After Dark

"**After Dark**" is the sixth episode of the first season of HBO Max's *The Flight Attendant*. It was released on HBO Max on December 10, 2020, along with the penultimate episode "Hitchcock Double."

## Synopsis

Her friendship with Annie is falling apart and there's danger everywhere, so Cassie runs from anything related to Alex and spirals into an alcohol-fueled escapade with Buckley that ends in a jail cell meltdown. Also, Megan's secrets threaten to come to light.

## Recap

### Teaser

Cassie sits shaking in a hospital waiting room as she recalls the crash, in which Max took the full impact. She has flashbacks of her past well, and Alex again telling her that she's inventing a narrative not just about him, but about herself as well. Annie enters the room and Cassie pleads with her to tell her if Max is okay, but Annie questions her use of the term "we," asking where her injuries are. She starts to tell Annie what they discovered on the Lionfish servers, but Annie asks if she can hear herself, saying that she's totally lost it. Cassie says that Max pushed her out of the way and Annie says she got a call that they're holding a 17-year-old girl for the crash. She says nobody was chasing them and Cassie pleads for her to listen, saying it's way bigger than any of them thought. Annie replies that Cassie has never seen her mad and she needs to back off. She asks if they found a Hello Kitty flash drive, but Annie is frustrated at a vending machine that won't give her a snack and walks away. Cassie follows and has her search Max's clothes, but there is no flash drive. Annie tells her that she has no proof, only impossible stories. Cassie says they were trying to help her to get information, but Annie says she went through hell for her before she even found out about Max. She shouts at her to shut up, that Max is injured and she can only talk about herself. Annie says she's done and to get her stuff out her house.

### Alex is everywhere

Outside at night, Cassie has a quick drink and then calls one of her coworkers, Jada Harris. Jada picks up, saying it's pretty late. Cassie apologizes, saying she didn't realize how late it was. She says they should connect more and Jada asks if she's asking her to hang out. Cassie agrees with this and Jada says she'll see her on the Rome flight in two days. She places another call, to Shane, but it just goes to his voicemail. She calls Megan, who answers, then slips into a hallucination with Alex. He asks if she's going to call every person she knows, asking if she's pathologically incapable of being alone. She tells him that she wants to be in the real world with her real friends and he shoots back that she's alienated everyone in her life. She says her friends love her and back in reality, she asks Megan if she wants to get oysters, just the two of them. She says that Megan herself said they should hang out more, but Megan replies that they're both adults and she can tell the difference between real excited and fake excited. She asks what Cassie wants, accusing her of only calling when she needs something. Cassie says that she's the one who wanted her to call her more and kept leaving messages, even one in Korean. "How?" wonders Megan, and then claims it's a weird sex thing between her and her husband Bill. She asks her to delete it, but Cassie says she thinks she'll keep it. Megan says she'll meet her for the drink, but Cassie replies that she ruined it and hangs up.

Cassie's phone rings. It's Buckley and she asks if he's lonely and wants to see her. "Yes, and absolutely yes," he agrees, telling her to see him at his place. She heads over and the two presumably have sex. Afterwards, they lay next to each other and Cassie goes into a hallucination, but she tells Alex off, saying that she doesn't want to be in the room and is leaving. She walks out of the room and he comes out himself, saying that they're going to talk things through like rational adults. She runs away, down a series of corridors, but he tells her that she can't ignore her. The hallucination ends and Buckley tells her that he's hungry, asking if she wants to get breakfast. They go to a restaurant and get formosas, but get kicked out when a very drunk Buckley drops in pants in front of Cassie. Meanwhile, Kim Hammond and Van White of the FBI, along with Agent Chavez, investigate the Lionfish warehouse that Cassie and Max visited. They're confused to find it to be apparently only an empty warehouse. Miranda Croft watches from a distance and places a call to Cecilia, asking what's with the federal raid at Lionfish. The woman replies that thanks to Cassie, they had to clean everything out overnight. She asks how she even knows about it, given that she told Victor she had gone back to London. Miranda replies that she just needs to clean things up before Victor realizes she's not in London. "Good luck with that," Cecilia tells her. Miranda says that they're friends and she even lets her take care of her cat. "For two years," replies Cecilia. "It's not even your cat anymore, it's my cat." She asks her that if Victor asks to tell him that she's in London. "Would you do that for me?" asks Cecilia and MIranda says she'll pay her. Cecilia agrees to a few more days.

Cassie and Max next head to a strip club, where Cassie starts dancing on a pole. She finds herself back in the corridors of her hallucination and then finding the dead body of Alex there on the bed talking to her, a dead deer on the bed as well. He asks her what she's doing, and she runs, but finds herself surrounded by rabbits and flashing back to her childhood again. She sees Agent Chavez and asks Max to sit with her. Elsewhere, Megan is driving with her son Eli in the car. She says that they'll stop for ice cream and then she needs to pick something up from Cassie. He says that Cassie is the absolute worst, asking why Megan even likes her. "Because she's my best friend," answers Megan. He says that's kind of sad, but Megan replies that she likes how Cassie does whatever she wants and people like her. She says she hopes he never has to experience feeling unwanted because it's terrible. He tells her that he found Cassie, showing her a video of Cassie dancing, and she says it's genius, asking how he did that. Back in the bar, Cassie goes into a hallucination in which she's surrounded by multiple Alexs and her childhood self. She runs, and back in the present, Cassie points out Agent Chavez to Max, asking if he sees him. She tells him he's been following her and it's not the first time. She says she's going to go ask him what the deal is, that she can't take it anymore.

