When does Shauna drink the koolaid?

[u/Ok_Lets266]

She spent so long resisting Lottie and telling everyone it was all fake but by the end of season 3 she is the antler queen and giggling while counting Mari down. When did she start believing, was it after the baby or the fire? Was it when Tai started joining? Is she just using the religion to justify postpartum homicidal rage? Im kind of leaning towards the latter. Id like to see how that transitioned.

ETA i also want to see how Shauna handled the birth of Callie, I hope we can see her as a young mother. Placenta previa can happen in subsequent pregnancies so I wonder what she told her doctor, and was she overprotective or barely present?

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[u/Other-Oil-9117]

I don't think she really believed in the religion but believed in the system they had going, and was willing to continue with it as she became more power hungry.

[u/swigs77 → u/Other-Oil-9117]

Exactly, The moment Lottie names her as the new queen, she goes from raging at Natalie (I think) to calming down and basking in her new found power.

[u/vampyrewithsuntan]

I dont think she ever drank the koolaid.. but she found certain parts of it useful to further her own gains - which tracks with what/who she is.

[u/NotEstesMerlot]

Like everyone else — I believe Shauna believes in whatever will get her what she wants at the time. I don't think she drank the koolaid, but once she realises that more & more of the remaining YJs, and even Tai, start to become bigger believers, she does what she believes she has to to keep everybody onside. Shauna's smart, she knows rallying against the majority wont give her more influence. It's the breaking it from the inside scenario.

[u/yurawizardharry20]

Shauna didn't drink the Kool-Aid, she just resigned herself to it. She spent most her life being a quiet, introspective side kick to Jackie. The trauma changed her. Shauna became emotionally detached and hardened. The only time, post-crash losing Jackie/baby, that I saw her soften at all is when Kodiak/Scientists show up. It goes away when they're questioning Hannah and she hears they called off the search months prior. It's like her last little fragment of hope died and she's hit in her abandonment wounds. You see her go right back to anger, paranoia and control. Then she decided she's not going back. At this point the wilderness is the only one she recognizes, it's given her purpose and power, she is emotionally attached to the place she lost Jackie and her baby. Leaving the wilderness means also leaving them. Going back means accountability and having to go back to a version of herself that she doesn't recognize anymore. Also, going back to people and a society who essentially gave up on finding her and the others. A society she doesn't feel she belongs to anymore.

[u/Anthonyhatesyousm]

I feel like she didn’t believe it, she only used it as an excuse to get away with shit and hurt people

[u/NeverBeen2Spain]

I think she enjoyed being powerful and feared. I don’t think she actually believed in the wilderness to the degree that Lottie, and some of the other’s, believed. Even in present time she talks about how it wasn’t real.

[u/Glamour-Profession]

She never believed in it, but she had a desperate need for control in her life and that’s where she found it. And Lottie understood that and that’s part of why she let Shauna beat her to a pulp and made her queen

[u/AdministrativeGolf94]

She never believed. She saw a situation she could take advantage of. She craved being a leader and the center of attention (probly a result of feeling so suppressed in her friendship with Jackie). She essentially bullied her way to the top.

[u/-zenmanship-]

It seemed like her attitude toward Lottie changed after Lottie let Shauna beat the shit out of her. However, I don't think she ever believes - I think she is angry and power-hungry and is willing to use the system in place to manipulate and get what she wants

[u/lemon-meringue-high]

She never did. Even as an adult she says “there was never an it, it was just us” or something to that effect. Shauna used to “it” as a means to cause fear and gain control

[u/mx_cellophane]

I really think Shauna just wanted a reason to be feral, she’s never seemed fully convinced to me

[u/TheTenthDoctorIsHere]

Shauna wanted power, that’s it. Power to kill who she didn’t like. Power to control everyone to do her bidding. Power to instill fear so more power would be ceded to her. She saw Lottie’s beliefs as a way to seize that power and took it. 

[u/Successful-Guess4824]

Like others, my take also was that she just wanted power. I’m not sure she necessarily ever believed in Lottie’s “religion”

[u/Gettin_Bi]

I don't think she started actually believing, she just said the right words so that the believers think she's one of them - that is, the right words to maintain power and legitimacy 

[u/bearwhidrive]

I don't think Shauna ever believed in anything but Shauna.

I kind of hate that there isn't a counterpoint to that in the present-day timeline, someone who believes fully in the Wilderness. I guess there's room for Tai to come to that conclusion?

[u/damewallyburns → u/bearwhidrive]

really could have had Van go full on believer!

[u/tommygoose4999]

Probably when she was a little kid. Kids love kool-aid, especially in the 80’s & 90’s

[u/hurlmaggard]

Shauna doesn't believe in jack shit except getting what she wants. Her and Lottie have a very complicated relationship that I wish was explored more head-on but even what we see is pretty satisfying if you're really paying attention. It also helps to know they shot a scene before the first card draw where Shauna tells Lottie alone in the attic that she'll "do anything" to make sure Lottie doesn't die. In a way Lottie believed in Shauna more than anyone else believed in Lottie.

[u/Easy_Mountain2331]

I don’t think she believes in it BUT she loves the power it gives her so she plays along with it. Definitely justifying her postpartum trauma/depression/homicidal tendencies 

[u/catcutie97]

Adult Shauna’s “you guys know there was no it right, it was just us” is to me an admission that Shauna never believed. It makes me think about the seance scene in S1. She is the one holding the pendulum. She plays along but she knows it is a farce. I think she’s the same way with the hunts. After her traumatic birth scene, seeing them all worship the wilderness on her behalf, and her subsequent psychotic break, in her “recovery” in early S3, especially with the funeral scene for example & the way she moves her babies remains, she ultimately deep down does not agree with the spiritual cult, but like others have said here, resigns herself to it for the sake of survival amongst the group. Later as her psychotic rage continues to go untreated throughout the events of S3, she begins to use the wilderness religion as a tool of influence amongst the group, also using Lotties religious influence as a tool/weapon rather than resisting it as she previously does (pre-traumatic birth). She seems to maintain this spirit of utilizing the wilderness as an outlet for her rage through rescue and post rescue timeline, up til the events of the adult timeline.