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I am an English and Film major, cinephile, and aspiring writer! When I'm not buried in school work and lectures, I'm usually in the depths of streaming services and their plethora of film options. Or reading.
This episode was written by Ian Weinreich and Kristin Layne Tucker, and directed by Silver Tree.
The themes of this episode revolve around family, which gives Cassie (Kaley Cuoco) some much-needed time away to breathe from her unofficial detective work, and explore the family and friendship elements of her life.
We begin this episode where we last left off, except now Cassie is passed out on her couch instead of on the beach. Annie (Zosia Mamet) and Max (Deniz Akdeniz) come home to find her with her living room looking like it had just been robbed. In true bestie fashion, Annie immediately notices that Cassie is hungover and doesn’t reprimand her for her relapse. Instead, she offers a supportive hand.
Cassie expects Annie to be disappointed in her and actually screams at her to get out, but Annie pulls her into a hug and assures her that she is not going anywhere. To help defuse the situation, she sprinkles in some famous Annie wit while offering to help make a list of things Cassie can do before spiraling.
Number one: tell the truth about drinking. It’s similar advice to what Brenda (Shohreh Aghdashloo) told her, which was to acknowledge the truth even when it’s easier to lie. As messed up as Cassie’s life is often painted, she has an amazing support system and Annie has long proven to be a solid rock for Cassie.
Cassie adds to the list that she should apologize to Marco (Santiago Cabrera). Annie jokingly reminds her that there’s also her doppelgänger running around somewhere so that’s another thing to worry about. Cassie dismisses that for now, saying she can’t focus on anything else but her sobriety, which is an insanely huge step for her. Back in her mind locus, Responsible Cassie pulls a Taylor Swift and stresses that that part of her is now dead.
Ben (Mo McRae) shows up unannounced and Cassie makes her escape route out the back where she flees to catch a flight with her brother Davey (T.R. Knight). There were plans for them to go back home to New York and clean out their old childhood rooms. Except the catch for Cassie agreeing to go back home was that she would help Davey if their mom wasn’t there. Davey promises that their mother would be busy on a yoga retreat. Clearly, there are more things to emotionally unpack there.
On the plane, with the doors shut and no legal way for Davey to escape, Cassie admits to her drinking slip-up. Davey is definitely worried about his sister, but he doesn’t handle it as well as Annie did. He’s a lot more vocal about his frustration with her than his worry, but he is still there to support her.
The first stop Cassie and Davey make after landing in New York includes some soul healing activities, like writing letters to their late father and delivering them to his grave. Cassie’s letter divulges the positive sides of her relationship with her father growing up. Through flashbacks told throughout the show, we know that he’s not the best man or father out there. She also recognizes that he was the one to introduce drinking to Cassie, resulting in her own battle with alcoholism as an adult.
Kaley Cuoco makes an emotional delivery with this letter, choking back sobs and soaking in the trauma of her character. Cassie connects how her father’s death reminded her that all she had left to remember him by was alcohol. However big her love for her father was, she also notes that she grew up to be just like him and that she hates that fact. She is mature enough to realize how bad of a man he really was and the negative impression his parenting left on her and Davey.
Cassie also forgives him and assures him out loud that she will not be him, all before bidding her final farewell. It’s healing for her and for Davey to hear it in spoken words instead of secret thoughts.
Team Annie and Max
After discovering Cassie hungover on her couch, both Annie and Max agree that she has a lot of stuff to figure out and that they do as well (relationship-wise). This time, it’s Annie initiating the conversation instead of Max. Max, although apologetic, thinks it’s best for them to focus more on the Diazes (Joseph Julian Soria and Callie Hernandez) considering that the situation isn’t something they could put off for another day.
Max’s current indifference to their relationship problems evolves into Annie finally revealing exactly why she wasn’t wearing her engagement ring in the first place, which resulted in it being stolen by the Diazes. Even though it’s a monumental topic of discussion for Annie and Max, we’re distracted via split-screen with Cassie’s doppelgänger sneaking inside the house. Literally, while Annie and Max are talking, she’s right there in the kitchen!
She manages to plant a bloody knife in the kitchen and sneak back out. I’m also slightly distracted by the fact that Annie pulled out a concealed Tupperware of leftover food from the fridge and tried to smell it with the lid still on.
Max finds out that the Diazes have detailed information about Cassie that they’re sending to a Korean group, including her itinerary back home in New York. Annie tries to warn Cassie about it, but as I’ve mentioned earlier, she’s taking this time to retreat away from criminal drama. So Cassie mostly fields her calls.
Keeping up with Megan
Megan (Rosie Perez) doesn’t have her emotional and joyful reunion with her family as she probably expected. No reaction like a soldier returning to her family. To be fair, she did ghost her son and husband for over a year. I understand the resentment they’ve been building up. Her sudden disappearance left different effects on both her and her family.
Megan learns more about how her disappearance affected them. First, her son, Eli (David Iacono), had to get a job and her husband, Bill (Terry Serpico), had to sell the house to keep up with bills. She thought leaving them would be good for her family but it’s–not surprisingly–doing the exact opposite. Add to that, she’s also wanted by the FBI.
