‘The Flight Attendant’ Season 2 Episode 1 Recap: Mission Gone Awry
The Flight Attendant Season 2 has officially begun, and the HBO Max series picks up in a very different place than it left off. Cassie Bowden (Kaley Cuoco) has already been sober for a full year, and she’s taking on work from the CIA. Unfortunately, her latest mission gets her wrapped up in another bizarre mystery. And The Flight Attendant Season 2 Episode 1 suggests she could get framed for murder again.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Flight Attendant Season 2 Episode 1, “Seeing Double.”]
‘The Flight Attendant’ Season 2 Episode 1 sends Cassie to Berlin
The Flight Attendant Season 2 Episode 1 catches fans up with Cassie’s life, with her recounting some major changes to her Alcoholics Anonymous group. She’s moved to Los Angeles, started dating a nice guy, and taken on part-time work for the CIA. Her role as a flight attendant makes the latter an easier task, as she can follow her marks to other countries without attracting much attention.
And “Seeing Double” sends her to Berlin, where she’s to observe a target named Will (Kayvon Esmaili). Agent Berry (Mo McRae) explicitly tells her to watch him at the hotel only. “Do not follow, do not engage” are his orders. But apparently, Cassie has a habit of getting too wrapped up in her assignments.
As one might expect, she does more than observe Will from a distance. In fact, she starts a conversation with him at the hotel and later makes efforts to spy on him. When she does, she catches him having sex with a woman who looks strikingly like her — right down to having the same tattoo. That freaks her out, but she doesn’t have much time to focus on it. Once the pair is done with one another, they exchange an envelope and a briefcase — a hand-off that sets Cassie’s season 2 storyline into motion.
An explosion throws Cassie off during the premiere
After Cassie witnesses the briefcase hand-off, she does precisely what Agent Berry tells her not to: she follows Will out of the hotel. As she’s pursuing him, a car explodes nearby. It knocks her unconscious, throwing her into a tailspin for the rest of the episode. Similar to her experience in The Flight Attendant Season 1, Cassie winds up having full-blown conversations in her head — only this time, it’s with her former self instead of Alex (Michiel Huisman).
That’s fitting given the doppelganger storyline that seems to be happening. Once Cassie wakes from the explosion, she makes her way back to her hotel in a daze. The key to her room doesn’t work, her luggage is missing, and the hotel staff insists she already checked out. It’s enough to leave anyone reeling. Perhaps that’s why Cassie lies to Agent Berry about being present for the explosion.
Of course, security footage quickly outs her, and once back in the U.S., she’s brought to the CIA to chat. When she explains the situation with the briefcase — and suggests it may have contained the bomb that prompted the explosion — she’s written off and made to think she’s imagining things.
Cassie’s mission ends with her being forced to take time off from both her CIA adventures and her flight attendant job. However, knowing Kaley Cuoco’s character, she’ll be tangled up in this mystery again soon.
‘The Flight Attendant’ brings Megan Briscoe back in season 2 episode 1
The Flight Attendant Season 2 Episode 1 spends the majority of its time focusing on Cassie, but Megan Briscoe (Rosie Perez) does return for the new season. The last time fans saw her, she was fleeing the U.S. after inadvertently committing treason. It’s unclear what she’s been up to in the year since, but she calls Cassie during the premiere.
In typical Cassie fashion, she brushes Megan off for more pressing matters. But Megan looks to be in trouble, gasping and dropping her phone as her friend hangs up on her. Later, viewers see her spying on someone. The first installment doesn’t offer much in the way of that storyline, but it confirms that we can expect Megan’s actions from season 1 to tie into the second outing.
‘Seeing Double’ delivers a bombshell ending
Episode 1 of The Flight Attendant Season 2 contains a lot of setup for the mystery to come, but it delivers an ending that will get viewers to press play on episode 2.
After Cassie’s unnerving trip to Berlin and scolding from the CIA, she returns home to Annie (Zosia Mamet) and Max (Deniz Akdeniz), both of whom are visiting her in LA. Once again, the pair is startled by Cassie’s odd behavior. And things get stranger when she gets a hold of her missing luggage.
From the moment Cassie sees her bag, she recognizes it’s been tampered with. And things only get worse from there. When she opens it, she finds a bunch of items that don’t belong to her. That includes a wig covered in blood.
With that in mind, it looks like someone may be trying to frame Cassie for murder — again. And they’re going to impressive lengths to do so.
The premise of an imposter running around sets an interesting stage for the HBO Max show’s second outing. It’ll no doubt leave fans grateful that two episodes are streaming on The Flight Attendant Season 2’s premiere date.
