Taissa Turner, one of the most talented players on the school football team, along with many others, survived the plane crash in Yellowjackets. As their stay in the cabin began in season one, it was easy to assume that Taissa’s mind was reacting to the trauma she had faced since the crash. She is one of the girls who is intrigued by the mysterious signs that keep appearing everywhere.
The first season ended with Vanessa and Taissa falling in love and Vanessa helping her with her sleepwalking. 25 years later, the adult Taissa becomes a state senator. To Taissa’s horror, she has been sleepwalking all over again, which her son probably witnessed. Their dog died due to it, and her wife, Simone, left her after giving her an ultimatum. Season two also has Taissa not paying any heed to her estranged wife’s concerns. Simone has made her stance clear multiple times, but Taissa refuses to deal with her deteriorating mental health condition. She has visions, hallucinations, sleepwalking episodes, and an alter ego that makes her do unspeakable things. But Taissa refuses to consider seeing a psychiatrist.
The adult Taissa comes across as a reckless woman who is not worried about her job as a senator, and she is not willing to take her wife’s threat seriously. Taissa does not realize that she might end up losing her reelection bid down the line if her mental health issue gets picked up by the media. She would be deemed unfit to hold a post this important. She is aware she is being bothered by many things, and she keeps egging her mind by consuming plenty of coffee. There could be chances that the accident she and her wife were in, which rendered Simone seriously injured, was caused by Taissa’s alter ego to stop Simone from going to the media.
The younger Taissa, was supported by Vanessa, who was not afraid of Taissa sleepwalking as her alter ego. Vanessa walked out with Taissa in peak winter seeking something only Taissa was aware of. Taissa found the trees with the same mysterious and strange symbols, but for a long time, she and Vanessa were unable to understand what is happening. The lack of professional medical help could be the reason Taissa was spiraling.
Going into the second season, there is still an extension of what the adult Taissa is going through, and it is getting worse. She ends up having a memory full of black holes, and she is unable to remember how and where she reached a distant place far away from her home. After being in a car crash with her wife, it seems as if it triggered some more trauma and memory loss. The woman is still confused, and she knows only one person who could help her: Vanessa.
She reaches out to Vanessa, but her ex-girlfriend is unwilling to help her out. Taissa keeps complaining about how her mind is tricking her, and she comes looking for Vanessa because Taissa expected her to help with finding a solution to her issues just like she did when they were in the wilderness.
There is no story being discussed on why Vanessa and Taissa broke up, but there is a chance that when they moved back to civilization after being rescued, Vanessa could not help Taissa anymore with her sleepwalking and alter ego. She could only help Taissa to a certain extent, and probably their separation led to Taissa not having these sleepwalking tendencies and her alter ego disappearing too. Taissa’s stress of running for senator probably triggered her internal demons, which came out more viciously than before.
Taissa’s character graph is the most infuriating of all because the writers go on a loop about Taissa not understanding what is happening to her. But she hardly tried to find a solution for herself and did not understand that she might be a threat to her wife, son, and pets. Taissa cannot fall back on Vanessa as her source of comfort. They are not teenagers anymore, where one could endlessly talk about being with each other in sickness and in health. There needs to be an end to this loop, and Taissa should start worrying about her senatorial job.
There is a theory floating around on Reddit and other forums that the mud that Taissa kept eating during her sleepwalking spells affected her mental health. The soil might have been filled with many minerals, organic matter, and dead animals, which may have triggered a reaction in her body. The adult Taissa again indulges in eating the mud from her garden, an act that was witnessed by her son. This might have again led to her further spiraling.
On reaching Lottie’s commune; Shauna, Nat, and Misty were quick to point out that Lottie was the one who needed psychiatric help. No one questioned what had happened to Taissa. Wasn’t her condition bad as well? She and Vanessa were quick to dismiss psychiatric help for Lottie because Vanessa thought Lottie and Taissa’s condition could not be treated at a hospital where they would be forcefully taken. This line in the show does not make sense and comes across as insensitive because there is no way a supernatural entity is involved in making them do what they are doing. Their trauma from the crash and the unspeakable things that they did out of sheer hunger are what deeply affected them long after they were rescued.
There is surely a damaged mind playing games with the survivors because of the residual trauma. Hopefully, Taissa’s character in the next season will progress toward understanding what triggered her sleepwalking and alter ego and why she is hesitant to get psychiatric help. So far, no concrete reason or evidence has been put forward for her declining mental health. The surface-level reason is the crash and their stay in the wilderness. But plenty of answers about Taissa remain unanswered.
