Benjamin Berry

**Benjamin Berry** is a character on HBO Max's *The Flight Attendant*. He is portrayed by Mo McRae.

## History

### Biography

Benjamin Berry is the handler of Cassie Bowden in her work as a civilian asset for the CIA. Cassie is said to prove more challenging for him than the average CIA asset, being like "cajoling water."

## Throughout the Series

### "Seeing Double"

As Cassie prepares to fly to Berlin, Germany, Benjamin calls her to a parking lot to provide her with her next target as a civilian asset for the CIA. He provides her with only a photo and a name: Will Kotov. Cassie is hungry for more information both about the mark and about him personally, but he remains tight-lipped. He warns her not to get close to the mark, as she has in the past. She pleads with him to at least give her something, but he just walks off.

Later, in Berlin, Cassie watches in shock as the mark is killed in an explosion. She almost immediately receives a call from Benjamin, but she ignores it. He calls back almost immediately and this time she takes the call. He asks her if she's okay, saying that they got intelligence about an explosion. She claims not to know anything about it, lying and claiming that she didn't get close to the mark.

When Cassie returns back home to LA, however, two CIA agents come to her home to escort her to the CIA's Los Angeles headquarters. When they arrive, Cassie comments that it must have been important for Benjamin to have sent them, but they tell her that Benjamin *didn't* send them. Nevertheless, she meets with Benjamin, who asks her why she didn't tell him that she was on-site during the explosion. He complains that now he's going to have to explain her to his boss, Dot Karlson, warning her that it will probably her last day as an asset. However, when he gets sent into the office, he ends up being the one who is chewed out. Dot then calls Cassie in and dismisses Ben, telling her that what passes for boldness in men at the CIA is seen as recklessness in women. Nevertheless, she grounds Cassie from working for any flights for Imperial Atlantic Airlines for the time being.

### "Mushrooms, Tasers, and Bears, Oh My!"

Cassie is at home, having just revealed her job to her friends Annie and Max, when she gets a call from Benjamin. She ignores the call, but he simply calls again. She takes the call and he tells her that he needs a debrief at noon. She agrees to it, but then later blows it off.

### "The Reykjavik Ice Sculpture Festival Is Lovely This Time of Year"

Cassie gets another call from Benjamin while she is in Iceland, trying to track down her fugitive friend Megan Briscoe. She once again ignores the call. Later, at the Los Angeles headquarters, Benjamin receives a photo from another agent, a milky-eyed man that Cassie saw during her trip to Berlin. There's a knock at the door and it turns out to be Dot Karlson, who invites herself in and takes a drink from his refrigerator. She reminds him that he had asked for a sit-down and he tells her that Cassie still hasn't reported in for her debrief, saying that Cassie has intel on the mark that could be crucial. She tells him in return that Cassie doesn't know this and that this is good for them, asking if he wants to throw her into an active volcano. He replies that Cassie often misses her contact window and that something is off, that they need to keep her on a tighter leash. Dot, however, accuses Benjamin of wanting her job. She tells him to stop fixating on an asset, that someone in human resources might mistake it for him having a crush on Cassie Bowden and that it would be messy.

### "Blue Sincerely Reunion"

Having returned to the United States, Cassie catches a news broadcast about two individuals having been killed at Echo Park Lake. The m.o. matches the use of materials having been purchased fraudulently on one of her credit cards. On the advice of Annie, Cassie pays a visit to the CIA office to report in, as things are starting to add up. She visits Benjamin's office, claiming to have been looking for Dot Karlson. He tells her that it's not the time, but she tells him that it's important. She notices bottles of open alcohol all around him and asks if everything is alright. He admits that it isn't, telling her that he lost two analysts, them having been murdered at Echo Park Lake, and he doesn't even know why they were there. Cassie tells him that she heard about the murders, but that she had no idea the individuals in question were with the CIA. He replies that sometimes he wants burn the whole place down. Cassie sits down next to him, taking his hand. "The door's over there," he tells her, trying to dismiss her. Cassie, however, instead kisses him passionately and he reciprocates. They both take off their clothes, begin making out, and then engage in passionate sex.

### "Drowning Women"

The next morning, Cassie wakes up next to a naked Benjamin in his office. She sneaks out, but not before observing a folder with a post-it note bearing her name. She makes copies of the contents on her phone before exiting. When she encounters Dot Karlson on the way out, she claims to have been in Benjamin's office for a debrief on the Berlin situation. Afterwards, Dot pays a visit to Benjamin's office. Looking around, she comments on him having pulled an all-nighter, asking him how he's holding up after the murder of the analysts. She says that she has her own theory on what happened and that it feels like an inside job, but that she'd like to dig deeper before sharing the details of her theory. Sometime later that day, Benjamin notices a picture of Cassie on the floor of his office. He goes through the contents of Cassie's file, then summons in the milky-eyed agent, telling him to return the file to central archives and that he doesn't want there to be a record of him having had it out. Outside, Dot asks a secretary to provide her with all communications between Benjamin and Cassie.

