Natalie and Shauna
If any two characters were at the center of the Wilderness plot line, it was Natalie and Shauna. Always at odds, Natalie and Shauna present various ways in which they differ in leadership, mostly stemming from Natalie's aim to lead with the intention of keeping everyone safe, while Shauna's personal spiral results in a love for violence. Shauna's perspective is far more complicated than just enjoying brutality, still facing the grief of losing her baby, and Jackie, and facing her own trauma of what it means to survive. But while Shauna has allowed anger to lead her, Natalie has relied on compassion. It places the two of them in a constant argument over everything from position of power to execution, and not only does it do the work of creating a far more complex relationship than the more supportive relationship they had in previous seasons, it also helps to begin explain why their adult counterparts express tension upon their reunion.
Shauna is constantly challenging Natalie's leadership, but ultimately, when Shauna is given an opportunity to kill Natalie, she chooses against it. As of season three, Natalie and Shauna are the only ones who truly understand each other's roles as designated leaders of the collective group, as well as butchering their own. While Lottie has also held power over the group, Shauna and Natalie are the only ones so far who have each cut up one of their own to present as food to the group. Such a connection also appears in the adult timeline, when Natalie joins Shauna in cutting up Adam's corpse.
Gone are the days when Shauna dreams of Natalie being the one to check up on her and her baby's survival. Rather than being drawn to Natalie's goodness in a way that she views her as an ally, Shauna has grown to resent it. Yet, when chasing after Hannah, Shauna and Natalie work in perfect tandem, hunting Hannah together as Shauna steps back to allow Natalie to lead them in the right direction before they find her. Shauna and Natalie's dynamic is the driving force of the Wilderness plot in season three, as no one can move forward in a productive manner until Natalie or Shauna comes to a decision. Everyone else, rather than relying on Lottie's connection to the Wilderness, finds themselves caught in between Natalie and Shauna, especially when it comes to the concept of rescue.
Going from friends and allies to rivals, Shauna and Natalie have the most unique relationship in season three, as no one else in the Wilderness presents a similar connection that they do in terms of leadership, control, and a constant sense of push and pull as Natalie works toward compromise while Shauna aims for usurping power. Natalie and Shauna are on the most opposing sides of the spectrum two characters can get, and it works in a way that pushes the narrative forward and helps continue to build their individual characterization, as well as what they represent to the group. Their dynamic sets the tone for what survival means. While Shauna and Natalie's adult counterparts do not exactly exhibit hints of all of this history between them, it does also suggest that while that there may be tension between them as adults, there is still an underlying sense of caring for one another that must come through toward the end of their stay in the Wilderness or after rescue, given that Shauna and Natalie had supposedly stayed in touch for a while after returning home.