I never see anyone talking in here about what’s wrong with Tai. It’s clear she has some kind of mental illness - or maybe it is just trauma - that’s splitting her personality in some way. I’m mostly referring to the adult TL where she sleepwalks in daylight and seems to switch off between Tai and Other Tai much more than in the Wilderness, where we only REALLY saw her doing it at night. Also the dog thing was absolutely insane and I have no idea how that was barely addressed. She needs help almost as much as Lottie imo and it’s stressing me out that none of the characters besides Van (rip), seem to care or know about it. She’s been through a lot sure but she was eating dirt in the woods before anything that crazy happened, and I doubt seeing her Grandma die turned her into a split person who doesn’t remember murdering her dog and hallucinated her son.
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Agree, it's really crazy how this has just been glossed over... she cut the head off her dog!
The most logical answer is that other Tai is a dissociated personality tai mind created to carry out actions she wanted to do but couldn't bring herself to do herself. Eating Jackie corpse and executing Coach Ben being some examples where other tai took over. She's a version of Tai that can do things without emotional interference. But the issue with that is other Tai seems to be working against Tai in certain instances then simply doing the actions tai can't do like she doesn't seem to care about tai given the actions she took that didn't help tai at all. And it's interesting that other Tai doesn't care about being the dominant personality either (no Jekyll and Hyde situation).
If you take it from a supernatural approach, other Tai seems to be some sort of entity, She displays knowledge Tai consciously rejects or claims not to have, maintains identical behavior across decades, and emerges precisely when “payment” or intervention seems required. Visually, the show treats her appearances with the same grammar it uses for supernatural moments mirrors, recognition, ritual framing, and ominous sound design
Ultimately unless it's explained Other Tai exists to externalize conflict and maintain mystery, not to function as a realistic condition of dissociate identity disorder. Because even if the show insists on ambiguity, the evidence consistently leans toward Other Tai acting as a conduit or agent for something tied to the wilderness rather than just a fractured part of Tai’s mind.
If we were to ignore supernatural stuff that just makes the show out to be more fantasy than realistic, she has undiagnosed schizophrenia or some psychotic disorder. I don’t know if multiple personality disorder is a real thing or something that’s been made up by soap opera but she might have that
the closest thing to "multiple personality disorder" (you're right, not a real diagnosis) would be dissociative identify disorder
It’s not a split personality or DID. Tawny Cypress directly confirmed in a interview
https://nerdist.com/article/yellowjackets-star-tawny-cypress-interview-creating-the-other-tai-narcissism-and-more/#
Watching family member pass could be traumatic enough imo. Especially religious family who were sharing beliefs or delusions with a kid.
And it makes sense to be as a 90s kid that the other girls wouldn’t really know or understand her other personality/disassociation/dirt eating. Mental health awareness was little to none in my experience.
I could see the girls just assuming it was a Wilderness thing and that it got better. I mean, none of them know about the dog in the adult timeframe right? Just the wife found it.
Adult Van going along with it was…a choice. I think covid/strikes really hit Tai’s story hard. It seems disjointed af an they dropped her political career fast. And the kid actor growing up made it hard to follow up on any ideas of the kid seeing and recognizing Other Tai.
I don't think the other girls have really even encountered Other Tai, have they? Van tries to cover it up in the night by staying with Tai, and when Lottie asks Tai about eating the dirt, Tai is so confident in shooting her down. Lottie already has her own mental health issues and loose grip on reality, so I always figured she assumed it was an hallucination.
I can't really recall any other times in the wilderness that the girls would have seen Other Tai, unless I'm forgetting something?
Lottie and Van may be the only ones we’ve seen who even know. I think you’re right.
Actually there was a lot of discussion about her condition and behavior earlier in the series. Then it would come up again from time to time, when she did something like the dog thing. I hope some definitive answers come out in the final season. Right now it just seems like the remaining adults are all evil, and we're just waiting to see which evil demon survives, if any.
When van said that sex always brings out other tai, that could link back to her shame Of her true self
Its DID
Tawny Cypress (Adult Tai) in a interview: “First of all, I want to make it very clear that I do not approach Other Tai as being a split personality or dissociative state… there’s no DID (dissociative identity disorder) going on here. I would never, and I don’t think the writers of the show would ever presume to know or to try and portray that on screen. What I’m doing would not be an accurate portrayal of DID.“
I really do appreciate this. I have DID (yes, professionally diagnosed, it is real, unfortunately) and while I could see the DID angle being played, the fact that "Other Tai" is extremely violent/dangerous to her loved ones would be a terrible representation, especially in a show that tackles such complex themes around trauma.
I agree with the idea that it's some kind of entity - maybe an extension of the Man With No Eyes that uses Tai for his bidding. I kind of wonder if he's kind of like the monster in "IT" where the entity manifests as a tangible fear of the person who sees him. So if Tai was afraid of the commercial at a young age, maybe the entity best represents himself as that being thru her eyes. And her grandmother saw something different, but it's the same entity.
Also DID is not a "split personality". It doesn't manifest like Tai's. The amnesia is accurate to an extent. The scene where she is holding the gun and "switches" felt relatable. but in reality it is much more complex and much more covert. DID forms when the brain is still developing from repeated, prolonged trauma. It's neurological just as much as it is psychological. During development the brain wires itself differently to protect itself and ensure survival. Unless you are very close to someone & interact with them on a regular basis in multiple environments, it is unlikely that you would be able to notice switches happening. The case could be made that the stress of the wilderness exacerbated a pre-existing, covert condition, but I appreciate that Tawny Cypress & the writers are clarifying that they aren't trying to represent DID.
A person's core values and beliefs don't change just because they have a dissociative disorder. There's no "good" and "evil" part.
Ngl that just made me like the show less. What do you mean its not DID 🙄 sure okay it just has the same symptoms right ok