WARNING: The following contains SPOILERS for Yellowjackets season 2, episode 6
Content Warning: This article includes a discussion of child death, cannibalism, and abortion.
Shauna's (Melanie Lynskey) baby in Yellowjackets can't be Callie (Sarah Desjardins), and there are some key reasons why the Yellowjackets Shauna baby storyline is so significant. Yellowjackets season 2, episode 6, finally revealed the fate of Shauna's wilderness baby. In season 1, the soccer team gets their periods, except Shauna (Sophie Nélisse), who realizes that she's pregnant. Prior to the crash, Shauna slept with Jeff (Jack DePew), who was her best friend Jackie's (Ella Purnell) boyfriend, complicating matters. In the present day, Shauna lives a mundane life and feels disconnected from Jeff (Warren Kole), who is now her husband, and their 16-year-old daughter Callie.
Like the Yellowjackets theory of Lottie as the Antler Queen, the Yellowjackets Shauna baby issue was one of the most compelling mysteries from the series. As an adult, Shauna is terrified of showing emotions and being vulnerable. As a teenager, Shauna grapples with getting pregnant by Jackie's boyfriend, something she discusses at length with Jackie's dead body. Callie was born in 2004, which makes it impossible for her to be Shauna's baby. Since Shauna doesn't even know if she and her soccer teammates will survive the wilderness, the pregnancy was a shock. Shauna's Yellowjackets baby remained a question mark until season 2, episode 6, which finally revealed its tragic fate.
Shauna's Baby Didn't Survive
Unfortunately, Yellowjackets season 2, episode 6 revealed that the Yellowjackets Shauna baby was stillborn. Shauna's labor was a gut-wrenching process. While Misty eventually stepped up after freaking out that Crystal wasn't there to help (because she killed her), it was clear from the moment that Shauna laid down that no one knew what they were doing. Shauna gave birth to the placenta first, and a placental abruption could cause the baby to lose oxygen and nutrients in the womb. It's also possible that she lost the baby due to the stress of survival, or the fact that she was starving.
However, another theory is that the Yellowjackets Shauna baby died because she didn't believe in the wilderness' power. Right before Shauna went into labor, she had insulted both Lottie and the wilderness. As soon as she did this, a snowstorm kicked up and her labor began. While a small group of teen survivors tried to make sacrifices to the wilderness during her labor, it was to no avail, and after Shauna woke up she discovered that her baby didn't make it. Prior to this, Shauna imagined a very short life with her baby, making audiences briefly think the baby was alive, but her hallucination ended with a horrific scene.
Why Shauna Imagined Her Yellowjackets Baby Being Eaten
The fan theory about the Yellowjackets Shauna baby being eaten was circulating for a while. Co-creator Ashley Lyle stated that this isn't what happened (at least, not in reality). Lyle said (via THR), "From a purely practical standpoint, a baby doesn’t seem like sustainable nutrition." It would be extremely dark if the teammates did eat the infant, especially after their first foray into the act with consuming Jackie. Lyle's comments reiterate how, in the 1996 timeline, the soccer team does what they can to survive. They have to ask themselves questions that they didn't think they ever would, as they have been put in an unimaginable situation.
During her labor hallucination, Shauna wakes up in her vision to discover the teammates had eaten her baby, causing her to come back to reality. Shauna probably hallucinated the team eating her baby because of her own guilt over eating Jackie. It's clear to the Yellowjackets teammates themselves that they'll probably end up eating someone again, though few have had the guts to say it. Shauna is just foreseeing the further inevitable, and her instincts were possibly telling her subconsciously that the Yellowjackets Shauna baby didn't really make it. So, while Lyle's statements were technically true, there was a gruesome imagined scene in which infant cannibalism happened.
Lottie Rightly Predicted Shauna Would Have A Boy
Lottie's predictions and visions have been all the rage in Yellowjackets lately, and Lottie correctly forecasted that the Yellowjackets Shauna baby was a boy. After the most shocking moment of Yellowjackets season 2, episode 2, the girls are in a state of numbness going into episode 3, anything but hungry after their feeding frenzy on Jackie's corpse the night before. Shauna, heavily pregnant at this point, stays in the cabin and talks to Lottie. While Shauna expresses guilt over her actions from the night prior, Lottie says that it was necessary for her and the baby's survival and that she's ready to welcome "him" into the world.
While it was always a possibility that Lottie was wrong, it turned out that Lottie's prediction was correct, and the Yellowjackets Shauna baby was a boy. This, along with the baby's death, definitively means that her wilderness child isn't Callie. There were plenty of rumors going around that Shauna's baby was Adam Martin, which would've made their affair that much weirder and uncomfortable to watch. However, this theory was effectively disproved when Shauna's baby tragically died in Yellowjackets season 2, episode 6. The incident does speak to Lottie's growing powers in the past timeline, and maybe this correct premonition will coerce Shauna to her side.
Shauna's Yellowjackets Baby Shower Explained
The issue of Shauna's pregnancy took center stage in Yellowjackets season 2, episode 3, when the girls decided to put on a makeshift baby shower for her. It's an odd event to put on the day after they eat someone for the very first time, but it seems like a necessary distraction. Each of the girls made a gift for Shauna, with Taissa and Akilah making her a crib, Van gifting a "peepee teepee," and Lottie giving her a baby blanket with the mysterious Yellowjackets symbol embroidered on it. However, Lottie's gift wasn't the most controversial.
For the Yellowjackets Shauna baby, Misty decided to perform a monologue from Steel Magnolias, in particular, the scene where M'Lynn loses it over her daughter's death. Taissa doesn't miss a beat to point this out, but the moment is a mixture of Misty's tactlessness and foreshadowing of what was to come for Shauna's stillborn. It was clear at this point that the baby wasn't going to survive. When the girls are all coming off the plane in Yellowjackets season 2, episode 1, Shauna wasn't holding an infant. How exactly the baby would lose its life was a mystery that Yellowjackets season 2, episode 6 tragically solved.
Why Shauna's Baby Is So Important To Yellowjackets' Story
The question of what happened to Shauna's baby in Yellowjackets is closely tied to Shauna and Jackie's complicated friendship. Jackie's dark Yellowjackets death occurs when the two argue, and Jackie makes the rash decision to sleep outside the cabin. Shauna's emotions about the situation are complex. She wants to keep their relationship hidden and doesn't believe that Jackie deserves Jeff, which suggests a certain cockiness. But Shauna also shows a softer side, as it's clear that she feels guilty and knows that she was in the wrong.
The Yellowjackets Shauna baby fate is key to the story because it sheds light on the terror of being lost in the elements and how this horrifying past affects Shauna in the present. At this point in Yellowjackets, Shauna has experienced the most loss out of all the survivors. While Travis and Javi lost their dad in the crash, Shauna has now lost her best friend Jackie, eaten her corpse, and given birth to a stillborn. Shauna's life of tragedy and trauma in the wilderness has deeply informed her adult life, making the fate of her infant all the more important to her character.
Shauna is stuck in her present life, bored and miserable. She's haunted by the wilderness, misses her best friend (and probably feels immeasurably guilty for eating her), and still bears the grief of her dead infant, even itting she got married to Jeff and had more children out of guilt. The Yellowjackets Shauna baby is crucial to understanding her need for control in the present day. She and Callie don't get along, which could mean that she's wondering about the baby that she lost and what kind of relationship they would have had.
