Yellowjackets Season 2 Finally Follows Up On A Lingering Season 1 Plot Thread
This article contains spoilers for "Yellowjackets" season 2 episode 5.
There's something not quite right about Misty Quigley (Samantha Hanratty/Christina Ricci). She's a stereotypical nerd; book smart but socially ostracized with no clue how to relate to others. As the Yellowjackets' equipment manager, she is only technically part of the champion soccer team, but that still means she's on the plane to nationals when it goes down over the Canadian wilderness.
As we learn more about Misty, it becomes apparent that her unpopularity isn't just because she's awkward. Something is very wrong with Misty Quigley, as she relishes "nurturing" the incapacitated coach Ben Scott (Steven Krueger), with one attempt to do so ending with her accidentally poisoning all the other survivors with psychedelic mushrooms. In the present, she's an elder-care nurse and has been shown denying her patients treatment if they displease her. I've compared her to Annie Wilkes from "Misery" before and like her, Misty is hiding some dark secrets.
As the flashbacks in season 1, episode 2, "F-Sharp," showed, Misty actually liked being stranded in the woods. Thanks to her Red Cross training, she finally had an important part to play on the team once they needed first aid. When she overheard two of her teammates praising her, she finally felt like she belonged. This means that when she found the plane's emergency transmitter, she smashed it; the others may have been eager to get back to their lives, but Misty wasn't.
This had to come back up sooner or later. On tonight's episode, "Two Truths and a Lie," it did — with tragic consequences.
Besties for life
In the 1996 storyline of "Yellowjackets" season 2, winter is here. That means the stranded survivors are stuck in the cabin they found last season. With them trapped inside, they've got no choice but to enjoy each others' company. Still, after the mushroom incident, the other Yellowjackets weren't about to trust Misty — except for Crystal (Nuha Jes Izman). The resident theater kid, Crystal annoys her teammates by humming and singing to herself. Since they're both unpopular, she and Misty start to hit it off in episode 3, "Digestif." Crystal offers to be Misty's acting coach before the latter does a monologue from "Steel Magnolias" for Shauna's (Sophie Nélisse) baby shower. Their friendship continues to grow until "Two Truths and a Lie," when Misty shows her true colors.
While disposing of the cabin's toilet bucket over a nearby cliff, the two new "besties" start sharing secrets. Crystal's secret is that her real name is Kristen — everyone misheard her name on the first day of practice and she didn't bother to correct them. She got a new nickname, "Crystal the Pistol," out of it and was worried people would like her less. Misty, who's used to people not liking her, empathizes with Crystal. Impulse control has never been Misty's strength and sure enough, that empathy causes her to make a terrible decision.
A cliffhanging truth
Crystal embraces Misty and declares, "You know how lucky we are? Some people never find someone they trust enough to share their deepest secrets." Then, on cue, Misty tells Crystal about how she destroyed the emergency transmitter. Misty soon learns why some secrets are worth keeping because this revelation is the end of her new friendship. As Crystal (accurately) surmises, Misty is the reason for all the pain the Yellowjackets have endured since the day after the crash.
Misty, whose smile briefly vanishes when she realizes Crystal is angry, tries to play it off as a joke, but Crystal isn't buying that: "You're not that good of an actress." Misty desperately pleads with Crystal not to tell anyone, then when supplication doesn't work, she goes into Classic Misty mode. Wide-eyed and unblinking, she slowly marches towards Crystal and says if she reveals the truth, "I'll f***ing kill you." The threat comes true immediately because Crystal takes one step too far back and tumbles off the cliff. Misty is horrified, but when she gets back to the cabin she lies that she and Crystal lost each other in the show. Shauna then goes into labor, so the others don't have time to search for Crystal's body yet.
In the present day, Misty has carried Crystal's love of musicals on, as shown by the song selection while she's driving with Walter (Elijah Wood). Her reluctance to get close to him is also paralleled by the disastrous end to her friendship with Crystal. While Crystal is definitely dead, this isn't necessarily the end of her presence in "Yellowjackets." There's a good chance her still-living teammates are about to get a lot more comfortable with desecrating (and dining on) the dead.
New episodes of "Yellowjackets" air on Showtime every Sunday.