Misty Fucking Quigley (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
citizendetective) wrote2022-02-13 09:44 pm
citizendetective) wrote2022-02-13 09:44 pm
canon history (cw: murder, suicide, social toxicity)
As a kid, Misty was a killer combo of socially awkward but not the least bit shy - meaning that rather than compensating for her lack of social skills by trying to stay under the radar, she never stopped putting herself out there and trying to join in socially, even though it rarely went well for her. Long since seen as annoying and overbearing, Misty eventually found a perceived sense of community and social purpose by becoming the equipment manager for her high school's girls' soccer team. Though the players never really saw her as one of them, Misty didn't let that slow her roll: she became their self-appointed, one-person cheerleading squad, and she watched them at games and pep rallies with a pride and joy that was almost rapturous. On some level, she knew that "her team" didn't love her as much as she loved them, but she thought the solution to that was just to try harder and push more: she had no real idea how to make friends, but she hoped that if she was omnipresent and enthusiastic enough, they'd eventually come around.
After qualifying for the national championship, the team jetted off across the country in a private plane hired for them by one of the player's ultra-wealthy parents. Unfortunately, en route from New Jersey to Washington state, they crashed in the Canadian Rockies. Immediately post-crash, Misty stood out by being the only survivor to both keep a cool head and have a working knowledge of first aid, and she immediately jumped into action, running around tending to injuries big and small. The other girls were suitably surprised and impressed, and Misty, surprised herself that this was what it took to finally earn their respect and admiration, relished the upgrade to her Team Caretaker role. When she stumbled across the plane's emergency locator beacon in the woods, she impulsively destroyed it, not wanting her newfound place in the group to come to an end just yet.
In the end, they were out there for nineteen months - very likely much longer than Misty had expected when she destroyed the beacon, but a duration of time that was still, ultimately, her fault. While surviving in the woods and waiting for rescue, Misty continued to make herself useful as the go-to girl for any medical issues. As time went on, this primarily meant caring for the team's assistant coach, who lost a leg in the crash and who was the only surviving adult. Things were complicated by the fact that Misty had a long-standing crush on the coach: and while she wouldn't be the first seventeen-year-old to immaturely believe that she had A Real Chance with a cute twenty-something guy, she took things to dark extremes. Not only did she hover and smother and pamper him beyond what was really necessary (and against his express wishes), believing that this would eventually endear her to him, she began lightly poisoning him with wild mushrooms when he started to get stronger, wanting to keep him weak and dependent on her.
Plenty of other things clearly happened before they were rescued: faction-forming and survival cannibalism are heavily hinted at, and one of the other girls is seen starting a quasi-religious cult that several of the others, Misty included, appear to join in on. Unfortunately, the audience won't find out more details about this until at least season 2, so for now we have to...
... Fast forward twenty-five years. Misty still lives in New Jersey, in roughly the same area she grew up in, and works as a care assistant at a nursing home, where she gets to feed her toxic caretaking addiction and get into shitty one-upmanship battles with residents she views as uncooperative or insufficiently grateful for her care. She lives alone with her African Grey parrot (a species that requires a ton of care and attention, and the perfect pet for someone addicted to feeling needed), and spends a good deal of time online, chatting on a true crime/cold case discussion forum called Citizen Detectives. Though she's seen trying socialize with her coworkers and going on dead-end dates, she doesn't have much of an offline social life; it turns out she hasn't grown into her own as far as social skills go, and people still find her as off-putting and inappropriate now as they did when she was a kid. What's more, in all those years, she doesn't seem to have found a new social role that fulfills her in the way that being the soccer team's equipment manager/the crash survivors' medical caretaker had, and she clearly longs for the good old days of both high school and wilderness survival.
One evening, upon coming home from an awkward date and wheedling the guy into coming into the house with her, she's greeted by a surprise: Natalie Scatorccio, a former member of the soccer team and fellow plane crash survivor, is sitting in her living room pointing a rifle at her. Misty's date sees this and very wisely chooses to peace out, but Misty couldn't give less of a fuck at this point; a member of ✨✨✨her team✨✨✨ is here, and that's all that she cares about. Apparently, Natalie has received a mysterious postcard in the mail that contains references to the team's time in the woods; she suspects Misty of having sent it, and demands to know what she's playing it. Misty denies having done so, revealing that she received one too; what's more, she's put her Citizen DetectiveTM hat on and has been doing research into its potential origins. Cheerfully uncaring about the fact that Natalie broke into her house and threatened her with a gun, she invites her to stay for tea and to swap theories; instead, Natalie suggests they head out to a local bar and talk there.
