‘Yellowjackets’ Season 2, episode 4: Misty and Walter are an oddball ship for the ages

Season 2 of Yellowjackets has given us many presents, together with excellent needle drops and a cursed cannibal barbecue. Now, it’s supplied us with one other: the pleasant dynamic between citizen detectives Misty Quigley (Christina Ricci) and Walter Tattersall (Elijah Wooden).

Misty and Walter make the proper pair, whether or not you’re a sucker for an excellent TV duo or desperately crave a romance between them (if that’s the case, hey, kindred spirits). Not solely do they share pursuits like true crime and musicals, however they’re each relentless in relation to fixing a case. Their willingness to do something to find the reality leads them to lie, hack, steal, and even manipulate the folks round them. Briefly, they’re wild playing cards with an identical strangeness to them — so clearly they’re meant for one another. Certain, Walter is investigating the demise of a person whose homicide Misty helped cowl up, however the course of real love by no means did run easy!

Over the primary three episodes of Yellowjackets Season 2, Misty and Walter snipe at one another over citizen detective message boards, lock eyes throughout a retirement house foyer, and perform a faux FBI interrogation collectively. Walter even tells Misty he desires to be the Moriarty to her Sherlock Holmes. You can take that as an adversarial assertion, however it additionally conjures the concept they full one another. In spite of everything, Moriarty is totally obsessive about Sherlock, and vice versa. The identical might very nicely develop into true of Misty and Walter. (After which there’s me, obsessive about each of them.)

Nevertheless, it isn’t till episode 4, “Previous Wounds,” that Misty and Walter’s potential as sicko soulmates turns into crystal clear. Their highway journey to search out Nat (Juliette Lewis) provides them time to bond — and it additionally reminds the viewers simply how related these two are.

Misty and Walter’s highway journey soundtrack kicks off the beginning of an awesome journey.

We’ve at all times identified that Misty is a theater nerd. Who can overlook when she kidnapped Jessica (Rekha Sharma) to the tune of “Phantom of the Opera”? However episode 4 reveals a key piece of details about Walter — he, too, is a musical theater lover.

On their highway journey, he lets Misty select their experience’s soundtrack, handing her a case stuffed with musical soundtrack cassette tapes. At first, she thinks he’s only a Yellowjacket fanatic who’s completed his analysis on her. However no, seems he simply adores musicals. And that’s one of many causes he had wished to fulfill Misty. “I sought you out from citizen detective as a result of I had wished to work with the sensible examine thoughts that’s Agent AfricanGrey,” he tells her. “And since you dropped a Sweeney Todd reference in one in all your posts.”

Walter additionally is aware of how you can push Misty’s musical buttons, threatening to play the soundtrack of the misfire Starlight Specific — “the story of Cinderella, besides everybody’s a practice,” Misty groans — in order that Misty will admit she cares about musicals. In the long run, she chooses to play Evita. It places a little bit smile on Walter’s face, and that solely fuels the flames of my transport hearth.

Take note of the faux names Misty and Walter give on the mattress and breakfast.

Christina Ricci and Elijah Wooden in “Yellowjackets.”
Credit score: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME

When this grotesque twosome checks right into a mattress and breakfast — one thing Walter conveniently figured would occur on this journey — they each give the concierge faux names. It’s the citizen detective means. However their faux names are simply as revealing as their alternative to present them within the first place. Walter leads with “John Lange,” whereas Misty opts for the way more conspicuous “Girl Mallowan.”

Every identify is a reference to a preferred author. Girl Mallowan is one other means of referring to famed detective novelist Agatha Christie, who created legendary case-crackers like Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She gained the title of “Girl Mallowan” from her second husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan. In the meantime, John Lange was the pseudonym Jurassic Park creator Michael Crichton used whereas writing thrillers in medical faculty. Each creator selections communicate to Misty and Walter’s love of mysteries and subterfuge. Nice minds suppose alike, as they are saying.

The split-screen sequence is prime Misty and Walter transport fodder.

Elijah Wooden and Christina Ricci in “Yellowjackets.”
Credit score: Colin Bentley/SHOWTIME

Yellowjackets isn’t fairly able to hit Misty and Walter with the “just one mattress”(Opens in a brand new tab) trope but, as the 2 get separate rooms on the mattress and breakfast. Nevertheless, that doesn’t cease the present from delivering a sequence that confirms simply how proper they’re for one another.

All through a split-screen montage, we see each Misty and Walter exploring their lodge rooms and performing practically an identical nighttime routines. They each seal the TV distant in a plastic bag, verify the room for bugs, apply related gold collagen skincare merchandise, after which play soothing animal sounds to fall asleep. (Misty makes use of the attention patches whereas Walter prefers the Hannibal-style full face masks; she prefers to snooze to “Birds of the Tropics,” whereas Walter picks “Sleep Kitty.”) It’s a hilarious showcase of their related quirks, with the split-screen shot of the 2 laying subsequent to one another emphasizing how a lot they full each other.

Including to the transport potential is the tune alternative: “Angst in My Pants” by Sparks. The title suggests sexual frustration, however the tune additionally evokes a better feeling of hysteria: It’s possible you’ll suppose you may have all the things, however you may nonetheless discover your life to be missing. Equally, Misty and Walter each have their very own regimens, however one thing is lacking. Might that one thing be…one another? Based mostly on this episode, all indicators level to sure.

Yellowjackets Season 2 is streaming on Showtime, with new episodes streaming weekly on Fridays(Opens in a brand new tab). Episodes additionally air each Sunday on Showtime at 9 p.m. ET.