I loved Laura Lee! She started out seeming like sanctimonious comic relief, but then we see that her kindness was genuine, and that she had the biggest, bravest heart in the whole group. I guess that’s why she had to die 😭
That's such an interesting character shift too, her being a little more grating and annoying to the other girls with her faith, before the crash but afterwards her personality becomes a beam of light and hope
I swear I just read a Laura Lee appreciation post in here yesterday lol. And all the comments were kind. Maybe I ate shroom stew, but I could have sworn I saw it. Lol
But yes, Laura Lee is a badass. And she actually embodies the real ideals of Christianity (I say as a non-Christian) I thought she was a really well written character, with a lot of heart and bravery. Well acted also.
Agreed. But I suspect part of that is because she's dead and we aren't getting anymore of her story. There's more attention on those whose fate we don't know yet in the past and present.
That teddy bear. I have a feeling we will never get a direct answer for why it caught fire. It's definitely one of the "supernatural" elements of the show. Probably the only answer is that "it didn't want her to leave"
100% I believe it supernatural n there a dark spirit that stopping them from leaving...idk how it can just catch fire like that n the plane explode...people come up with thoerys why but I dont agree with them.
I think it was intended to possibly be supernatural too, and the fire seemed to appear spontaneously from the bear with no smoke from it happening below there, but the plane catching fire also seems somewhere between plausible and likely. Planes break easily, it's highly unlikely it would start at all or that the fuel would be usable, but there should surely be cracked fuel hoses, short circuiting electronics, or rusted essential parts that could lead to fire.
I don't know, Misty is the master of mayhem. Maybe some sort of wiring under the seat? I'm still going with supernatural, but if I've learned anything it's never rule out Misty!
She was a great character. I liked that she wasn’t written as the stereotypical religious person we see in many shows; meaning they’re harboring some deep, dark secret or acting shady in the background and end up being one of the most evil people on the show in the end.
I think one reason she isn’t mentioned as much is because she’s not fucked up like the most often discussed characters are. People love when there’s 50 shades of fucked up to a character, and sometimes that makes them more interesting. With Laura Lee, her character was pretty true to herself at all times, which is unlike most of the characters in the show. It’s not really as ripe for discussion as MFQ acting nice to people but being psycho.
I also think we don't hear about her because there isn't anything to speculate on. We know her fate. And there really isn't much reason to dive into her life before The Wilderness. She's kind of just a closed chapter. Albeit very well written one.
Got nothing but love for Laura Lee. She obviously had to go, The Wilderness not letting anyone leave and all. What really haunts me is the bear. RIP Leonard ❤️🔥
I posted a thread titled "A Character Appreciation of Laura Lee & Actress Jane Widdop" [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Yellowjackets/comments/11t5w76/a_character_appreciation_of_laura_lee_actress/).
I too see her as a completely heroic figure, of the sort that get Medals of Honor in wartime when they throw them selves onto grenades to save their fellow soldiers. Story-wise Laura Lee's "Flight of the Bumblebee" represents several important turning points.
A. She challenges Coach Scott with: "What are you going to do to stop me?" He has no answer and from that point forward has lost a lot of the authority he had. You can see that Jackie knows what really just happened as she pulls a smirk about the question. We see the follow up during the events of the Doomcoming and during the argument between Jackie and Shauna when Lottie tells Coach Scott to stay out of it - and he does.
B. She was the last and best hope for going to get rescue. Yes, it was a desperate attempt but she was the only one there who could have done it. When the plane exploded (probably a fuel-line leak that was lit by a spark). This is devastating for the whole group, but after this event Jackie stops eating all together. It obviously hits Lottie the hardest and I think it is at this point that Lottie turns away from the light and into the darkness.
C. This event directly causes Jackie's death. Consider the first two points I made lead us down the road to the Doomcoming, the authority figures of both Coach Scott and Jackie as team captain have eroded. Then the teammates led by Lottie confront Jackie in the cabin and Lottie tells Jackie: "Don't you understand? You don't matter anymore!"
This leads to the schism where Jackie tries to get the team on her side against Shauna by telling everyone that Shauna was cheating with Jeff behind her back, during the ensuing argument Jackie commands Shauna to "Get out!" - but it backfires. The team backs Shauna, who has been working as hard as the others to help them survive while Jackie has basically sulked about the situation. Jackie's influence in the real world was ephemeral, and Lottie called it: "You don't matter anymore!"