Megan spills all about why she did what she did. Basically, she was seeking thrills in her mundane life. So instead of buying a sports car through this mid-life crisis like a normal person, she stole technology and sold it to the North Korean government. Bill tells Megan that the FBI instructed him to call them if she ever comes back. So he has to do it to protect his family, and so Megan drives away in sobs.
Brother & Sister… and Estranged Mother
Finally at their childhood home to clean out their old rooms, Davey’s lie finally sees the daylight when it’s their mother that opens up the door. It surprises both her and Cassie, both of them killing Davey with their eyes. It was his plan all along to get them together in the same room to hopefully continue on their soul healing venture. Cassie says that it’s actually doing the reverse effect and that confronting their mother is not good for her life right now. However, Cassie apologizes anyway for being a shitty daughter, especially after her father’s death. She’s taking responsibility for her actions in life and is genuinely apologetic for her teenage delinquent behavior.
Lisa (Sharon Stone), their mother, doesn’t believe that they’re addressing the real issue. She brings up a great point: her resentment doesn’t lie with how Cassie acted as a child, she’s bitter with how Cassie is handling their relationship now as an adult. Like when Cassie invited her mother to visit her in the city and then completely forgot about her to get wasted. Amongst other things.
Lisa’s honest rant is too much for Cassie to bear to hear, she even begs her to stop talking, which only proves more what her mother is arguing. That she doesn’t want to hear or remember anything, and those actions remind her exactly of how her father acted. Just after Cassie vowed to never be like him, her mother is reminding her that he is exactly who she’s turning out to be.
Sure, it’s not a step forward in Cassie’s soul-searching journey, but it does open Cassie’s mind more to her reality. Which should help her move forward into being better for herself and her family.
Sharon Stone’s performance is heart-wrenching as an exhausted mother wanting nothing more but for her family to be together in a normal capacity, but with a very emotionally distant daughter. The positive thing in all this is that they’re both recognizing all of their problems, despite their very heated arguing in the kitchen. The negative consequence is that they’re both very stubborn with their sides, believing that what they’re doing is the right thing while the other is unable to see eye-to-eye.
Poor Davey is forced to witness all of this, but it was his great masterful plan to mend his family in the first place. So maybe this is his consequence knowing that they weren’t fit to have a civil discussion after all. He should’ve expected there to be some heavy tears and a screaming match.
As much as Cassie assures her that she is trying to be a better person, it doesn’t go through to her mother. Instead, Lisa says that she does, in fact, love Cassie. But also she doesn’t like her at all. Which is the sort of mom-way of ending the conversation with the last word. So much for burying the hatchets of their past.
Back to Business…
That’s more than enough family time for Cassie because now it’s back to her time-restrictive criminal business. She finds a box labeled “View-Master” and discovers creepy items that most likely are connected with her impersonator.
Earlier, Cassie’s mother mentioned that her house was broken into by who she probably thought were some dumb kids in the neighborhood. Considering Cassie’s life for the past couple of years, a random break-in might not actually be random in this case. She connects the dots and figures out that her doppelganger was tracking her every move and managed to break into her childhood home and leave hints of her presence.
Some suited men show up at the house so Cassie and Davey make a run for it because she’s pretty sure that they’re the same group after Megan. Since Cassie had been fielding Annie’s warning messages and phone calls, she would’ve been better prepared to leave a lot earlier. But now they’re on the run.
Cassie and Davey are running through a snowy dump, all the meanwhile, Cassie is updating Davey about Megan’s North Korean drama. Thankfully–and conveniently–Davey had fireworks stashed in the bag he hauled with him. It creates a successful diversion and they’re able to escape unnoticed.
We finish the episode with Cassie making one small step in trying to solve this cluster mess of a case. She notes that one of the pictures in the viewfinder looks a lot like a boat registration number and that it could help them out. She finds out that it is, in fact, a boat registration number, and we cut to a scene of said boat. Cassie’s doppelganger is there and she shoots a familiar CIA officer dead.
So, yeah, personally, that doesn’t help me at all in trying to piece things together as well. As always, the episode leaves me even more confused yet also wanting to know more. With only a couple of episodes more left, we’re nearing the treasure chest of answers.
Final Thoughts on The Flight Attendant Season 2 Episode 6
This episode was nice because we got to learn more about Cassie’s past and wilting relationship with her mother. I appreciated the writers’ deviation from the deus ex machina resolution route with Cassie and Lisa. The reality is that broken relationships with misunderstood communication exist and is very very real in Cassie’s case. Of course, we’re going to root for them to make up at the end of it all, but sometimes it doesn’t happen that way. As we’re all aware, Cassie can have some self-control issues, but the fact is we know that she’s trying and she’s not lying about it to her mother. We also know nothing about her own mother’s journey for the past years since her husband passed away, her side of the argument is completely plausible as well. It’s also understandable for her to feel a bit wary about Cassie’s self-journey to sobriety.
Again, there are no leads with the doppelganger case. For us at least. With the number of incidents and close run-ins with Cassie’s doppelganger that continue to lead to unanswered, groan-inducing end scenes, I sure hope the revelation is as jaw-dropping as it’s been hyped.
I am an English and Film major, cinephile, and aspiring writer! When I'm not buried in school work and lectures, I'm usually in the depths of streaming services and their plethora of film options. Or reading.
This article was edited by Sarah Taylor.