Seeing Double

"**Seeing Double**" is the premiere episode of the second season of HBO Max's *The Flight Attendant*. It released on April 21, 2022 on HBO Max alongside the second episode, "Mushrooms, Tasers, and Bears, Oh My!"

## Synopsis

Cassandra "Cassie" Bowden is now living her best sober life in L.A. while still working as a flight attendant and moonlighting on the side as an asset for the CIA. She becomes embroiled in new international intrigue after inadvertently witnessing a murder.

## Plot

### A whole new person

Cassie attends an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. She tells everyone that she's been making changes and moved to L.A. They know her story, but since then is dating a new guy, Marco, and has picked up a part-time job. She tells them that she is still a flight attendant with Imperial Atlantic, but that she feels like she is turning into a whole new person in a great way. She says she is two days away from being a year sober and that everything feels pretty great. She sits down and everyone applauds, but a man named Ted behind her raises his hand. Ted says that he recalls early in his recovery a pink cloud, of being stupidly naive. Cassie asks him what he is saying, but the group-leader tells her no cross-talk.

After the meeting, Cassie tells her sponsor, Brenda, that she thought the man was a dick. The sponsor agrees as Cassie eats donuts. Brenda tells Cassie that if she wants to eat donuts, to do so. A woman named Jenny comes over, telling Cassie that her story inspired her. Brenda asks Cassie if she is ready to be a role model. "Yes I am," agrees Cassie. Back at home, Cassie opens a letter forwarded from her old address. Inside is a puffin keychain, which Cassie calls mysterious. She enters to find her boyfriend, Marco, commenting that he is putting his house key to good use. She tells him she was called out for cross-talk and he calls it attractive. Cassie tells him she feels like she's in a good place. She asks him about a photo-shoot for an energy drink. He asks when *he* gets to photograph her again. They then retire to the bedroom to have sex.

Cassie heads out and meets a man, Benjamin Berry, in a parking garage. He hands her a photo, saying that the man in it is her mark in Berlin, Will Kotov. Cassie asks if she ought to know more about Benjamin personally, but he just dismisses her. He warns not to engage with Will, saying that she does good work, but gets too involved with the marks. She calls it an exaggeration, but he recites a litany of past close calls. She tells him she gets a photo and a name and she wants more. He tells her to stop, that she is not an agent, but a civilian asset, and to remember that for her safety. He warns her to commit the photo to memory and to not carry it on her. She presses him for personal info, but he just walks off.

At the airport, she meets up with Shane Evans. Cassie mentions their "secret work," but he tells her that what she does and what he does are two very different things. He comments that she seems very put-together and asks about her boyfriend. She asks about his own boyfriend, quipping that he must be imaginary since he won't let her meet him. She steels herself upon seeing Jada, who will be on the flight with her. Jada tells Cassie that she is the lead, so "no shenanigans." Cassie tells her that it's okay, that she is sober now. Jada agrees that if this is so, they will be "good as gold."

### An explosive situation

On the plane, another flight attendant asks Cassie if everything is okay, saying that it seemed weirdly intense with Jada. Cassie tells her that it is okay, it's just that she is doing a "trying to be a good person thing" and it's hard. "Good for you," agrees the flight attendant, saying that her name is Grace and that she is not a good person. She invites her to a bar night, but Cassie refuses, pleading work. The flight arrives in Germany and Cassie begins tailing her target. She takes a call from her friend Annie, who calls LAX a "disaster area." Annie rambles about Max being excited about her meeting his parents, while Max tells her that Annie is nervous about an upcoming job interview. As they chat, Cassie tries to spy on her target. As Annie expresses worry about an upcoming job interview, Cassie tells her that if she can pull her life back together, then that should be easy for Annie. Annie agrees it's a good point.