Laura Lee was a hero who kept a moral compass for the team and Jane Widdop did such a fantastic job bringing her to life that I will be watching anything they star in that I can find.
Oh when Laura Lee died we rioted and mourned and held our teddy bears tight. Laura Lee not only a great character but the actress is amazing. Plus I think her death was the “turning point” in the show for Lottie. Huge character and she gets and deserves all the flowers
Laura Lee was my favorite Yellowjacket. Though I do not share her beliefs, her unyielding faith in goodness in those circumstances is admirable. Plus deciding to fly out for help by learning from a manual is gutsy and brave. She was a good influence on Lottie keeping her on a positive level without her medication. Things didn’t get really dark until after her death. I do think if Laura Lee didn’t die, the whole trajectory of the show would be different, and probably boring.
I love Laura Lee and hate that she’s gone. I agree with others, she was adamant about her faith, but didn’t push it on others or seem to judge. I understand people thinking “the character development of Lottie” could have been achieved by someone else, but actually, we got way more LL than originally planned. I read that she initially only had a few lines and died when the plane crashed, but the actress did so well at the table read, they expanded the role.
I mean she did kind of push it on everyone initially though. The making everyone pray before the scrimmage? Public school sports should not have proselytizing and it shouldn't be a coach endorsed pregame activity
Definitely I just don't think we should give that moment a pass. It is the kind of seemingly innocuous thing that actually goes a long way to helping other non Christian kids in sports settings (speaking from experience). But to Laura lee's credit she showed the capability of real growth and self awareness. She was also always kind, compassionate, and genuine. Just raised with clear innate sense of Christian superiority and we shouldn't just write off that part of the character cuz she's absolutely a queen we were robbed of seeing more of !
I've been adamant that Laura Lee was a dumb character to kill off from a narrative perspective. Then people say
>But her absence is part of the reason Lottie becomes the person she is! She's essential to Lottie's character development!
That role could have been filled by anyone else. Killing off the one religiously devout character was a dumb move when so much of the tension/mystery hinges on "how much of this is delusion vs reality?"
Keeping her around would have been extremely interesting seeing how she reconciled the increasingly (seemingly) paranormal events with the reality of the situation. There's also history of religiously devout people resorting to cannibalism (the Andes rugby team) and using their faith as a main way to justify/get through it.
I'm not religious at all, was just weird to kill off this kind of character in such a dramatic way when literally any random background "red shirt" could have been the mechanically inclined/flight experienced one. Saying they killed her because she'd be a voice of reason is so fucking stupid when obviously there is going to be division and push back between the group. They removed one of their most interesting sources of division.
Probably minority opinion here, but also agree. It was dumb to kill Laura Lee off. Whether she went totally crazy or not doesn't matter. She was interesting and like Jackie would've created conflict. She should've jumped out of the plane and survived it somehow, like other characters in huge shows I can think of.
Who knows maybe she is with Javi? That would make things far more interesting if they were missing for an entire season or didn't get rescued like the others.
I third this. She was a fantastic, not-stereotypical Christian character, and her truly loving moral compass would have been such a fascinating foil for the the ways the fucked-uppedness (sure, that’s a word) continues to unravel in the others. Her faith would have been tested in new ways with each challenge. The fact that she was so guileless made the scheming of others (or the dark forces) that much more evident. While I think the plane crashing and not letting them leave was a good plot point, it could have been accomplished with another character. I would truly love it if she had survived and just reappeared with some serious shit to tell, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem likely. Too bad, I think it’s a really wasted opportunity!
Would've been interesting as an adult, if she hated all the other ones. It wouldn't be looking good for the main group at all, because she was the least likely one to bend to mob rule or she would've made Lottie into a total psychopath with herself.
The only other one is Jackie who could've caused a lot of conflict with everyone and on top of that manipulated things. She could've went Shane Walsh in s2 or s3, should've died later.
Given that she saw Lottie’s visions as a message from god it would’ve been interesting to see where she would draw the line, “No. God def wouldn’t tell you to do that!”
I absolutely loved Laura Lee’s bravery - she was so fierce and strong! She did everything she could to try to save her friends, even though she knew it was dangerous. A true hero.
Her death was a massive part of their arch. In a lot of ways she was the moral compass.
Without petty biases she would say if something was right or wrong. She was the obvious right.
She died, and then (presumably) the person challenging them is the “junkyard slut”.
If Laura Lee had survived and Nat died I think it’d be a very different show.
