Turbulence settles into what will likely be the episode pattern for most of the season. Like episode 2, we have a case/passenger of the week, with Ben and Michaela at the forefront of an unsanctioned investigation. The digging necessary to help that person also provides information about both the larger mystery and what the government might be up to.
The Stone family drama also moves forward. Sadly, so far it seems as though the other passengers and characters are only there to service the mystery of the plane’s disappearance or to take part in the main family’s drama. Hopefully, with time, the stories will branch out further.
Devotion, faith, and owning your truth are themes this week. Michaela learns that she needs to be honest with herself and others about what happened with Evie, and is rewarded with the breaking down of her mental barriers. The twins work through more of the issues that make them feel separated, in an attempt to regain their Twin Power. Lourdes is nowhere in sight, while Jared adopts Michaela as his work wife.
Saanvi has a strong drive to know the truth, and faith that she can find it, no matter what barriers stand in her way. It’s no coincidence that she created a cure for blood cancer while in her twenties. She has a search engine and a medical lab, and she knows how to use them. Vance had better watch out.
Ben and Grace are still struggling to figure out the truth of their marriage, while the entire family, other than Cal, struggles with honesty. Cal is the little truth teller of the family, and possibly of Flight 828. Perhaps “He is risen” means Cal now sees the truth of all situations, and he won’t accept anything less. He’s risen above everything else.
The Stones love and are devoted to each other, but that isn’t always enough. Grace still has that strange demeanor about her, like she’s forcing herself to be with Ben because she’s had a religious calling to do so, not because it’s what she’d choose if she met Danny and Ben today. But that’s what her decision needs to come down to: Which one would she choose today?
She’s not the person that she was 5 years ago, and it’s okay to admit that. Grace and Ben can still raise their children together if they aren’t romantically involved with each other. It doesn’t help anyone for the parents to be miserable or to try to be people they aren’t anymore. That misery will infect the kids as well. And, even though Ben doesn’t fully realize it yet, he’s not the person that he was 5 years ago either. They need to have faith that the family will be okay if they give up on their marriage.
A similar, but opposite situation happens with Kelly. The housekeeper, Christine, has developed an obsessive devotion to Kelly’s husband, Patrick, and sees Kelly as the interloper who needs to be removed from the home immediately. It’s almost like she had a calling to get rid of Kelly quickly.
Patrick was already questioning their relationship because Kelly’s values had changed so much. It could be that they would have split soon on their own. It makes me wonder if Christine was influenced into her actions by someone else.
There’s an odd amount of devotion surrounding the passengers of Flight 828. Everyone who’s attempted to rekindle a relationship or go back to a job has met with success so far. Even Michaela was able to repair her relationship with Evie’s parents and Jared seems to spend most of his time at work hovering over her. It’s as if their loved ones and former bosses were ordered to smooth the transition for them.
But on top of that, their case is inspiring other forms of devotion, even obsession. They have religious fanatics gathering around them, some of whom are starting a new belief system, according to Isaiah, the man who is falsely accused of murdering Kelly. Vance is obsessed with the passengers personally, rather than the investigation as a whole, to the point of harassing friends to spy on them for him. There are other avenues his investigation could pursue, but he seems to be singlemindedly pursuing the passengers’ current movements.
Turbulence begins with a flashback to Flight 828, where Kelly Taylor was seated across the aisle from Ben. While they waited for the plane to take off, Kelly talked on the phone, telling the person on the other end that there was a mix up with her reservation, then she’d been bumped to this flight. She was glad that it was a short flight, and planned to avoid flying on Montego Airlines ever again. She’d rather die. And, well… that wish came true.
Ben and Michaela talk over the top of Cal’s head, since he’s wearing headphones. They refer to the distance that’s grown between Ben and Grace because of Cal’s illness, and maybe other things. Raising twins isn’t the easiest thing on a marriage. Ben and Grace’s relationship has gotten lost in the shuffle of dealing with all of the others stresses in their lives.
But Ben feels like the vacation was good for them. Michaela is supportive, cracking jokes about the lime in the coconut. Ben reminds her that she’s been drowning in stress, too, cause if he has to come down off his vacation high, so does his baby sister.
