Recap / Yellowjackets S 1 E 2 F Sharp

Recap pages are Spoilers Off per policy and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned

Previously on "Yellowjackets"… Scenes from previous episode.

1996

The action opens exactly where we left off, in a plane that is about to crash. Coach Martinez runs around putting masks on the girls...

Flashback to three years earlier, 13-year-old Misty Quigley's bedroom. She gets a phone call from Becky and her giggling minions. Becky lets Misty know about a boy claiming he and Misty had sex in the janitor's closet. Misty responds by saying she's never been in the janitor's closet. Becky mocks her so more: "You know what I think? I think you wish someone would do anal to you, Misty. Only, you're too ugly to, like, find a victim." Misty retorts with a quote from Plato, which just confirms Becky's opinion that Misty is a weirdo. Flashback over.

The plane has now crashed. Most of the girls escape the cabin. Shauna tries to get to Van, who is stuck in her seat and calling for help, but Jackie pulls her away and forces her to exit. Outside, the girls work together to lift the wing off Coach Scott's leg, which is crushed. Jackie consoles Shauna by telling her there was nothing she could have done to save Van. Just then, a very much alive Van pops up, announcing "Surprise!" and startling Jackie. Misty grabs the ax and chops off the coach's maimed leg. In full take-charge mode, she has some teammates make bandages for Coach's wound and helps treat the others' minor injuries. The coach, unaware of his missing leg, asks how bad is it. Misty is about to tell him the "good news" that she amputated his leg, but Akilah, another teammate, tells him that he is going to be fine.

Present

While driving, Shauna calls Callie and asks her to take some frozen meat from the freezer. While talking to her daughter, Shauna bumps into the vehicle before hers. The other driver asks if she is OK. She is, but she is not amused by his "adorable" act. He proposes that instead of getting their insurance companies involved, she should call this body shop where he has a friend who owes him a favor. He also shares his name: Adam.

Misty has just come back from a date with a guy named Stan, who is just not that into her. They are in front of her place and she invites him in. He tries to get out of it, but changes his mind after Misty guilt-trips him about what he thinks of her looks. As he comes in, she gushes about him meeting Caligula, her bird, and a potential menace. But instead of an African grey parrot, they are greeted by someone more threatening: Natalie, toting a rifle and a killer opening line.

Hello, Misty, you crazy fucking bitch.

While Stan takes this as his cue to flee, an astonishingly calm Misty talks to Natalie. She knows her former teammate has received, just like her, a postcard with the slogan "Wish You Were Here" and on the back, a strange symbol. Misty is eager to share her theories, but Natalie —who just left rehab a bit ago— has them relocate to a bar. An Amateur Sleuth, er, "citizen detective", Misty has brought a file with clippings and all sorts of information. They discuss the information therein and the likely motives of the postcard sender: to scare them, to threaten them, and to make them think about That of Which They Will Not Speak. Misty also knows about Jessica Roberts and her dubious claims of being a reporter. She also found Travis and a phone number, albeit with great difficulty. The bartender brings them a drink, courtesy of one Kevyn Tan, Former Teen Rebel, current police detective, and Natalie's best friend in school. He leaves his card in case she wants to get together with him.

1996

Misty is still helping out her teammates. Little Javi (Coach Martinez's youngest son) is trying to find his dad. Natalie is sent off to find Travis. A rather surly Travis informs her that his dad was trying to help someone put on an oxygen mask when the plane ripped open and he fell out.

Present

The Abara-Turner household. Taissa arrives home with Mexican takeout. Even though they already ate dinner, son Sammy is excited, but her wife Simone is salty because Taissa missed a parent teacher conference. According to Sammy's teacher, the boy is having a hard time making friends. Taissa does not appear to be too worried at first, because she was a loner too. But later she expresses doubts about transferring their son to public school for the sake of her campaign. Simone expresses her support of Taissa's campaign.

The Sadecki household. Jeff and Shauna are about to have sex, as part of an assignment from their marriage counselor. Jeff brings up his sex fantasy: roleplaying as a customer to his furniture store. Shauna's puzzled but gives it a go as the British customer "Tabitha" at "Hank"'s store. They are struggling with the role-playing when Jeff finds the note with a phone number. Shauna reveals she got into a fender earlier on and exchanged numbers. Jeff is pissed she did not tell him about the accident until now and Shauna is irritated he has not asked if she is OK. She tries to get back to being "Tabitha" but Jeff is no longer "in the mood" so he goes off to deal single-handedly with his sexual frustration and Sports Center before bed.