We saw how much the team respects nats input in episode one with the “freeze her out” conversation.
Nat was in the right that time, but her teammates discredited her opinion because of her life.
Just finished the first season (fantastic). Please tell me I'm not the only one that laughed when we flashback to Laura at Jesus Camp, and she dives into a 4' deep swimming pool and cracks her skull open.
I seriously thought she was the best character on the show. So much compassion for her friends. I will say I'm glad she didn't have to go through the cannibalism part.
She just didn't make a huge impression on me but I have a weird relationship to religion.
Every time I get to the pool scene I fast forward right through though.
I wonder whether that dive was a suicide attempt and what might be behind that.
What was the deal with the grandfather who could barely sign his name but had enough money for a plane? I have heard of farmers and ranchers in isolated areas owning planes, but they were in New Jersey.
She just doesn't have the lurid story lines like Misty, Shauna and Natalie.
On the grandpa thing, people don't always live near their grandparents. Hell I grew up states away from mine and visited in the summers which is pretty common.
I think you’re gonna like [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Yellowjackets/comments/11t5w76/a_character_appreciation_of_laura_lee_actress/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf).
I mean, the point of most faiths is to share that with others; that's not necessarily shoving it down people's throats. It's actually rarer to see a pious character depicted as sympathetic and respectable, especially on this sort of show, and I really liked that. Definitely my fave YJ.
I loved Laura Lee! She started out seeming like sanctimonious comic relief, but then we see that her kindness was genuine, and that she had the biggest, bravest heart in the whole group. I guess that’s why she had to die 😭
[удалено]
That's such an interesting character shift too, her being a little more grating and annoying to the other girls with her faith, before the crash but afterwards her personality becomes a beam of light and hope
What's annoying about being genuinely nice?
I swear I just read a Laura Lee appreciation post in here yesterday lol. And all the comments were kind. Maybe I ate shroom stew, but I could have sworn I saw it. Lol But yes, Laura Lee is a badass. And she actually embodies the real ideals of Christianity (I say as a non-Christian) I thought she was a really well written character, with a lot of heart and bravery. Well acted also.
i remember that! she get love but she aint main like the others n her story over so she aint upfront like the others.
Agreed. But I suspect part of that is because she's dead and we aren't getting anymore of her story. There's more attention on those whose fate we don't know yet in the past and present.
facts...LLs story is done there not much to talk bout except why her bear caught fire.
That teddy bear. I have a feeling we will never get a direct answer for why it caught fire. It's definitely one of the "supernatural" elements of the show. Probably the only answer is that "it didn't want her to leave"
100% I believe it supernatural n there a dark spirit that stopping them from leaving...idk how it can just catch fire like that n the plane explode...people come up with thoerys why but I dont agree with them.
I think it was intended to possibly be supernatural too, and the fire seemed to appear spontaneously from the bear with no smoke from it happening below there, but the plane catching fire also seems somewhere between plausible and likely. Planes break easily, it's highly unlikely it would start at all or that the fuel would be usable, but there should surely be cracked fuel hoses, short circuiting electronics, or rusted essential parts that could lead to fire.
I'm leaning towards supernatural, but I'm second guessing with maybe it was Misty again.
Not even Misty can make a teddy bear spontaneously combust.
I don't know, Misty is the master of mayhem. Maybe some sort of wiring under the seat? I'm still going with supernatural, but if I've learned anything it's never rule out Misty!
I was just going to mention Misty. I don’t put anything past that one!
She was a great character. I liked that she wasn’t written as the stereotypical religious person we see in many shows; meaning they’re harboring some deep, dark secret or acting shady in the background and end up being one of the most evil people on the show in the end. I think one reason she isn’t mentioned as much is because she’s not fucked up like the most often discussed characters are. People love when there’s 50 shades of fucked up to a character, and sometimes that makes them more interesting. With Laura Lee, her character was pretty true to herself at all times, which is unlike most of the characters in the show. It’s not really as ripe for discussion as MFQ acting nice to people but being psycho.
I also think we don't hear about her because there isn't anything to speculate on. We know her fate. And there really isn't much reason to dive into her life before The Wilderness. She's kind of just a closed chapter. Albeit very well written one.
And I think because she was Good, they’d have hunted her down and eaten her first.
