The Flight Attendant “Conspiracy Theories” saw Cassie’s past torn open in unexpected ways as she dived deeper into the mystery that is Alex’s murder. And with so much going on, it’s easy to fall in a spiral on who killed Alex, what Miranda is all about, and how Abby is going to be involved in all of this because you know she will be. But the meat and potatoes, at least for me, is all the backstory we got when it comes to Cassie.
The arrival of her brother Davey has made Cassie look at things from a whole new perspective. She’s always been so sure about her life and what got her to this point, alcohol and all. Davey’s arrival is a shocker to her and to the viewer because this is someone who isn’t afraid to call Cassie out on her bullshit. She made her nieces lie to their fathers. A tiny white lie but a lie nonetheless that was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Davey.
Whatever flashbacks we’ve been getting of Cassie’s life is but a smidge of what really happened in their past as children. Cassie was obviously the golden child who idolized her father as much as he idolized her. And Davey fell to the wayside of Cassie’s childlike ignorance, which we can’t judge her for because she was a kid. But she’s an adult now and she’s got to face the fact that their father was a drunk asshole who bullied Davey while burdening Cassie with a drinking problem like no other.
Let’s dive a little deeper into the drinking problem that Cassie obviously has. It plagues her every second of every day. Instead of having food at home she has bottles of vodka, the only thing she has a clear idea of what she wants in her life. And damn it if it isn’t sad. Utterly sad with a side of “that’s a fucked up childhood.” Because we don’t totally know what happened to the dad, but we do know that he left Cassie feeling like the only way she could be close to him is through drinking.
As she’s grown up her drinking problem has transformed into her way of escaping. She escapes the world through drinks. She escapes her job and the loneliness that comes with it through drinking. She ignores the fact that her brother is right in questioning her drinking habits through drinking. And she has spiralled into the middle of a grand conspiracy that could mean the end of her life as she knows it through her drinking.
The drink is the true villain of this story.
Not Miranda.
Not the Sokolovs.
Cassie’s drinking problem is the monster that nips at her heels before she allows it to wrap its arms around her, a friend in many ways. And as crazy as this sounds, maybe this is the thing that will change her life forever and set her on the right path. Are her drinking habits spiraling out of control? Yes. But there are changes in who she is and what she wants in life that we think will forever change Cassie into a better and stronger version of herself. Or at least we hope so.
The Flight Attendant episodes 1-5 are now available on HBO Max.
