The Flight Attendant: 10 Things We Want to See in Season 2 (And 5 We Don’t)

Fasten your seatbelts! The Flight Attendant is preparing a second outing.

Over the span of the eight-episode first season, the HBO Max original delivered a story about addiction, trauma, and identity. The second season was announced shortly after the first ended, leaving a lot of characters with live-changing narratives.

In the months since, the series has accumulated two Golden Globe Nominations and, a Critics Choice Award Nomination a SAG Award Nomination.

Here are a few things we hope the series does in Season 2 — and a few we don’t. 

Fair warning: The list below contains spoilers for Season 1.

What We Want

1. The Scoop About Shane’s Job

When Shane jumps into the hotel room and saves Cassie, it’s easily the most out-there twist of the entire season. Introducing the fact that the CIA has an active presence in Cassie’s place of work is a game-changer, and definitely something we want to see more of in Season 2.

Given how clueless Cassie seems to be at keeping a secret, it has the potential to provide a thrilling plot while presenting us with a clear and present danger for the new season.

However, The Flight Attendant should also keep their secrets close to the chest. While Shane should drop some hints about his work, it wouldn’t advisable to take us on a walking tour of his base of operations.

Stick to the airline and Cassie’s point of view.

2. Cassie as a Hapless Human Asset

One of The Flight Attendant‘s strongest assets is the way it blends comedy and drama. Cassie’s storyline throughout the season is tense but still rests on comedy to highlight absurd moments it encounters.

So many of the best moments of The Flight Attendant Season 1 consist of Cassie not knowing what she was doing and making some terrible choices that turned out to work for her. (Case in point, stealing a bag of trash from Alex’s parent’s house!)

Continuing with that thread will increase the drama as the stakes are raised and she gets more embroiled in clandestine operations. 

3. Miranda and Cassie Reluctantly Teaming Up…Again

Cassie spent most of Season 1 trying to figure out the identity of the mysterious Miranda Croft. When Cassie and Miranda finally come face-to-face — and not on a train — it doesn’t disappoint. 

As evidenced by The Flight Attendant Season 1 Episode 7, “Hitchcock Double,”  Kaley Cuoco and Michelle Gomez have amazing buddy-cop chemistry that the show should lean into.

While the show is primarily about Cuoco’s Cassie, Gomez’s portrayal of Miranda brought a new levity to the role and provided a grounding presence. Her analysis of situations is sobering and tempers Cassie’s outlandish ideas about how to get out of this mess. 

This is something that Cassie can lean on as she embarks on her new role with the CIA. 

4. Ani’s Career Change

As Ani’s says in one of the final episodes, her entire life is wrapped up in being a lawyer. All of that changed by the end of The Flight Attendant Season 1, and that leaves Ani; the friend who had it all together, with some room for growth and experimentation as she figures out what comes next. 

What The Flight Attendant Season 1 Episode 8, “Arrivals and Departures,” hints at, is that while Ani might be starting over, she still has transferrable skills that will allow her to keep doing the kind of work she loves.

Maybe her future includes being a private investigator or working for the FBI. Maybe she and Max can even team up and solve crimes.

5. Meghan on the Run 

Early in Season 1, the FBI makes a comment about how flight attendants are likely to be human assets because of the unfettered travel.  The choice to make Meghan the one who engages in corporate espionage is an interesting choice because it has the potential to unsettle her character. 

In a way, The Flight Attendant sets it up so that Meghan and Cassie are now on opposite trajectories. Given how much Meghan wishes she were like Cassie in Season 1, we can only imagine that will factor into what will happen when they meet again.

6. Cassie and Davey Mending Fences

Alex’s murder may have been the thread that drove The Flight Attendant Season 1 forward, but Cassie’s personal relationships fleshed out her character. Her relationship with her brother Davey is one that we would particularly like to see nurtured in the upcoming season, especially as Cassie starts to get her life together. 

There’s no question that their father played a significant role in how Davey and Cassie interact as adults, but as Cassie starts to work through that trauma she’ll be able to connect with both her brother and her nieces in a more genuine way.

Let’s just hope that whatever she investigates doesn’t also put them in danger.

7. Where in the World is Miranda Croft? 

And what did she do with all that money?

You really thought you could leave Miranda unconscious in a bathtub and then just tell us she slipped away? Yes, that’s definitely believable for someone who spent her life in the shadows, but after giving us two episodes of these two budding buddy cop heroines there’s no way Miranda’s story can be left there.

There’s no doubt that when Miranda took the book she used it to get as far away as possible, but do we really think that she’s just lying fallow? 

