Van White

**Van White** is a main character in the first season of HBO Max's *The Flight Attendant*. He is portrayed by Nolan Gerard Funk.

He is a junior FBI agent who's an overzealous hothead and laser focused on Cassie.

## Throughout the Series

### "In Case of Emergency"

Van White joins his partner Kim Hammond in interviewing the first-class flight attendants of a flight from Imperial Atlantic Airlines following the murder of Alex Sokolov, a passenger on the flight, in Bangkok, Thailand.

### "Rabbits"

Van tells Cassie Bowden, one of the flight attendants, that they're waiting on surveillance videos from Bangkok and they're going to need to speak to her again if she shows up on them. Later, he calls Cassie, telling her that the FBI wants to meet her at 10 the next morning and to bring counsel if she chooses to retain one. Cassie asks if she's supposed to and he replies "Perfect answer, looking forward to it," then hangs up. Kim tells him that they weren't able to get any footage from Bangkok, that it all ended up being worthless static.

He and Kim decide to take a run at Cassie, and during the interview, Van shows Cassie a photo of Alex Sokolov's badly bloodied body, getting her to change her story. Afterwards, Kim confronts him for his aggressive behavior during the interview, but he is unapologetic, claiming that someone must like his aggressive attitude and tactics because he's been at the FBI half as long, but has the same job as her. She goes off on him, telling him that she's a black woman in a male-dominated job and she could never get away with the brash nonsense he pulls because unlike him, she has to think twice. He admits that he's right, but says that he still thinks they should have arrested Cassie. She tells him that they don't need to, that they're the FBI and they have more resources.

### "Funeralia"

He and Kim discover that Cassie is attending Alex Sokolov's memorial service. He asks Kim who goes to the memorial service for a guy they only slept with one time in a foreign country, telling her that sometimes the obvious answer is the right one. She tells him it's under Thai extradition and they would need more evidence to have her extradited. They send in Agent Chavez to tail her, but are forced to clear out when Alex's mother discovers them camped outside her home.

### "Other People's Houses"

After Cassie calls 911 to report the death of Sabrina Oznowich, whose body fell beside her on the street, Van White tells her and her best friend / lawyer Annie Mouradian that the FBI has some more questions. Annie tells that Cassie just saw a woman commit suicide, asking if there's really much more to even say. She asks why he's even there and Van replies that where Cassie goes, the FBI goes. Annie tells Cassie not to say anything, but Cassie instead starts babbling about the company Lionfish and claiming that Miranda Croft murdered Sabrina because she had talked to Cassie. Van asks if Cassie has any proof of any of this and Annie declares that they're leaving and leads Cassie away.

Later, Kim and Van investigate Sabrina's apparent suicide. Van finds an envelope indicating that Sabrina was seeing a therapist, but Kim points out this doesn't necessarily equate to suicide, that she herself is seeing a therapist. They discover a new bolt on Sabrina's door, leading Van to speculate that Sabrina was being harassed. They return to the FBI and Van hands Kim a file, telling her that Cassie was seen entering an apartment building on Hudson Yards with a male companion. He says that Alex Sokolov had a place there and it's looking more and more like he and Cassie knew each other before Bangkok.

### "After Dark"

Van and Kim investigate a Lionfish warehouse that was visited by Cassie and Max, but find it apparently empty, not realizing that Lionfish has already cleared it out. Later, Kim chastises Van for not revealing that Cassie had mentioned Lionfish to him previously. He tells her that his theory is that Alex and Cassie met before Bangkok and something went bad and she snapped and killed him. Ever since then, she's been spending her time trying to clean up any evidence that she knew him. He tells her that he's staying focused on Bowden and she grumbles that sometimes it's really infuriating being his partner.

### "Hitchcock Double"

Kim tells Van that she's hit another dead-end with Lionfish. He mocks her efforts, saying that there's only so many dead-ends one can hit before they realize there's nothing there. He reiterates his focus on Cassie, showing him an NYPD file about her being arrested. She asks him why they didn't get this information from Agent Chavez, who's supposed to be her tail. He calls Chavez a flake and she tells him to track him down and remind him what his job is. Later on, he tells her that the authorities in Bangkok reconstructed the bottle they believe to be the murder weapon and found a fingerprint on it. He tells her he's going to sit and wait for the results, but they both know whose fingerprint it'll be. She asks about Chavez and he tells her they still haven't found him but they've sent another tail to Cassie's apartment. Kim asks if he doesn't find it odd that Chavez has gone quiet, but he asks if she really wants them to put a BOLO on their own agent.

### "Arrivals and Departures"

Kim reports to Van that she was shut down on the warrant for Alex Sokolov's apartment. She gripes that she doesn't understand, that his family should want to help, but he retorts that they can't expect normal human behavior out of Janet Sokolov. She asks why he's even there, that she thought he was at the lab waiting for a match on the fingerprint on the bottle. He says that he knows he can be aggressive and rub people the wrong way. She asks what's bringing this on and he admits that the tech at the lab told him to go wait somewhere else. Just then, a call comes in from the lab, saying that the fingerprint is indeed a match for Cassandra Bowden. He shouts that this is the ballgame and they need to get an arrest warrant and round Cassie up. He sees Kim's hesitation and asks what her deal is, shouting at her that there is no bigger conspiracy. At this, she gets angry, telling him to get out of her space and that she's been doing this a lot longer than him. She tells him that she doesn't need him belittling her instincts, that it simply being Bowden doesn't wrap things up to her satisfaction. Just then, another agent shows up and reports that Chavez was found in an alley with his throat slit.

Van returns later in the evening to find Kim still hard at work. He tells her that he couldn't find Bowden so he put in a call to Imperial Atlantic Airlines and found out that she's in Rome. "She's in Rome?!" shouts Annie, who has joined Kim, and Van asks why she's there. Kim tells him he's going to want to sit down. He joins them and learns that they're investigating information that Annie brought on a flash drive and file folder regarding Lionfish and Unisphere Asset Management. In particular, they're focused on one Buckley Ware, a.k.a. Feliks, who has been dating Cassie, but was in Bangkok even before Cassie first came there. He reports that Buckley Ware was also on the manifest for the flight to Rome, leading Annie and Kim to conclude that he's stalking Cassie, and had been stalking Alex Sokolov as well.

## Relationships

### Kim Hammond

He is nominally Kim Hammond's partner, but does not treat her as such. He refuses to listen to any of Kim's theories, convinced that their investigation should be focused entirely on Cassie Bowden.

### Agent Chavez

Although Van White and Chavez are coworkers in the FBI, White is dismissive of Chavez following his disappearance, calling him a "flake."

## Personality

Van White is a hot-headed FBI agent who is utterly convinced of his own superiority and the rightness of his theories. Although technically Kim Hammond's partner, he is often dismissive of her and very much rubs her the wrong way. He has the same position as her despite being years younger due to the FBI's male-dominated culture. Van was silent when first hearing this but appeared sympathetic. However, he did not change his opinion of his superiority.

## Appearances

Season One
* "In Case of Emergency"
* "Rabbits"
* "Funeralia"
* "Conspiracy Theories" (credit only)
* "Other People's Houses"
* "After Dark"
* "Hitchcock Double"
* "Arrivals and Departures"

## Trivia

* Although credited as starring cast, Nolan Gerard Funk does not appear as Van White in the episode "Conspiracy Theories."

## References

1. ↑ Max Original - The Flight Attendant. HBO Max. Retrieved on November 16, 2020.