SPOILERS: This post contains details about the Yellowjackets, Season 3 finale episode ‘Full Circle’

Although the Yellowjackets newcomer’s fate doesn’t look good, Ashley Sutton‘s Hannah will at least survive to see another season.

Leading up to this weekend’s Season 3 finale, the actress spoke to Deadline about getting to reveal “the most honest version” of her character in the episode, which ended with Hannah double-crossing Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) to help Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) call for rescue.

“Hannah is smart,” said Sutton. “She’s playing the game. She knows what she has to do to survive, but I think the intention is to always go home. She doesn’t want to stay out here. She’s just trying to make it another day.”

After killing her fellow captive Kodiak (Joel McHale) during a botched escape attempt and pledging her allegiance to the rising Antler Queen, Hannah sneaks away from the team’s big finale hunt to confirm to Natalie that she’s still on her side.

“After that last take, they called ‘cut,’ and [Thatcher] and I just look at each other and we just start sobbing,” she recalled. “Because I think in that moment, we both felt for Natalie and for Hannah that they truly are just fighting to go home.”

Following the shock killing of her boyfriend Edwin (Nelson Franklin) upon meeting the Yellowjackets, Sutton also revealed the “really beautiful and really cool” tribute she and the costume designer came up with for the late frog scientist.

Read on about Yellowjackets star Ashley Sutton’s experience joining the cast and what lies ahead for her character Hannah after the Season 3 finale, which is now available to stream on Paramount+ with Showtime before airing Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on Showtime.

DEADLINE: Tell me about first auditioning and joining the cast. 

ASHLEY SUTTON: So, I auditioned for the pilot years ago, went to producers, didn’t end up booking that, and became a huge fan of the show. I am just a gore horror girly, but I love that Yellowjackets is also really funny and kind of campy in some way. So, I got a call from my team that Hannah had come out, this character, and they were like, “We’re gonna try to get you back in front of casting to see if we can make it happen.” And I got the opportunity to audition—which Junie [Lowry-Johnson], Libby [Goldstein] and Josh [Ropiequet], I’m so, so grateful—did a couple of auditions, got a couple notes, self-tape style, and then I had to wait two weeks to hear anything and was kind of anxious and really stressed out because I wanted it so bad. I just connected with Hannah so much. She’s just so naive and a little bit nerdy like me and just sweet and sees the world through these rose-colored glasses. And then Ashley and Bart called me, and they were like, “Hey, do you wanna come to Canada?” And I was like, “Yes, I do. When can I leave? Right now? I’m ready.” 

DEADLINE: You said she’s sweet and kind of naive, which I see at first, but Ashley and Bart were telling me that she’s kind of the most prepared for that situation of the trio, just being a former team girl herself. Can you tell me about that side of the character and bringing out the inner calculating teen girl?

SUTTON: I imagined she had Alex when she was so young, so she had this, we’ll call it a traumatic experience, just this thing that made her have to grow up pretty quickly. And I thought a lot about what it would have been like for Hannah during the time of being in high school and being pregnant and having to deal with how people treat her and how their interactions are. So, when she did meet these teenagers in the wilderness, it’s almost like a flashback to that time, which is a time for her that was just very difficult. But she is now smarter. She has more life experience. She is able to see what it’s like to survive. So, when she meets these teenagers again, she’s able to fall back into the girliness of it and being able to play them. But I think it’s also the survival part of studying all of these books and learning about survival of animals and the animal kingdom. So, it kind of all comes together for her, where she’s able to kind of play the teenagers, but also play to survive. She has the knowledge now. 

DEADLINE: I definitely feel like the part where she killed Kodiak was that kind of switch. Can you tell me a little bit about the dynamic with Kodiak and then also Edwin. 

SUTTON: I had so much fun with Nelson [Franklin] and Joel [McHale]. They’re so funny, they’re so cool. It was so great to to work with them, and we had so much fun in the before times, the before the the ax to the head, filming all that, walking through the wilderness and creating this dynamic of Hannah having a relationship with Edwin, and then being intrigued by Kodiak and how able to survive he is. He is kind of everything she’s read in books about survival, he is able to do it, and I think that really intrigues a part of her, especially now that she’s thrown into the wilderness and doesn’t have civilization in any way. And then as they stumble upon the camp, things change really quickly and we’re thrown into a horror movie of some kind. But it was really fun to play the comedy of all of that before with them and just the lightheartedness, which I felt was important to really see Hannah in two completely different ways, so that you can see what she was like before things got really difficult and hard. And then afterwards, when she’s just dealing with the weight of grief, but just not able to process any of it because everything is just happening so quickly and she’s trying to keep up with all of the Yellowjackets and kind of play chess in a way with them and survive. 

