Callie Used To Be The Worst Character, And Now She's One Of The Best

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https://www.looper.com/1268678/yello...cter-now-best/

BY NINA STARNER/MAY 5, 2023 9:00 AM EST

Contains spoilers for "Yellowjackets" Season 2 Episode 6 — "Qui."

Characters on Yellowjackets definitely aren't what they seem. The series, which straddles a timeline in the 1990s and one in the 2020s, keeps its secrets closely guarded as it follows a girl's soccer team that, in the past timeline, ended up stranded in the isolated wilderness after a plane crash. As the main quartet of Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), Taissa (Tawny Cypress), Natalie (Juliette Lewis), and Misty (Christina Ricci) try to keep whatever happened in the woods to themselves in 2021, they end up getting blackmailed by someone over their collective secrets, and they'll stop at nothing to handle the situation.

For Shauna, this means stabbing and killing her lover Adam (Peter Gadiot), who she thinks is behind the blackmail. Turns out that her husband Jeff (Warren Kole) and his dullard of a best friend Randy (Jeff Holman) were behind it instead, so now, Shauna's got a murder to cover up. To make matters worse, her sullen teenage daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins) knew about Adam, so when he's declared missing, she has her suspicions.

At first, this seems bad — Callie and her mother aren't exactly on great terms. That said, in Season 2, Callie really hits her stride — and it's all thanks to her alliance with her tough-as-nails mother.

Callie was beyond irritating in Season 1

The "teenager who hates their parents" stereotype isn't exactly uncharted territory, but in Season 1 of "Yellowjackets," that one trait is Callie's entire personality. Time and time again, she's just frustrated with her mother, a woman she views as a boring suburban housewife — and she's especially angry over Adam, siding with her dad in a marital problem she views as totally unfair and crappy. This is her whole character arc, basically.

It's not exactly fair to Callie — or Desjardins — that, because the audience knows Shauna as both a teenager and an adult (she's played by Sophie Nélisse in the 1990s timeline), they're more likely to side with her than they are with Callie. It does make Callie a little one-note, though, which is probably the only flaw to come out of an otherwise perfect debut season for "Yellowjackets." Luckily, that all changes in Season 2, and not only does Callie have a much bigger storyline, she ends up becoming way more sympathetic.

Season 2 wasn't a huge improvement for Callie... at first

At the beginning of Season 2, Callie's behavior was more of the same — she hates her mom and is trying to figure out exactly what happened with her and Adam. Then she starts hanging out with a guy (John Paul Reynolds) who tells her that his name is Jay, but it turns out he's really Matt, and he's a cop investigating Adam's disappearance.

This is, obviously, really bad, and it only gets worse when Callie confides in "Jay" and tells him that her mom is cheating on her dad. Shauna's already a person of interest in Adam's disappearance (and murder), but now, Matt has confirmation that she's been unfaithful to her husband. Worst of all, Matt is hellbent on proving that Shauna is guilty, and he keeps using Callie, avoiding physical contact with her while mining her for information. Not only does this open up Callie's arc for Season 2, but it also makes her immensely more sympathetic. Up until this, she was just a thorn in Shauna's side, and now, she's immediately more relatable, especially since audiences know Matt is simply using her and being a huge creep in the process.

Callie's surprise alliance with her family is pretty great

The big turning point for Callie comes in Episode 4, "Old Wounds," when Shauna asks her daughter to get out of town with her for a bit so they can talk. In a remote area with nobody else around, Shauna admits to Callie that she did kill Adam, and that Jeff, who was blackmailing her, is involved with the entire thing as well.

Again, a teenage daughter hating her mom is nothing new, but it's in this pivotal moment that Callie fully realizes her mother's power. As both a teen and an adult, Shauna is not to be trifled with. There's a monologue in the season's third episode where she confronts someone to get her stolen minivan back that is completely horrifying and also shows off just how tough she really is. Shauna's not a simple stay-at-home mom, and when she comes clean to Callie, it solidifies their relationship. That same night, Callie offers to help cook dinner, warming up to both of her parents for the first time in the series — and now that she's finally allied with her family, the Sadeckis can really get stuff done.

Callie and Shauna working together is television gold

There's another huge turning point in Callie and Shauna's relationship when the police ask them to come down to the station to answer some questions — about Adam — and for the first time on "Yellowjackets," the mother and daughter are firmly on the same team. After Callie lied in a fit of inspiration and told Matt that her mother's lover was Randy, Jeff's bumbling best friend, Shauna tried to stage a tryst between the two, only for Matt to figure out it was faked in the grossest possible way. Now, they're in separate interrogation rooms, and they're sticking to the same story.

Desjardins is the only younger member of the main cast outside of the 1990s timeline, so she's always paired with older, more established actors. She more than holds her own against Lynskey (who has finally proven, on this series, that she's one of the most formidable actors working today) and it's thrilling to watch their split interrogations about Shauna's passionate affair with Randy Walsh and their denial about anything having to do with Adam or his fate. In fact, the scene that follows is pretty incredible. Watching Lynskey and Desjardins face off against Reynolds and fellow cop Kevyn Tan (Alex Wyndham) is a rollercoaster, from Shauna wryly admitting her daughter hates her to Callie fully breaking down. Callie ends up accusing Matt of impropriety (which, to be clear, is a bad thing to do), and the mother-daughter duo lives to fight and team up another day.

Callie makes mistakes, but she's become a great character

All of this is to say that the show's only one-note character has progressed from her stereotype in Season 1 to a fully fleshed out character in Season 2. Is accusing Matt — who has not touched her inappropriately — of taking advantage of her the right thing to do? Absolutely not. Callie definitely still makes mistakes; she's nothing more than a kid. She's finally proven, however, that she's just as complicated and divisive as any other single character on this show.

Nobody on "Yellowjackets" is perfect, to say the least. The second episode of Season 2 ended with the girls in the woods feasting on the barbecued body of their dead friend, for God's sake. Letting Callie finally team up with her family, though, at least does her the service of making her far more interesting, and Season 2, she's become a fascinating character in her own right. Whatever else the season holds for her is still a mystery, but she's at least moving in the right direction.

"Yellowjackets" airs on Sundays on Showtime and is available to stream through their app two days earlier each Friday.