"Old Tunes" is the kind of episode that makes you want to scrub your brain with steel wool, but in the best way possible. By the time we hit Yellowjackets season 2 episode 4, the show isn't just flirting with the supernatural anymore. It's living in it. We're past the shock of the "Snackie" incident from earlier in the season, and now we’re settling into the long, rhythmic hum of starvation and madness. This episode, directed by Scott Winant, feels different because it’s deeply internal. It’s about the stories we tell ourselves to keep from screaming.
The 1996 timeline is freezing. Literally. You can almost feel the frostbite through the screen. Natalie and Lottie are locked in this weird, silent war for the soul of the group, and it all comes to a head over a hunt. Or a lack of one. While they're out there competing to see whose "method"—Lottie’s spiritualism or Natalie’s pragmatism—will put food on the table, the rest of the cabin is slowly losing their grip on reality.
The Mental Collapse in Yellowjackets Season 2 Episode 4
Honestly, the most heartbreaking part of this hour isn't even the gore. It’s Ben. Coach Ben is checking out. He’s hallucinating this entire alternate life with his boyfriend, Paul, back in New York. These scenes are shot with this warm, hazy glow that feels like a slap in the face compared to the blue, brutal cold of the wilderness. It’s a defense mechanism. If he stays in the cabin, he’s just a one-legged man waiting to be eaten. If he stays in his head, he’s in a cozy apartment eating actual food.
It's a brilliant narrative choice by the writers. It highlights the psychological tax of survival. We see the girls starting to lean into Lottie’s "wilderness" religion because they need a framework. They need a "why." Ben doesn't have that. He just has regret. While Lottie is leading the others in a blood-sharing ritual, Ben is retreating into a past that doesn't exist anymore. It’s a parallel of how people handle trauma: you either lean into the new, terrifying reality, or you hide in a ghost of the old one.
The competition between Lottie and Natalie is where the meat of the episode lies. Natalie is the hunter. She’s the logic. But the wilderness isn't logical. When she finds that frozen moose and fails to pull it from the lake, it’s a crushing moment. It’s the universe telling her that her skills don't matter if the "It" doesn't want her to have it. Lottie, meanwhile, is nearly dying of hypothermia just to prove a point. She finds a plane—the altar of their original trauma—and makes a sacrifice. It’s visceral. It’s messy. It’s Yellowjackets.
What’s Really Going On With Walter and Misty?
Switching to the present day, we get the weirdest buddy-cop dynamic on television. Misty and Walter. Elijah Wood was born to play a musical-theater-loving citizen detective. Their road trip to find Natalie leads them to a bed and breakfast where they engage in a high-stakes interrogation of a goat. Sorta.
Walter is the first person who actually feels like a match for Misty Quigley. He’s just as calculated, just as "off," and just as obsessed with the puzzle. When they're sitting there, listening to show tunes and analyzing phone records, you realize that Misty might have finally found her person. Or her nemesis. It’s hard to tell with her. The chemistry is undeniable, but it’s a chemistry built on a foundation of mutual sociopathy.
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Their storyline in Yellowjackets season 2 episode 4 provides a much-needed breath of dark comedy. Without it, the episode would be almost too bleak to handle. They find their way to Lottie’s "wellness center," which we all know is just a cult with better branding. The tension here isn't just about finding Natalie; it’s about what happens when two people who are used to being the smartest (and creepiest) in the room have to work together.
Shauna’s Domestic Horror Show
Shauna is spiraling. Sophie Nélisse and Melanie Lynskey both do such an incredible job of portraying the "Shauna-ness" of the character—that simmering rage right under a polite surface. In the 1996 timeline, the pregnancy is becoming a focal point of anxiety. The girls are making a baby shower? It’s surreal. It’s a bunch of teenagers trying to play house in the middle of a cannibalistic nightmare.
In the present, Shauna and Jeff are dealing with the fallout of the carjacking. When Shauna goes to the chop shop to get her van back, we see the "Wilderness Shauna" peek out. She pulls a gun. She gives a monologue about what it’s like to actually feel your life slipping away. It’s terrifying. Jeff is just standing there, a man who loves his wife but realizes he doesn't actually know her. Not the real her.
The intersection of these two timelines is where the show earns its keep. The way Shauna handles the gun in the present is a direct echo of her hardening in the past. She isn't a victim. She never was. She’s a predator who has been pretending to be a suburban mom for twenty years, and the mask is slipping.
That Ending Explained: The Birth of a Mythos
The episode wraps up with one of the most haunting images in the series. Lottie and Natalie return to the cabin, defeated by the cold. But Lottie has "seen" something. The divide in the group is permanent now. You have the believers and the skeptics.
This isn't just about survival anymore; it's about the birth of a religion. The "wilderness" is becoming a character. Whether it’s actually a supernatural force or just a collective psychosis doesn't really matter—the effect is the same. People die. People change.
- The Moose: The failure to retrieve the moose represents the loss of agency. No matter how hard Natalie works, the environment wins.
- The Altar: Lottie’s blood sacrifice in the plane suggests that the "Wilderness" requires payment.
- The Drawing: Javi’s drawings, found by Van, hint that someone (or something) has been helping the boy survive.
If you're looking for answers, this episode tells you to stop looking at the "what" and start looking at the "who." The horror of Yellowjackets isn't the forest. It’s the people in it.
How to Piece Together the Lore
If you're trying to track the symbols, keep a close eye on the "no-eyed man" and the symbol etched into the trees. They appear more frequently when the group is at their lowest point physically.
The next step for any fan is to re-watch the scenes involving Javi’s "friend." There are frames in this episode that suggest Javi wasn't alone in the woods, and the drawings he left behind aren't just doodles. They’re maps. Pay attention to the roots. The show is telling us that there is a world beneath the snow, a literal and metaphorical underground that we haven't fully explored yet.
Check the background of the scenes in Lottie's compound too. The purple clothing isn't an accident—it’s a callback to the color of the tea they drank in the woods. The past isn't just haunting them; they are actively recreating it.