Arrivals and Departures

"**Arrivals and Departures**" is the eighth and final episode of the first season of HBO Max's *The Flight Attendant*. It was released on HBO Max on December 17, 2020.

## Synopsis

After the shocking reveal of Alex's killer, Cassie and a surprising new ally devise a plan to fix everything that unfolds disastrously in Rome. But Cassie, finally clear-eyed, won't let things go south. Meanwhile, Annie gives the FBI evidence and Megan comes clean.

## Recap

### Teaser

Miranda Croft places a call to Cecilia on a burner phone. She tells Cecilia that she's the only one who could have told Victor she was still in New York, but that she understands. "You do?" asks Cecilia and Miranda agrees that she does, but tells her she's still going to have to find and kill her. Cecilia pleads that it wasn't her fault, that Victor is scary. She says that she'll give her Victor, that she has nothing to bargain with and he'll never stop sending people after her. She says he's leaving New York tonight, but is still there now. She asks if that's enough and Miranda says that they'll see. She ends the call and Cassie quips that it sounded healthy. She then gets another call and says she has to run an errand. "Right now?" Cassie asks, wondering where she could possibly be going. Miranda says she'll have to trust her and gets out. Cassie shouts that it wasn't the plan, but she is already on her way.

At the FBI headquarters, Kim Hammond tells Van White that she got shut down on a warrant to search Alex Sokolov's apartment. She says she doesn't understand, that his family should want to help, and he asks if she really expects normal human emotion from Janet Sokolov. She asks why he's even there, that she thought he was waiting for a match on the fingerprint. He says he knows he can be aggressive and rub people the wrong way. She asks what's bringing all this on and he says that the tech told him to wait somewhere else. She gets a call from the lab and it's a match on Cassie for the print inside the bottle. He shouts that it's the ballgame and to get a warrant and round her up. She seems hesitant and he asks what the deal is. He shouts that there's no bigger conspiracy. She tells him to get out of her space and that she's been doing this for a while and doesn't need him belittling her instincts, that simply that Bowden did it doesn't wrap things up to her satisfaction. Another agent shows up. He tells them that Chavez was found wrapped in an alley with his throat slit.

On Cassie's flight, Cassie argues with Megan over not drinking alcohol. She tells Megan that she's not actually going to drink the alcohol in her bottles, that it's just a "security blanket." Megan shouts that she used to idolize her and that she can go ahead and drink if she wants. Jada Harris tells them to stop, that they're giving off toxic energy, and Megan snips at her to shut up. She leaves and Cassie goes into a hallucination, Alex Sokolov asking her why Megan is so tense, strangely tense. He tells her to pull herself together if the plan is going to work. Cassie suggests that Miranda might be ghosting her and he tells her that she might already be dead.

### Absolutely friends

Victor enters a car, Alex's copy of *Crime and Punishment* in hand. Suddenly, Miranda shows up and takes out Victor's man, then grabs his gun. Victor, realizing that the man isn't entering the car, opens the door. He shouts, asking what the holdup is, then gets out and sees the man unconscious on the ground. He turns around and Miranda punches him in the nose. "All of this for a flight attendant?" he asks. She replies that she actually quite likes Cassie and he says that she shouldn't be so emotional. She says she did so much for him only for him to hire someone to kill her. She asks why he had Alex killed before he got the money. Victor says it's a funny story and Alex's death is retold in a flashback. In it, Alex's assassin demands of Alex to know where the money is. Alex tells him that the account numbers are in a book, on the couch underneath one of the pillows. The man tells him it wasn't too hard, then slits his throat. He searches for the book, but doesn't find it. Victor tells Miranda that the man, David (actually another alias of Feliks), should have waited, but it's hard to find good help. Miranda shouts at him to get on the ground. He does so, telling her that she needs to relax and drink some tea, but then pulls a gun, grazing her, so she shoots him. She takes the book and drives away.