DEADLINE: I was really satisfied that at the end, it turned out she double-crossed Shauna and helped Nat call for help. Tell me about that big reveal. 

SUTTON: I read [episode] 10, probably four times. The script is so amazing. Ameni [Rozsa] did such a good job with it, and it’s really beautiful to see the growth that Hannah has. I do feel like the alliance with Shauna is very strategic. Again, Hannah is smart. She’s playing the game. She knows what she has to do to survive, but I think the intention is to always go home. She doesn’t want to stay out here. She’s just trying to make it another day. So, when the hunt happens and Hannah goes to find Natalie, I think she is trying to be like, “Hey, I’m still on your side.” Because in that moment with Kodi, if Hannah had said, “I got the knife from Natalie,” it is true like Shauna would have killed both of them, that is such a real thing. Hannah kind of sacrificed Kodi for the greater good of a few people. And that moment with Natalie on the tree, where she flips me around and has the stake at Hannah’s neck was my favorite scene to film. It was so real and so vulnerable, and I think the most honest version of Hannah. She’s finally able to truly say how she feels to Natalie, fighting for her life, for Natalie to trust her. And Sophie [Thatcher] and I, we did that a couple of times. The director Bart [Nickerson] gave me a few notes that kind of switched it around, and after that last take, they called “cut,” and her and I just look at each other and we just start sobbing because I think in that moment, we both felt for Natalie and for Hannah that they truly are just fighting to go home. They really, really, really want to go home and save as many people as possible. So, for Hannah to get to be a part of that with Natalie, it was really cool as an actor to be like, “Oh, she’s doing good.” She maybe did some really messed up things, but now she’s really fighting for the greater good to bring as many people home as possible. 

DEADLINE: And we do see it a little bit but it’s hinted at more in the future. Can you tell me about building the bond with Melissa and how that’s gonna play out in the future? 

SUTTON: I think that moment where Melissa is watching Hannah and Kodi in the animal pen also was just real. I think it’s the first time someone’s like actually connected with Hannah, and they were able to joke around and have this banter. So, I think Hannah’s been able to humanize Melissa in such a way that she hasn’t fully had that experience with everybody else, because they’re still very primal and animalistic. She hasn’t been able to see the cute teenage girl that’s still just trapped out here in this environment. And I’m really excited to see what the writers do with that in the future. I feel like Hannah asked Melissa to watch out for her daughter, and she did. She may have done it in a way that is a little weird, and she’s married her in the future, but I do think Hannah asked and Melissa listened, and that makes Melissa such a real one for Hannah, for her to actually take the time in her future and watch out for my daughter is really important, really crucial. 

DEADLINE: And the show has also teased that Hannah’s eventually going to get killed. Has there been talk about that? I know you can’t spoil anything, but I assume they can’t get rescued with this strange woman there that wasn’t part of their team. 

SUTTON: I don’t know the answer. I wish I did. I have no idea. I mean, I honestly didn’t know what was happening at the end of this season for Hannah. I didn’t ask any questions because I really like to live in the moment and see what’s happening and unfolding in each episode. So, I have no idea. I have my own theories of what could happen, but I don’t know. Part of me just wants Hannah to sacrifice herself for the greater good, so everybody gets to go home. But I have no idea what the writers have in store. We’ll just have to wait and see. 

DEADLINE: What’s been your favorite part about playing Hannah and joining the cast? 

SUTTON: Well, I think 10 is such a beautiful episode. There’s a couple of really creative moments that the crew made happen. That initial song in the episode ‘Sleepwalker’, Craig [Wedren] and Anna [Waronker] wrote that for this episode, which I think is really beautiful. I watched it last night, and that song is just so haunting and really just plays perfectly to what is happening in the beginning of 10. And I just have to shout out Marie [Schley], who’s our costume designer, because I went in for my fitting for 10, and she was like, “I just really want you to wear some of Edwin’s clothes. I know it will be weird and it won’t be form fitting in any way, but I just feel like Hannah might be wearing Edwin’s clothes.” And I was like, “One hundred percent.” She’s found his backpack. She now has some power with Shauna, so she’s keeping him as physically close to her body, and I just think it was such a cool creative thing for her to do. So, the clothes that Hannah’s wearing in 10 are all Edwin’s clothes, which I think is really beautiful and really cool.