This Yellowjackets Blackmail Theory Hits Close To Home

The web of mysteries woven into Showtime's Yellowjackets has gotten extremely tangled over the course of Season 1. Some of the puzzles are in the vein of This Is Us’ "the past is an undiscovered country" concept, while others border on supernatural happenings that may have no explanation in science. But there's one mystery that is a nice solid police procedural problem: blackmail. Someone is hitting up former team members for $50,000, and one theory is that Shauna's husband, Jeff, is behind the Yellowjackets’ blackmail.

Warning: Spoilers for Yellowjackets Season 1, Episode 8 follow. Of the survivors of the Yellowjackets team who came out of the wilderness, Shauna is the central character. She's the one who still lives in the New Jersey town where they grew up. Shauna married her BFF Jackie's high school sweetheart, Jeff. She's also cheating on her marriage with her boyfriend, Adam, aka the World's Most Suspicious Man. And obviously, she knows the truth of what happened during those 19 months in the Canadian wilderness. It's locked in a safe in her closet in the form of contemporaneously written journals.

Or, at least, she did. A glitter spill on the floor alerted Shauna to the horrible discovery that her safe had been compromised. Very quickly, it became evident that the person everyone is supposed to suspect is Adam, and that's exactly who Shauna thinks did it.

But there's a big gaping hole in this plot. Most of the clues pointed to the blackmailer being Shauna. She and Jeff need money. Their daughter is going to college soon, and they don't have nearly the funds to pay for it. Plus, she wasn't getting the blackmail cards like her other former teammates. And who else would know where the other survivors lived or would have the evidence to back up the threats of revealing what they all did in the wilderness?

However, that theory seemed to collapse as Shauna and Tai's friendship surfaced. Like Misty and Nat, these two have been there for each other for decades. As much as Shauna might need money, and as much as she was pissed about Tai's Senate run, it became clear she isn’t the blackmailer. But that doesn't mean someone else in her house isn't.

For instance, when the blackmailer attempted to make the pick-up and the Yellowjackets chased after him, they went on the run. Shauna then headed home, only for Jeff to arrive not long after. He was also sweaty and out of breath, as if he'd run from someplace he shouldn’t have been.

But the real clincher was the glitter in the closet. Yes, it's where viewers saw Adam crouched. But it's also where Shauna tossed Jeff's shirt. And there's a lot better chance that Jeff, who knows Shauna super well, finally cracked her code instead of Adam, who has been in the closet once.

That leaves one question, though: If Jeff is the blackmailer, is he working alone? Or is Adam in on it too? All signs point to Adam being the grown-up version of Javi, which means he's hiding something. But whether or not it's a blackmail scheme or something far more twisted remains to be seen.

Yellowjackets continues with new episodes every Sunday at 10 p.m. ET on Showtime.