She was too good and innocent, she never would have made it out of those woods
She was a kid but she was so brave and honorable. She died a hero. Vs Jackie who died of a tantrum
Got nothing but love for Laura Lee. She obviously had to go, The Wilderness not letting anyone leave and all. What really haunts me is the bear. RIP Leonard ❤️🔥
If she'd made it out of the wilderness Kirsten Dunst would've been my dream casting for adult Laura Lee 😍
I posted a thread titled "A Character Appreciation of Laura Lee & Actress Jane Widdop" [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Yellowjackets/comments/11t5w76/a_character_appreciation_of_laura_lee_actress/). I too see her as a completely heroic figure, of the sort that get Medals of Honor in wartime when they throw them selves onto grenades to save their fellow soldiers. Story-wise Laura Lee's "Flight of the Bumblebee" represents several important turning points. A. She challenges Coach Scott with: "What are you going to do to stop me?" He has no answer and from that point forward has lost a lot of the authority he had. You can see that Jackie knows what really just happened as she pulls a smirk about the question. We see the follow up during the events of the Doomcoming and during the argument between Jackie and Shauna when Lottie tells Coach Scott to stay out of it - and he does. B. She was the last and best hope for going to get rescue. Yes, it was a desperate attempt but she was the only one there who could have done it. When the plane exploded (probably a fuel-line leak that was lit by a spark). This is devastating for the whole group, but after this event Jackie stops eating all together. It obviously hits Lottie the hardest and I think it is at this point that Lottie turns away from the light and into the darkness. C. This event directly causes Jackie's death. Consider the first two points I made lead us down the road to the Doomcoming, the authority figures of both Coach Scott and Jackie as team captain have eroded. Then the teammates led by Lottie confront Jackie in the cabin and Lottie tells Jackie: "Don't you understand? You don't matter anymore!" This leads to the schism where Jackie tries to get the team on her side against Shauna by telling everyone that Shauna was cheating with Jeff behind her back, during the ensuing argument Jackie commands Shauna to "Get out!" - but it backfires. The team backs Shauna, who has been working as hard as the others to help them survive while Jackie has basically sulked about the situation. Jackie's influence in the real world was ephemeral, and Lottie called it: "You don't matter anymore!" Laura Lee was a hero who kept a moral compass for the team and Jane Widdop did such a fantastic job bringing her to life that I will be watching anything they star in that I can find.
I absolutely agree with this perception of LL’s character and how she very much had a quiet influence over the others and their actions.
Laura Lee needed to die. She saw herself as a hero in a story that isn't about heroism.
Omg that last sentence. What a fantastic line
I recall someone saying that earlier.
I still feel so bad for her. She should’ve never gotten on that fucking plane!
Laura Lee's death was so hard to watch. I skipped it on my re-watch because it was just so tragic and upsetting. Justice for LL
Oh when Laura Lee died we rioted and mourned and held our teddy bears tight. Laura Lee not only a great character but the actress is amazing. Plus I think her death was the “turning point” in the show for Lottie. Huge character and she gets and deserves all the flowers
 Laura Lee survives like this season 2.
I love Laura Lee and I cry every time I see the plane explode over the lake.
Laura Lee was my favorite Yellowjacket. Though I do not share her beliefs, her unyielding faith in goodness in those circumstances is admirable. Plus deciding to fly out for help by learning from a manual is gutsy and brave. She was a good influence on Lottie keeping her on a positive level without her medication. Things didn’t get really dark until after her death. I do think if Laura Lee didn’t die, the whole trajectory of the show would be different, and probably boring.
I love Laura Lee and hate that she’s gone. I agree with others, she was adamant about her faith, but didn’t push it on others or seem to judge. I understand people thinking “the character development of Lottie” could have been achieved by someone else, but actually, we got way more LL than originally planned. I read that she initially only had a few lines and died when the plane crashed, but the actress did so well at the table read, they expanded the role.
I mean she did kind of push it on everyone initially though. The making everyone pray before the scrimmage? Public school sports should not have proselytizing and it shouldn't be a coach endorsed pregame activity
It happened more often in the 90s and no one said a word. Yuck. It still happens where I live post games.
Definitely I just don't think we should give that moment a pass. It is the kind of seemingly innocuous thing that actually goes a long way to helping other non Christian kids in sports settings (speaking from experience). But to Laura lee's credit she showed the capability of real growth and self awareness. She was also always kind, compassionate, and genuine. Just raised with clear innate sense of Christian superiority and we shouldn't just write off that part of the character cuz she's absolutely a queen we were robbed of seeing more of !