### A friendship shattered

Cassie gets up and as she does so, Megan enters the bar. Cassie goes up to Chavez, asking him if he's with Lionfish, or if perhaps, he's with the FBI. Megan steals Cassie's phone. Cassie asks Chavez to give him a wink if he's FBI. He doesn't, but she concludes that he is anyway. He tells her she's nuts and leaves. Megan deletes her voicemail from Cassie's phone. Cassie returns to Buckley, who asks how it went with her "stalker." She tells him it's the FBI watching her and he quips that he didn't know he was dating someone so important. She asks if they're dating now and he suggests they run away from everything right now. He asks what she would say to that and she says it's a good question. She tells him she's going to leave for a minute and think about it. She heads to a bathroom, stares at herself in a mirror and returns to the hallucination. She runs and runs, but Alex clutches on the shoulder, telling her "You can't run away from me! I'm in your head!" She tells him that she doesn't want to be there but he says that unlike everyone else, she can't seem to be rid of him. He tells her that he's not telling her anything she doesn't know, that her life is in real danger and she just wishes someone had answered her call because Annie cut her off. He says it's just sad and she sobs, saying Annie and her will make up. "She's done," replies Alex. "You're the worst" Cassie tells her reflection in the mirror. Outside, Agent Chavez sends a text to Van white and Kim Hammond - "CB at Garret Bar. East Village. Getting drunk. Surprise." Suddenly, someone grabs him from behind, covers his mouth and slits his throat. Megan emerges from the bar, telling Eli she got what she wanted.

Cassie returns to her and Buckley's table, telling Buckley she has to go and fix things with Annie. She asks where her phone is and finds it on the floor. They leave. Outside, Miranda Croft claims Chavez's gun and other effects, leaving him for dead in an alley. Back at the FBI headquarters, Kim Hammond chastises Van White for not mentioning that Cassie brought up Lionfish in her interview. He tells her that he thinks that Alex and Cassie already knew each other in New York and something went bad in Bangkok. She snapped and killed him, and everything since has been cleaning up any evidence that they knew each other before the flight. He tells her he's staying focused on Bowden and she says that being his partner is really infuriating sometimes. Cassie and Buckley arrive at Annie's place and he asks she always hangs out her friends' apartments when they're not home. She tells him Annie has to come home sometime and they pour each other a couple drinks. The door opens and in walks Annie. Cassie says they have to talk and Buckley has to leave for a second. Annie tells her she should leave too, but Cassie says whenever things get bad, they fix them. Annie tells her the man she loves is in a hospital bed and it's her fault. She says she's sick of excusing and forgiving Cassie, that she's not the answer to whatever she's trying to drown out. "How about me having to forgive you?" asks Cassie. She brings up a couple of incidents, but Annie says that it doesn't compare to Max being hit by a car. She tells Cassie their friendship doesn't work. She asks Annie about her honesty, that she came to her telling her someone's stalking her and she didn't believe her. "I didn't know even know Max existed!" she points out.

Annie agrees that Cassie is right. She says that maybe their friendship only works, because they don't show each other the messy bits. Cassie never had to call her a liar and Annie never had to call her a drunk, but that's what they both are, she says. "I'm not a drunk," replies Cassie and Annie tells her she can barely stand up straight. Cassie points at her, saying she's not better than her. Annie says that she doesn't have the emotional bandwidth to fight with her, that she's tapped out. She needs Cassie to leave. "Wow," says Cassie, walking away, saying that she didn't think things would go like this. Annie tells her to grow up. "You're going to feel really bad when I wind up dead," Cassie tells her, leaving. She tells Buckley that they're going to go do something crazy. They head out and Cassie finds a chained up mechanical pony. She tells Buckley that she doesn't like what it represents. He tells her the world is a messed-up place. "What if we set it free?" he suggests. In her hallucination, Cassie tells Alex they're back and Alex asks if she realizes what she's about to do in broad daylight. She tells him Buckley is better than him, that he wants her to be her and doesn't judge her. Back in the real world, Buckley tells her she wanted to do something crazy and they'll set him free. They shake it from its chains and pick it up. In the hallucination, Alex shouts at Cassie that she's about to steal a ride made for children. She tells him that she's not going to always think about him, that she feels like she should, but she's not going to. She says she'll go insane if she does, asking if he wants that. She and Buckley take off with the toy horse as, in the hallucination, she shatters multiple wine bottles. In the real world, they are, of course, arrested and taken away. Miranda watches as the police car drives them off.

