I am a new self taught tatter and have the stitches down as well as the picos and joins but I am totally stumped with the RW. Does this always have to involve the shuttle thread as well as ball thread - do you always have to have 2 threads?????

"Reverse work" just means to turn your tatting so that it is in position for working a different part of the pattern. Usually you RW between rings and chains.
You don't have 2 threads if it is a pattern with only rings, no chains.