Flash from Kelly’s face on the plane to a close up of Kelly’s dead face after being shot in the head. Really, really didn’t need to see her corpse that up close and personal. The official murder investigation is already in full swing, with everything being brushed, swabbed, bagged and tagged.
Over in the Stone family kitchen, Mick and Cal are playing a word game with magnet letters on the fridge. They have my fridge- weird. Cal has written “Now Your Turn” and tells Mick that her reply has to have 3 letters. Grace sends him to bed.
She writes, “Own Your Truth” on the fridge.
Kelly’s murder pops up on the news, because these people always have a news channel on. Big Brother and the Thought Police seem to require a TV set on a 24 hour news channel in the main room of every dwelling and workplace. Michaela leaves to go check out the crime scene to see what she can discover.
Grace is upset. If Kelly was killed because she was on the news, that makes all of the passengers targets. Cal has already had a stalking experience. Ben decides that they need to keep their heads even further down than they were before.
He tells Olive to come straight home from school tomorrow. Olive, who is doing her nails at the kitchen table, looks like he’s both crazy and overreacting, the universal teenager code for ‘I overrule your opinion and won’t be listening to your decisions’.
Her time as the sensible one is up. She goes upstairs and sneaks out, fast enough that Cal isn’t even in his pajamas yet. He catches her in the act, and asks what she’s doing. She shushes him and tells him that it’ll be “our” little secret.
Except she fails to take into account that she hasn’t let him in on any of her secrets. The only secret he knows about is the one he could get into trouble for keeping, which is also a scary secret, given that someone in close proximity to them was just murdered. Cal needs some juicy secrets if she wants undying loyalty and the feeling that it’s them against the world. Telling him where she was going would have been a good start.
Saanvi calls Ben and he asks her of she’s seen the news. Of course she has. Jeff Bezos Big Brother is watching her, too. She asks Ben if he thinks they need to be worried. He thinks they need to keep their heads down.
Why? Because then the surveillance cameras won’t recognize them as easily. J/K. Actually, he’s just obsessed with saving his family and a few others who are useful to him, like Saanvi, because she’s Ben’s doctor. Prince Charming is not worried about saving the kingdom, yet. He doesn’t seem to care what happened to them all that much, as long as things go back to normal. By his definition of normal.
I can see that they’re going to drag out his denial several episodes too long, especially if a back 9 episodes are ordered for season 1, bringing the full season 1 order to 22.
Saanvi actually called because she’s discovered a protein marker in Cal’s blood that’s new since the trip. It doesn’t seem harmful, but she doesn’t recognize it. Ben brings up the various substances that the Feds gave them while they were detained. Saanvi intends to run through it all and check it out. They agree to keep in touch.
Mick goes out to the car, but her PTSD flares up and she flashes back to the accident that killed Evie. She asks Ben to drive her. He does, but he gives her a hard time for the entire drive and insists on going into the crime season with her. Like Olive, he’s basically throwing his weight around as the big brother on the drive, yanking her chain.
I like that we’re getting close brother-sister relationships on this show, which are normally practically non-existent on TV. But I could do without the pushiness on Ben’s part. This is her job we’re talking about risking, and her reputation as a professional. It’s not a high school prank. Using his logic, everyone who was on the plane would have the right to tromp through the murder scene.
Michaela gives in, because she doesn’t have much choice. There’s already a crowd holding a candlelight vigil in front of Kelly’s house. The police have caught one of the fanatics and consider him a suspect. A neighbor saw him running from the house, and he has Kelly’s blood on his clothes. They haven’t found the gold necklace Kelly was wearing or the murder weapon yet.
Director Vance shows up at the crime scene and takes charge of the investigation, declaring it a matter of national security. He uses those words like a golden ticket. The first thing he does is rat out Mick and Ben, getting them chased out of the area.
On their way to the car, they discuss what the religious fanatics must think about them, whether they think they’re aliens or demons or what. They notice Kelly’s husband, Patrick, sitting outside an ambulance, and go talk to him.
Patrick didn’t want Kelly to do the TV interviews, but she said she had to do it. She had a calling. Ben and Michaela realize that she was hearing voices in her head, just like them.