### "Brothers & Sisters"

Benjamin arrives at Cassie's place just as Cassie is getting ready to leave to pay a visit to her mother's place in New Jersey. As Cassie is hungover from having gone off the wagon, Annie agrees to deal with it. While Cassie sneaks out the back, Annie answers the door. When Benjamin tries to enter, she stops him, saying that he can't just barge in. When she asks him who he is, he identifies himself as a co-worker of Cassie's. Annie asks him if he has an ID or a badge, but when he doesn't produce either, she tells him to leave and he does.

Later, Benjamin is back at his office at the CIA, staring at Cassie's profile picture. He puts in a call to someone, but just then Dot enters the office. She tells him that people are waiting for answers about the two dead analysts, that the optics aren't good. She asks him how his investigation is going, if he has any leads. He replies that he's circling a person of interest, but she chews him out, saying that he's not actually getting anything done work-related. She suggests that he might need counseling and as she exits the office warns him to leave the Cassie Bowden situation alone.

Sometime after this, Benjamin puts in a call to Shane Evans, Cassie's fellow flight attendant and friend who recruited her into the CIA. He asks Shane if he's aware of Cassie having been involved with any radicalized political groups. Shane says that she isn't, asking what the deal is. Benjamin tells him that Cassie's profile suggests that she is prone to mental illness and substance abuse. He tells Shane that Cassie is unusual and unpredictable, but Shane tells him that he doesn't have anything else to tell him and ends the call. Benjamin then takes another look at Cassie's profile picture and leaves the office.

### "No Exit"

Cassie and Shane pay a visit to Pacific Park at the Santa Monica Pier, hoping to track down the woman who is killing people while dressing up as Cassie. Cassie takes a call from Dot Karlson, who tells her that it isn't safe there and to not engage if she sees Benjamin. Almost immediately after ending the call, she sees Benjamin. He calls out her name, but she runs away.

Cassie manages to escape Benjamin aboard a Ferris wheel. Down below, Shane approaches Benjamin from behind. "Mr. Berry?" he asks him and Benjamin tells him that he shouldn't be there. To this, Shane replies that he was hoping that *Benjamin* wouldn't be there, but that after everything Cassie found out, he knew that he would. Benjamin asks him just what he's doing there, telling him again that he shouldn't be there. As Cassie zooms in to view the scene on the phone, she observes Shane fall to the ground. She believes Benjamin to be attacking Shane. However, she soon afterwards encounters Grace St. James, who turns out to be the double. When she accuses Grace of taking orders from Benjamin, Grace counters that she just *stabbed* Benjamin.

### "Backwards and Forwards"

Both Benjamin and Shane are hospitalized in the aftermath of the incident, Grace dead, having shot herself in the head. Dot comes to speak to Cassie in the hospital, telling her that she has verified that Benjamin was in no way involved with Grace. She apologizes for having encouraged her to doubt him.

Cassie ends up being taken to Dot's place for safety, Dot claiming that the conspiracy is not over and that Grace was not working alone. Ultimately, however, *Dot* turns out to be the architect behind the whole double conspiracy. Cassie manages to evade her long enough for her to be arrested by two agents, who it turns out were sent by Benjamin Berry. In the aftermath of the events, Cassie and Benjamin have a chat on the roof of Dot's home. She questions whether he shouldn't still be in the hospital, but he tells her he wanted to personally make sure that things were wrapping up okay, that it's no small thing for a CIA regional director to be arrested for treason and murder.

Cassie asks him how he found out the truth about Dot and he explains that he saw things in Cassie's file that weren't adding up for him, some of them obvious fabrications. He then started looking into Dot and discovered that she had been selling access to CIA records for years. He tells her it's good he was able to get the agents there before Dot could come up with an excuse to shoot Cassie, explaining that he had been tipped off that Dot was taking here there, something that was a major breach of protocol. He asks her to come to the office for a debrief. She asks if they could just talk about work and not what happened previously in his office. He agrees that they can go with "the very adult 'I don't remember what happened in the office.'" The two of them agree to keep things professional from now on.

## Appearances

Season Two
* "Seeing Double"
* "Mushrooms, Tasers, and Bears, Oh My!"
* "The Reykjavik Ice Sculpture Festival Is Lovely This Time of Year"
* "Blue Sincerely Reunion"
* "Drowning Women"
* "Brothers & Sisters"
* "No Exit"
* Backwards and Forwards"

## References

1. ↑ Topel, Fred (April 21, 2022). New 'Flight Attendant' cast are 'dangerous influences' for Cassie. UPI. Retrieved on April 21, 2022.