Cassie tells Annie she has to go and hangs up. She bumps into a couple who introduce themselves as Gabrielle and Esteban. Esteban pretends to be thankful for Cassie's services on the flight, but secretly pulls out a phone and scans Cassie's handbag. A counter on his phone ticks up towards 100%. After Cassie leaves, Esteban nods at Gabrielle and she kisses him. Cassie then heads over the bar and chats with the target, in direct defiance of her orders. He offers a drink, but she tells him she doesn't drink anymore. She tells him it's been a year of sobriety and he says it has been six for him, that he doesn't know why he sits in bars like this, that it's masochistic. She tells him that she's definitely breaking rules too, introducing herself as "Allie." She says that it's because she doesn't want to miss any excitement and he agrees, introducing himself with his real name, Will. He says that he was such a mess, more spills than thrills. He tells her that he's a courier, a glorified messenger. She tells him she used to be the life of every party, but that sometimes you have to grow up. He tells her he has to go and leaves. He tells her to enjoy Berlin.

Cassie waits a moment, then gets up and follows him. She maintains a discreet pace, then tails in a taxi. She follows him up a stairway to a tall building. There, she observes him pull a yellow envelope from a bin and snaps photos. She follows him back down, continuing to follow throughout the day, eventually to a hotel. She enters the hotel and observes the floor he heads to in the elevator, then cons a receptionist by saying that she had turned down Will, but she remembers "3something" as being his room number. The trick works and she gets the room number, then pretends she's already booked into the hotel and wants to try a different room, specifically, one with a view across from Will's room. She observes him having sex with a woman, one who strangely has the same butterfly tattoo she has on her own back, one who looks a lot like her. She then observes a man in the room above who is wearing headphones and appears to be monitoring the action below. He seems to see her and she hides behind a curtain. He then closes the curtains of his own room. Down below, Will has wrapped up with the woman, whom Cassie observes, wondering just who she is. She hands Will a briefcase and takes his envelope in return. Cassie races to exit the hotel. She watches him head for car.

Suddenly, Cassie gets a call from an unknown number. It turns out to be Megan Briscoe, her old flight attendant friend who is on the run after having sold secrets to the North Koreans. Cassie tells her that she can't have one of their weird off-the-record chats and to just tell her that she's good. Megan asks if she got the key in the mail, but then suddenly gasps and cuts the call. Cassie watches Will open the door to a car and then start to get in, only for it to explode in a massive fireball. She falls over in shock and everything appears to flash around her. She suddenly finds herself in the hotel, which is weirdly empty. She turns around and walks forward to the bar, where she finds several versions of herself sitting together chatting. She wakes up, her ears ringing, and sees the woman from before standing coolly in front of the burning car wearing sunglasses.

### Return to the mind palace

Cassie returns to her hotel room, only to find that the keycard does not work. She sobs and begs a member of the cleaning staff to open the door for her. The lady nods and does so. Cassie enters the room and hides a set of complimentary drinks. Her phone rings and the caller ID reads as being her handler, Benjamin Berry. She has a flash and finds herself back in the bar, her own voice telling her "Wow, that explosion really rattled you. Really blew some stuff apart." She asks what this is and the doppelganger tells her that she thinks she knows. "No, no, no" mutters Cassie, walking away, saying she's not doing this again. "Are you me?" she asks and the other Cassie asks if she thought she was going to find some hot dead guy in there again. The other Cassie, who is holding a drink, says that she keeps telling everyone that she doesn't want to be her anymore, that she's making better choices and life is great. "I'm just not buying it," she says. Cassie tells her she doesn't care and she doesn't need this. "Then why follow that guy from the bar?" asks other Cassie, saying she's still making self-destructive choices. Cassie tells her she's just not going to answer her phone. "He'll probably think you're dead or got over-involved again," agrees the duplicate. "Cheers to making better choices, baby!" she shouts, walking off.

Cassie takes the call. Benjamin asks if she's okay, saying they got intelligence about an explosion. "An explosion?" asks Cassie, lying that she doesn't know anything about it. "Emphasis on the civilian," that's what you told me. He says he's glad she's okay. She tells him it's late and she has to get to the airport and hangs up. She goes to the mirror and looks at the tattoo on her back, recalling the one on the woman. She goes to her closet, only to find that everything is missing. She calls the desk, asking how she can tell if someone has been in her room when she wasn't there. She tells him she's missing some stuff, but he tells her that it says Cassandra Bowden checked out. She hangs up the phone, wondering "What the fuck?!" She goes to the desk. "Miss Bowden, back again," says the receptionist, telling her that she checked out in her confusion after the explosion and her sunglasses were very chic at night. Cassie tells her that she did not check out and that her bag was not in her room. The receptionist insists that she was there, in that uniform.