The next day, Grace is feeling practical about the situation. She thinks they should continue to be careful, but they have to live their lives. Then it’s off to work for her, since their expenses have doubled and she’s the only one who’s working. Ben reminds her that she’s not on her own any more, and he’s ready to start job hunting.
Sheesh, the guy’s not exactly a loafer for taking a few days to figure out what’s up before looking for a job. As we’ll see later, he’s in a field where no one will hire him until he catches up on what he’s missed. Otherwise he might have to take something too far from home or that pays too little to matter much.
Grace calls “Calamander” to get ready to come to work with her that day, so that Ben can job hunt.
Michaela watches Kelly’s news interviews at her desk in the station. Kelly uses the phrase “Own my truth” and variations on it numerous times. Jared finds her to give her the traditional weekly scolding, this one for not only showing up at a crime scene that was outside of her jurisdiction, but for bringing her civilian brother.
Michaela isn’t intimidated. Instead, she explains about Kelly, and that she and her family’s safety might be compromised. And the Big Bad NSA has shut her out. She finishes off with a masterful pouty girlfriend face that probably works every time to melt his heart. It does this time. Even though he came over to tell her to leave the case alone, he leaves having agreed to help her with it.
Michaela’s back.
Michaela finds her Uber driver Starsky Ben waiting outside for her. She explains to him that Kelly’s calling was, “Own your truth.” Michaela has had the same calling. That’s why Kelly did all of those interviews. They realize that she could have any number of enemies who didn’t like what she said on TV. They decide to talk to her husband first.
Patrick is in the midst of funeral preparations and events. He tells them that since she’d come home, Kelly had become anti-materialistic and hated their upper middle class life lifestyle. He had to beg her to wear the large gold and jewel necklace he bought her as a welcome home gift, but she did wear it on TV.
Her calling had made her political in a way she’d never been before. But she was also worried about the government and how much danger they were in, since the government was watching her closely. There were clicking sounds on her phone calls and black SUVs outside the house, day and night.
Patrick’s housekeeper, Christine, joins them and confirms Patrick’s observations. Then the guests arrive and he leaves Ben and Michaela to see themselves out. Before they leave, Christine tells them that, on the day she died, Kelly got her hair done at the mall and came home wih bruises on her arms. Kelly said she’d fallen.
As they’re leaving, seeing the funeral set up reminds Michaela of Evie’s wake, which she and Jared tried to attend. Evie’s parents’, Beverly and Glen, wouldn’t let them in the house. They told Mick that she wasn’t welcome, since they still blamed her for Evie’s death.
Grace and her coworker, Rob, cook together and talk about her love life. She tells him that she broke it off with Danny and is back together with her husband, Ben, the father of her children. Rob says he gets it, but he clearly doesn’t, since in the next breath he says it’s like she’s cheating on Danny, who he feels protective of.
So, Rob obviously has only known Grace since after the plane disappeared and is a good buddy of Danny’s. I’m okay with Grace ending up with Danny, but I’m not okay with this guy telling her she’s cheating on him because she’s trying to make things work with her husband of many years, first.
Rob realizes he’s overstepped and makes a little apology, but Grace agrees that it feels that way for her too. Which tells you which way the wind is going to blow in the long run. Rob will likely run to tell Danny what she said the next time his hands are clean enough to dial his phone. (He’s cooking.)
Michaela decides to own her truth and visit Evie’s parents. Beverly is oddly happy to see her, showing her the new curtains that she’s added to the living room. Then she calls for Evie to come downstairs and see Mick. Beverly has developed dementia.
Glen steps into the room and tells Bev that Evie’s at the store. He’s given up on telling her the truth, because she forgets again so quickly. It’s too much for both of them to give her the news that her daughter is gone every 15 minutes.
Michaela goes back to the station. Jared rushes right over to her desk. He can tell something’s wrong, and pushes her to tell him. When he finds out that she visited Evie’s parents, he asks why she’d put herself through that. He reminds her again that the investigation cleared her of all wrongdoing. Evie’s death wasn’t her fault. He tells her, “Don’t waste your miracle on your pain.”