1996

Jackie laments that Van (currently serving her Death Glares from a distance) hates her for the whole leaving her to die situation but as she says to Shauna, "For the record, I was trying to save you." Lottie is obviously distressed about finding just one of her bags. Meanwhile, Laura Lee is overjoyed at finding hers and pulls out her beloved teddy bear. The reunion is ruined when blood drips on the bear, then on her forehead. She looks up and screams. The others come up and see that Coach Martinez fell on a tree. His body is still but they can't tell from where they are if he is alive or dead. One of the girls wisely steers Javi away from the scene. The others try to figure out what to do and brainstorm ideas. Travis starts climbing the tree. While the girls beg him to come down, Travis attempts to get closer to his dad. But the branch the coach is in breaks down, and his body falls down, to everybody's horror. Carved on the wood? That symbol from the postcards.

Present

The Abara-Turner house. Taissa goes to Sammy's bedroom, where he has been refusing to open his shades. Oddly for him, he does not want her to read to him. He also does not want to go to the park (no friends). They end up playing a game where she makes shadow puppets and he guesses what animal they are supposed to be. After making puppets for a bunny and a snail, she makes a wolf, but the shadow growls at her. Under his shades, she notices that he has covered his window panes with drawings of scary eyes, a red-haired person and other things that do not alarm parents at all. Sammy explains he did that so that "the lady in the tree" who watches him at night can't see him. Yikes.

Sadecki household. Shauna finds in the freezer the meat she'd earlier asked Callie to put in the fridge to thaw out. While she tries to thaw it in the sink, she gets a phone call from Adam, the guy she rear-ended earlier on. He is calling because she didn't call the shop about her fender. He offers to fix her van for free if she has dinner with him. She declines. He apologizes, admitting that he thought that she seemed to be "... someone who doesn't play by the rules, Shauna." She asks him what he means but he just says he is an idiot, wishes her well, and hangs up. She looks out the window and sees another rabbit. Cut to Shauna starting to butcher the rabbit she just killed.

Natalie tries calling the number Misty found for Travis, but the man who picks up tells her she has a wrong number.

Dinner at the Sadeckis. As Jeff goes on about his day, Shauna is completely silent and Callie is on her phone, oblivious to her dad talking. Jeff compliments Shauna on her chili, and asks if it is a new recipe. Shauna tells them, with a straight face, that since Callie forgot to take the meat out of the freezer, she killed a rabbit in the garden, skinned it, and used the meat in the chili. Callie and Jeff laugh, thinking Shauna is kidding. She was not.

1996

Nighttime. The girls are sitting around a fire, pondering their situation. One of them is sure that "...the plane has an emergency transmitter sending out a distress signal. They'll be here to rescue us by morning."Just then, a contrite Laura Lee confesses that the plane crash is all her fault. The previous week, during her piano lesson, her teacher kept yelling at her, "Sharp. F sharp. F sharp." until Laura Lee snapped and called the woman a really bad word, although not out loud. The tearful Laura Lee is convinced God punished them all for her evil thought. She is asked what the terrible word was.

Laura Lee (whispering): Cunt .

Her teammates try not to laugh but they fail miserably. Even Laura Lee has to chuckle. The others share their own transgressions: Lottie shoplifts crappy clothes and returns them for store credit that is now worth thousands of dollars. Jackie waits until everybody in the house is in bed and watches Color of Night just to pause it at the part where she can check out Bruce Willis's package.

Away from the girls, Misty tells Coach Scott that she chopped off his leg and saved his life, but "you're not out of the woods yet." He is not OK with this.

Back with the main group. Jackie asks Shauna for any secrets of her own that might be "big enough to crash a goddamn plane?" Shauna does not share that she had sex with Jackie's boyfriend. This light-hearted moment ends when the girls hear Coach screaming as Misty cauterizes his wound with a heated ax.

