Angst? What Angst?: There are several complaints that the girls suffer from this in Season Two. Shelby—who spent most of Season One desperately trying to deny her sexuality and was only starting into a relationship with Toni, still wanting to stay closeted— is outed along with her relationship with Toni early in the first episode and has no fear or conflict about coming out to the other girls. None of the other girls are surprised by this relationship despite thinking both that Shelby was homophobic and that Toni hated Shelby. Leah attempting suicide is brushed aside after a brief mention of someone needing to watch her— especially jarring from Shelby, whose best friend committed suicide, and Dot, who had to perform assisted suicide for her father.
Cargo Ship: Marcus, the washed up mannequin, for Martha in particular.
Leah falls into Sanity Slippage during the series, including hallucinations of Ben Folds playing a piano. However, the second season finale implies Leah might have faked at least some of her behavior.
Nora's smart but awkward with an affected speech pattern. Her boyfriend Quinn, much like her, has trouble with eye contact and affected speech patterns. Nora's flashback episode strongly implies that both of them are on the autism spectrum.
Friendly Fandoms: Unsurprisingly, given that both shows are about teenage girls trying to survive the aftermath of a plane crash and have LGBTQ+ lead characters, fans of this show and Yellowjackets tend to overlap and get along extremely well with some even speculating as to how the two groups would get along.
Jerkass Woobie: Most of the castaways are this as are the members of the the Control Group, whose less than spotless record leaves them ripe for the picking of a corrupt scientist. The only exemptions are Martha, Bo, Josh and Rafael, who are just regular Woobies.
Leah may be obsessive and abrasive but she was groomed by a creep of an author who then ungracefully blamed her for lying. In addition to that she does have a mental illness.
Rachel is just as abrasive, especially to her sister Nora, but she just found out that she can no longer do the sport she dedicated her young life and much of her mental and physical health to do. Additionally, this sport made her feel special despite being the odd one out of her family of geniuses.
The last of the abrasive trio, Toni, was abandoned by her parents and is forced to live in foster homes. And her relationship dissolved after a confrontation with homophobic bullies.
Shelby may come off as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, but it comes from the strict religious values condemning her own sexuality which she’s so desperate to hide she lashed out at her best friend, accidentally driving her to suicide, which destroyed her. The instillation of this religious view was so strong that she starts to suffer Sanity Slippage when she starts to question them.
Fatin may be lazy and a bit superficial but her mother was so strict and her father was not the man she thought he was (he was cheating on her mother). When she exposes her father's infidelity, he turns on her and her mother takes his side.
Dot (admittedly the least jerky of the jerkass woobies) may be a snark machine, but her father was incredibly sick and forced her to perform a Mercy Kill on him so she could live a better life.
Nora may have been spying on the girls but she was manipulated by Gretchen into doing so while grief-stricken by her boyfriend's death. Furthermore, her worrying about her sister and trying to help her only makes Rachel angry at her.
Kirin. Jerk Jock that he is, he's not outwardly malicious, just obnoxious. And the closest thing he has to a father is his high school lacrosse coach as his own father abandoned him and has a new family. When the coach is rightfully fired when an old Blackface photo resurfaced, Kirin feels like he has nothing left. And in his lowest moment, Ivan decides to kick him while he’s down and goads him into calling him homophobic slurs which Kirin does just to get Ivan to back off from him, getting expelled. In short he had his life ruined simply because he saw the good side of a person.
Scotty's family lost their house at an early age and were forced to live in a small apartment, prompting him to come up with schemes to get money, which he pulls his reluctant friend into.
Ivan is incredibly rude, condescending, abrasive and judgemental to pretty much everyone, but it's clear he's genuinely had to deal with issues from being gay and black and he is fully aware of his own character flaws after they caused a boyfriend he cared deeply about to break up with him and caused Ivan to realize that he isn't as righteous as he'd like to imagine himself as being.
Nightmare Fuel: For the Twilight of Adam Project, one of the operatives is Seth, who assaulted his ex-girlfriend (and even kidnapped her beloved cat). During his time in the island, he sexually assaults Josh, attempts to drown his stepbrother Henry, and tries to convince Raf to let Kirin drown. It is hinted at the end of Season 2 that he will continue as an operative, but in a position of direct control over others, including those who turned on him.
Martha was in a terrible accident as a child and was able to rehabilitate herself. However, the physical therapist was a pedophile who assaulted her and numerous other girls. She blocked it out of her memory and doesn’t want to face the truth.
Bo grew up with parents who suffered from severe OCD and flew into violent rages at the slightest sign of uncleanliness, leaving him severely neurotic and constantly on edge, and it's heavily implied that Scotty was his only real friend throughout his adolescence. Despite all he's been through, he's still a kindhearted person who genuinely tries to see the good in others.
Josh is an anxious mess who has trouble making friends and who grew up in the shadow of much more successful older siblings and parents who largely tolerated him. When he gets to the island, his only real friend at first is Seth, who sexually assaults Josh, leaving him a broken wreck afterwards.
