Hilary Swank is Adult [SPOILER]: Part 2
So, a few weeks back I made a post laying out all the evidence for why I believe Hilary Swank will be playing the adult version of Mel in season three. (Hyperlink here). The post got a lot of really interesting responses, and I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to comment.
There were a few interesting counterarguments and alternative theories posted that I wanted to take the time to respond to in one place, rather than across a dozen different comments. Furthermore, the new trailer does provide more evidence to Swank playing Mel, and addresses the two main criticism people have with her being a survivor. That being;
1 Mel isn’t important enough to the story to be a survivor
At first glance, I don’t disagree with this. Mel is the definition of a background character, with all of maybe a dozen lines in season 2. Making her a survivor over say, Mari or Akilah – both of whom have had enough screentime to establish their personalities – is an odd choice. We don’t really know anything about her, except that she likes wearing a baseball cap, and is close with Gen. There’s no real ‘character’ there…yet.
For a background character, Mel has an unusually large presence in the new trailer. She’s one of the only teen characters with dialogue, with Nat, Lottie and Van getting nothing. She’s also clearly visible in several shots, where a lot of other characters you have to pause to get a clear look at them. In my last post, I mentioned the trailer was drawing attention to Mel; I think this is an expansion of this, to get the audience ready for her to have a bigger role in S3. She may be a background character at the moment, but that doesn’t mean she has to stay one.
I just finished watching Squid Game S2, and Jung-bae is a masterclass in how to take a minor character and turn them into a major one. In S1 he was so minor I forgot he existed, yet in S2 he has backstory, personality, character growth, and his relationship with Gi-hun fleshed out. Why? Jung-bae was given far more screentime in S2, and I think we’re going to see something similar happen with Mel. I think they’re going to do something similar to Misty and Crystal, by pairing her up with Shauna. The teaser does suggest a bond between the two – I don’t know about you, but if I was in a cannibal clan, I wouldn’t say ‘we should’ve eaten that bitch first’ unless I trusted them not to share that with others.
Finally, with the death of Nat in the present timeline, there’s space to explore another survivor’s story. I think we’ll see something similar in the 90s timeline following the death of Coach Ben; he took up a LOT of screentime in S2, and I think that’ll be reallocated to Mel.
2 Eye colour
While it was hard to tell from the teaser, the new trailer does give us a much better look at Swank, specifically her eyes. Swank and Burgess have brown and blue eyes respectively, but that’s never stopped the show before. And it does look like Swank is wearing blue contact lenses in the trailer.
Now that I’ve addressed the critiques, I want to bring up some of the alternative characters people think Swank could be playing, and why I don’t think that’s the case.
1 A cop
While I do think we’ll see law enforcement continue to play a part in this story (I don’t see Officer Moustache letting Kevyn’s death slide), I don’t think HS’ character is one. For starters…where’s her gun? We don’t see much of what’s going on with her in the highway scene in either the teaser or the official trailer, but it looks like she’s in danger. If’s she a cop, I’d think she’d have her weapon out.
Then there’s her clothes. She’s bloodied and bandaged, wearing jeans and a tank top – not exactly police attire. Moreover, outfits matter in Yellowjackets. The costume department has done a fantastic job of weaving in meaning and foreshadowing into what the characters wear; Adult Tai’s outfit shifts from formal, expensive clothing to casual outfits as her life spirals, Nat’s outfit in episode 1 foreshadows her death in the S2 finale…and Kevyn, an actual cop, mostly sticks to collared shirts and dress pants. Nothing in this show is by accident, and this looks more like the outfit of a citizen rather than a cop or a fed.
And honestly…I’m okay with that. If there’s one thing that this show excels at, it’s taking seemingly ‘ordinary’ women and showing just how much lies beneath their exterior. Shauna and Misty are both in seemingly ‘docile’ professions, but I don’t think anyone would argue that it’s a close call between the two for scariest character in the series. I’m sure whoever Swank is playing is going to be amazing to watch.
2 A relative
This is the theory I disagree with the most. While a family member of a deceased YJ looking for answers is an interesting concept, there’s just one problem…why go looking now? It’s been twenty-five years!