At the bar, Misty shows Natalie the clues she's been gathering, which includes a truly alarming amount of info about, among other things, what their fellow survivors have been up to since their return to society. Misty is mostly interested in talking about Jessica Roberts, a reporter who claims to be writing a book about the crash but who Misty believes is actually up to something far more sinister; Natalie, on the other hand, is more focused on the fact that Misty has info on Travis, the head coach's son who'd been on the plane with them and who Natalie has been in tumultuous on-again, off-again relationship with ever since. Currently, Travis has gone no-contact with her, and Natalie has no interest in respecting that; seeing that Misty has somehow tracked down his current phone number and address, Natalie pockets the info. At this point they're approached by Kevyn, an old friend of Natalie's who's now a police officer; he leaves an uninterested Natalie his business card in case she wants to reconnect. Natalie leaves soon after, taking Travis's info with her and leaving behind a dejected Misty, who's clearly disappointed that she didn't get the combo gal pal reunion/mystery-solving brainstorming session she'd been hoping for. Seeing that Natalie also left behind Kevyn's card, she nabs it.
Later that night, Misty makes two spectacularly bad decisions. First, she starts texting Kevyn while pretending to be Natalie, relishing in the idea of roleplaying the cool gives-no-fucks outsider she wishes she could be. Second, she secretly follows Natalie over to the motel where she's staying, breaks into her car, and steals her battery cable. Natalie is probably going to want to drive out to pay Travis a visit, she reasons, and she wants to come along for the ride - but she figures that if she asks, Natalie will tell her to fuck off. The only way to solve that problem is to make it so that Natalie can't go on her own; that way, Misty can roll up and save the day! And that's just what she does: while Natalie is struggling to get her car going the next morning, Misty arrives very inconspicuously (read: not inconspicuously at all; it's very obvious that she planned a dramatic entrance), notes Natalie's car trouble, and offers her a ride to wherever she's going. Oh, she's planning to take a road trip to see Travis? In New Hampshire? Which is six hours away? That's fine, she has the next couple of days off from work! She'd be happy to spend literally all of that time hanging with her buddy Natalie! She's a helper!
Natalie is not exactly pleased with this development, but since she she loves forcibly inserting herself into Travis's life every bit as much as Misty now loves forcibly inserting herself into hers, she accepts the offer, and off they go. When they arrive at Travis's house, he's not home, so Natalie promptly breaks in and starts going through his things. Misty is cool with a little B&E as a bonding exercise, and jumps in to help. They discover a pay stub with the address of his workplace (a ranch outside of town), but before they can do anything else, a sheriff's deputy shows up to arrest them for the break-in. Natalie is annoyed. Misty has a ball.
When they're given the opportunity to make phone calls, Misty calls Kevyn and tells him that Natalie needs his help, and somehow he pulls some strings to spring them. Rather than heading for home, though, Natalie gets Misty to drive her to the ranch where Travis works... where they find Travis's body, swinging from the barn rafters. Misty attempts to hold Natalie back to keep her from seeing, but Natalie pushes past her, collapsing in grief. Misty gets her up, hustles her to the car, and takes her home.
