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

Season 2 of Yellowjackets has given us many gifts, including perfect needle drops and a cursed cannibal barbecue. Now, it’s provided us with another: the delightful dynamic between citizen detectives Misty Quigley (Christina Ricci) and Walter Tattersall (Elijah Wood).

Misty and Walter make the perfect pair, whether you’re a sucker for a good TV duo or desperately crave a romance between them (if that’s the case, hello, kindred spirits). Not only do they share interests like true crime and musicals, but they’re both relentless when it comes to solving a case. Their willingness to do anything to discover the truth leads them to lie, hack, steal, and even manipulate the people around them. In short, they’re wild cards with a similar strangeness to them — so clearly they’re meant for each other. Sure, Walter is investigating the death of a man whose murder Misty helped cover up, but the course of true love never did run smooth!

Over the first three episodes of Yellowjackets Season 2, Misty and Walter snipe at each other over citizen detective message boards, lock eyes across a retirement home lobby, and carry out a fake FBI interrogation together. Walter even tells Misty he wants to be the Moriarty to her Sherlock Holmes. You could take that as an adversarial statement, but it also conjures the idea that they complete each other. After all, Moriarty is completely obsessed with Sherlock, and vice versa. The same could very well become true of Misty and Walter. (And then there’s me, obsessed with both of them.)

However, it isn’t until episode 4, “Old Wounds,” that Misty and Walter’s potential as sicko soulmates becomes crystal clear. Their road trip to find Nat (Juliette Lewis) gives them time to bond — and it also reminds the audience just how similar these two are.

Misty and Walter’s road trip soundtrack kicks off the start of a great adventure.

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

We’ve always known that Misty is a theater nerd. Who can forget when she kidnapped Jessica (Rekha Sharma) to the tune of “Phantom of the Opera”? But episode 4 reveals a key piece of information about Walter — he, too, is a musical theater lover.

On their road trip, he lets Misty choose their ride’s soundtrack, handing her a case full of musical soundtrack cassette tapes. At first, she thinks he’s just a Yellowjacket fanatic who’s done his research on her. But no, turns out he just adores musicals. And that’s one of the reasons he had wanted to meet Misty. “I sought you out from citizen detective because I had wanted to work with the brilliant investigate mind that is Agent AfricanGrey,” he tells her. “And because you dropped a Sweeney Todd reference in one of your posts.”

Walter also knows how to push Misty’s musical buttons, threatening to play the soundtrack of the misfire Starlight Express — “the story of Cinderella, except everyone’s a train,” Misty groans — so that Misty will admit she cares about musicals. In the end, she chooses to play Evita. It puts a little smile on Walter’s face, and that only fuels the flames of my shipping fire.

Pay attention to the fake names Misty and Walter give at the bed and breakfast.

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

When this gruesome twosome checks into a bed and breakfast — something Walter conveniently figured would happen on this trip — they both give the concierge fake names. It’s the citizen detective way. But their fake names are just as revealing as their choice to give them in the first place. Walter leads with “John Lange,” while Misty opts for the far more conspicuous “Lady Mallowan.”

Each name is a reference to a popular writer. Lady Mallowan is another way of referring to famed detective novelist Agatha Christie, who created legendary case-crackers like Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She gained the title of “Lady Mallowan” from her second husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan. Meanwhile, John Lange was the pseudonym Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton used while writing thrillers in medical school. Both author choices speak to Misty and Walter’s love of mysteries and subterfuge. Great minds think alike, as they say.

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

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

Yellowjackets is not quite ready to hit Misty and Walter with the “only one bed”(Opens in a new tab) trope yet, as the two get separate rooms at the bed and breakfast. However, that doesn’t stop the show from delivering a sequence that confirms just how right they are for each other.

Throughout a split-screen montage, we see both Misty and Walter exploring their hotel rooms and performing nearly identical nighttime routines. They both seal the TV remote in a plastic bag, check the room for bugs, apply similar gold collagen skincare products, and then play soothing animal sounds to go to sleep. (Misty uses the eye patches whereas Walter prefers the Hannibal-style full face mask; she prefers to snooze to “Birds of the Tropics,” while Walter picks “Sleep Kitty.”) It’s a hilarious showcase of their similar quirks, with the split-screen shot of the two laying next to each other emphasizing how much they complete one another.

Adding to the shipping potential is the song choice: “Angst in My Pants” by Sparks. The title suggests sexual frustration, but the song also evokes a greater feeling of anxiety: You may think you have everything, but you could still find your life to be lacking. Similarly, Misty and Walter both have their own regimens, but something is missing. Could that something be…each other? Based on this episode, all signs point to yes.

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