Jackie Taylor

Jackie is the captain of the Yellowjackets soccer team and the undisputed queen of her school's social order before a plane crash strands her team in the wilderness. She's used to being the center of things—admired, a little imperious, fiercely loyal to her best friend Shauna—and assumes that status will simply carry over into the woods.

Purnell plays Jackie's confidence as both genuine and increasingly brittle, letting you watch someone built for one kind of world realize, in real time, that the rules have changed and her currency might not convert. The performance finds real pathos in a character who could easily have stayed a stock mean girl.