The next day, Misty calls to check up on Natalie, worried about how she's coping. She speaks to her while reading directly from a webpage about how to comfort someone grieving a suicide death, but Natalie brushes off the platitudes, insisting that Travis would never have killed himself and that someone must have murdered him and framed it to look like a suicide. Misty immediately offers to help (she loves murder investigations!), but Natalie again brushes her off, saying that she already has plans to meet with someone else and making it clear that Misty isn't invited. Determined both to help Natalie and to involve herself in a real-life juicy crime drama, Misty follows her, and discovers that she's meeting Kevyn for dinner at a restaurant in hopes of wheedling him into helping her get her hands on Travis's autopsy report. While she's watching Natalie from across the dining room, Misty is alarmed to see that Jessica Roberts - the reporter who she's suspicious of - is also watching her. Hurriedly, Misty texts Natalie to warn her, then calls when she ignores the text, then huffily continues to keep an eye on the situation when she ignores the call. Eventually, Natalie spots her and storms over to ask her what the fuck she's doing. Misty, genuinely flummoxed by Natalie's anger, says that she's trying to have her back, and again warns her about the reporter who's spying on her ("And what are you doing?" Natalie quite reasonably asks). Natalie makes it clear that she has zero interest in being a crime-solving duo with Misty, and tells her to go home and stop puppy-dogging after her.
Several days later, after exhausting all the leads she'd been following on her own (turns out Kevyn is a responsible cop who won't just dig up autopsy reports from other jurisdictions and hand them out to random civilians), Natalie finally gives in and calls Misty. She remembers that Misty had mentioned having an internet buddy who could probably hack into Travis's email, and wonders if he could possibly also hack into a police database. Misty initially plays aloof and miffed, but caves very quickly, promising to get her guy on the case. They meet at Natalie's motel room, where Misty gifts her with an aroma diffuser ("Subtropical floral scents are very uplifting") and says that unfortunately, while her internet contact was indeed able to access the autopsy report, he's being stingy about sharing it and wants some heavy compensation first. He's also local, and wants to meet up in person to discuss the trade rather than just sending them the file electronically. Natalie comes up with an unhinged plan to splash gas on him, and then threaten him with a lit match if he doesn't hand it over immediately; Misty is fine with this idea, and it goes off without a hitch. Welcome to Yellowjackets, where every single character is fucked up!
Back in Natalie's hotel room, they pour over the autopsy report and crime scene photos together, noting that, though Travis's death was officially ruled a suicide, there are wax marks arranged in a pattern under his body, indicating that candles had been placed on the barn floor. Though the audience is largely kept in the dark about what this means, it clearly disturbs Natalie and Misty, and is reminiscent of something Bad And Mysterious that happened to them all while they were in the woods; this is, to them, proof that not only was Travis murdered, but that they and the other survivors are potentially in danger, too.
The next day, Natalie reaches out to Taissa, another local survivor who she's on cautiously friendly terms with, and warns her about what she and Misty found; Taissa in turn reaches out to Shauna, yet another survivor. The three of them meet in Natalie's hotel room and discuss Travis's death (Shauna and Taissa are both very skeptical about the murder theory), the mysterious postcards, and some extortion messages that both Natalie and Taissa have received, again related to Mysterious Awful Things that they'd done while stranded. They all readily agree to make whatever payments are asked for in order to keep their secrets secret, and discuss whether or not they should call up Misty and loop her in; Natalie says yes, Taissa says absolutely fucking not, and Shauna appears undecided. In the end, they decide to keep Misty in the dark, but that doesn't end up mattering because, uh, it turns out that Misty is actually watching all this go down in real time. That aroma diffuser she gave Natalie contained a hidden camera, so that she could keep tabs on what Natalie was up to even when Natalie shut her out. #JustNormalFriendThings. Taissa, Natalie, and Shauna decide to deliver the extortionist's money as requested, but then secretly hang out nearby and watch to see who picks it up. Misty is presumably sent into an apoplexy of jealousy seeing this being planned out and knowing that she's missing out on getting to participate in a sting.
But it's fine, because she has her own thing going on. Misty is still convinced that Jessica Roberts, who's continually been trying to talk to her and the other survivors, is involved with the extortion scheme somehow, and also possibly had a hand in Travis's death; Natalie is starting to wonder about the possibility too (likely thanks to Misty constantly talking about it), though when she impulsively declares that she's going to meet up with her and make her talk, Shauna and Taissa (who are both their own special brand of fucked up, but are at least less openly reckless than Natalie and Misty) talk her down. Misty, who is secretly watching this exchange go down via diffuser-cam, uses it as an impetus to do what she does next: if no one else is going to take Jessica seriously as a threat, then she'll damn well handle her herself. She puts together an extra bedroom in her basement, complete with a few sinister additions: namely, handcuffs on the bed and extra bolt locks on the door. Then she calls Jessica up, tells her she wants to arrange a secret meeting to talk and that she'll come pick her up... and then as soon as she gets Jessica in her car, she stabs her with a seditive-filled hypodermic needle she's filched from work, knocking her out. She dramatically plays the overture from The Phantom of the Opera over her car speakers as she does all this, because she is ridiculous.