Cassie returns to the airport, still flashing back to the explosion. Jada snaps her fingers at her, telling her to snap out of it and asking if she's okay. Cassie tells her that she was thrown by the explosion and her ears are still ringing. Jada says she saw her at the bar and Cassie tells her it was a lime and soda. Jada tells her to go seat first class. In the air, Cassie talks with Grace, saying that the whole thing was like something out of *Dateline*. Grace says that she once watched a true crime show about bombs, but as she pours a drink, Cassie returns to the mind palace. The drinker version of herself tells her that they should have gone to some beer gardens and Cassie asks what would happen if she simply didn't engage with her. She says she knows that she was staring holes into Grace's cocktails, telling her that if she has a drink it will take the edge of the tinnitus. Cassie tells her that if she has even one drink, bad things happen.

Back in reality, Cassie chats with Grace about her scarf, saying it's from two years ago. Grace says it's kitsch, but keeps people guessing. She says they should hang out in L.A. She hands her a drink to take to 4A. Cassie does, but when she gets there, it turns out to be the strange guy from before in the headphones who was monitoring the hotel room. He stares at Cassie, one of his eyes a milky white, asking her if there'll be anything else. She gulps and walks away, saying to let them know if she need something. She looks up his name on the manifest, "Jim Jones." "Hide the Kool-Aid," she mutters to herself. Grace tells her that the milky eye is really creeping her out. The flight lands and Cassie encounters "Jim." He stops her, asking if they've met before, but she tells him they haven't and leaves, muttering "Don't follow me." He does, however, but she finally shakes him by accessing a staff-only area. A fellow flight attendant asks if she's okay and she startles.

### Trouble at the office

Cassie returns home, where Annie and Max are waiting for her, having used the key that Cassie left them. They all hug and Max asks her how the trip was. Cassie replies that it was horrible, saying she's really glad they're there. Annie thanks her for letting them stay. Cassie then notices she's wearing a ring, telling her to either get of her house or tell her what's on her hand. Annie asks her stop screaming, saying that it's a ring that Max gave to her. "You're engaged!" shouts Cassie, but Annie tells her that she's not, just that she and Max are in continuous discussions about the future. "She gets into lawyer mode and I immediately surrender," comments Max. Cassie says he was supposed to call her when she said yes, but Max says she didn't. "You knew about this?" asks Annie. Cassie says that the two of them went over the pros and cons of him marrying her and there were a lot of cons.

Annie says that she doesn't want to talk about the ring anymore. She wants to talk about all the places they're going to go, and she wants to meet Marco. Cassie promises that they will meet Marco for dinner the night after, saying not to scare him away because she really likes him. There is a knock at the door and Annie says that whoever is there can't take the guest-room because she's already claimed squatter's rights. Cassie goes outside and there are two men, apparently from the C.I.A., who tell her that they need her to come down to the field office with them. She tells them her friends are there. "Right now?" she asks. "This is not an optional invitation," one replies. She heads back in gets her shoes on, telling them she has to leave to help out a friend, but can't talk about it. She promises to be back for dinner. "I'm gonna let that one go," Annie tells Max.

At the office, Cassie says it must have been important for Benjamin to send them, but the agent from before replies that Benjamin didn't send them. Cassie says that it makes her even more nervous, asking who did send them. She gets no answer and is next sitting with Benjamin, waiting. He asks her why she didn't tell him that she was on-site when the guy got blown up, that they know she was there and she lied. He tells her that now he's going to have to explain her to his boss, Dot Karlson, and that she is not someone he likes to have to explain things to. He tells her it will probably be her last day as her asset. "Why?!" she pleads, saying she knows she messed up, but that acts of service are a big deal in AA. He tells her that Alcoholics Anonymous is anonymous, so she needs to stop talking about it. Benjamin is called in, but Cassie is asked to wait outside.