It’s got to be so weird for the passengers to keep hearing what a miracle it is that they returned. For them, it was an almost completely normal flight, no miracle necessary. It’s the rest of the world that’s messed up and needs a miracle. It’s almost like they jumped to a similar timeline, but one that’s slightly worse in many ways.
Jared gives Mick the files he’s created on Kelly. She and her husband owned several commercial properties, including a strip mall with a hair salon. As soon as Mick hears they own a mall she says a quick thanks and takes off.
Ben does a thorough search of the house for surveillance tech while talking on the phone to Saanvi. He says that surveillance tech has advanced so much in the past few years that he doesn’t even know if he’d recognize it if he saw it. He asks Saanvi if she’s noticed any evidence of surveillance, but she hasn’t. She’s probably under constant routine surveillance at work, anyway.
It’s Saanvi’s turn. She’s run tests on her own blood, and she has the same marker in her blood that Cal does, but she still hasn’t been able to identify it. Next she’s going to sneak in and get an MRI on herself.
Ben finds a wrapped condom under the bed. Unused, thank goodness. He’s spared having to face that level of graphic evidence of Grace’s activities. But his day isn’t going to get better for a while.
The doorbell rings, and it’s Cal’s old friend Kevin, now a giant, lanky teenager instead of a short ten year old. Kevin has the best post-disappearance greeting of anyone: “So, how was your flight?”
Cal and Grace pull up, so Kevin goes to say “Hi”. He’s about 2 feet taller than Cal. He suggests they get pizza sometime. Ben desperately tries to smooth the reunion over, suggesting video games. Kevin says that he’s not there to see Cal, he’s there to see Olive. Grace comes up the walk at that point. She sends Kevin home instead of inviting him to stay for dinner, telling him to text Olive later.
Once they’re in the kitchen, Ben tells Grace that he found footprints in the backyard and the side gate left open. He’s worried that there was an intruder in the backyard. Cal says that Olive snuck out to see Kevin last night. Olive is outraged at this betrayal. Ben is impressed she escaped out the bedroom window, but reminds her that someone they’re connected to was just murdered and she shouldn’t be out alone at night.
Olive says, “I know you’re not used to it, Dad, but I’m allowed to see my boyfriend.”
Ben replies, “Not in the middle of the night, you’re not.”
Olive tells her parents to work this out and leaves the room.
Grace makes Cal leave the kitchen, then tells Ben that it’s okay that Olive snuck out, Kevin is a great boyfriend, and to do anything about Olive sneaking out would be overreacting.
Okay, then. Wouldn’t want potential murderous stalkers to cramp the kid’s style. And certainly wouldn’t want her to tell Ben about her boyfriend beforehand, so someone could watch her walk to the car safely at night, leave the porch light on, or make sure she actually made it home safely. Half the fun is in challenging an obsessive serial killer to grab you.
This part is speculation:
Except, none of what I just wrote, or Grace just said about Olive and Kevin, matters. Kevin may or may not be Olive’s boyfriend, but in this caper he was a decoy pulled in because Cal saw Olive leave.
Olive was with Danny. It was arranged between Grace and Danny, which is why Olive told Grace to work it out with Ben, and why Grace isn’t worried. Olive thinks of Danny as her father now, and she’s having visitation with him.
Wow. This is a whole other level of lying that I hadn’t even considered. They aren’t even going to tell Ben and Cal that Olive still sees Danny? Danny has to sneak around like the mistress to pick up Olive? Why? Because if Danny comes to the front door like a normal person, Grace doesn’t think she can hide how much she still loves him. Yeah, this marriage can’t be saved, but thanks for playing. If nothing else, Grace’s lies are turning into a very tall house of cards that will crush Ben when they fall.
Michaela comes in and fills Ben in on everything she’s learned about Kelly, including that she owns the mall. Micks wonders if Kelly was searching for the meaning of, “Own your truth,” the way they did with, “Set them free”.
At the mall, they find a woman working on a case of eyeglasses. When they ask to talk, she runs. They chase her deep into the back utility sections of the mall. At least one digital readout reads “828” as they run by. When she reaches a dead end, the woman, Tami, explains the situation.
