The Flight Attendant season 2 episode 8 recap: Key moments from finale

We’re back with this week’s recap of The Flight Attendant. Can you believe we’ve already reached the end of the season!? Episode 8 was the season 2 finale.

In “Backwards and Forwards,” most of the loose ends were nicely tied up and we got the answers to the questions we’ve been asking all season. Who was trying to frame Cassie? What was Jenny’s deal? And does Cassie’s Mind World ever go away?

Last week we ended on a major cliffhanger. We found out Grace was the blonde impersonator, but that wasn’t the end of it. She wanted to tell Cassie the truth but couldn’t. Finding no other way, she takes her own life.

Ready to find out what exactly has been going on all season? Here are the key moments from the finale!

The Flight Attendant season 2 episode 8 recap

Dot, the mastermind

Pretty quickly in the episode, Cassie puts all the pieces together. When she goes to Dot’s home to clean up in the aftermath of what happened with Grace, she finds Santal 33. If you remember, that’s the perfume Cassie, Annie, and Max could smell on the wig that was in the suitcase delivered to Cassie back in the very first episode.

That’s when things start to click into place for our favorite flight attendant. As she tries to run out, Dot blocks her and confesses to everything. She’s the one behind it all – Cassie’s fabricated CIA psych evaluation, the View Finder, and Grace. The two knew each other in the military and when Grace wanted out, Dot helped her. But it came at a price. As Dot said, she was “just one of any number of broken toys I’ve used.”

Dot also shares why she killed Will in Berlin. He was trying to blackmail her so she had to get rid of him. But why Cassie? Why was she trying to pin everything on her? When she saw her file, Dot knew Cassie could fit the story of a rogue operative. We learn later from Benjamin (who suffered a stab wound along with Shane, but they’re both ok!) that Dot was selling access to CIA records for years.

I feel like the show tried to explain Dot’s reasoning behind all of this, but some of it just kind of comes off as confusing. And, if Will died via the car explosion, there was really no reason for her to go through all of this and try to pin it on Cassie. Unless Dot knew people at the CIA would be suspicious of Will’s death. The show tried to wrap this story up a little too quickly so we can get to the other twist. But I feel like we needed some more time for a better explanation.

Jenny, the psycho

We finally find out just what Jenny’s deal is, and it’s deadlier than we thought. Jenny kidnapped and put Davey to sleep, and lures Cassie to her “house,” which is actually for an elderly woman who unfortunately gets killed by Jenny. It turns out Jenny has been stalking and planning to kill Cassie all for one reason. Feliks, or Buckley Ware as we knew him in The Flight Attendant season 1. You know, Cassie’s killer boyfriend who murdered Alex Sokolov. Yeah, that Feliks.

Jenny goes to meet him in prison. She develops a relationship with him and falls in love. But he manipulates her and tells her he can’t get over Cassie. But one way he thinks he could is if Jenny gets rid of her. So literally right after Cassie almost died at the hands of Dot, now she deals with another person out for her head. Thankfully, Davey wakes up at the perfect time. The brother and sister bash Jenny on the head and everything is fine.

The show kind of lost me here. I know this was meant to be a surprising twist but it felt unnecessary to me. And then it took away time from really explaining the whole Dot thing. It was supposed to be a shocker, but it didn’t really land that way for me.

Goodbye Mind World

Cassie’s other self in the Mind World tries to convince her how easy it would be just to take her own life, the way Grace did. But finally Cassie fights back and says she’ll never do that. During her confrontation with Jenny she admits that she’s a “deeply flawed, sad alcoholic. A narcissistic thrill addict” who doesn’t like herself very much. But she accepts it’s who she is. Once she does that, the different Cassies start to disappear one by one.

After all the almost-murders, we flash forward to 30 days later from that horrible day. Cassie is now a month sober and working hard on herself. She calls her mom and tells her she heard what her mother said to her in episode 6. But she’s changing and taking the steps to get better. Her mom hears her, too, and tells her she hopes they can talk on the phone again soon. Then the two say “I love you.”

Other key moments

Max and Annie get married!

With Shane’s help, Megan and her family can be together but in hiding to protect them from the North Koreans. But for right now, they’re off her back.

Cassie is still working at the CIA.

I’ve really enjoyed the second season of the HBO Max series. Though the finale wasn’t what I’d hoped for, this was a really strong season overall. I wouldn’t say no to a third installment! But if we don’t get one, the show did a great job of coming to a satisfying ending.

What did you think of The Flight Attendant season 2? Would you want to see more? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

The full season of The Flight Attendant season 2 can now be streamed on HBO Max.