So! Misty now has her very own captive journalist. She informs Jessica that she knows she's the extortionist and that she killed Travis, and says that she's kidnapped her to protect Natalie, Taissa, and Shauna from coming to harm next. Jessica (who, Misty notes, isn't panicking as much as she would have expected; Jessica retorts that she's worked stories in very dangerous places, and this isn't her first time being held hostage) denies having anything to do with Travis's death, but says that she does believe he was murdered, and that she has useful knowledge to share. Misty remains suspicious of her, but is also intrigued by what Jessica might know. Jessica is, obviously, reluctant to give up any info without first securing her freedom, but after Misty threatens to send Fentanyl-laced chocolates to her father, Jessica opens up, sharing details of her own investigations that Misty then plans to pass on to Natalie.
Worried that Jessica will go to the police if she lets her go, Misty hangs onto her hostage. It's the start of a massively weird dynamic: Misty is clearly having a blast indulging in her crime-solving (... and crime-committing) fantasties, but she also seems to legitimately enjoy Jessica's company, and Jessica plays into that, acting chummy and social. Misty cooks for her, and they eat meals together; she brings a TV down and they watch movies together; she brings her pet parrot down for visits and they all hang out together. However, it never stops being a highly dangerous, precarious situation for Jessica. Misty may crave connection, and may even get some sort of twisted enjoyment out of having a "friend" who literally has to spend time with her - but nothing and nobody matters more to her than "her teammates", the girls she cheered for and cared for and survived the woods with, and she's still not convinced that Jessica isn't a liability to them.
For the next few days, the two circle around each other, sizing each other up. Jessica makes one desperate bid for freedom by getting ahold of Misty's parrot and threatening to strangle him if Misty doesn't let her go; instead, Misty freaks the fuck out, screaming and physically attacking her (notably the first and only time we ever see her do something like this; she loves that bird), causing Jessica to lose her grip at set the little guy free. For the most part, though, Jessica plays the Stockholm Syndrome card: expressing concern and sympathy when Misty gets teary over a big fight with Natalie, telling her it's clear that she's a good friend and that the others just don't appreciate her, and telling her that she could get attention and appreciation from the whole world if she took her up on her offer to write a tell-all book about what the plane crash survivors did to each other in the woods. Misty seems to genuinely be taken in by the sympathy angle, but the tell-all offer is where it's clear that Jessica has misjudged her - because Misty has never cared about fame and public attention, at least not when weighed against personal attention from those she knows and cares about. Capturing the public eye might sound nice in theory, but "her team" matters infinitely more to her than a bunch of strangers, and the idea of selling them out and capitalizing on their secrets is unthinkable to her. Still, she toys with Jessica, faking interest in the plan in an effort to keep info-gathering, and in this way the two continue to both manipulate and be manipulated by each other.
Though they've been feuding, Natalie eventually finds herself back at Misty's door, once again in need of her help and willing to use shameless flattery to get it. She calls Misty pretty, she calls Misty knowledgeable and useful, she tells Misty she's really been there for her in a way that no one else has... and she tells Misty that Shauna's killed a guy who they're pretty sure is their extortionist, and they need Misty to use her true crime knowledge to help them dispose of his body without getting caught. It's this last bit that really wins her over ("I've been waiting my whole life for this!!!", her expression says), and she agrees to help, but on one condition: their twenty-fifth high school reunion is that night, and she wants Natalie to go with her. Natalie agrees, and they head off to make Misty's CSI dreams come true. After successfully dismembering and disposing of the body together (which Misty 100% treats as a fun group activity they get to bond over rather than a horrific experience), Misty, Natalie, Taissa, and Shauna meet up at the reunion, where Misty spends a rapturous evening metaphorically hanging off Natalie's arm and doing tequila shots with her buds. The next morning, she tells Jessica she'll let her go if she super-duper pinky-swear promises not to go to the police, and Jessica agrees... only to pass out a short while after regaining her freedom. Whoopsie! Turns out that Misty still thinks that this woman, with her digging and her prying and her interest in tell-alls, is a big enough potential threat to warrant permanent disposal, and she'd injected Fentanyl into her cigarettes before cutting her loose. Lesson learned: don't underestimate Misty's dark dedication to protecting her friends. It can be deadly.