Kelly’s husband only rents to illegals, then keeps 40% of their profits. If they don’t pay, he calls ICE. When Tami saw Kelly, she thought Kelly was there to collect the rent and Tami didn’t have the money, so she pushed Kelly down and prepared to run. But Kelly said she wasn’t collecting money. She promised to stop Patrick’s unfair business practices. Kelly told Tami she was owning her truth. Mick and Ben wonder if Patrick was involved in the murder.
Olive sits in the living room with Cal and asks why he broke the twin code. Cal says he wanted her to be safe. She thinks he was jealous of her and Kevin. He doesn’t think they’re even twins any more.
Vance visits Captain Riojas to worm whatever information he can from the precinct about Michaela. The Captain doesn’t bite. Vance does get Riojas to let him see the case file on the Pyler girls abduction.
While Riojas is gone, Vance turns to Jared, saying he must be so proud of his girlfriend. Jared corrects him. Vance gives Jared his card and tries to coerce him into spying on Michaela and providing regular reports on her every move, or else Jared’s job will be in danger.
Patrick is in custody and multiple charges have been brought against him as a slumlord. But there’s no evidence he killed his wife. Jared tells Michaela to be careful and think like a cop.
Saanvi examines her MRI and other test results. She discovers that they are consistent with an ischemic stroke.
Ben brings new electronics home and discovers the front door is ajar. He hears someone rifling through stuff in the closet, so he grabs a baseball bat and uses it to capture and subdue the burglar.
But it’s not a burglar, it’s Grace’s friend Lindsay, who stopped by to pick up the soccer equipment that Olive forgot. Grace didn’t bother to let Ben know that there would be a strange man in their house, even though he’s legitimately worried about the other passenger who was murdered a couple of days ago. And Grace didn’t think to ask her unemployed husband/Olive’s father to get the forgotten equipment.
And somehow this makes Ben the bad guy.
Um, no. This one’s on Grace, too, just like the bedroom window escape. She’s shutting Ben out of virtually everything in her and Olive’s lives, other than getting to live in the house. I’m betting that the rest- school functions, sports, community activities, her job, mutual friends- are all Danny’s territory, and she wants to leave Danny with his life as intact as possible while somehow not telling Ben how close Olive is to Danny.
Lindsay knows the truth, too, and is very uncomfortable with being part of the lie. But if Grace had asked Ben to bring the equipment, he might have met Danny.
As soon as Lindsay leaves, Ben asks Grace how many more men have keys to the house. Touché. Grace goes into the usual song and dance about how he left her for 5 YEARS, ALL ALONE, so she gathered a village of men around her. She needed Lindsay, Justin, and Rob, because Ben was greedy and took a different flight home and left her ALL ALONE.
But in addition to those men, there was the alpha man who wore the condoms pants in the family, and helped pay the bills, and was always attentive to Olive, and was really good in bed, and she’s never ever going to let Ben meet him. She’s going to honor her marriage vows, no matter how much it sucks, because Ben came home, and ruined the perfect set up she had, but she’s a good woman.
It’s just coincidental that Ben’s replacement is good at all of the areas Ben’s flawed at.
Ben’s now thoroughly gaslit into being ashamed of himself for taking a different flight home to help pay Cal’s medical expenses, the jerk.
Grace makes a speech to Ben about how he’s finally home so things are fine, but she doesn’t kiss him, hug him, tell him she loves him, or show any passion toward him. She barely holds his hand, and acts like having him there is an obligation to an extended family member, or an adult child who can’t support themselves.
Michaela visits the jail to talk to Isaiah, the suspect in Kelly’s murder. He already knows her full name, along with all 190 other passengers. He thinks they’re all chosen. He denies killing Kelly.
He says that while he was outside standing vigil, he heard the sound of a gun. He ran to Kelly in her living room and she died in his arms. He says he doesn’t care about earthly possessions and didn’t steal her necklace.
Michaela tells him that he needs to tell the local police that he’s innocent if he didn’t kill Kelly, but he’s not afraid of prison. He thinks that he’ll return after he dies, just like Michaela and Kelly, and he’ll be purified.