On the flight, Shane asks Cassie for a word or two. She asks if he's talking to her now and he says he never wasn't, it was just that after the funeral, he needed a break. She tells him she's been trying to apologize and he says it's accepted. He says that nobody close to him has ever died and "3C" was important to her, so in her shoes, he might have done the same. He tells her that they're good and that Jada and Megan are driving him insane, so he needs his friend, her. Cassie thanks him and fends off Jada, who is trying to cancel Miranda's seat. Miranda arrives at the airport, giving the finger to an official who tells him she can't park where she just did. On the flight, the final boarding call sounds for Imperial Atlantic Airlines flight 502 to Rome. Miranda is stopped by a couple of officials who tell her that her leg is bleeding as it's announced on the flight that the boarding doors are now closed. At the FBI, Kim Hammond and the agent from before discuss Chavez's death. Annie Mouradian arrives and Kim asks how she got in there. She says that Kim is looking at the Sokolov file and she thinks what she has will help, handing over a file folder and Cassie's *Hello Kitty* flash drive. She explains that it's loaded with incriminating evidence regarding Unisphere Asset Management and Lionfish, as well as a subfolder of photos of people who are now dead. She tells Kim she'll probably disbarred for it, which she hates, since her whole life is wrapped up in being a lawyer, but there's a lot of motive in it that has nothing to do with Cassie. "Okay, Agent Hammond?" she asks and Kim replies that "It's Kim."

Annie recognizes a picture on Kim's monitor. "That's from Bangkok," Kim tells her, but Annie says the man in it, Buckley Ware (Feliks), was in her loft with Cassie. Kim shows Cassie the Buckley Ware file from the NYPD. "In Bangkok?" wonders Annie. "Son of a bitch," realizes Kim. Cassie's flight arrives in Rome and inside the airport, she comes face-to-face with Buckley. "Hi, he says, stepping forward and she goes into a hallucination of Alex bleeding and dying. She steps forward, he grabs her, and she shouts that he's attacking her. A couple of agents free her and Megan comes and backs her up, telling the agents in Italian that she saw everything and that it was horrible. Cassie starts to thank her, but she simply walks away. Miranda manages to make it onto another flight. A fellow passenger asks if she's traveling for business or pleasure and she replies that she has to stop another woman from being killed and she's not sure she understands her feelings about that. She says she's never done anything purely selfless before, but now might not be the time for a chat, raising her divider window. In Rome, Cassie comes to Megan's hotel room. Megan tells her she's sorry she yelled at her. Cassie says that she too is sorry and that she owes her the truth. She tells her that she did spend the night with 3C in Bangkok and woke up next to his dead body. Her life is now a living hell. Megan replies that she thought she kept things bottled up. Cassie tells her to lay her toughest stuff on her, that she can handle it. She says that after these years of traveling the world together, they are absolutely friends.

### Totally in love with a dead man

Megan sighs, telling Cassie that apparently she's been stealing proprietary technology from her husband's work laptop and selling it to the North Korean government. She kept asking Cassie about the FBI because she was worried about herself. She says that it seemed so small, that a nice man with a business card approached her. He asked her to take some pictures, download files. It was very exciting, cloak and dagger, and things got so much bigger from there. Cassie tells her she knows exactly how it feels. Megan asks if she feels like nobody sees her, explaining that she's a middle-aged woman who spends her days practically invisible. Having a secret felt amazing to her. She says it's her mistake for putting her trust in the wrong people, but she's going to fix it. Cassie nods, telling her it's going to be okay. She replies that not everyone gets be okay, but she hopes she's right. Back at the FBI, Annie tells Kim that according to Max, Buckley Ware was on a short-term lease he signed less than two weeks ago. "You need to never tell me who Max is or how he's finding all this stuff," Kim tells her. Van comes up, saying that she's been there all night. He says that he couldn't find Bowden, so he reached out to Imperial Atlantic and she's in Rome. "She went to Rome?!" Annie asks. He asks why she's there and Kim tells him he's going to want to sit down.

In Rome, Cassie enters a pizza restaurant, where she meets up with Enrico. She tells him she's sorry to bother him, but she needs to find a gun. He is shocked by this, asking why his friend needs to find a weapon. "Remember when I told you I met someone?" she begins. Elsewhere, Miranda Croft is holding an envelope and enters an elevator, but Feliks gets on before the doors close. "Hello, Feliks," she says to him coolly. She says he'll find her harder to kill than cats and they both pull out switchblades. The battle begins, a fierce fight that ends with Miranda taking a blow to the head. Elsewhere, Cassie takes a ride to on a motorcycle with her friend to a house. He tells her that he'll go in and she's to wait outside. She asks if she has to and he tells her she would be conspicuous to his grandmother. She agrees that wouldn't be able to explain of it and he heads inside. He heads inside, asking his grandmother where his grandfather's things are. She tells him she won't tell him unless he tells her what he wants them for. "I need his gun," he admits and she tells him she doesn't want to give it to him. He heads off to search for it himself. Outside, Cassie takes a brief drink and has a brief flashback to riding along with her her father, drinking beer. Grandma comes out, asking if she's with Enrico. Cassie nods, though she says that he's not "with" him, that he's a friend. She asks if the gun is for her and she paces, saying that a man terrified her that morning. She says it's too bright for her, if it makes any sense. She tells her that she doesn't want to cause problems for Enrico. She replies that children grow and make their own mistakes. They talk about choices. Inside, Enrico finds the gun.