After qualifying for the national championship, the team jetted off across the country in a private plane hired for them by one of the player's ultra-wealthy parents. Unfortunately, en route from New Jersey to Washington state, they crashed in the Canadian Rockies. Immediately post-crash, Misty stood out by being the only survivor to both keep a cool head and have a working knowledge of first aid, and she immediately jumped into action, running around tending to injuries big and small. The other girls were suitably surprised and impressed, and Misty, surprised herself that this was what it took to finally earn their respect and admiration, relished the upgrade to her Team Caretaker role. When she stumbled across the plane's emergency locator beacon in the woods, she impulsively destroyed it, not wanting her newfound place in the group to come to an end just yet.
In the end, they were out there for nineteen months - very likely much longer than Misty had expected when she destroyed the beacon, but a duration of time that was still, ultimately, her fault. While surviving in the woods and waiting for rescue, Misty continued to make herself useful as the go-to girl for any medical issues. As time went on, this primarily meant caring for the team's assistant coach, who lost a leg in the crash and who was the only surviving adult. Things were complicated by the fact that Misty had a long-standing crush on the coach: and while she wouldn't be the first seventeen-year-old to immaturely believe that she had A Real Chance with a cute twenty-something guy, she took things to dark extremes. Not only did she hover and smother and pamper him beyond what was really necessary (and against his express wishes), believing that this would eventually endear her to him, she began lightly poisoning him with wild mushrooms when he started to get stronger, wanting to keep him weak and dependent on her.
Plenty of other things clearly happened before they were rescued: faction-forming and survival cannibalism are heavily hinted at, and one of the other girls is seen starting a quasi-religious cult that several of the others, Misty included, appear to join in on. Unfortunately, the audience won't find out more details about this until at least season 2, so for now we have to...
... Fast forward twenty-five years. Misty still lives in New Jersey, in roughly the same area she grew up in, and works as a care assistant at a nursing home, where she gets to feed her toxic caretaking addiction and get into shitty one-upmanship battles with residents she views as uncooperative or insufficiently grateful for her care. She lives alone with her African Grey parrot (a species that requires a ton of care and attention, and the perfect pet for someone addicted to feeling needed), and spends a good deal of time online, chatting on a true crime/cold case discussion forum called Citizen Detectives. Though she's seen trying socialize with her coworkers and going on dead-end dates, she doesn't have much of an offline social life; it turns out she hasn't grown into her own as far as social skills go, and people still find her as off-putting and inappropriate now as they did when she was a kid. What's more, in all those years, she doesn't seem to have found a new social role that fulfills her in the way that being the soccer team's equipment manager/the crash survivors' medical caretaker had, and she clearly longs for the good old days of both high school and wilderness survival.
One evening, upon coming home from an awkward date and wheedling the guy into coming into the house with her, she's greeted by a surprise: Natalie Scatorccio, a former member of the soccer team and fellow plane crash survivor, is sitting in her living room pointing a rifle at her. Misty's date sees this and very wisely chooses to peace out, but Misty couldn't give less of a fuck at this point; a member of ✨✨✨her team✨✨✨ is here, and that's all that she cares about. Apparently, Natalie has received a mysterious postcard in the mail that contains references to the team's time in the woods; she suspects Misty of having sent it, and demands to know what she's playing it. Misty denies having done so, revealing that she received one too; what's more, she's put her Citizen DetectiveTM hat on and has been doing research into its potential origins. Cheerfully uncaring about the fact that Natalie broke into her house and threatened her with a gun, she invites her to stay for tea and to swap theories; instead, Natalie suggests they head out to a local bar and talk there.
