. Taissa walks into the store, and on the wall next to her is a poster for Rosemary’s Baby. This seems to foreshadow Shauna’s birth experience, which happens an episode later.
Is Shauna’s Baby Actually Alive In Yellowjackets?
In Rosemary’s Baby, Rosemary discovers her baby is alive even after being told it wasn’t. Yellowjackets may be mirroring this storyline with Shauna’s birth. The show doesn’t reveal Shauna’s son’s face when her friends tell her he died, hinting he might not be dead after all. Since the characters have been having hallucinations and whatever’s going on in the wilderness has impacted their logic and ability to think, Shauna might not have realized she wasn’t actually holding her baby. Also, she lost a lot of blood during birth, which could impact her ability to see and think clearly.
If the show is following Rosemary’s Baby, Lottie could have taken the baby and hid it from Shauna. Shauna had the odd vision of her friends feasting off her son, and Lottie is similar to a cult leader in the past and present-day scenes. The characters also talk a lot about the horrible things they did in the woods, and so far, a lot of it has been for survival, like eating Jackie. However, sacrificing Shauna’s baby and lying to her, telling her it died during birth, qualifies as one of the worst things the characters could potentially do.
What Shauna’s Birth Means For The Rest Of Yellowjackets Season 2
If Shauna’s baby is still alive, viewers will soon discover what Shauna’s friends have done with it. It’s possible the Yellowjackets characters will eat it like they ate Jackie and not even tell Shauna it’s her baby they’ve cooked for dinner. However, they also might sacrifice it to the dark force that has control over the wilderness. In the present day, Yellowjackets has focused on Shauna trying to cover up for murdering the man she cheated on her husband with. The show hasn’t dived into her trauma yet as it has with other characters.
Now that she’s given birth in the past sequences, it opens up space for the show to dive into the trauma Shauna faced in the wilderness and how that’s affected her in the present day. For example, if the baby were sacrificed to eat, that would have had a massive impact on her. She might start delving into the experience now, especially since the latest Yellowjackets episode saw her head to Lottie’s community.
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
