Photo courtesy of HBO Max

Season one of The Flight Attendant satisfyingly brought Cassie’s story to a conclusion while giving the show a great driving force. Cassie (Kaley Cuoco), who starts out a hot mess, awakens in bed next to a dead guy having no recollection of what happened. Cassie spends the first season trying to figure out what exactly went down while also struggling with alcoholism. By the end of the season, Cassie sees some light on both fronts.

Season two is its own journey. Cassie is sober now, and she’s working as an asset for the CIA. It’s another great set-up for tons of tension and many great takeaways abound. Let's take a trip through the various story elements created by Steve Yockey.

Here are your 5 screenwriting takeaways for the second season of The Flight Attendant!

1. Bottomless conflict 

Cassie’s sobriety is tenuous, to say the least. Just as she gets her one-year chip, her world is becoming endlessly more stressful. Her job with the CIA seems to be falling apart, and she’s getting deliveries of mysterious keys, a suitcase with a bloody wig, violent neighbors watching her place, and an overly friendly new member of her AA group who desperately wants to get close to her for her murder podcast. How the writers room built conflict after conflict in her storyline is enough to make anyone drink, and the constant tension of whether or not Cassie can remain sober in the midst of chaos drives a lot of this season.

2. The Many Sides of Cassie 

This season sees Cassie manifest her insecurities in different versions of herself. There’s gold dress party girl Cassie, and there’s black sweater super depressed Cassie, and there’s younger Cassie as a reminder to try to stay true to her new sober path. These Cassies pop up at the most inopportune times and fill real-world Cassie with doubt and insecurity about her present-day life. They taunt her to drink, they make her doubt new friends, and they generally wreak havoc on Cassie’s reality. It’s a clever device to help manifest Cassie’s inner monologue aloud. These multiple Cassies effectively replace Alex (Michiel Huisman), the dead guy from the bed whom Cassie often monologued with in the show's first season

3. The Murder

This season involves a murder that Cassie witnesses in the first episode. When Cassie goes to Berlin on a work flight, her CIA handler Benjamin (played by the sexy Mo McRae) gives her a mark. In an effort to keep up with her assignment, Cassie follows and spies on him from a hotel across the street only to witness an explosion started by someone who was pretending to be her, giving her a constant ringing in her ears. The Cassie doppelgangers do indeed take up a lot of mind space this season, both in Cassie’s reality and her imagination. But obviously, a real-life doppelganger who is also a murderer is a troublesome mystery one must solve as soon as possible. 

4. A-list supporting characters

The show continues to offer an amazing cast by writing strong supporting characters from Cassie’s best friends Annie (Zosia Mamet) and Max (Deniz Akdeniz) to Rosie Perez’s Megan, who gets mixed up in a whole lot of trouble with the new addition of Margaret Cho at Utada. Additionally, Sharon Stone comes in with a killer guest role as Cassie’s Mom. Mystery, tension, and strong women abound this season in almost every role in the series.

5. Razor Sharp Comedy

What the show continues to do so well is also deeply embracing Kaley Cuoco’s well-honed comedy chops. A sideways glance, an awkward hug, a raised lip in disgust - this is Cuoco’s showcase, and she owns it as Cassie. Despite constant murder, intrigue, and general mayhem (and some super heavy themes this season), the show's theme remains punchy, fun, and runs at such a quick clip that you will finish the series in the blink of an eye. That’s thanks to both Coco’s charms and fantastic writing that keeps audiences guessing and rooting for Cassie no matter how badly she messes up.
 
You can stream both seasons of The Flight Attendant on HBO Max.