At the bar, Misty shows Natalie the clues she's been gathering, which includes a truly alarming amount of info about, among other things, what their fellow survivors have been up to since their return to society. Misty is mostly interested in talking about Jessica Roberts, a reporter who claims to be writing a book about the crash but who Misty believes is actually up to something far more sinister; Natalie, on the other hand, is more focused on the fact that Misty has info on Travis, the head coach's son who'd been on the plane with them and who Natalie has been in tumultuous on-again, off-again relationship with ever since. Currently, Travis has gone no-contact with her, and Natalie has no interest in respecting that; seeing that Misty has somehow tracked down his current phone number and address, Natalie pockets the info. At this point they're approached by Kevyn, an old friend of Natalie's who's now a police officer; he leaves an uninterested Natalie his business card in case she wants to reconnect. Natalie leaves soon after, taking Travis's info with her and leaving behind a dejected Misty, who's clearly disappointed that she didn't get the combo gal pal reunion/mystery-solving brainstorming session she'd been hoping for. Seeing that Natalie also left behind Kevyn's card, she nabs it.
Later that night, Misty makes two spectacularly bad decisions. First, she starts texting Kevyn while pretending to be Natalie, relishing in the idea of roleplaying the cool gives-no-fucks outsider she wishes she could be. Second, she secretly follows Natalie over to the motel where she's staying, breaks into her car, and steals her battery cable. Natalie is probably going to want to drive out to pay Travis a visit, she reasons, and she wants to come along for the ride - but she figures that if she asks, Natalie will tell her to fuck off. The only way to solve that problem is to make it so that Natalie can't go on her own; that way, Misty can roll up and save the day! And that's just what she does: while Natalie is struggling to get her car going the next morning, Misty arrives very inconspicuously (read: not inconspicuously at all; it's very obvious that she planned a dramatic entrance), notes Natalie's car trouble, and offers her a ride to wherever she's going. Oh, she's planning to take a road trip to see Travis? In New Hampshire? Which is six hours away? That's fine, she has the next couple of days off from work! She'd be happy to spend literally all of that time hanging with her buddy Natalie! She's a helper!
Natalie is not exactly pleased with this development, but since she she loves forcibly inserting herself into Travis's life every bit as much as Misty now loves forcibly inserting herself into hers, she accepts the offer, and off they go. When they arrive at Travis's house, he's not home, so Natalie promptly breaks in and starts going through his things. Misty is cool with a little B&E as a bonding exercise, and jumps in to help. They discover a pay stub with the address of his workplace (a ranch outside of town), but before they can do anything else, a sheriff's deputy shows up to arrest them for the break-in. Natalie is annoyed. Misty has a ball.
When they're given the opportunity to make phone calls, Misty calls Kevyn and tells him that Natalie needs his help, and somehow he pulls some strings to spring them. Rather than heading for home, though, Natalie gets Misty to drive her to the ranch where Travis works... where they find Travis's body, swinging from the barn rafters. Misty attempts to hold Natalie back to keep her from seeing, but Natalie pushes past her, collapsing in grief. Misty gets her up, hustles her to the car, and takes her home.
The next day, Misty calls to check up on Natalie, worried about how she's coping. She speaks to her while reading directly from a webpage about how to comfort someone grieving a suicide death, but Natalie brushes off the platitudes, insisting that Travis would never have killed himself and that someone must have murdered him and framed it to look like a suicide. Misty immediately offers to help (she loves murder investigations!), but Natalie again brushes her off, saying that she already has plans to meet with someone else and making it clear that Misty isn't invited. Determined both to help Natalie and to involve herself in a real-life juicy crime drama, Misty follows her, and discovers that she's meeting Kevyn for dinner at a restaurant in hopes of wheedling him into helping her get her hands on Travis's autopsy report. While she's watching Natalie from across the dining room, Misty is alarmed to see that Jessica Roberts - the reporter who she's suspicious of - is also watching her. Hurriedly, Misty texts Natalie to warn her, then calls when she ignores the text, then huffily continues to keep an eye on the situation when she ignores the call. Eventually, Natalie spots her and storms over to ask her what the fuck she's doing. Misty, genuinely flummoxed by Natalie's anger, says that she's trying to have her back, and again warns her about the reporter who's spying on her ("And what are you doing?" Natalie quite reasonably asks). Natalie makes it clear that she has zero interest in being a crime-solving duo with Misty, and tells her to go home and stop puppy-dogging after her.