Michaela says that she’s not pure. He tells her that she needs to unburden herself. “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, nothing concealed that will not be illuminated.’ What have you concealed Michaela, even from yourself?” Michaela looks disturbed.
Michaela leaves the prison and goes to Evie’s parents house to unburden herself. Glen can’t listen right now though, because Bev’s gone walkabout. He was outside for 10 minutes, and when he came back, she’d gotten out the front door. The police told him to stay home in case she comes back. Glen gives Mick the keys to his car so that she can search for Bev.
She gets in the driver’s seat, and has the moment of truth she can’t avoid. She remembers back to the night of the accident. Evie was supposed to be the designated driver, but had gotten very drunk because the bartender kept giving her drinks. Mick had been drinking, but was in much better shape than Evie. She went to call an Uber, but Evie needed her car in the morning, and said they had to drive home. Michaela gave in and drove.
Jared said Michaela was exonerated, so her blood alcohol level must have been below the limit, and the accident must have been unequivically caused by the other driver. If Michaela was eligible for a DUI, they would have given it to her, whether she caused the accident or not.
Mick starts the car, then nervously drives through the neighborhood, watching for Bev. She finds her standing, confused, in the middle of a busy street. Michaela turns her car out in front of oncoming traffic to make sure no one hits Bev. One of the cars who has to swerve into the side of the road is driven by Patrick’s housekeeper, Christine. She has Kelly’s missing necklace on the passenger seat next to her.
Michaela owned her truth two times over.
Christine is taken to the station, where Donovan questions her. She wants to see Patrick. She’s obsessed with him, and was jealous of Kelly’s return. She and Patrick weren’t a couple, but she took good care of him and they had a life together. Then Kelly came back and treated her like she was just the maid. So Christine shot her in the head.
Jared wants an explanation as to how Michaela solved the case. Michaela has to tell him she was in the right place at the right time, since it’s the truth. He wants more, but she can’t tell him much, other than that she’s changed, and the less he knows, the better.
Olivia makes more of an effort to spend time with Cal and do things he likes. Grace and Ben clean the kitchen together.
Ben asks if Grace loves the other man. She deflects and says that she loves Ben and never stopped, not for 5.5 years. He looks teary and says he loves her, too. I wonder if he’s starting to figure out that she keeps saying the right things, but she’s not really acting right. She’s standing several feet across the room for her speech about loving him. Then she says that they’re picking up right where they left off, before they were so rudely interrupted. After a moment, she hugs him.
Every time she makes those speeches, she looks like she’s trying to convince herself that the torture will be worth it. She gets more distant, and probably more resentful, with each one. It’s creepy.
Montage time! Jared tears up Vance’s card. Olive and Cal play Cal’s game together.
Ben works on his CV, in preparation for his job hunt. We finally find out about his professional life. He has a PhD applied mathematics and MS in computer science from Columbia. His BS is in Math from Georgetown. At the time that the plane disappeared he was an associate professor in the Math department at Fordham University. Before that, he’d worked in the private sector on cyber security analytics (analyzng systems data to prevent cyberattacks). It’s very likely that he continued to do research in cyber security analytics at Fordham. They may have lured him away from the private sector with some giant research grant.
Michaela comes home and tells Ben that Saanvi has been calling both of them. She has new results to share. They go to Saanvi’s office, where she tells them, “The marker in mine and Cal’s blood could be a sign of ischemia. It occurs when the circulation is limited, but the potency of this marker is on par with a stroke victim.”
Mick: “So you think we all had strokes.”
Saanvi: “No, not exactly. If we were taken close to death, extremely close and then brought back, if the faucet of blood circulation has been turned off and then it was turned on high, that’s what it would look like.”
If Saanvi had a sample of brain tissue from one of the passengers, she could test for the rebound she’s describing. Brain tissue samples would be taken during an autopsy, so she went looking online for Kelly Taylor’s body, but it’s not in any of the places it should be. Eventually she hits an ACCESS DENIED wall.
Ben realizes that the Feds took over the case because they wanted jurisdiction over Kelly’s body. He starts wondering where she could be.
