What Happened To Javi On ‘Yellowjackets’ In Episode 4?

Yellowjackets spoilers will be found below.

Yellowjackets has been building its mythology in season two, posing more and more questions about the wilderness and the survivors’ mystical connection to it without giving fans any concrete answers. But in episode four’s “Old Wounds” one long-standing riddle does finally get solved.

After a competition between Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) and Lottie (Courtney Eaton) to find game for the group ends with both girls returning to the cabin empty-handed, Van (Liv Hewson) and Tai (Jasmin Savoy Brown) reveal their own shocking discovery. The couple has been secretly trying to suss out Tai’s strange sleepwalking episodes, with Van mapping out the marked trees Tai somehow finds every time her subconscious goes wandering.

Van believes the map is forming the same symbol that’s been haunting the team since they first found the cabin and she manages to convince a still-skeptical Tai to prove her theory by marking the next tree. While they search the woods, Tai chases down a figure trying to escape their notice, and when they catch him, the girls realize it’s Javi (Luciano Leroux), Travis’ (Kevin Alves) younger brother who’s been missing ever since the shroom-fueled orgy gone wrong in season one’s “Doomcooming.”

Naturally, everyone — including fans of the show — was shocked by the revelation that Javi was alive, especially since Nat went to such effort to convince a grieving Travis his brother was dead.

But the happy reunion was a bit short-lived because, like everything else on this show, the answer to one question has now begged another. How the hell did Javi survive so long on his own?

When Did Javi Go Missing?

Javi got the hell out of dodge after Misty’s mushroom poisoning experiment caused the girls to go feral in season one, episode nine’s “Doomcoming.” Donning antler headdresses and wielding hunting knives, the girls mistook Travis for an animal and began hunting him. When Shauna (Sophie Nelisse) found Javi, she told him to run, and he listened, disappearing into the woods and staying hidden for months on end. We’re not sure how long he’s been out there on his own, but it’s been long enough for the seasons to change, for hunger to set in, and for Jackie Taylor to freeze to death after being exposed to the elements for just one night. So obviously, fans are a bit confused.

Theories On How Javi Survived

Even during his reunion with his brother, Travis, Javi seemed a bit out of sorts. He wouldn’t speak and seemed to be staring off into nothing as the group celebrated his return. Clearly, he’s seen some things and while fans have plenty of theories on how he might have made it through the worst of the winter on his own, the show has yet to confirm any of them. Some Citizen Detectives on Reddit believe the symbol that’s been dotting the trees Tai seems to always find at night is actually a map to a mine. That theory might explain why the ground around some of the trees is melting, even in the dead of winter, and the red river the girls found in season one.

Another theory claims that Javi may have found a different cabin in the woods to bunker down in and, instead of returning to the group after the chaos of “Doomcoming,” he chose to risk it on his own. He may have believed his brother was dead all this time and feared the girls after how they acted while high on psychedelics. As for food, Shauna begins the episode by accusing some of the girls of stealing meat from the shed. No one fesses up and the girls end up wrongly blaming Coach Ben (Steven Krueger), but what if Javi has been pilfering their stash at night while they sleep?

However Javi survived, his presence among the group is bound to stir up trouble — for Nat and Travis, and for the two factions that are quickly forming, separating Lottie’s followers from the disbelievers on the team.

Showtime’s ‘Yellowjackets’ streams on Fridays, followed by TV airtime on Sunday nights.