If we see more of the post-rescue timeline, I do think we’ll see the families of the fallen YJs press the survivors for answers during the days, weeks, months, maybe even years after their return. But two and a half decades just feels like it’s stretching the believability of the story.
It's worth noting though, this criticism can be projected onto Mel as well. The trailer suggests someone is hunting the present-day YJs, quite possibly Adult Mel. But again, it’s been 25 years – why would she go after them now?
Well, maybe it’s Nat.
Think about it. Let’s say Mel hears about Nat’s death, and that it occurred with the other survivors…in woodlands…next to a ‘wellness centre’…run by Lottie freaking Matthews. For bonus points, maybe she learns about the death of Kevyn Tan, and the gruesome murder of one Adam Martin.
I don’t think Mel is hunting the Yellowjackets for revenge – I think she believes they’re up to their old tricks, and she’s trying to stop them from hurting anyone else.
This would line up with past antagonists – they’re not bad people; they’re just in opposition to the main characters. As much as we might like the YJ gang, they’re not good people – they kill, they manipulate, they cover up crimes…
Jackie’s the perfect example. Is she flawed? Yes – she’s a bit self-centred and manipulative, she doesn’t pitch in around camp, and becomes snarkier as season one goes on. But she’s not a bad person, she’s just in opposition to the main characters because she doesn’t fit in to this new society they’re building. Interfering with the hunt of Travis and calling them out on it might make her a pariah, but she does have the moral high ground.
Lottie is similar – while she does run a cult (I’m sure the IRS would have kittens over her tax returns), everything she does is in the name of helping people. Don’t forget, she was horrified by how the girls twisted her teachings.
Looking at this pattern, I think an adult Mel would make for a fantastic antagonist for S3, far more than a relative searching for answers. It fits with the story perfectly – this isn’t a show about good or evil, it’s about how “people are willing to do some messed-up stuff, just to see another day”, and how that trauma can impact them for years to come.
Those are just my thoughts. Let me know what you think!
So, a few weeks back I made a post laying out all the evidence for why I believe Hilary Swank will be playing the adult version of Mel in season three. (Hyperlink here). The post got a lot of really interesting responses, and I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to comment.
There were a few interesting counterarguments and alternative theories posted that I wanted to take the time to respond to in one place, rather than across a dozen different comments. Furthermore, the new trailer does provide more evidence to Swank playing Mel, and addresses the two main criticism people have with her being a survivor. That being;
1 Mel isn’t important enough to the story to be a survivor
At first glance, I don’t disagree with this. Mel is the definition of a background character, with all of maybe a dozen lines in season 2. Making her a survivor over say, Mari or Akilah – both of whom have had enough screentime to establish their personalities – is an odd choice. We don’t really know anything about her, except that she likes wearing a baseball cap, and is close with Gen. There’s no real ‘character’ there…yet.
For a background character, Mel has an unusually large presence in the new trailer. She’s one of the only teen characters with dialogue, with Nat, Lottie and Van getting nothing. She’s also clearly visible in several shots, where a lot of other characters you have to pause to get a clear look at them. In my last post, I mentioned the trailer was drawing attention to Mel; I think this is an expansion of this, to get the audience ready for her to have a bigger role in S3. She may be a background character at the moment, but that doesn’t mean she has to stay one.
I just finished watching Squid Game S2, and Jung-bae is a masterclass in how to take a minor character and turn them into a major one. In S1 he was so minor I forgot he existed, yet in S2 he has backstory, personality, character growth, and his relationship with Gi-hun fleshed out. Why? Jung-bae was given far more screentime in S2, and I think we’re going to see something similar happen with Mel. I think they’re going to do something similar to Misty and Crystal, by pairing her up with Shauna. The teaser does suggest a bond between the two – I don’t know about you, but if I was in a cannibal clan, I wouldn’t say ‘we should’ve eaten that bitch first’ unless I trusted them not to share that with others.