Several days later, after exhausting all the leads she'd been following on her own (turns out Kevyn is a responsible cop who won't just dig up autopsy reports from other jurisdictions and hand them out to random civilians), Natalie finally gives in and calls Misty. She remembers that Misty had mentioned having an internet buddy who could probably hack into Travis's email, and wonders if he could possibly also hack into a police database. Misty initially plays aloof and miffed, but caves very quickly, promising to get her guy on the case. They meet at Natalie's motel room, where Misty gifts her with an aroma diffuser ("Subtropical floral scents are very uplifting") and says that unfortunately, while her internet contact was indeed able to access the autopsy report, he's being stingy about sharing it and wants some heavy compensation first. He's also local, and wants to meet up in person to discuss the trade rather than just sending them the file electronically. Natalie comes up with an unhinged plan to splash gas on him, and then threaten him with a lit match if he doesn't hand it over immediately; Misty is fine with this idea, and it goes off without a hitch. Welcome to Yellowjackets, where every single character is fucked up!
Back in Natalie's hotel room, they pour over the autopsy report and crime scene photos together, noting that, though Travis's death was officially ruled a suicide, there are wax marks arranged in a pattern under his body, indicating that candles had been placed on the barn floor. Though the audience is largely kept in the dark about what this means, it clearly disturbs Natalie and Misty, and is reminiscent of something Bad And Mysterious that happened to them all while they were in the woods; this is, to them, proof that not only was Travis murdered, but that they and the other survivors are potentially in danger, too.
The next day, Natalie reaches out to Taissa, another local survivor who she's on cautiously friendly terms with, and warns her about what she and Misty found; Taissa in turn reaches out to Shauna, yet another survivor. The three of them meet in Natalie's hotel room and discuss Travis's death (Shauna and Taissa are both very skeptical about the murder theory), the mysterious postcards, and some extortion messages that both Natalie and Taissa have received, again related to Mysterious Awful Things that they'd done while stranded. They all readily agree to make whatever payments are asked for in order to keep their secrets secret, and discuss whether or not they should call up Misty and loop her in; Natalie says yes, Taissa says absolutely fucking not, and Shauna appears undecided. In the end, they decide to keep Misty in the dark, but that doesn't end up mattering because, uh, it turns out that Misty is actually watching all this go down in real time. That aroma diffuser she gave Natalie contained a hidden camera, so that she could keep tabs on what Natalie was up to even when Natalie shut her out. #JustNormalFriendThings. Taissa, Natalie, and Shauna decide to deliver the extortionist's money as requested, but then secretly hang out nearby and watch to see who picks it up. Misty is presumably sent into an apoplexy of jealousy seeing this being planned out and knowing that she's missing out on getting to participate in a sting.
But it's fine, because she has her own thing going on. Misty is still convinced that Jessica Roberts, who's continually been trying to talk to her and the other survivors, is involved with the extortion scheme somehow, and also possibly had a hand in Travis's death; Natalie is starting to wonder about the possibility too (likely thanks to Misty constantly talking about it), though when she impulsively declares that she's going to meet up with her and make her talk, Shauna and Taissa (who are both their own special brand of fucked up, but are at least less openly reckless than Natalie and Misty) talk her down. Misty, who is secretly watching this exchange go down via diffuser-cam, uses it as an impetus to do what she does next: if no one else is going to take Jessica seriously as a threat, then she'll damn well handle her herself. She puts together an extra bedroom in her basement, complete with a few sinister additions: namely, handcuffs on the bed and extra bolt locks on the door. Then she calls Jessica up, tells her she wants to arrange a secret meeting to talk and that she'll come pick her up... and then as soon as she gets Jessica in her car, she stabs her with a seditive-filled hypodermic needle she's filched from work, knocking her out. She dramatically plays the overture from The Phantom of the Opera over her car speakers as she does all this, because she is ridiculous.