### "We need to talk."

At the hospital, Annie studies an envelope with the name of her boss, Diana Carlisle, and meets with a woman, Jessica. She gives Annie a cactus and Annie gives her the envelope, which she says is her letter of resignation from Davis & Carlisle. Jessica suggests she give it to her herself, but Annie says if she went, she'd convince her to stay. Jessica asks why, that she's so good. Annie realizes that her name isn't actually Jessica at all. "It's Jennifer, actually," she admits. She says that Cassie was right, and that she shouldn't let people tell her who she is. She says that her name is actually pronounced "Ah-nie" and is Armenian. Kids started calling her "Annie" and her name changed. She rants about the things she's had to do recently, concluding by telling Jennifer not to let people tell her who she is. Miranda returns to her car and starts listening to her affirmations. Suddenly, a man appears behind her and starts strangling her. She grabs her switchblade and stabs at him, but he disarms her. She kicks him, gets a hold of the blade again, and stabs him in the eye. She grabs her phone, turns off the affirmations and exits her car. At the police station, Cassie is fingerprinted and mugshotted, then sent to a jail cell. She has a hallucination of herself sitting happily talking with her brother, Davey. Suddenly, the image flickers and Davey is now standing away from her. "Why is it changing?" asks Alex. Davey tells Cassie that their father isn't coming and is probably getting drunk somewhere. She stands up and shouts at him, telling him to shut up. He says that if he cared, he'd be there, and she tells him that he just doesn't care about him because all he does is complain. "In fact, he hates you and so do I!" she tells him, shoving him and walking away.

Cassie presses against the bars of her jail cell. In the past, Davey blows out the candles on his birthday cake and everyone laughs and applauds. The scene changes. Mr. Bowden is now waving a beer can and Cassie grabs cake with her bare hands and shoves into her mouth. "Don't do that!" shouts Davey, but Cassie and Mr. Bowden laugh at him. The adult Cassie points at Alex, saying he's doing this to her and to stop it. He tells her that whatever this is, she's doing it, as Davey pleads with his father not to ruin his cake and he shoves him to the ground. Their mother comes in and asks what's wrong with him, but he says they were just playing around. He says they're too uptight and she retorts "And you're too full of beer to know what you're doing, Hank." He tells Davey to get up, that he's not hurt. Davey stares at him angrily and Cassie giggles. The adult Cassie asks Alex why it changed. "Cassie, this is what really happened," he tells her. She pleads with him that she doesn't want to see it. She goes into another flashback, in which their father calls Davey a "little fag." In the jail cell, Cassie sobs, forced to confront the reality of her past. She picks up the jail phone and places a call. Her brother Davey picks up on the other end and she tells him he's her one phone call. He asks if there isn't someone closer she could have called, like Annie. She says she just has to talk to him. He asks if she's alright. Sobbing, she says that she is, but he replies that she's clearly not. She says that all these years, she treated him like he was crazy, that his version of their childhood waasn't real to her. She tells him she can't change her their dad acted, but she was part of it too, and was very wrong. She says she thinks it was kind of her fault, but he tells her he never thought that. She says she wanted their dad to be good. He tells her they all do what they can.

He asks her if she wants to tell him what's going on, that he know something is going on and maybe he can help. She tells him she's just ruining her life one person at a time and she can't drag him into that. "You can," he tells her. He asks her what the point of having a big brother is, that he has to be good for something. She tells him she just has some stuff to figure out. He tells her that he loves her. "It's not okay how Dad treated you," she tells him. He says that he knows, but it's not okay how they treated her either. She tells him she has to go and ends the call. At Megan's place, she tells her son Eli that she didn't realize that when he joined the swim team, it would mean her waking up with him. They have breakfast and he tells her that for what it's worth, he had fun playing detective with her. He says that she can be pretty cool sometimes. Bill enters the room. She asks what he's doing up so early and he tells her there's a computer issue at work and they need him immediately. He tells her he'll call her later and leaves. Back at the jail, a guard tells Cassie to wake up, that she posted bail. Cassie asks who posted if it, if it was Buckley, and the guard tells her that he's still being held. Cassie exits the jail and comes face to face with Miranda, who points a gun at her. "We need to talk," she tells her.

## 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 Buzz Lightyear
* Nolan Gerard Funk as Van White

and

* Rosie Perez as Megan Briscoe

### Guest starring

* Jason Jones as Hank Bowden
* Yasha Jackson as Jada Harris
* Terry Serpico as William "Bill" Briscoe
* David Iacono as Eli Briscoe
* Briana Cuoco as Cecilia
* Audrey Grace Marshall as Young Cassandra "Cassie" Bowden
* Owen Asztalos as Young Davey Bowden

### Co-starring

* Sherin Sheetty as Jennifer
* Morgan Hallett as Lisa Bowden
* Brandon Morris as Agent Chavez (Checkered Tie Guy)
* Soara-Joye Ross as Waitress
* Jonas Cohen as Nurse
* Alberto Vazquez as Bodega Owner
* Rachel Paula Green as Guard
* Edward Mawere as Mick the Bartender
* Mark Fichera as Pale Blue Eyes

## Trivia

* This episode is dedicated "In Loving Memory of Emmett Varley”