Yellowjackets Season 2 Episode 8 Shows Misty Has Always Been Looking Out For Natalie

This article contains spoilers for "Yellowjackets."

You can learn a lot about how well a show is being received by its audience from Tumblr. Ratings are a reliable indicator of actual viewership (if streamers actually made them public), and reviews are a go-to source for quality. But if you want to know how intensely a show is being engaged with by viewers, you have to take a tumble down the rabbit hole.

Take the sheer number of "#mistynat" posts on the site shipping (fan-speak for imagining a relationship between) "Yellowjackets'" Misty and Natalie. Glossy carousels of gifs, text post theories, fan illustrations, and slash fics are uploaded to the site every day chronicling viewers' investment in the characters' dysfunctional relationship. Of all the bonds between the core cast of characters, the dynamic portrayed by Samantha Hanratty and Sophie Thatcher in the teen timeline and Christina Ricci and Juliette Lewis in the adult timeline is the most, uh, dynamic. Taissa and Van may be the real couple we're always rooting for, but Misty and Natalie hands down have the most infectious, conflictual, and hilarious chemistry in the whole show, particularly in the scenes between Ricci and Lewis.

We've witnessed a lot of scenes in which adult Misty comes to the rescue of, meddles in the affairs of, and generally hyperfixates on adult Natalie. But we haven't yet discovered whether that dynamic was born in the wilderness or came after. Teen Misty spent most of her time with Crystal (Nuha Jes Izman) until she fell of a cliff (R.I.P.), and teen Natalie spends most of her time with Travis. One scene in the most recent episode finally depicted a moment between '90s Natalie and Misty so consequential, it may be the seed that germinated their decades-long bond of sisterhood and squabbling.

In the most recent episode of "Yellowjackets," entitled "It Chooses," the team finally resorts to deliberate sacrifice in order to save a languishing Lottie. When Natalie pulls the ominous queen of hearts card, she goes running into the woods with the team in close, savage pursuit. Leading the pack is Misty, who's armed with a cartoonishly huge axe — probably the same axe she used to chop off Coach Ben's leg. Natalie sprints across the frozen lake after Javi, who promises to secret her to a safe place known only to him (and now apparently, as we see in cutscenes, Coach Ben). But as always happens in movies and TV, the ice cracks, swallowing Javi up. 

Natalie throws herself to the ground, screaming for the girls to help her shore him up. Most of the huntresses seem to snap out of their stupor and hang back, unclear how to proceed. Should they let Javi drown and spare themselves the task of murdering their friend? Can they even bring themselves to let that happen? Misty is the only one who doesn't hesitate to fly to Natalie. She wraps her arms around her and pulls her back from the ice hole, shouting, "If you save him, the others will get you."

We didn't think the show could get any worse than cannibalism, or what happened with Shauna's baby. But it does, and Javi, who just returned to the cabin after miraculously surviving in the winter woods alone, becomes the team's next meal. Thanks to Misty, however, Natalie lives to see another day.

How many times has Misty saved Natalie's life? As far as we've seen, just the once. But she's helped get Natalie out of many sticky situations in the adult timeline. She was there when Natalie's car backfired. She was the only person to notice when Natalie vanished from the motel where she was living. And she bursts into that motel room right as Natalie's about to shoot up — not necessarily saving her life, but definitely showing concern. Perhaps because the action that inaugurated their friendship was so profound, Misty continues to feel like she has a duty to protect Natalie — whether the threat is tiny or terribly large.

Ricci and Lewis have established a dynamic between their characters that's somewhere between goody-two-shoes little sister who looks out for the bad-girl older sister that she worships, and unstoppable force meets immovable object. Misty's inability to pick up on (or indifference toward) social cues is exactly what someone with Natalie's intensity and reckless self-disregard needs. Natalie colors wildly outside of the lines, and Misty redraws the whole picture so that Natalie's vision makes sense. 

In the midst of the pitch-black sadness of this episode's final moments, there's a tiny, flickering light: the birth of a beautiful, dark, twisted, and arguably life-saving friendship.

New episodes of "Yellowjackets" premiere on the Showtime app on Fridays, and on Showtime on Sundays.