'The Flight Attendant' Episode 8 Finale Ending Explained: Who catches Felix and where is Miranda?
Spoilers for 'The Flight Attendant' Season 1 Episode 8
Episode 8 aka the Season 1 finale of HBO Max's 'The Flight Attendant' released on December 17, 2020. It is titled 'Arrivals and Departures' and takes us through the most anticipated night in Rome as Cassie Bowden (Kaley Cuoco) and Miranda Croft (Michelle Gomez) try to take down Felix aka Buckley Ware (Colin Woodell). The ending of Episode 7, 'Hitchock Double' saw Cassie decide to be bait, even after Alex Sokolov's (Michiel Huisman) ghost told her it isn't a good idea. "Let's catch a killer," she had said. Boy, was she unaware of what was about to happen.
As Miranda and Cassie were sitting in the car, Miranda decides to make a threatening call to Cecilia (Briana Cuoco), who had been the one that had told Victor (Ritchie Coster) that Miranda was still in New York. Miranda tells Cecilia that even though she understands, she's going to have to find and kill her. Freaking out, Cecilia scored Miranda a jackpot by telling her that she would give her Victor. She sent Miranda the time and address at which Victor would be meeting his driver to leave New York. Of course, Cassie knows none of this. So, Miranda gets out of the car, leaving Cassie to make her way to the airport.
There's bad news for Cassie though, as the FBI agents Van White (Nolan Gerard Funk) and Kim Hammond (Merle Dandridge) find out from the lab that the bloody fingerprints on the inside of the broken bottle found on the crime scene matched Cassie's. While Van is hell-bent on arresting Cassie, Kim would rather sit back and go over the case again as she believes there's more to it. We of course know there's a lot more to it than just "Cassie did it." Also, sadly for them, they finally find out that their colleague Agent Chavez aka Checkered Tie Guy (Brandon Morris) is dead - he was found dumped in an alley with his throat slit.
Back on the flight to Rome, Cassie and Megan Briscoe (Rosie Perez) have a small scuffle when Megan sees Cassie put tiny liquor bottles in her purse as a "security blanket", we all know she's going to drink them. After Megan yells at her to tell her to do what she wants, Cassie goes in her head to speak to Alex's ghost who tells her that Miranda may not be ghosting Cassie, she may already be dead.
But, she's wasn't. Miranda had used Cecilia's tip to find Victor at a garage getting into his car. There, she knocks out the driver, takes his gun and not only punches Victor but holds him at gunpoint. She tells him that after all, she'd done for him, he had sent a "total f*ck up" to kill her in her car. "You had Alex killed before you got the money?" Miranda asked Victor but he told another story thanks to Felix's "second-hand report."
Apparently, when Felix got to the hotel room, he had gotten Alex to tell him that the account numbers and encryptions were in a novel, 'Crime and Punishment'. But, Felix has slit Alex's throat anyway and when he had gone to the couch to find the book under the pillows where Alex said it would be, he found nothing but now Alex was not in a state to be questioned. The reason that Felix couldn't find anything is because Cassie had taken the book with her. But, not to worry Miranda sure got it back. Victor thought that it was wise to shoot Miranda, but all he got was a leg shot at her, while she shot him in the chest and took back the novel. There goes one problem, Felix was now left.
As for Miranda's and Cassie's plan to be on the plane to Rome together didn't quite work out since Miranda was helped by airport officials after they saw she was bleeding. So, Cassie made it to Rome alone and of course, Felix met her there. She decides the only way to escape him was to make a scene, so she approached and held onto him screaming, "Help, this man is attacking me," and even Megan helped out by telling airport officials that she had seen the whole thing and that Felix had taken Cassie by force. This allowed Cassie to leave the airport safely and make it to her hotel. Miranda did end up getting on another flight though, but she was very anxious about Cassie's safety.
Meanwhile, Felix doesn't just have Miranda and Cassie hunting him, FBI agent Kim is also joining the hunt after Annie Mouradian (Zosia Mamet), Cassie's destined hands over financial records, client lists, forged flight manifest, and receipts for the sale of weapons - all incriminating evidence on Unisphere asset management and the company Lionfish and an entire subfolder devoted to people that are dead now. This of course gives many other people motive to kill Alex, which would get the FBI off of Cassie's back when it comes to Alex's murder. While there though, Annie recognized Felix on the monitor from the day he and Cassie were at the loft drunk - thing is he was also in Bangkok and just like that Kim figured out it was Felix aka Buckley they were looking for.
In Rome, Cassie finds her friend Enrico so she can find a gun to help her keep her safe from Felix. While Enrico takes her to his grandmother's house to find his grandfather's gun, a chat with Enrico's grandmother and the bottles of liquor in her purse took Cassie back to the time her father had died. She had been in the way too young drinking with him, and she had always blamed herself. In a very touching scene, we see the older Cassie comfort her younger self telling her that her father's death was not her fault and that it will not define the rest of her life. As for Miranda, she had made it to the hotel and gotten the key Cassie had left for her, only to be cornered by Felix in the elevator - a fight obviously ensues.
Enrico and Cassie make it back to the hotel and she goes back into her mind to speak to Alex's ghost, even admitting to him that she feels like she knows him now, that she's in love with him - or what could have been between them. Back to reality, there is no one in Cassie's hotel room and when Enrico goes downstairs to get a coffee, Cassie sees someone in her bathtub - it's Miranda, who looks very dead, and Buckley/Felix standing over her waiting for his blonde target. Of course, he corners Cassie and even stabs Enrico when the poor guy comes back - he makes it out alive though. He tells Cassie that he's been following her since Bangkok as we the audience get to see it play out in all past scenes. Cassie manages to get the knife off the floor and stab Felix, and then get to the gun Enrico got her, she surprises herself but does shoot Buckley/Felix. On an even more surprising note, someone that nobody thought would sweep in a save the day, ends up shooting Felix dead in the gut - that's Shane Evans (Griffin Matthews). Felix is still alive, even though we'd like him not to be.
Turns out that Shane has been working for the CIA - he was working with the airline Imperial Atlantic to keep tabs on Megan who as we already know has been stealing proprietary technology from her husband's work laptop and selling it to the North Korean government. Megan had obviously committed treason and as Shane puts it, is now on the run. Although, what's weird is that when Cassie asked Shane about Miranda who was in the bathtub the last Cassie saw her, he said that there wasn't anyone else in the room. As for Megan, Shane was right, she was running away but she had left some money, a flash drive, and a note to her son and husband telling them she's sorry, that she loves them and she's going to fix this.
It's been quite a horrible "dark" ride for Cassie since the death of Alex, but it seems she's going to be okay, "for real this time." At least, that's what she tells her brother Davey Bowden (T.R. Knight) who meets her at the airport when she lands home. Cassie also meets up with Annie of course - that's long overdue - and yes, if you're wondering, Max (Deniz Akdeniz) is going to be okay with an "epic" scar. But, on the most important note, Cassie is finally getting help for her alcoholism - she has her AA chips and all.
Just when you think it's all over, Cassie finds 'Crime and Punishment' in her pocket and a note from Miranda that says, "Took the page and the numbers, but you should have the book, see you soon, - M." So we have no idea where Miranda is, but we really need a Season 2.
All eight episodes of 'The Flight Attendant' are available to stream on HBO Max.