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Akilah is a character on the Showtime original series Yellowjackets. She is portrayed by Keeya King in Season 1, but was replaced by Nia Sondaya for Season 2.[1]
Profile[]
Akilah was a member of the WHS Yellowjackets, a team of talented female teen soccer players who having won the New Jersey state championships were heading to the nationals. At the time, Akilah had only just joined the main squad, having previously been on junior varsity. As such, during the private plane flight the nationals, Mari teased her by referring to her as "JV" and "new blood." When she tried to sit next to her, she told her that she had to earn a seat. However, she then admitted that she was messing with her and let her sit down, offering her Fruit by the Foot.
The plane crashed in the wilderness of Canada, ultimately stranding the team for 19 months. Although Akilah survived the crash, she may have perished sometime during those 19 months, as she does not appear to have survived to adulthood, 25 years later.
At some point during her youth, Akilah was in the Girl Scouts. When she and the other Yellowjackets were out foraging, she stopped Misty from eating a mushroom, telling her that it was poisonous. When Vanessa Palmer asked her if this meant "kill you poisonous" or "trip your balls off poisonous," she told her that she didn't know, that her Girl Scout leader hadn't gotten specific about it. Taissa then indicated some berries, asking her about them, and she told her not to touch them, that she knew for sure they would make her puke. Misty then asked her to just show something she knew they could eat safely so they could get going.
As food became increasingly scarce in the wilderness, Mari lamented the lack of berries on the bushes, wondering how there couldn't be any. Akilah suggested that birds could be picking them off, or mice.
After Vanessa Palmer is savagely mauled by wolves during an ill-fated attempt led by Taissa Turner to find help, it is Akilah who stitches up her face, possibly using skills she learned in Girl Scouts.
When Mari claims to hear a dripping noise that nobody else can hear, Akilah agrees to help her search the cabin for it. Neither of them find the source, but Akilah does discover a mouse. Rather than eating it, she secretly pockets it, naming it "Nugget" and keeping it as a pet. She secretly starts feeding it bits of food, telling it she wishes that she could feed it more. When Mari overhears her talking to it, she claims to only be talking to herself.
Akilah studies for the SATs using a tattered study book that she brought along for the trip to nationals. When Mari tells her that she doesn't have to take them anymore, she retorts that she does, that when they're rescued, she'll still be a junior.
As winter settles in for the Yellowjackets, Akilah joins Lottie Matthews's morning "prayer club," but claims to only be doing it as a sort of superstition. She states that it is like a pre-game ritual, that she and Rachel Goldman would pump themselves up to "Easy Lover," put on their lucky socks and shin guards and tap their cleats on the line at the same time before going on the field. She says that the point wasn't even winning, but simply that it felt good, that maybe they didn't even believe in it deep down, but that it was still something that they did before every game.
Akilah does her best to try to help with the birthing of Shauna Shipman's baby, but leans heavily on Misty, who was the only one to really pay attention to a video about childbirth in class. Ultimately, the baby is stillborn, but Akilah nevertheless praises Misty for how well she held together at the end.
Not long following this, Akilah sits with Nugget. She tells the mouse that she'll have him meet her baby nephew when they get home, that he'll be gentle with him. She tells him that she'll buy him a house and a wheel for exercise. Taissa comes over, asking what's in her hands. She lies that it's nothing, but Taissa grabs her, demanding that she let her see it. She shouts that Taissa cannot have him. "That thing is dead, Akilah," Taissa tells her. Akilah asks what she's talking about and Taissa grabs the mouse, holding it up, except that it is nothing but a skeleton, nothing but bones remaining. Akilah, seeing the mouse as it really is for the first time, curses and clutches her head in confusion and horror. Later, Akilah holds up the skeleton to her mouth, considering eating it, but pulls it back, disgusted.
Akilah, along with all of the other remaining girls except Lottie, participates in the ritual to choose a card to determine which of them will offer themselves up as a sacrifice to feed the rest. When Natalie draws the fated Queen of Hearts card but flees at Travis's urging, she joins the group that goes outside to try to hunt Natalie down. They end up finding Natalie with Travis's brother Javi on the frozen lake, the ice having cracked and Javi having fallen in, Natalie trying to help out him out. As they close in, Akilah shouts that they can still save Javi, but Shauna tells them to wait. They hold Natalie back and allow Javi to fall into the water. They eventually pull him out, but his body is lifeless. Akilah later joins the others in cannibalizing Javi's body in order to avoid starvation and later doesn't escape with the others when the cabin burns down, and dies.
References[]
- ↑ Bell, BreAnna (January 6, 2023). ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 2 Casts Nicole Maines, François Arnaud, Nia Sondaya in Recurring Roles (EXCLUSIVE). Variety.