Simone Kessell Is Still Digesting Her Fate

[This story contains major spoilers from the fourth episode of Yellowjackets season three, “12 Angry Girls and 1 Drunk Travis.”]

Is she really dead?

The latest episode of Yellowjackets left viewers staring at the lifeless body of someone in the main cast. Is this happening again? Is another adult survivor of the wilderness actually gone?

(Spoiler alert!) Yes, confirms the actress who plays her, Simone Kessell.

Adult Lottie, who has been played by Kessell ever since the Obi-Wan Kenobi star joined the adult cast of the Showtime series in season two, has been aimless in season three after the dismantling of her spiritual community following the events of last season’s finale. Her Sunshine Honey Wellness Community of “purple people” followers was questioned by her friends, as well as viewers, about if it was a cult and if Lottie truly believed in the leadership she was offering, or if she was scamming vulnerable followers out of their money.

After getting kicked out of the Sadecki’s house by Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) last episode, Lottie (Kessell) in episode four ends up in New York City. She leaves the bank with a check for an undisclosed amount and we see her practicing an apology in the mirror of an apartment, which Kessell tells The Hollywood Reporter is Lottie’s penthouse, raising even more questions around the show’s most spiritual character. (In the 1996 timeline, her teen character, played by Courtney Eaton, is the most devout believer in the mysteries of the wilderness.) Soon after, Lottie is shown lying on the ground lifeless, her death now a crime scene.

While speaking to THR about last week’s wild episode, co-showrunner Jonathan Lisco offered insight as to why it was Lottie’s time to go on Yellowjackets. This marks another big cast departure following Juliette Lewis’ exit and the death of her character, Adult Nat.

“It has absolutely nothing to do with how incredible and amazing Simone Kessell is because we could have worked with her forever,” Lisco tells THR. “In the writers room, we have these big ideas. We put them on the board and we’re like, ‘No. Can’t happen. Must not happen.’ We’ll love working with this character and actor too much. Then as the stories evolve, it starts to tilt toward, ‘This has to happen.’”

He continues, “This will tell audiences there are true consequences to our characters’ actions and that things actually matter. If the bodies don’t drop in this manner, in a way that’s embedded and wrapped around story, then what are we doing? The whole idea of their survival is based on them having to make these incredibly difficult choices. They have to continue to make them, and in order to have that happen we do need things to occur that are pretty tragic. I hope you’ll see why this is a good story as you get to the end of the season.”

With Lottie’s dead body now lying at the bottom of a set of stairs somewhere in the city, THR spoke to Kessell about her feelings around her abrupt departure, when we’ll find out what happened to her and if she has any lingering questions left: “It took me a few a few months to digest,” she says in the conversation below.

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Simone, Lottie is really dead?

Yes, is my sad answer to that. Yes. Lottie is dead. It’s still [fresh]. You know when you play a character for so long, you sort of compare it to a canvas. You put so much paint on this canvas and you’re loving it and it’s evolving and there are so many layers to it; colors and light. And then suddenly it’s no longer. It took me a few months to digest that.

I was of course upset. I guess I didn’t know if it was coming or not. But it’s that kind of show — it’s Yellowjackets! People do come and go, and I just feel grateful that I got to play Lottie for as long as I did. She’s such a mixed bag of Lottie-pops.

On this show, people aren’t necessarily gone when they die. Some, like Jackie (Ella Purnell), come back to haunt; others, like Adult Nat (Lewis), haven’t yet. [Note: The showrunners confirmed Lewis won’t return in season three; Purnell, meanwhile, has been back this season as “ghost Jackie.”] Will we see more of you on the season?

In episode 10, the season finale, we see what happened to Lottie. I think that’s really clever. So after episode four, Misty [Christina Ricci] goes on to try and figure out how Lottie died. And then we find out in the finale how she died.

So you don’t haunt anyone on the way there… no “ghost Lottie”?

No, we just see completely what happened and why.

Did you know going into this season that Lottie was going to die?

I knew going into the season. I was working on a show in Montreal, an Apple show called The Last Frontier, and I had a phone call with the writing team, the showrunners, and they let me know. I think the first question I asked them was, “Why? Why would you kill Lottie?” I was like, “What? Why?” Because she’s just such a different character and also, my first instinct was to think of Courtney Eaton playing young Lottie, and I thought, I hope this doesn’t take anything away from her brilliant work and, do we lose interest in that character? All the questions kind of came through. I still don’t know why they killed Lottie, but they did.

Would you say that her death brings more urgency now that another one of the survivors is dead?

I think it is [a huge hit for them]. It sort of amplifies the unraveling and the trauma, and the fact that it could be any one of them. It’s like, maybe there’s more characters passing, maybe there’s not.

