[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Yellowjackets, Season 2, Episode 6, “Qui."]
Poor Ben Scott (Steven Krueger). Not only did he suffer the most horrific plane crash injury (death not included) and get poisoned by Misty (Samantha Hanratty) in Season 1, but now he finds himself ostracized from the group, starving, and losing his sanity in Season 2.
YellowjacketsSeason 2, Episode 2, “Edible Complex” marks a major turning point for Ben when he decides to not eat Jackie (Ella Purnell) with the rest of the group. Not only does the choice kick off his extreme alienation and leave him far weaker than the rest of the survivors, but it also sends him spiraling mentally. Flashbacks to happier times with his boyfriend Paul played byFrançois Arnaudmorph into a fantasy, giving him a taste of what could have been had he never boarded the plane to the soccer tournament at all.
During the spoiler half of my interview with Krueger and co-starsWarren KoleandKevin Alves, the subject of Ben’s flashbacks/fantasies came up, so I opted to ask Krueger for some of his personal top priorities when playing those moments. Here’s what he said:
“One of the big things was I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t going to just be — the best way to put this is I didn’t want it to be a generic token gay storyline, you know? I think a lot of times you have gay characters in shows and just as a way of servicing that, they kind of throw in a storyline that just kind of feeds something to the fans and say, ‘Hey, we’re paying attention to this part of this character.’ I wanted it to be actually something that shows where he came from and why he behaves in the way that he does, and I thought they did an incredible job of filling in his psyche and all this stuff that they hinted at in Season 1, but that we didn’t actually get to see.”
Krueger continued by offering up a pretty significant tease of what’s to come for Ben in the tail end of the season — and it doesn’t sound good for him. Here’s what Krueger said:
“I know you’ve only seen through Episode 6, but as it goes along, you kind of realize that this is even more of a descent into madness for him. It starts off as a real flashback and all of a sudden, now some things from the real world are seeping into it, and he can’t really control it anymore, and he just kind of loses it a little bit over the things that he’s experiencing.”
We’ll have to wait for Episodes 7, 8, and 9 to drop on May 12th, May 19th, and May 26th respectively to see if Ben can collect himself, but in the meantime, you’re able to find some solace in the fact that, in reality, Krueger had a wonderful experience sharing the screen with Arnaud. Here’s what he said when I asked the group for an example of a time when a scene partner helped them access something in their own characters that they wouldn’t have been able to reach without them:
“Mine’s really easy. The stuff that I was able to do with François Arnaud in a lot of the flashback stuff. It’s scary having a new actor who is completely outside of this world come in and hoping that it’s the right match chemistry-wise, and he’s a brilliant actor and a great person, and we kind of clicked like that. So a lot of those scenes, just a look on his face would send me into a whole different world. It was a really great partnership through the whole season.”
Looking for moreYellowjacketsSeason 2 talk? you may catch my full spoiler conversation with Krueger, Kole, and Alves in the video at the top of this article. And if you’re looking for an even lengthierYellowjacketschat, we’ve got you covered in that department, too! Check outJasmin Savoy Brown’s recent episode ofCollider Ladies Nightbelow:
