The Buzz on ‘Yellowjackets’ Aftershow: Tawny Cypress Talks Taissa & Van’s Reunion (VIDEO)
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Yellowjackets Season 2 Episode 4, “Old Wounds.”]
“Hey, Van.” With that casual greeting, we got one of the reunions we’ve been dying to see between two of the adult plane crash survivors on Yellowjackets.
State senator Taissa (Tawny Cypress) who can’t control the (increasingly) evil twin side of her personality that arises when she sleepwalks, arrived at her onetime teen girlfriend Van’s (new cast member Lauren Ambrose) video store, While You Were Streaming. (Think Van had Tai in mind with that name?)
“In that moment, Taissa feels like she has the beginning to the end of her problems. This is the one person who understands her and understands the other Tai. She feels safe,” Cypress told TV Insider on The Buzz on Yellowjackets aftershow. “Is it the best thing for either of them? No. She is detrimental to Van, and Van is detrimental to her.”
We’re a teeny bit more worried about Van considering Tai’s evil twin’s bloody altar-building and dirt-eating (that latter had an upside: “The dirt was made of cake mix and crushed Oreos. And it was friggin delicious. I was like how much of this can I put in my mouth?” Cypress shares.)
Plus, that other Tai is just getting hungrier, Cypress reveals. The all-night drive that left Tai stranded and out of gas in her car, “is the longest we’ve seen Tai in her other state. The other Tai just wants to get things done. She has no moral compass. She’s a fixer. She is ready to take over, to run the show.”
Can she be stopped? “With the right people around her, she can be wrangled and even spoken to,” Cypress says.
As for adult Tai and Van’s future, Cypress promises, “You’re gonna get the moment you want. The one that you’ve been waiting for.” That’s all she will tease, but if you’re a Redditor, know that Cypress is lurking on the boards checking out your posts debating whether the events of Yellowjackets are grounded in supernatural forces or the many faces of trauma. “I love all the theories. No one’s gotten it right. There was one thread that came this close to nailing the season and a bunch of people came on and squashed it,” the actress says with a laugh.
Check out the video to hear about Cypress’s favorite Taissa moment; what she thinks triggered the other Tai’s return; Tai and Van’s backstory; how those doubles scenes are shot; working with Ambrose (the only actress she wanted for the role) and what the first horror movie she ever saw shares with Tai’s storyline.
Yellowjackets, Sundays, 9/8c, Showtime (and Fridays on On Demand and Streaming)