Present

The Sadecki household. Jeff and Shauna are hanging out in bed in a post-coital mood, their second attempt at sexy role-playing ("Tabitha" goes back to the store in search of a sturdy bed, and they explore their options) having gone much better. Jeff asks Shauna, whether she was kidding about serving rabbit meat at dinner and she just says yes. As he heads off to the shower, she sees he has a message on his phone from "Bianca" about meeting at the same place.

Natalie is about to embark on a road trip to go see Travis but cannot get her car started. Just then, Misty shows up with two cups of coffee. And she is off work, so she offers to drive Natalie. Nat accepts, but only if she gets to drive.

1996

Misty goes off to pee, and overhears Laura Lee and Van chatting about being surprised yet grateful for Misty's first aid expertise. Just as she relieves herself, she notices a beeping box. It's the transmitter sending a distress signal. She pulls out cables and smashes it until it stops beeping.

Tropes appearing in this specific episode:

• Ask a Stupid Question...: Shauna asks her daughter to take chuck out of the freezer.
  Callie: What does it look like?
  Shauna: Like a little refrigerator on top of the big refrigerator. It's meat, Callie. It looks like frozen meat.
• Big "NO!": Of the repeating variety, courtesy of Coach Scott, when Misty informs him that she has chopped off his mangled leg, saving his life, "but you are not out of the woods yet." This is followed by her cauterizing his wound with the ax.
• Brutal Honesty: All over the place.
  • Averted when Coach Scott asks how bad is his leg wound. Before Misty can tell him that she chopped it off, Akilah lies and tells him he is going to be just fine. Misty thinks they should tell him the truth, but Akilah disagrees, "And freak him out worse? Are you really that psyched to tell him you chopped his fucking leg off with an axe?"
  • Played straight with Mari's response when Taissa asks if she is OK:
  Mari: Looks like you did Allie a big favor by breaking her leg.
• Call-Back:
  • Mari brings up the previous episode Taissa colliding with the underperforming Allie and breaking her leg.
  • Jessica Roberts is also brought up.
• Comically Missing the Point: Becky calls 13-year-old Misty and tells her that a boy is going around telling everyone that Misty let him do anal sex in the janitor's closet. Misty's response is to admit she's never been in the janitor's closet.
• Country Matters: What Laura Lee called her irritating piano teacher in her mind. She is convinced that the crash happened because God heard her evil thought.
• Crazy-Prepared: Misty, when asked how does she know so much about first aid: "I took the Red Cross babysitter training class. Twice."
• Deadpan Snarker: A couple of gems from Van, all directed towards Jackie:
  • After Jackie comes up with an idea to help Coach Martinez that is not much better than any of the other girls': "You're on fire today, Jackie. Oh, wait. That was supposed to be me, huh?"
  • When Jackie proposes conserving some food, just in case their rescuers are late: "You want to save the CornNuts?"
• Exposition: Misty takes the opportunity to explain what she does as a member of the "citizen detective community":
  We're like, um, we're like private investigators, except for no one hired us or asked for our help. We work together online to solve cold cases. Disappearances, murders. It's super fun
• Hypocrite: Natalie is offended that people would assume she would bring alcohol to Nationals. Except she totally did, and her reputation for partying is based on facts.
• Last-Second Word Swap: While treating Coach Scott for the leg amputation she just gave him, Misty is asking around for something to disinfect the wound.
  Van: Guys, how about this? (holds up bottle of Sea Breeze astringent from Jackie's bag)
  Jackie: Hey, that's m...
  Van: (Death Glare)
  Jackie: Uh... A great idea, Van.
• Mr Fan Service: Bruce Willis in-universe. Jackie admits to waiting until everybody is in bed and watching Color of Night just so she can pause it exactly at the part where Willis does full-frontal nudity and she can get a good look at his "wang".
• Roadside Surgery: Misty amputates Coach Scott's leg with an ax. Since there's no straight alcohol available (the drink cart was nonalcoholic and Natalie can't find her contraband), she disinfects his wound with astringent^note First active ingredient is alcohol.
• Tempting Fate: "They'll be here to rescue us by morning."
• Troubled Backstory Flashback: Right when the plane is about to crash, there is a flashback to three years earlier, with 13-year-old Misty getting a prank call from an Alpha Bitch.
• Wham Shot: Misty disabling the flight recorder.