Yellowjackets is a thriller which follows a girls’ soccer team after their plane crashes as they fly to Seattle for nationals, Purnell’s character Jackie being the captain. Ella Purnell plays just about the only character who hasn’t readily accepted that the wilderness is their new life now, which causes a lot of tension amongst the group. Jackie represents the first bastion of humanity and civilisation which is lost to the girls, she represents the structure of their past life and is the last of the group who clings on to their humanity. In the first season of Yellowjackets, Jackie is part of the main cast but due to the groups new diet she only appears as a hallucination in the following seasons. Ella Purnell portrays Jackie very well, as she makes her unlikeable, Jackie has no skills to offer the group and her incompetence and reluctance to help out causes the audience and the group to dislike her which results in a blow out fight with her best friend Shauna, causing Jackie to storm out of their cabin and into the winter night.
Fallout is based on the post-apocalyptic video games series by the same name but is not centred on one of the vaults which the games features. Purnell plays Lucy MacLean, a vault-dweller in Vault 33 and is the daughter of the vault Overseer. Lucy leaves the vault after her father is kidnapped and travels dystopian, post-apocalyptic America to find him. Purnell manages to capture Lucy’s brainwashed, 50s-esque undying optimism as she finds out on her journey that not everything or everyone is sunshine and rainbows. Purnell shows how Lucy’s view of the world and people shifts as she experiences life outside of the vault, she becomes more hardened and determined as she discovers the truth about the vaults, her parents and why they were there in the first place.
Sweetpea is Ella Purnell’s most recent television work and is a British black-comedy drama which is adapted from the book series by the same name by CJ Skuse. Purnell plays the protagonist, Rhiannon Lewis, who after being bullied and ignored her whole life, goes on a revenge-fuelled murder spree. I believe that Purnell’s previous work influences the viewer and causes her character to be more unsuspecting as her past characters have not been violent without reason. Rhiannon gains her confidence and recognition as she continues her spree with 3 murders (1 accidental) and the kidnapping of her school bully in her basement, as well as having 2 love interests, Rhiannon is finally feeling seen. Purnell pulls off the surge into Rhiannon’s murder spree with the perfect expression of rage and grief combined.
With season 3 of Yellowjackets currently airing, and Jackie returning, I am excited to see what is next from Ella Purnell.