A major plot twist. TV fans were in for a real treat in 2022 with shows such as The White Lotus and Yellowjackets — who didn’t hold back when it came to their storytelling.
The HBO series, which returned as an anthology in season 2, quickly won viewers over with a new group of guests looking to enjoy their stay in Sicily. Fan-favorite character Tanya’s (Jennifer Coolidge) time at the resort however, was full of disappointment after her husband, Greg (Jon Gries), chose to return back to the U.S. for work.
During season 2, Tanya kept busy with a group of gay men that she met through Quentin (Tom Hollander). Her assistant Portia (Haley Lu Richardson), for her part, was quickly smitten by Quentin’s nephew, Jack (Leo Woodall), who showed her everything Italy had to offer.
Things quickly took a turn when Tanya discovered Jack and Quentin having sex. At the time, Woodall opened up about his own reaction to the shocking moment.
“When I got the role, I didn’t know what would happen with Jack’s story. At that point, I just knew that he was in the show. So, when I got the first five scripts, I read them all straight away. By the time I got to that point in the script, I could tell that something was afoot,” the Vampire Academy star told Men’s Health in November 2022. “And I remember reading it and immediately thinking about the scene in season one with Murray [Bartlett] and Lukas [Gage]. I’m actually really proud that I got to be part of the volume two of that scene.”
For Woodall, it was helpful having an intimacy coordinator on set to oversee the filming process.
“It helps a lot. It makes us feel a lot more comfortable. We had some great intimacy coordinators that really locked it down. It’s a closed set, and only the very, very, very necessary people that need to be there will be there,” he continued. “And particularly in the scene with me and Tom, it was all choreographed to get the right feel, the right look for the scene, while also being protective of our angles and our nether regions.”
Yellowjackets was also a show with no shortage of surprising twists. From cannibalism to murder, the Showtime series raised the bar with every new episode of its first season.
Jackie’s (Ella Purnell) death as a result of frostbite was a moment fans were still discussing even after the show went on hiatus. Shortly after the finale aired, Purnell discussed the inevitable ending for her character.
“I knew ever since I signed up for the pilot that I would be dying in the finale. It was just very sad to read the finale and to read the death scene and to then have to come to terms with the fact that that’s it,” the actress detailed to TV Guide in January 2022.
Purnell noted that she didn’t have all the answers to Jackie’s story after filming Yellowjackets.
“That dream sequence was another one of the things that when I read it, I was a little dubious. And I doubted my ability to pull it off in a way that would feel as impactful as I knew that it should have. So, I was a little nervous when we filmed it, but actually, when we did it, it made perfect sense,” she added. “Because the whole trajectory of Jackie, that’s what she’s always wanted — for people to love her. All she’s ever wanted is just to be accepted and valued and appreciated, but she doesn’t know how to express those needs and those wants.”
Purnell concluded: “[The scene] is that immediate feeling of, she gets to relax in the warmth of her friends by the fire, and she’s physically relieved from the cold, but she’s also emotionally relieved. This is so satisfying for her that finally, people are apologizing to her. And it’s interesting to play with various levels of Jackie realizing at some point, hang on, something’s not right, this can’t be real life.”
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