Cassie lines up her vodka bottles outside, flashing back to her past again, both in her childhood and much more recent. She returns to the car crash which killed her father. She silences the honking horn of the car and stares at her childhood self. "It's all my fault," the girl tells her. "No, it's not," Cassie tells her. She says that a lot of things will be, but this one, it's not hers, that it will not define who she is. The girl nods and she hugs her. She stares at the rabbit and it hops away. Back in the present, Enrico tells her that she has the gun. She heads over to him, leaving the vodka bottles lined up on the wall behind her. Elsewhere, Shane and Jada see Megan getting into a cab and wonder what she's up to. Cassie goes into a hallucination with a badly bloodied Alex. She tells him that she won't remember him like this. She closes her eyes and reopens them, finding him whole and unbloodied. He covers the gun, telling her she shouldn't have to risk her life. She says it sounds insane, but it feels like she really knows him and is totally in love with him. She says that maybe it's the promise of what could have been and he tells her it's probably better than the real deal could ever be, that he made her at least two inches taller. She says she can't handle anymore introspection and to just kiss her. They kiss. Back in reality, she and Enrico arrive at her hotel room. He asks if she'll be okay and she agrees she will. He heads downstairs to get some coffee and she tells him to knock three times when he gets back.

### You can handle this

At the FBI, Van reports that a Buckley Ware is on the manifest of the flight Cassie took to Rome. "He's stalking her," says Annie and Kim agrees that he followed her the same way he followed Alex. She places a call. Back in Rome, Cassie freshens up in the bathroom and spots something out of the corner of her eye in the bathtub. She pulls back the curtain to find Miranda in the tub and Feliks standing atop it.. She races for the door and undoes the bolt, but he grabs her from behind. She elbows him, knocks him down and opens the door, but he knocks her down in return, then drags her back into the room. He throws her to the floor and closes the door. He pulls out his switchblade, asking if she had some little plan. He says they broke up and then Miranda showed up, but she couldn't save the day. Just then, Enrico enters the room. He tries to grab for the gun and they struggle, then Cassie grabs a lamp and smashes it against Feliks's head. The fight continues, though and Feliks stabs Enrico then kicks him in the face. He tells Cassie he fell for her, using her lost ID to track her around the world. He says she's like catnip, but she tells him to go to hell. He says the sex was great and she shoots back that it wasn't that great, that she thought about Alex the whole time. She rushes him, but he grabs her in a headlock. He tells her he's been everywhere and she never even noticed and flashbacks play of scenes of him in various disguises. She shouts that he's a psychopath and wouldn't go anywhere with him, but he says that she liked it. She grabs the knife, stabs him in the leg, then pulls out the gun and points it at him.

He tells her that she's a drunk, not a killer. She flashes back to hunting with her father, and pulls the trigger, shooting him in the leg. He manages to get back up anyway and she aims the gun again, but just then, Shane comes through the door, shooting him in the chest. Cassie gasps in shock. She is led away to an ambulance and Enrico is taken out on a stretcher, but well enough to give her a thumbs up. Shane comes over, asking if she's okay. "No," she admits, asking what the deal is, how he just rolled in with a gun. "I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I'm with the CIA," he tells her. "What?!" she wonders and he explains that he's been keeping tabs on Megan, that she committed treason and is on the run. Cassie says that she told her as much. Now, Buckley is brought on a stretcher. "Cassie," he comments, drily. Shane comments he's lucky she only hit him in the leg. "I have really bad aim," Cassie replies. Cassie asks if Miranda is okay. "There was no one else in the room," he tells her. "Wait, what?" she asks and he shakes his head. Megan arrives on a train platform and places a call. "Briscoe household," answers her son, Eli. She asks why he isn't at school and he asks why she's calling the landline, which is normally for telemarketers. She says she wanted to leave a message on the answering machine, then tells him that he has to answer her first. He says that Dad is sick, that he's in her room, crying. He thought it would be good to stay home to help, and he didn't study for the math test. She tells him to tell his father to look in the small ceramic rooster. She says it will help him get out of trouble. She sobs, then says to tell him that everything was so beautiful. He tells her she's being really weird, but she says she's only being silly. She tells him that she loves him and his dad, then sobs and hangs up. He opens the rooster. Inside are rolls of hundred dollar bills, a flash drive and a note - "Dearest Bill & Eli, I love you. I will fix it. I'm sorry!" He leaves the room, calling for his Dad.

