An insight into the characters based on their approach to the âAllie problemâ
If good writing means that every scene has the potential to say something about a character at their core, then the girls' attitude towards the "Allie problem" is an interesting example.
Taissa
The one who comes up with the very plan. This establishes her as ambitious and extremely rational, but itâs the type of rationality that without grounded moral principles could degenerate into violence and cruelty at any time. Itâs what we see with adult Misty and Walter, who are both so practical-minded that resorting to murder is nothing more than a smart option to choose to them.
Like Jackie says, Taissa has so much fight in her. The way she handles the Allie situation shows that if she has a goal, sheâll do whatever she finds necessary to obtain it.
How does that translate into their time in the wilderness?
Taissaâs the first to make the call that they should leave the plane and find water. Sheâs the one who sleeps in the attic when everyone else wouldnât, sheâs the only one who tries to tell Jackie she shouldnât leave. And in season two, sheâs the one who says, âWe need to find a way to stay alive, and it canât be her [: Lottie]â.
Then we see them drawing cards. Weâre not shown how they get to that very decision exactly, but itâs important that we know that the two things are tied. The hunt that follows, their first conscious hunt (letâs not forget about Travis), wasnât supposed to happenâitâs rather the consequence of the designed sacrifice refusing to take on the role.
Though thereâs an obvious religious aspect to it, drawing cards isnât just letting fate/the wilderness decide in their place so that they donât blame themselves. Itâs also the girlsâ attempt to give the ritual some semblance of logic and structureâon a normal day, they would draw cards to decide who gets which task. Theyâre using the same mechanism, except that theyâre now deciding who should die and get eaten. And it starts with Taissaâs very rational and straightforward remark about needing to survive.
Natalie
She openly and passionately goes against Taissaâs plan. Despite being presented as the outsider who doesnât really engage with the team and disregards rules by smoking and doing drugs, sheâs the one who fights to play fairly. She most likely doesnât care about Allie personally, but sheâs a teammate, and they should treat her as such.
While Taiâs ultimate goal is winning at Nationals, Natalie doesnât want to win more than she wants to be a team (T: Whatâs your plan, then? / N: I dunno, play like a fucking team and win? Itâs worked so far.).
Itâs quite ironicâyet not that surprisingâhow, despite being opposites, Natalie and Jackie share a similar mindset about this.
The scene establishes Natalie as a sympathetic character with grounded and noble moral principles, no matter the adversities. In the wilderness, sheâs the first and possibly the only one who acknowledges Travisâ grief and sees through his unsufferable attitude and understands that, as much as questionable his methods are, heâs trying to make sure Javi gets over their fatherâs death and wants to live on.
It's also meaningful that Natalieâs not there when Jackie and Shauna fight and Jackie ends up leaving the cabin. The night earlier, Natalie was the one who let her out when Lottie and the others locked her in and went to hunt Travis down. Natalie basically saves the girl who just had sex with Travis being perfectly aware that it would hurt her, and she doesnât even know. Viewers do know, though, and weâre instinctively led to think of her as even more noble and deserving of empathy.
Jackieâs death certainly comes from an irrational choice, but the deepest reason is the othersâ lack of sympathy towards her at the end of the season. It could be delusional, but I canât see Natalie turning a blind eye on the whole thing, had she been there.
Jackie was their captain when they had a normal life. Natalie becomes their leader thanks to the constant effort sheâs put into the group ever since they landed thereâand possibly, as the matter with Allie shows, even before that.
Lottie
Lottieâs phrasing for her refusal is telling. She says, âIt doesnât feel right.â Itâs not that she thinks it is, or that it seems like it is. She feels like theyâre not meant to go through with it. A simple yet fitting choice of words foreshadows Lottieâs spiritual nature and her connection to the wilderness as well as her role of prophet/messiah.
Itâs also important that sheâs not shown as particularly proactive. She does express her opinion, but sheâs not as passionate as Natalie about it, who instead actively tries to convince them what a terrible idea it is and interferes with Taissaâs plan on the field. This shows how Lottie never cared be a leader, but rather follows where her feelings lead her.
Van
Weâre not really shown Vanâs reaction until theyâre in the locker room after the scrimmage. We just learn that sheâs impressionable, as she almost throws up at Natâs mention of Allieâs bone being visible, and that sheâs so devoted to Tai that she wonât let Shauna talk shit about her at the party.