The fact of the matter is, we don’t really know Miranda. We know she kept moving, that she hated her boss, and she listens to meditation tapes, but it was clear that Miranda had a plan. What was it? How can it connect to Cassie’s future? What would happen if they met up again? 

8. More of Aunt Cassie 

With Davey should come more of Aunt Cassie. Cassie may not have handled her outing with her nieces well, but it’s clear these kids love her, and if she’s learned anything it’s that she has time to repair their relationship.

Furthermore, the series has hinted at Cassie having. away with children including passengers on her flight. It would be interesting to see the series play that up in some way next season.

9. Thoughtful Use of the FBI

The Flight Attendant Season 1 cast two talented actors, Merle Dandridge and Nolan Gerard, as FBI agents, but it’s hard to shake the feeling like they’re underused and feel more like a plot device that facilitates the mystery than anything else. 

Yes, the point of Season 1 is to follow Cassie as she tried to figure out what happened in Bangkok, but so much of the FBI storyline feels like filler. If they are going to bring the FBI back for The Flight Attendant Season 2, there needs to be some thought as to how that relationship will work, especially with the CIA involved. 

10. More Flawed Women

Perhaps the most important thing that The Flight Attendant shouldn’t lose is the way it focuses on the women in the story it’s telling. It gives us characters who are flawed and imperfect who don’t necessarily fit a mold that we’ve seen on television before. 

These strong, flawed, and capable women are at the forefront of the story, and we left several of them on precipices that they’ll have to navigate in Season 1. While Cassie, Ani, Meghan, and Miranda should all cross paths again, it would be a pleasure to meet a new character who fits this pattern. 

What We Don’t Want

1. A Max and Ani Breakup

If this wasn’t evidenced when I talked about Ani’s career change, Max and Ani should definitely not break up; at least not for good.

At the end of The Flight Attendant Season 1 Episode 1, “Arrivals and Departures,” Ani hints that she will probably have to break up with Max. This is something that absolutely shouldn’t happen because he is the most gung-ho ally that Cassie could have asked for. While Ani may temper the antics a little, Max is the one who creatively solves problems. 

What Max’s role might look like in Season 2 can be anyone’s guess, but given his skills, he seems like the ideal character to take up residence in this narrative permanently. 

2.  A Race to Stop the Nukes

Weapons are being sold on The Flight Attendant, that is true. However, it doesn’t have to be nuclear warheads!

Yes, Meghan was dealing with North Korea and North Korea is a big nuclear power, but The Flight Attendant‘s strength lies in the microscopic view of Cassie. As much as it might be cool to have her stop a big doomsday scenario, that’s something that should probably be saved for a lot further down the line. 

3. Dead Characters Coming Back to Life

The Flight Attendant‘s villains feel like figures that are blurred out behind glass. This enigmatic quality makes for good television. 

Soapy dramas are great but maybe leave the return-of-the-villain trope alone for this series. There is no shame in letting your villains bite the big one, especially when they clearly have ties to bigger, more imposing, operations.

It would be best if The Flight Attendant continued moving up the food chain while exploring new micro-players.

4. Weird Ghost Sex

Paranormal romance is a spectacular genre, but not one The Flight Attendant should be crossing into. The version of Alex that Cassie sees in her head should stay in her head and remain a sounding board for ideas and thought processes as she embarks on a new line of work. 

Huisman does a great job playing the Alex avatar this season, and the show should keep this as a thread that shows Cassie’s inner thought process, but this space should exist as a place to work out thoughts only and not as a possible romantic avenue for Cassie.

5. For Cassie to Backslide

After investing in Cassie for over a season and seeing her overcome her demons it’s good to see her on a more stable path.

While she’ll always grapple with her alcoholism, setting her on a path that could set her back to the Cassie we met on Season 1 isn’t something we want for the character. As Cassie starts to find her footing in her new roles, her world will expand, and that should be the focus of Season 2. 

Fortunately, Cuoco has spoken a little bit about what is in store for Cassie.

“We haven’t written anything yet, we just started our writers’ room, but I think the journey for her emotionally is that she is going to try and have a sober journey. Because she is so impatient, and her personality is so black-and-white, she’s going to go into this thinking it’s easy; a quick fix, and that she’s fixed her demons. I think she’s going to learn very quickly that this is a life-long struggle and she’s going to be way over her head,” Cuoco told Deadline. 

Sign us up for that!

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What are your hopes for The Flight Attendant Season 2? Let us know in the comments below. 

The Flight Attendant Season 1 is now available on HBO Max.

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