So! Misty now has her very own captive journalist. She informs Jessica that she knows she's the extortionist and that she killed Travis, and says that she's kidnapped her to protect Natalie, Taissa, and Shauna from coming to harm next. Jessica (who, Misty notes, isn't panicking as much as she would have expected; Jessica retorts that she's worked stories in very dangerous places, and this isn't her first time being held hostage) denies having anything to do with Travis's death, but says that she does believe he was murdered, and that she has useful knowledge to share. Misty remains suspicious of her, but is also intrigued by what Jessica might know. Jessica is, obviously, reluctant to give up any info without first securing her freedom, but after Misty threatens to send Fentanyl-laced chocolates to her father, Jessica opens up, sharing details of her own investigations that Misty then plans to pass on to Natalie.
Worried that Jessica will go to the police if she lets her go, Misty hangs onto her hostage. It's the start of a massively weird dynamic: Misty is clearly having a blast indulging in her crime-solving (... and crime-committing) fantasties, but she also seems to legitimately enjoy Jessica's company, and Jessica plays into that, acting chummy and social. Misty cooks for her, and they eat meals together; she brings a TV down and they watch movies together; she brings her pet parrot down for visits and they all hang out together. However, it never stops being a highly dangerous, precarious situation for Jessica. Misty may crave connection, and may even get some sort of twisted enjoyment out of having a "friend" who literally has to spend time with her - but nothing and nobody matters more to her than "her teammates", the girls she cheered for and cared for and survived the woods with, and she's still not convinced that Jessica isn't a liability to them.
For the next few days, the two circle around each other, sizing each other up. Jessica makes one desperate bid for freedom by getting ahold of Misty's parrot and threatening to strangle him if Misty doesn't let her go; instead, Misty freaks the fuck out, screaming and physically attacking her (notably the first and only time we ever see her do something like this; she loves that bird), causing Jessica to lose her grip at set the little guy free. For the most part, though, Jessica plays the Stockholm Syndrome card: expressing concern and sympathy when Misty gets teary over a big fight with Natalie, telling her it's clear that she's a good friend and that the others just don't appreciate her, and telling her that she could get attention and appreciation from the whole world if she took her up on her offer to write a tell-all book about what the plane crash survivors did to each other in the woods. Misty seems to genuinely be taken in by the sympathy angle, but the tell-all offer is where it's clear that Jessica has misjudged her - because Misty has never cared about fame and public attention, at least not when weighed against personal attention from those she knows and cares about. Capturing the public eye might sound nice in theory, but "her team" matters infinitely more to her than a bunch of strangers, and the idea of selling them out and capitalizing on their secrets is unthinkable to her. Still, she toys with Jessica, faking interest in the plan in an effort to keep info-gathering, and in this way the two continue to both manipulate and be manipulated by each other.
Though they've been feuding, Natalie eventually finds herself back at Misty's door, once again in need of her help and willing to use shameless flattery to get it. She calls Misty pretty, she calls Misty knowledgeable and useful, she tells Misty she's really been there for her in a way that no one else has... and she tells Misty that Shauna's killed a guy who they're pretty sure is their extortionist, and they need Misty to use her true crime knowledge to help them dispose of his body without getting caught. It's this last bit that really wins her over ("I've been waiting my whole life for this!!!", her expression says), and she agrees to help, but on one condition: their twenty-fifth high school reunion is that night, and she wants Natalie to go with her. Natalie agrees, and they head off to make Misty's CSI dreams come true. After successfully dismembering and disposing of the body together (which Misty 100% treats as a fun group activity they get to bond over rather than a horrific experience), Misty, Natalie, Taissa, and Shauna meet up at the reunion, where Misty spends a rapturous evening metaphorically hanging off Natalie's arm and doing tequila shots with her buds. The next morning, she tells Jessica she'll let her go if she super-duper pinky-swear promises not to go to the police, and Jessica agrees... only to pass out a short while after regaining her freedom. Whoopsie! Turns out that Misty still thinks that this woman, with her digging and her prying and her interest in tell-alls, is a big enough potential threat to warrant permanent disposal, and she'd injected Fentanyl into her cigarettes before cutting her loose. Lesson learned: don't underestimate Misty's dark dedication to protecting her friends. It can be deadly.