I Rewatched Yellowjackets Episode 4: Laura Lee’s Death & THAT Flashback Are Still Shocking Years Later

Yellowjackets episode 4 “Bear Down” depicts Natalie’s life before the crash and gives some season 1 insights into the person she’s become.

Yellowjackets episode 4 is season 1’s deep dive into more character backstories, and as the pre-plane crash pasts of the soccer team are revealed, their post-crash lives are thrown into harsher light. In Yellowjackets episode 3, after wandering through the woods looking for shelter, the soccer team manages to find an abandoned cabin with some disturbing wall decorations and the desiccated corpse of who is presumably the cabin’s owner in Yellowjackets. Despite the sinister look and aura of the cabin, it’s still safe, and the girls are glad to use it as a base.

In the present, Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) has begun an affair with Adam (Peter Gadiot) and Taissa’s (Tawny Cypress) son Sammy (Aiden Stoxx) has been showing sinister signs of violent and aggressive behavior. Chillingly, Natalie (Juliette Lewis) and Misty (Christina Ricci) find that Travis (Andres Soto) has hung himself, though Nat suspects foul play. Each episode of Yellowjackets has provided a look back into the character’s earlier lives, before the crash, and Yellowjackets episode 4, “Bear Down” turns its eye on Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) while leaving time to explore the complicated lives of the other survivors in the present.

Shauna Goes On A Date With Adam

But She’s Still Haunted By Jackie & The Past

In the previous episode, Shauna discovered evidence that her husband, Jeff (Warren Kole), was likely having an affair. Instead of being angry, Shauna simply begins an affair of her own with Adam, a character introduced in episode 2. The pair spends the day together and if it weren’t for the infidelity and the specter of the past hanging over Shauna, it may have actually been a cute date. Shauna wants an authentic high school date night, as she never got to have this experience due to the crash.

They drive to a liquor store and ask a random customer to buy them alcohol, pretending they’ve lost their IDs as if they’re underage. After this, Adam and Shauna go mini-golfing, and like rowdy high schoolers, they elect to hit their balls on the final hole as far as they can go, no matter the houses in the way.

They bet each other on who will hit it the farthest, and Shauna easily wins. Having won, Adam has to do whatever Shauna wants and, in an appropriately teenage move, she brings them to a bridge for a high jump into the river below.

Just before they leap, Shauna sees a ghostly apparition of her late friend Jackie (Ella Purnell) who warns her that someone is going to get hurt. Shauna closes her eyes and ignores the ghost as she and Adam jump. Apparently, Jackie was not referring to the jump because the couple survives and ends up going home to sleep together. Every survivor in Yellowjackets is dealing with the trauma of their experience in their own, often unhealthy, way.

While Shauna can pretend this date is just an innocent attempt to recapture her teenage youth, the increasingly brazen acts of self-disregard show she is still very much haunted by her time in the woods, and by whatever it is she did there. The appearance of Jackie’s ghost, and Shauna’s shaking it away as if it has happened many times before, only solidifies the point that Shauna is trying to distract herself from something.

Taissa Attends A Fundraiser

A Donor Tries Her Best To Get A Story From Taissa

Of all the survivors on Yellowjackets, Taissa seems to be handling adulthood and the horrors of her past the best. She’s running for state senator of New Jersey and seems to be respected and known in her community, though political mudslinging and accusations often reference her time in the wilderness and rumors of cannibalism. What’s more, her son Sammy is showing signs of behavioral issues that may or may not have to do with Taissa’s past.

In Yellowjackets episode 4, Taissa attends a fundraising dinner and takes a break from schmoozing to have a smoke. She’s joined by the one donor she’s been wanting to talk to, Diane Rafelson (Lauren K. Robek). Diane expresses her appreciation for Taissa, calling her “refreshing” and someone who could go a long way, with Diane’s help, is the implication. She only asks for one thing, the private true story of what exactly Taissa and the other girls did in the woods. Taissa’s response, “Go f**k yourself,” reveals just how badly the composed-seeming woman wants that door to remain shut.