Drunkard Cassie talks in Cassie's ear, telling her that Benjamin is kind of sexy. She sits down next to Cassie, suggesting that they eavesdrop. She say that Benjamin may be hot, but he could also be trying to steal the one thrilling thing she has going. Cassie slides over to the edge of the couch as, inside, Benjamin calls her a "liability," asking what kind of person would do what Cassie did. Dot, however, says that she's the kind of person that can do the work, asking how many people could wake up next to a dead body in a foreign country and get back to the U.S. without incident. Cassie then meets with Dot, who tells her not to be nervous, that she technically hasn't done anything wrong. "Right, Mr. Berry?" she asks. He leaves, saying he has work he has to get back to. Dot tells Cassie that what passes for boldness at the C.I.A. in men is seen as recklessness in women. She tells her it's happen to her more times than she can count. She tells Cassie that Benjamin fought to be her handler and that they're going to give him time to cool off.

### The surprise delivery

Cassie is surprised by the news, saying that she didn't think Benjamin even liked her. Dot asks her how she's holding up and Cassie tells her that she's fine, but needs to show her something. She brings over her phone, starting to tell her about the blonde woman in Berlin. Dot asks how she even has her phone, that they're supposed to be taken whenever visitors enter the office. Cassie tells her that she doesn't know, starting to explain again about the woman. She hands Dot the phone, but Dot asks just what she's looking at. Cassie tells her she took pictures and talks about the guy with the milky eye above. Dot tells her that the man was a CIA informant and that a gas main was responsible for the explosion.

She hands back the phone, telling her to surrender it next time she comes in. Cassie asks what the deal with the woman is, that she had the same tattoo on her back, but Dot just says that they can refer her to a trauma specialist if she's feeling overwhelmed. She says that her adrenaline was going and that can affect the way you see or remember things, that other women made the same choices in their 20s. Cassie tells her she knows exactly what she saw. Dot tells her if people think she's involved, it would be bad. She tells her to send her the photos and she'll look into it if she sees anything actionable. She further tells Cassie that they're going to have Imperial Atlantic temporarily ground her, so that she can rest up. As Cassie walks out the door, the drunkard Cassie comments "Wow, no more flights for you, huh?" "Fuck off," she comments, then tells the secretary that she wasn't talking to her, that she seems great.

As Cassie gets in the elevator to leave, she spots the milky-eyed man chatting with someone else. She startles and urgently pushes the button to close the door repeatedly. "You only have to push it once," points out a woman in the elevator with her. The door closes just as the man notices Cassie. Cassie returns home, maintaining the lie to Annie and Max that she was just helping a friend. Max asks Cassie about a weird letter, the forwarded letter Cassie had from before. He says it's addressed both to and from her and she claims to have been testing out the postal system. "Only been here a couple hours and already all these mysteries," comments Annie. Annie asks what Cassie what she wants for dinner, telling her not to say In and Out Burger. Cassie pleads that she has to go make a call first and, "obviously In and Out Burger."

Cassie goes to the bathroom to make her call, which is to Megan. The call, however, just goes to voicemail as Megan spies on a Korean man through a crack. Cassie pleads with Megan to call her and returns to the living room, asking who's ready for some amazing drive-thru food, dead-animal style. She gets a message on her phone, but Annie tells her they need food right now. Cassie tells her it's just a text from Imperial Atlantic: that they found her luggage and it'll be there in an hour. "Wow, that is so weird," she comments and Annie asks if it isn't good news. She says Cassie has been making excuses all day and it's getting weird. Cassie explains that there was a huge explosion in Berlin and then when she went back to her room, her luggage was gone. She says it was crazy and creepy and she just didn't want to start their trip off on a weird note, that she's taking care of it. Max agrees that he'd be upset too, that it sounds like a lot. Annie agrees that she's glad they're okay and they can wait until she gets her luggage.