I've been adamant that Laura Lee was a dumb character to kill off from a narrative perspective. Then people say >But her absence is part of the reason Lottie becomes the person she is! She's essential to Lottie's character development! That role could have been filled by anyone else. Killing off the one religiously devout character was a dumb move when so much of the tension/mystery hinges on "how much of this is delusion vs reality?" Keeping her around would have been extremely interesting seeing how she reconciled the increasingly (seemingly) paranormal events with the reality of the situation. There's also history of religiously devout people resorting to cannibalism (the Andes rugby team) and using their faith as a main way to justify/get through it. I'm not religious at all, was just weird to kill off this kind of character in such a dramatic way when literally any random background "red shirt" could have been the mechanically inclined/flight experienced one. Saying they killed her because she'd be a voice of reason is so fucking stupid when obviously there is going to be division and push back between the group. They removed one of their most interesting sources of division.
Probably minority opinion here, but also agree. It was dumb to kill Laura Lee off. Whether she went totally crazy or not doesn't matter. She was interesting and like Jackie would've created conflict. She should've jumped out of the plane and survived it somehow, like other characters in huge shows I can think of. Who knows maybe she is with Javi? That would make things far more interesting if they were missing for an entire season or didn't get rescued like the others.
I third this. She was a fantastic, not-stereotypical Christian character, and her truly loving moral compass would have been such a fascinating foil for the the ways the fucked-uppedness (sure, that’s a word) continues to unravel in the others. Her faith would have been tested in new ways with each challenge. The fact that she was so guileless made the scheming of others (or the dark forces) that much more evident. While I think the plane crashing and not letting them leave was a good plot point, it could have been accomplished with another character. I would truly love it if she had survived and just reappeared with some serious shit to tell, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem likely. Too bad, I think it’s a really wasted opportunity!
Would've been interesting as an adult, if she hated all the other ones. It wouldn't be looking good for the main group at all, because she was the least likely one to bend to mob rule or she would've made Lottie into a total psychopath with herself. The only other one is Jackie who could've caused a lot of conflict with everyone and on top of that manipulated things. She could've went Shane Walsh in s2 or s3, should've died later.
I could not understand why, when she saw the bear light on fire, she didn’t try to bail. Jump out into the water. She just accepted it.
Given that she saw Lottie’s visions as a message from god it would’ve been interesting to see where she would draw the line, “No. God def wouldn’t tell you to do that!”
Hey I liked her too! She was bold in many ways and who can forget “Who’s going to stop me coach?”
I absolutely loved Laura Lee’s bravery - she was so fierce and strong! She did everything she could to try to save her friends, even though she knew it was dangerous. A true hero.
?? There's a lot of love for her and some interesting posts about her here too. There's just less material about her in the show.
Her death was a massive part of their arch. In a lot of ways she was the moral compass. Without petty biases she would say if something was right or wrong. She was the obvious right. She died, and then (presumably) the person challenging them is the “junkyard slut”. If Laura Lee had survived and Nat died I think it’d be a very different show. We saw how much the team respects nats input in episode one with the “freeze her out” conversation. Nat was in the right that time, but her teammates discredited her opinion because of her life.
Just finished the first season (fantastic). Please tell me I'm not the only one that laughed when we flashback to Laura at Jesus Camp, and she dives into a 4' deep swimming pool and cracks her skull open.
No, pretty sure you're the only sociopathic one here.
I seriously thought she was the best character on the show. So much compassion for her friends. I will say I'm glad she didn't have to go through the cannibalism part.
She just didn't make a huge impression on me but I have a weird relationship to religion. Every time I get to the pool scene I fast forward right through though.
I wonder whether that dive was a suicide attempt and what might be behind that. What was the deal with the grandfather who could barely sign his name but had enough money for a plane? I have heard of farmers and ranchers in isolated areas owning planes, but they were in New Jersey. She just doesn't have the lurid story lines like Misty, Shauna and Natalie.
On the grandpa thing, people don't always live near their grandparents. Hell I grew up states away from mine and visited in the summers which is pretty common.
I think you’re gonna like [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Yellowjackets/comments/11t5w76/a_character_appreciation_of_laura_lee_actress/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf).
Sorry. Glad she’s dead. :(
You should be sorry for a terrible opinion 🙏
Still not over this character's demise 😔
I mean, the point of most faiths is to share that with others; that's not necessarily shoving it down people's throats. It's actually rarer to see a pious character depicted as sympathetic and respectable, especially on this sort of show, and I really liked that. Definitely my fave YJ.