Laura Lee
Of course, nobody would even dream of telling Laura Lee about an act of such misconduct. She would never go along with Taissaâs plan, she wouldnât even fathom doing something like this. Sheâs more clueless than Jackie, because Jackie at least did notice something was off on the field. Even at the party, Laura Lee is the only one who still has no idea there were such tensions.
Her blissful ignorance keeps her kind and pure, apart from the ruthless tendencies of the team. It doesnât change once theyâre in the wildernessâLaura Lee dies trying to help her friends, and she fortunately never gets to witness their worst moments.
Shauna
Unsurprisingly, Shaunaâs a tough one. Her attitude towards the Allie situation is as ambivalent as it will be for the rest of the story towards everything else.
Shauna keeps her thoughts for herself until Nat and Lottie leave and itâs just her and Tai, and even then, the first thing she says is, âJackieâs not gonna like it.â The moment sheâs asked to make a personal decision, she talks about what Jackie would think, and itâs not because she herself doesnât know what to think, itâs just what she chooses to say outright. If anything, Shauna isnât against Taissaâs plan entirely, and bringing up Jackie rather sounds like an excuse so that she doesnât dwell on her own dark thoughts.
When Taissa says, âThen we probably shouldnât tell her,â we expect that to upset Shaunaâshe wouldnât keep things from Jackie, right? Theyâre best friends. While it does upset her, it still doesnât stop her. We understand why later in the episode, when we discover that sheâs no stranger to keeping secrets from Jackie, between her affair with Jeff and the admission letter to Brown (it also recontextualizes their first scene together in Shaunaâs car, where Jackie addressed literally both).
On the field, when Taissa plays aggressive and forces Allie to play under pressure, Shauna tells her, âItâs not helping,â and once Allieâs on the ground, sheâs one of the girls who runs to her first and tries to comfort her. Even though she didnât openly disagree with Taissaâs plan, she didnât want or expect things to escalate the way they did. Sheâll make the same mistake when Jackie leaves the cabin, Taissa tells her to go talk to her, and Shauna just goes to sleep, underestimating the consequences of it.
Her ambivalenceâif not hypocrisyâis shown later that night at the party, when she tries to pick a fight with Taissa while drunk. I think some part of her felt guilty to an extent, so she tries to fight with Tai out of remorse and because she wants to make her look like the only culprit, since she hates that she was so close to being complicit in it. Who calls her out when she defends Nat from Taissaâs slut-shaming at the party? Natalie herself slams in Shaunaâs face that she is complicit.
If Shauna had told Jackie, she wouldâve put a stop to it for sure. In the 2019 script for the pilot, Jackie says, âYou should have told me about Taissa and Allie.â Shaunaâs choice to keep the secret directly anticipates their falling out towards the end of the season. Shaunaâs continuous lying drives Jackie mad until she explodes and they have that fatal fight.
Shaunaâs the one who tries to act as a person who has it together but really doesnât. She has the potential to be a good person, friend and mother, but she ends up flunking everything and she barely understands why.
Finally, she tells Tai that sheâs âa fucking sociopathâ, which, considering everything that happens later in the series, is sort of rich.
Jackie
Like Laura Lee, Jackie has no clue the whole âfreeze Allie outâ strategy is even happening. Shauna didnât tell her, she was left out, and she doesnât find out until Allieâs already hurt and thereâs nothing she can do about it.
She watches the others as they rush to help and comfort her and handle the situation, but she doesnât partake in it because sheâs too shocked to move. After the scrimmage, she tries very hard to do as Coach Martinez told herâas captain, sheâs meant to glue them together (âWhen it gets tough out there, these girls are going to be looking for someone to guide them. Can you handle that?â). Itâs more than that, thoughâthe way Coach put it, if Jackie canât do that, then she isnât really anything special. Sheâs not as fast as Shauna and her footwork isnât as good as Lottieâs, and thereâs something else that Taissaâs better at, too, though Jackie stops Coach before he can tell her that bit. But nobody seems to care about what sheâs saying, and Natalie storms off.
Jackieâs inability to handle the Allie situation and lift the othersâ spirits foreshadows her incompetence as well as her progressive loss of influence in the wildernessâin Lottieâs words, âYou donât matter anymore.â
Allieâs accident marks the beginning of Jackieâs downfall even before the plane crashes.

