A man arrives and drops off a luggage bag. "This is definitely my bag," she agrees. He has her sign a paper, thanking him for driving it out. She asks if he knows what flight it came from, but he tells her he only delivers the bags. "You don't know where your bag was?" he asks, telling her that he'll let her figure it out and to have a nice day. "Who says customer service?" is dead, quips Annie, but Cassie points out she's not a customer. She then considers the bag more closely and says that the blue ribbon she keeps on it is on the wrong zipper. Annie says she probably just moved it, but Cassie tells her she didn't. Max tells her to open it. So Cassie does and inside is a uniform that isn't hers and a Viewmaster. "I didn't put that in this bag," Cassie says. She digs further and finds, to her horror, a blonde wig with blood on it. "Someone tell me what that is," says Cassie. "I touched it!" Cassie shouts. Cassie tells Annie and Max that there were a lot of weird things going on around her and she's starting to think that maybe someone is pretending to be her. Annie and Max stare. "Hello?!" shouts Cassie and they agree that that's bad.

## Quotes

"Hi, I'm Cassie, and I'm an alcoholic."

- Cassie Bowden
"..and doing the secret work that's a secret job that we can't talk about because I'm doing it too! This is so much fun!"

"If I knew what you were talking about, I would tell you that what you do and what I do are two very different things."

"Right."

"And we're not..."

"...going to talk about it."

- Cassie Bowden and Shane Evans
"Wow, that explosion really rattled you. Really blew some stuff apart."

- Drunkard version of Cassie Bowden in mind palace
"What, did you think were going to find some hot dead guy in here again?"

- Drunkard Cassie Bowden regarding the mind palace
## Cast

### Starring

* Kaley Cuoco as Cassandra "Cassie" Bowden

* Zosia Mamet as Annie Mouradian
* Deniz Akdeniz as Max
* Mo McRae as Benjamin Berry
* Callie Hernandez as Gabrielle Diaz
* Griffin Matthews as Shane Evans
* J.J. Soria as Esteban Diaz

with

Cheryl Hines as Dot Karlson
and
Rosie Perez as Megan Briscoe

### Guest starring

* Mae Martin as Grace St. James
* Yasha Jackson as Jada Harris
* Jessie Ennis as Jenny
* Santiago Cabrera as Marco
* Shohreh Aghdashloo as Brenda
* Kayvon Esmaili as Will Kotov
* Audrey Grace Marshall as Young Cassie Bowden
* Erik Passoja as Jim Jones
* Bruce Baek as Hak Oh-Seong

### Co-starring

Special thanks to Monette Moio, Kaley Cuoco's stunt double, body double and acting double.

* Erica Ibsen as Cassie Double #2
* Kate Cochran as Cassie Double #3
* Janine Theisen as Cassie Berlin Double
* Konstantin Gries as Front Desk Clerk #1
* Jonathan von Mering as Front Desk Clerk #2
* Lea Beie as Police Officer
* Alyssa Preston as Female Clerk
* Monika Anna Wojtyllo as Housekeeper
* Scott Rosendall as Ted
* Mary Ann Welshans as Vicky
* Annie Heller as Meeting Leader
* Mike Aviles as CIA Officer
* Anastasia Nguyen as Lounge Flight Attendant
* Kuldip Korotana as Passenger
* Gabrielle Conforti as Woman in Elevator
* Phillip Brandon as Imperial Atlantic Rep

## Trivia

* This episode's teaser segment consists of nearly half of the episode, with the credits sequence not appearing until approximately 23 minutes in.
* The premiere of the episode, as presented on HBO Max, includes both a recap at the beginning of the events of the show's first season as well as a behind-the-scenes segment following the episode.
* According to "Inside S2 E1," Cassie's work with the CIA provides the same thrill and excitement for her which drinking did, but it ultimately is the lever that once again causes her life to unravel. She sees it as her "act of service" for Alcoholics Anonymous, but underneath is a way to satisfy her need for risk-tasking behavior.
* Cassie Bowden's moth tattoo, seen on both herself and her double in this episode originates from the fact that Kaley Cuoco actually has the moth tattoo in real-life. She got said tattoo to replace a set of roman numerals which represented her wedding date to her ex-husband, Ryan Sweeting.