SPOILER alert: This post contains spoilers from “Friends, Romans, Countrymen,”the Season 2 premiere of “Yellowjackets,” now streaming on Showtime.
Surviving a brutally cold winter in the wilderness, cannibalism and trauma are factors that Warren Kole‘s Jeff doesn’t have to reckon with in “Yellowjackets.”
Instead, he’s facing up to Shauna’s (Melanie Lynskey) infidelity while trying to save his furniture store that nearly went out of business. And he’s helping to cover up the murder of Adam (Peter Gadiot), with whom Shauna was having an affair.
The “Yellowjackets” Season 2 premiere, titled “Friends, Romans, Countrymen,” sees Jeff and Shauna back in Adam’s studio, where they discover Adam’s shrine of Shauna sketches. Cue Shauna and Jeff destroying all evidence of the affair, but not before having sex on his desk.
Is Jeff mad at Shauna? Does he love her? How does he feel?
“I think it’s pretty clear that Jeff loves Shauna,” Warren Kole tells PvNew. “She’s been that girl for him since high school… I think he knows that she’s out of his league and that is a big source of the attraction.”
Admittedly, says Kole, “He’s got a bruised ego.”
Later, Jeff sits in the garage, tormented by the sketches as he flashes back to his intimate moment with Shauna. Searching for release, he scrolls for a song and Papa Roach’s “Last Resort” blasts.
The actor revealed that prior to filming the scene, he had never heard the 2000 hit. “It was brand new to me. I hate it,” Kole jokes. “But Jeff loves this song. He’s listened to it a hundred times and picks out the drum solo.”
Kole says the song used to be celebratory for the character, but because of what he’s feeling it’s taken on a new meaning for him. “It allows him to let go of this pressure valve because he’s so in over his head and he absolutely knows it,” he says. “He doesn’t know what to do, so he’s gonna regress a little bit and have this moment.”
“Jeff seems to have been internalizing a lot of the events that happened last season, many of which are out of his control. In the garage scene, it’s a moment where he’s feeling very alone,” music supervisor Nora Felder explains. “For the first time, we see him express this helpless, almost primal inner rage that has clearly been brewing for a while.”
As for what Kole’s release song would be, he cites Kool and the Gang’s “Jungle Boogie”: “I can lip sync the whole thing.”