Finally, with the death of Nat in the present timeline, there’s space to explore another survivor’s story. I think we’ll see something similar in the 90s timeline following the death of Coach Ben; he took up a LOT of screentime in S2, and I think that’ll be reallocated to Mel.
2 Eye colour
While it was hard to tell from the teaser, the new trailer does give us a much better look at Swank, specifically her eyes. Swank and Burgess have brown and blue eyes respectively, but that’s never stopped the show before. And it does look like Swank is wearing blue contact lenses in the trailer.
Now that I’ve addressed the critiques, I want to bring up some of the alternative characters people think Swank could be playing, and why I don’t think that’s the case.
1 A cop
While I do think we’ll see law enforcement continue to play a part in this story (I don’t see Officer Moustache letting Kevyn’s death slide), I don’t think HS’ character is one. For starters…where’s her gun? We don’t see much of what’s going on with her in the highway scene in either the teaser or the official trailer, but it looks like she’s in danger. If’s she a cop, I’d think she’d have her weapon out.
Then there’s her clothes. She’s bloodied and bandaged, wearing jeans and a tank top – not exactly police attire. Moreover, outfits matter in Yellowjackets. The costume department has done a fantastic job of weaving in meaning and foreshadowing into what the characters wear; Adult Tai’s outfit shifts from formal, expensive clothing to casual outfits as her life spirals, Nat’s outfit in episode 1 foreshadows her death in the S2 finale…and Kevyn, an actual cop, mostly sticks to collared shirts and dress pants. Nothing in this show is by accident, and this looks more like the outfit of a citizen rather than a cop or a fed.
And honestly…I’m okay with that. If there’s one thing that this show excels at, it’s taking seemingly ‘ordinary’ women and showing just how much lies beneath their exterior. Shauna and Misty are both in seemingly ‘docile’ professions, but I don’t think anyone would argue that it’s a close call between the two for scariest character in the series. I’m sure whoever Swank is playing is going to be amazing to watch.
2 A relative
This is the theory I disagree with the most. While a family member of a deceased YJ looking for answers is an interesting concept, there’s just one problem…why go looking now? It’s been twenty-five years!
If we see more of the post-rescue timeline, I do think we’ll see the families of the fallen YJs press the survivors for answers during the days, weeks, months, maybe even years after their return. But two and a half decades just feels like it’s stretching the believability of the story.
It's worth noting though, this criticism can be projected onto Mel as well. The trailer suggests someone is hunting the present-day YJs, quite possibly Adult Mel. But again, it’s been 25 years – why would she go after them now?
Well, maybe it’s Nat.
Think about it. Let’s say Mel hears about Nat’s death, and that it occurred with the other survivors…in woodlands…next to a ‘wellness centre’…run by Lottie freaking Matthews. For bonus points, maybe she learns about the death of Kevyn Tan, and the gruesome murder of one Adam Martin.
I don’t think Mel is hunting the Yellowjackets for revenge – I think she believes they’re up to their old tricks, and she’s trying to stop them from hurting anyone else.
This would line up with past antagonists – they’re not bad people; they’re just in opposition to the main characters. As much as we might like the YJ gang, they’re not good people – they kill, they manipulate, they cover up crimes…
Jackie’s the perfect example. Is she flawed? Yes – she’s a bit self-centred and manipulative, she doesn’t pitch in around camp, and becomes snarkier as season one goes on. But she’s not a bad person, she’s just in opposition to the main characters because she doesn’t fit in to this new society they’re building. Interfering with the hunt of Travis and calling them out on it might make her a pariah, but she does have the moral high ground.
Lottie is similar – while she does run a cult (I’m sure the IRS would have kittens over her tax returns), everything she does is in the name of helping people. Don’t forget, she was horrified by how the girls twisted her teachings.
Looking at this pattern, I think an adult Mel would make for a fantastic antagonist for S3, far more than a relative searching for answers. It fits with the story perfectly – this isn’t a show about good or evil, it’s about how “people are willing to do some messed-up stuff, just to see another day”, and how that trauma can impact them for years to come.
Those are just my thoughts. Let me know what you think!