Cassie arrives back at the United States and there waiting for her is her brother, Davey. She tells him she's so happy to see him and he says she only get so many cryptic and emotional phone calls before he hops on a plane. He says he was worried about her. She tells him that she thinks he's going to be okay, this time for real. She hugs him, saying things are going to be different. She meets Annie at a cafe. Annie says she's glad she's not dead. They hug and sit down for a meal. Annie tells her that Max is going to be okay, but will have an epic scar. She says he'll probably tell a lot of stories about it and she'll have to break up with him. Cassie asks if she's okay and Annie says it was a dark ride, but they're all safe now. She says they'll get drunk and laugh about it, but Cassie pulls out a chip, telling her she's not drinking. She then admits that it's closer to the truth that she's trying not to drink. She says that anyone who quits something and says it's not a big deal is lying, that it's really, really hard. "After everything, you can handle this," Annie promises her. She says she's there for Cassie, at least emotionally, though not financially, as she has no job. She says that it'll at least be fun to collect unemployment together, but Cassie tells her the FBI cleared things up with Imperial Atlantic.

She tells Annie that she's working a flight tomorrow. Annie replies that she loves her, but also really hates her right now. The bill comes and Cassie says she'll get it, since Annie doesn't have a job. "That sounds good," Annie agrees. Then Cassie says "on second thought," and pulls something out of her jacket pocket. Inside, to her shock, is not whatever she was looking for, but instead Alex's book. She finds a page ripped out and a note inside - "Took the page and the money, but you should have the book. See you soon - xM." "Oh, my God, Miranda," realizes Cassie. "Is she like here?" asks Annie, but Cassie is already leaping up from the table. She exits the cafe, staring around, but does not find whatever she is looking for. The scene changes. Cassie has boarded her next flight. She considers a bottle of vodka, then puts it away. Shane enters. She asks what he's doing there and he tells her that he's working. She asks about what he told her, but he tells her that all she needs to know right now is that he works at Imperial Atlantic. If he told her about anything more, he was extremely jet-lagged, but his boss is asking for her for their "human asset" program. "We should talk because she will call," he tells her. She asks if he's serious and he tells her they won't give her a gun or anything and walks off. Cassie sits down. In her mind, she enters the hallucinatory world of the hotel suite, turning out the lights as she enters rooms one by one. She enters the bedroom, seeing the *Crime and Punishment* book lying on the bed. She reaches for it, and turns out the final light. Back in reality, a voice tells the flight attendants to prepare for takeoff. She smiles and nods.

## Cast

### Starring

* Kaley Cuoco as Cassandra "Cassie" Bowden

* Michiel Huisman as Alex Sokolov
* Zosia Mamet as Annie Mouradian
* T.R. Knight as Davey Bowden
* Michelle Gomez as Miranda Croft
* Colin Woodell as Buckley Ware
* Merle Dandridge as Kim Hammond
* Griffin Matthews as Shane Evans
* Nolan Gerard Funk as Van White

and

* Rosie Perez as Megan Briscoe

### Guest starring

* Ritchie Coster as Victor
* Jason Jones as Hank Bowden
* Audrey Grace Marshall as Young Cassandra "Cassie" Bowden
* Stephanie Koenig as Sabrina Oznowich
* Yasha Jackson as Jada Harris
* David Iacono as Eli Briscoe
* Maryann Hu as
* Alberto Frezza as Enrico
* Briana Cuoco as Cecilia

### Co-starring

* Tim Rogan as Agent Kendrick
* Anita Zagaria as Enrico's Nonna
* Jennifer Betit Yen as Gate Agent
* Brandon Morris as Agent Chavez
* April Lavelle as Airline Employee
* Roberto de Felice as Man
* Alberto Vazque as Bodega Owner

## Trivia

* The song featured during the ending sequence and closing credits is "Angel by the Wings" by Sia.