Hilary Swank is Adult [Spoiler] - All the Evidence

I’ll get straight to it – I am damn near certain Hilary Swank is playing the adult version of Mel. I’ve had my suspicions for a while, and the new trailer has all but confirmed it. So, rather than continually make the same arguments in comments sections, I’m putting all of my evidence here.

Let’s start with Hilary Swank herself. Not only does she look like an older version of Mel, but she fits the casting criteria used for most of the present-day YJs in that she was a huge star in the 90s, making it big with The Next Karate Kid, 90210, and Boys Don’t Cry.

Next is the number of survivors. The show has never outright said how many made it out of the wilderness. So far, we’ve met seven, but, there’s eight people present at the feast where they chomp down on Pitgirl. Furthermore, if you pay VERY close attention (6:21 on the YouTube video) to the season two premiere, you can spot two other hooded YJ’s making their way through the crowd of reporters. We don’t get a very good look, but one of them has blonde hair done differently than Misty’s. At the moment, Mel is the only YJ who fits that description.

There’s also her name, which is of Greek origin, and means ‘honey bee’. Now, this could just be the writers having fun with us…or it could be a hint. In Greek mythology (which the show has a lot of), Melissa was a princess of Crete who was transformed into a bee after she learned how to collect honey. One theory I’ve heard is that maybe Mel will find a food source to get them through the winter. This in turn would give Mel a defined role in the group, which as many have pointed out, is what every other confirmed survivor has; Shauna – Butcher, Nat & Travis – Hunters, Misty – Medic, etc.

Finally, there’s the trailer itself. Hilary Swank showing up at the end is, imo, a really big clue. Making her the thumbnail of the trailer and having her be the last thing the audience sees is a sure-fire way to draw our attention, true, but I think it’s more than that. For a character that had all of half of dozen lines last season, it’s noteworthy that Teen Mel is front and centre, right next to Shauna. Then there’s the fact that she pops up right after ‘the past will come back to hunt you.’

I don’t think this is a coincidence – I think it’s a clue. ‘Someone is trying to kill us,’ back-to-back with ‘the only people who know about this are either us or dead’, suggests the two statements are linked. If we take ‘us’ to mean the other YJ’s, it would imply another YJ is hunting them. Following this with the reveal of Hilary Swank seems to be the trailer’s way of subtly linking all of this together without spelling it out. The trailer also shows Mel and Shauna fight, so we know they will come into conflict into the past – what if this is a hint as to what will happen in the present day?

Maybe I’m reading into things too much, but for a show rooted in mystery, this seems right on point. Anyways, let me know what you think! Am I rambling, or am I gonna have major bragging rights in a few months’ time?