Ben oughta be able to become a world-class hacker with all of those degrees and that cybersecurity experience, don’t you think? Just sayin, with a creative doctor, a cop who’ll bend the rules, computer guy/hacker/spy equipment guy and an observant, nerdy little kid who can crawl into the tight spaces, you’ve got a pretty good crime/adventure gang started.
They probably just need a fast talking thief/con artist, and they’re set for the basics. Hmm, Bethany the flight attendant is back next week, she could definitely audition for the role. I’d also like to add in Flight 828’s Captain Bill, for sentimental reasons. He seems so lost every time we see him. But I bet he could be a great con man/thief, too. And I’m sure the violinist could be of some use, too. He seems like the kind of guy who’d always know someone who could get you whatever you needed.
I’m going to miss having Ben drive Michaela. They had a nice partnership going. But geting Ben set up in his own work, which looks, based on his CV, like it will be very pertinent to the story, should open up the storyline much more. Hopefully he’ll have memories jogged, contacts find him, or research contracts offered to him that further explain what happened to the plane.
Vance seemed fairly neutral before this episode, but he basically tried to coerce and blackmail Jared into spying on Michaela this week. That’s not a good guy. We’ll see if he makes good on his threats, now that Jared threw away his card.
Why are all of Grace’s friends men? Why no single mothers? They can pick up soccer equipment, keep you sane at work, and even help with repairs, too. And trade babysitting. And not make uncomfortable sexual advances. Or was that what she was normally trading? What’s the deal?
If Grace pulls out the guilt card with Ben one more time, I might throw something at the TV. You’d think she was the only single parent who’d ever existed. She had 1 10 year old to take care of, in a safe place, with family as back up. I’m sympathetic to how hard it was, but not to her making Ben feel guilty everytime she wants to distract him from one of her lies.
Where were Ben’s parents while Grace was suffering the 5 year trauma of being a supposedly single mother who actually had a live in boyfriend for 3 of those years? Didn’t they help during the first year or so, before the mom got sick? And didn’t she get a payout from Ben’s life insurance? Fordham University should have pretty good benefits, and Ben is definitely the type to prepare for that type of eventuality. Plus, the airline should’ve given the families of the passengers all a settlement at some point.
She should have had a decent financial cushion to see her through building her business. And then she shared the bills with the boyfriend, unless he’s a stay-at-home replacement dad. Did she call Daddy’s Home from Maniac? Why is she complaining to Ben about money when he’s only been home a week, and they already have Michaela’s income to help out? The 2 women ought to make enough to support the 5 of them until Ben finds a job. Is she anxious to get him out of the house for some reason? Is Danny wealthy and she’s missing living the good life now that she has to support a family?
Cyber security is one of the hottest career fields in the country, probably the world, today. With Ben’s credentials, he’d have job recruiters knocking on his door in no time. Since he was working on cutting edge stuff, some parts of the industry have probably barely caught up to where he was when he disappeared. He’ll need to do some catching up, but he can teach math while he studies up on the latest advances in his specialty. It really wouldn’t be hard for someone with his history and degrees.
Isaiah quotes the bible verse Luke 8:17 to Michaela. One of the cool things about this verse is that it’s sometimes translated as, “For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid, that shall not be known and come to light.” (That’s from the King James 2000 translation.) There are layers of meanings and interpretations to this verse, but basically, it means that there’s no point to secrets, lies and hypocrisy, because it will all come out in the end. At the same time, all of God’s wisdom that’s been transmitted through parables and stories will become clear; God’s plan will be revealed and understood by the true seeker of God’s wisdom.
It’s easy to see why Isaiah and the followers would pick this verse to focus on as relating to the Flight 828 passengers. What’s freaky is how well it aligns with their experiences. Every passenger we’ve followed has been moved to live a more compassionate, honest, simple life. I doubt that the message will take with all of them. But something is manifesting in them, and there’s likely a larger plan involved as well. They’re being purified in preparation for a bigger plan.*
*I’m not assigning a religious aspect to what happened to the passengers or plane, Just following through with the biblical imagery we were given. I love to analyze the bible as a literary reference. If a story takes the religious aspect further, so be it, but usually, in secular media, bible verses are used as cultural references these days.
Images courtesy of Netflix.
Metawitches 
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