The younger cast throws “funeral parties” when one of them dies on the show. Do you, in the adult cast, do anything similar?

No there wasn’t a funeral party! It should have been fabulous and flamboyant and with all my purple people (laughs). But no.

I spoke to Courtney Eaton about Lottie’s death. She said she came into this show without an adult counterpart, then you joined her in season two and now, again, she’s left alone — which she said is “very Lottie.” Your cast did a photoshoot together (pictured, above) at the start of season three. Knowing your fate, did it feel like you two were saying goodbye to each other then?

Yes. I’m incredibly close to Courtney. I know actors say that, but we actually are. She’s an absolute darling. We were both shocked and when I found out I did text her, because it’s her character. I wanted to do her justice and a part of me felt like I’d let her down in a way? But again, it’s that kind of show. It’s Yellowjackets. But doing the photoshoot with Courtney was really special. I feel very protective of her, which is nice.

Now maybe you can answer some of these long-gestating questions around Lottie: Is she clairvoyant? Is she mysteriously connected to the wilderness? Or was it mental illness combined with trauma this whole time?

I think it’s the latter. I think it’s mental illness, combined with trauma, with a personality disorder that’s been amplified by the fact she’s lost her community. When you think of that, even on a personal level, it’s really traumatic. I really wanted to bring a childlike behavior to her this season so that we really love her more. And we feel for her, because she really is full of energy and love; she is childlike and euphoric, and I know with the work I’ve done with people who are suffering or going through mental health [issues], that that can be one of the many personality traits. Where you’re high and you’re in love, and then you can turn on a dime. I found that really fascinating and interesting to play. So that’s absolutely how I portrayed Lottie.

Was there a moment that foreshadowed her death? Was there a time you thought, “there’s no way Lottie is the final survivor here”?

Maybe. Maybe it was meant to be Lottie [who died] at the end of season two, but then it flipped and was the Natalie character [played by Juliette Lewis], which was devastating. That’s the other thing. We lost Natalie and that was really hard. When we lost Juliet Lewis’ character, that was a lot and then it was Lottie’s turn. It just seems to be the show and what they’re doing. I’m sure they have a journey that we just don’t know about yet.

If you had a crystal ball, what’s the life you would have liked to see Lottie live?

I would love to have seen her continue a community, perhaps maybe she just reinvents herself. Maybe she becomes a real estate agent. She’s forever changing so I was hoping we’d see more transitions of Lottie. Even seeing her go off to the mental health facility [at the end of season two], I was looking forward to playing that, but we didn’t. So she came and she gave her love, and now she’s gone.

That would have been interesting to have followed her into the mental health facility.

I think so, too. That would have been really cool to see that side of her because she was so powerful and astute as this this spiritual leader, this guru and then she kind of transformed again into asking, “Can I take shelter?” to Shauna at her house, like she had nowhere to go. But the whole time, she did have somewhere to go. The whole time she had a penthouse in New York.

Oh, that was her penthouse?

Yes.

So maybe she was scamming all of her purple people.

(Laughs) That’s the thing. There are many, many masks to Lottie and I knew that. So I sort of chose to play her in a way that you could relate to. I actually haven’t seen the episode yet. I don’t know that I want to!

Another burning question: What did she tell Shauna’s daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins) at their sleepover when Callie was trying to find out more of what they did out in the wilderness?

I think it’s more for Shauna’s perspective, for Shauna to be like, “What? What does my daughter know?” I don’t think Lottie told her [much]… it wasn’t about Lottie telling her things. She was always asking Callie, “What is it that you want?” She was trying to, not groom her, but she was intrigued with Callie and she was intrigued that perhaps she’s the chosen one from the wilderness. I think that’s where she was going with that.

Lottie, like a lot of viewers on Reddit, thinks Callie could even be Pit Girl. Why do you think Callie has such a mystification around her?

I think because she’s the daughter of Shauna. She’s the child that lived from the wilderness. I think, I don’t know. Maybe you have to ask the writers that one!

If you are watching next season as a fan, what are some lingering questions you want to see answered by the show?

I have no more questions. I have no more answers! I think when Lottie died, it died. I can’t hypothesize anymore about the Antler Queen or their survival. I think, for me, Lottie’s passing is the end of that sort of voyage. I’m so intrigued about what happens with the young girls in that timeline and how they’ll then be survived if a season four happens. I’m really looking forward to seeing that. The re-entry into society. I think that’s really interesting. But for the most part, I don’t think I have any more questions or any more answers.

Were you satisfied by the season finale reveal about what happened to Lottie?

Let’s connect after you’ve seen it. Ask me then!

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Yellowjackets is now streaming the first four episodes of season three on Paramount+. New episodes release Fridays, with a linear airing Sundays at 9 p.m. on Showtime. Follow along with THR‘s season coverage and interviews.