Misty Threatens Jessica Roberts

A Reporter Tails Misty And Natalie

After Natalie and Misty discover Travis’ body, Natalie thinks that he was murdered, though Misty is unconvinced. However, she still offers Natalie the services of a hacker friend to go through Travis’ emails and see if they can glean any information. Natalie isn’t keen on the idea of working with Misty and makes up an excuse as to why she can’t. Misty has always been an outcast within her “friend” group and, in adulthood, it appears that her former teammates’ opinions of her have not changed; they’ve in fact come to dislike her more.

Misty doesn’t do herself many favors in this episode either. She removes a patient from the nursing home she works in and takes the elderly woman on a stakeout, which is more or less an excuse to stalk Natalie. Misty tracks Natalie to a café, ostensibly to “have Natalie’s back,” when Jessica Roberts (Rekha Sharma), a reporter, shows up. Jessica has been following the women for some time, hoping to land a book deal with the survivor willing to tell her story.

When Misty confronts Natalie, after watching her ignore multiple phone calls, to warn her about Jessica, Natalie rebuffs her and tells Misty to leave her alone. Dejected, Misty leaves the café, but not before having a confrontation of her own with Jessica. Misty tells the reporter, “I know when you look at me, you don’t see somebody you should be afraid of. But you’re wrong.” It’s a surprisingly menacing threat to come from someone like Misty, and Jessica finds out why in Yellowjackets season 1, episode 6.

Natalie Proves Her Skill With A Rifle & Becomes The Group’s Hunter

Natalie’s Backstory Depicts A Harrowing Home Life

Yellowjackets episode 4 follows multiple characters, examining their struggles in the forest and their lingering traumas in the future. However, the episode truly belongs to Natalie, whose story before the crash, in the woods, and after their rescue features as the backbone of the episode. At the start of “Bear Down”, young Natalie has a nightmare where she is back on the plane and turns to see her father sitting next to her with half of his face blown off. This vision and Natalie’s past are woven throughout the rest of the episode.

In the cabin, the group finds a gun with plenty of ammo. Coach Ben (Steven Krueger) is the only one who has hunted deer before, but with his amputated leg, he will be unable to provide for the team. Instead, everyone takes turns firing to determine who will be the hunter. The competition comes down to Travis (Kevin Alves), who was inappropriately using the gun earlier, and Natalie. In a tense moment, Travis points the gun at Natalie before handing it off to her, and the young woman hits a faraway target,cementing her as the hunter for the group.

In the present, Natalie visits her childhood home and has a flashback to a time she and classmate Kevyn Tan (Sean Martin Savoy) were in her room listening to music when her abusive father came in and accused her of being a slut. After this traumatic revisit, Natalie runs into an older Kevyn (Alex Wyndham) and the two catch up. Intercut are scenes of Natalie and Travis hunting together and bonding despite their initial dislike of one another.

Natalie’s visions, her proficiency with a gun, and flashbacks to her teen years are all explained when a final flashback shows Natalie confronting her father with a gun after he physically assaults her mother. Her father just laughs and takes the gun, saying Natalie couldn’t even go hunting without crying. As he plays with the safety, mocking her inexperience, he moves to hit Natalie, only to trip and shoot half his head off. It’s a recurring theme in Natalie’s life that men mock her for being inexperienced only to make fools of themselves or worse.

Natalie knows how to use a gun better than any of the men in her life. She proves it in the woods and becomes the group’s de facto hunter for her expertise, despite what some men initially believed about her.

Laura Lee Tries To Fly A Downed Plane

A Cessna Plane Becomes The Answer To The Team’s Survival

At the end of Yellowjackets episode 4, Jackie stumbles across an abandoned but functional-looking Cessna plane in the woods. Laura Lee (Jane Widdop) attempts to operate it but nearly runs over Vanessa (Liv Hewson) before Jackie pushes her out of the way. The plane comes within inches of crushing Jackie, but it stops just in time. It’s a suspenseful scene, and it offers a ray of hope that the girls have found an escape. However, the plane only really foreshadows that two of those girls involved with the Cessna are fated not to last much longer.