Taissa Turner is meant to be one of the most significant characters in Yellowjackets. She survives the dangers of the Wilderness and returns home with her fellow teammates after an experience that left them all too traumatized to truly address what they went through.
In the first season, Yellowjackets suggested that Taissa was going to be one of the most instrumental characters in the series. She would have to be in order to be one of the remaining survivors. However, with each passing season, Yellowjackets has strayed further from what would make Taissa Turner such a survivor, and season 4 needs to return to developing her character in a way that shows exactly how and why Taissa survived her time in the Canadian Wilderness.
Yellowjackets has not been shy about using "Other Taissa" as a representation of Taissa's trauma. This alternate personality is shown heavily throughout the adult timeline, but it is the 1997 timeline that appears to be struggling to determine what Taissa's role in the Wilderness really is.
In season 1, the series experimented slightly more with her character, showing early signs of "Other Taissa" while also portraying a potential foreshadowing of a leadership arc as Taissa brings a group of her fellow teammates deeper into the woods in an attempt to reach civilization with the mindset that in order to escape, they may have to save themselves. But after this failed venture, Taissa never really takes up the helm of anything significant.
In season 2, Yellowjackets spends more time developing "Other Taissa" in quiet moments with Van. There is also the idea that Taissa's other personality potentially knew where Javi was hiding from the rest of the group. However, in season 3, "Other Taissa" is mostly absent in the 1997 timeline, and Taissa's main contribution to the group's survival is skipped over in favor of a quick reference. Taissa was supposedly responsible for leading the building of the huts that the survivors were living in six months after the cabin burned down.
Taissa does reference potentially becoming the group's leader early in season 3, but that role is split between Natalie and Shauna as Taissa's role becomes more about other things, such as working toward what it would mean to kill Ben when she draws the card, growing to want to stay in the Wilderness, and showing hints of the lawyer that she would grow up to be.
Placing a new role and sense of responsibility on Taissa could not only give her a stronger, more established role in the Wilderness, but also act as foreshadowing to the politician she becomes as an adult. Van had suggested that the Wilderness was not a place that wanted to be governed, which may have been a reference to Taissa's view of leadership. The survivors had responded differently so far to Lottie, Natalie, and Shauna's styles of what it meant to be in charge of the group. Giving Taissa that same opportunity could flesh out her role and her relationships with the other characters.
Other than her relationship with Van, Taissa's other significant relationships took a backseat in season 3. Outside of Van, Taissa's biggest connections in both timelines remain through her relationships with Shauna and Natalie. However, Taissa and Van's relationship in the adult timeline had a way of isolating them from the rest of the group. Taissa's relationship with Shauna acted more as a background plot line than being as front and center as it had been in previous seasons, especially in the adult timeline. Meanwhile, Yellowjackets still needs to set the seeds for how Taissa and Natalie's relationship would develop later on.
Season 3 did a phenomenal job in how it focused on developing the problems and differences in leadership and perspective between Shauna and Natalie. Season 4 needs to find inspiration in terms of how Taissa fits into the overall equation. At this point, Shauna, Natalie, Misty, and Lottie all have very established roles in the Wilderness that help justify how they survive this experience. Sometimes, it seems as if Yellowjackets is still waiting to explain the full extent of Taissa's role in the 1997 timeline.
As for Taissa's adult counterpart, most of her original storyline has disappeared, as Sammy and Simone's roles in the show have decreased each season. While Taissa's relationship with Van is central to her character development and arc in both timelines, the conclusion of season 3 teased an alliance between Taissa and Misty that can show another layer to Taissa's character.
Taissa's storyline in season 3 surrounded what ended up being a tragically doomed romance, which is likely to kickstart her arc of revenge toward Shauna in season 4. Taissa Turner is one of the most important characters in Yellowjackets, and in season 4, the Showtime series needs to remember that and create a role for Taissa in the Wilderness that offers a greater exploration of her character and her relationship with survival.
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