The Flight Attendant season 2 episode 4: acts of service

NOTE: This post contains spoilers for The Flight Attendant season 2 episode 4 "Blue Sincerely Reunion.” Read our previous The Flight Attendant season 2 episode episode 3 recap right here.

Megan (Rosie Perez) quickly clears up why she is annoyed that Cassie (Kaley Cuoco) ventured all the way to Reykjavík. No, she didn’t want her former co-worker to fly to her top-secret location but rather take the key to Long Island to pick up some valuable evidence against the North Koreans. Unfortunately, Cassie misinterpreted several emojis and now they don’t have much time to enact a poisoning plan. It's an action-packed episode of The Flight Attendant, which utilizes the Iceland setting and brings an old favorite back to help save the day.

After seeing flashes of Megan’s exile in the first two episodes it's revealed that Charlie (Margaret Cho) is not going to be on the receiving end of her poison gathering hunt. Instead, she aided Megan’s escape and is also preparing the drink to take down the North Korean agent Shane (Griffin Matthews) warned Cassie about. Given the timing of Cassie’s arrival, it's not surprising she ends up ruining this well-crafted plan when her phone alerts this guy to their hiding spot. Why she hasn’t set her phone to silent considering how often it rings is mind boggling. 

Luckily, Miranda (Michelle Gomez) shows up and puts her stabbing skills to good use. She also gets shot in the leg to match her wound from last season, which leads to a string of jokes referencing this repeated injury. The sequence that follows is both silly and exhilarating, which is pretty much The Flight Attendant’s sweet spot. However, even if the convenient arrival is referred to as "Miranda Ex Machina," referencing the contrivance doesn’t negate the contrivance, but it is a nice try. Getting Cassie out of a bind using Miranda does stretch credibility, but the sauna fight and stunning Iceland views when they escape via helicopter make it worthwhile.

Miranda didn’t just show up without cause, as Cassie had sent her a text asking for help. It's unlikely this is the last we will see of her. Gomez is a welcome presence no matter how much it stretches plausibility. She has also arranged a new identity for Megan and gets the pair back to Los Angeles without any more scrapes. 

Megan needs to get the evidence from Long Island though and she isn’t out of the woods yet as Shane is still in pursuit. He rings Cassie from the Blue Sincerely bar where the body of the North Korean operative lies dead. Cassie isn’t particularly convincing with her side of the story. This does lead to one of the funniest exchanges in the episode when Miranda asks, "We are literally on a cliff. How do you have service right now? Who is your provider?"

Back in Los Angeles, it is equally dangerous. When Cassie finds out there has been an incident at her home, she decides Megan should spend the night with her sponsor Brenda (Shohreh Aghdashloo). Megan has survived without Cassie’s help so far and it could easily be argued that Cassie has made things worse, so it's not unexpected that Megan is reluctant to lie low here when she needs to get to the East Coast. Cassie is entirely trusting of her sponsor, but its hard to think Brenda isn't more involved in this plot than is being let on.

Regardless of whether she is or isn’t, Brenda does offer some vital words for a wobbly Cassie. For all the outlandish moments of The Flight Attendant, it also nails the emotional vulnerability of its protagonist. Cuoco is particularly effective in selling Cassie standing on the edge of the abyss. 

"I feel like I’m one, maybe one, little tiny accident away from a complete collapse," she says as her voice breaks. Brenda is also pragmatic in her response and doesn’t offer her a fairy tale but she gives her reassurance to hold onto. 

Acts of service are what Cassie keeps repeating as her reason for helping Megan, although part of it is giving her a reason to escape too. Good timing too, because the hardware store supplies Esteban (Joseph Julian Soria) and Gabrielle (Callie Hernandez) got at the hardware store in episode 3 were used to dispose of bodies in the Echo Park lake situated by the statue that appeared on the View-Master. On the personal side, Cassie hasn’t spoken to Marco (Santiago Cabrera) since he mentioned moving in together. 

At the end of the episode, Cassie goes to see handler Benjamin (Mo McRae). She finds out the bodies in Echo Park are CIA handlers, which muddies the waters further. Rather than leave she chooses to listen to her impulsive side and kisses her handler. The temptation of the booze taste on his mouth and wanting to blow up her relationship is too great to resist and the empty office provides the perfect spot for this return to the Cassie of old. When she takes off her top he remarks on her tattoo and no doubt this will come back to haunt her later. 

The other couple in question, Annie (Zosia Mamet) and Max (Deniz Akdeniz), seem to be working on their issues. A life or death situation puts matters into perspective. Their time tied up while Esteban and Gabrielle search Cassie’s place does just that. Gabrielle comments that they have a lot to work through, but when Annie realizes Gabrielle stole her engagement ring her teary reaction reveals how apologetic she is.

This brief time being held against their will is very revealing as the mysterious couple is looking for evidence of where Megan is as they are working for the North Koreans — or working for the bounty on Megan’s head. This has nothing to do with the imposter and we are no closer to finding out who is framing Cassie for the crimes they are committing. Nevertheless, exhilarating moments combined with emotional truths make this the best episode of season 2 so far.

New episodes of The Flight Attendant air on HBO Max every Thursday.