S02.E06: Return Trip

[ottoDbusdriver]

Episode Description:

Ben and Saanvi orchestrate a surprising family reunion for an emotionally closed-off Flight 828 passenger; Jared learns more about a growing cabal of anti-828 sentiment; Baggage from Zeke's past threatens to destroy his tenuous new life.

 

[shapeshifter]

The description sounds like Jared was play the long game and possibly Zeke might do a Disappearing Lourdes Act with his “wife,” but we all know how (un)reliable episode descriptions are. 🙄 

Anyway, there will be COW. 

Edited February 9, 2020 by shapeshifter
The ol’ i/u typo

[KaveDweller]

Grace is seriously the worst. She had about two minutes of air time, and managed to be completely awful in it.

I didn't agree with Sanvi and Ben telling Finn if he tried to push to see his kid he'd be blowing up a happy family. Because first, they are likely not that happy if the wife was so quick to have an affair. And second, the wife is the one that caused the blow up by cheating and then lying about it. Finn choosing to call her out wouldn't make it his fault.

But I do appreciate that this show had the fastest paternity cover up I've ever seen. Usually paternity lies lead to the kid having a deadly disease where only a donation from the biological father can save him. But I've never seen the whole plot wrap up in about a half hour. Glad the wife did the right thing in the end.

I kind of like Olive and TJ together.

[Bulldog]

I know some joked in last week's comments about the show veering into Lost territory, but if it turns out they have been dead all along, I'll have to throw in the towel.

[katalizt]

I don't know how Ben recognized that picture of Finn, it looked nothing like the kid in the Calling....

[ottoDbusdriver]

Where did Michaela get her clothing pointers from for her undercover op with Zeke ?  Did she watch the first 15 minutes of Pretty Woman beforehand ?

Seriously, Michaela is pretty famous because of 828 -- does she really think she can pull off undercover work ?

I figured Courtney trashed Michaela's apartment and injured herself intentionally.

So, the ash was from an imaginary plane burning ?  Something that never really happened, but somehow manifested in real life.  There's a higher probability that 828 flew through the ash cloud of a volcano.

The callings are just getting dumber and dumber -- we have regular callings and plane callings.

[shapeshifter]

This episode reminded me of early season 1 with Ben and Michaela having the most natural exchanges, and Ben and Saanvi looking like they are the end game pairing —and maybe they could be if Grace runs off with Danny to protect the baby. 
Regardless, that dialogue moment where Ben asks Michaela how she handles having her boyfriend’s ex crashing with them and she hilariously admits she hates it and Ben says the air bed leaks was the best of the entire series. See, writers? You do know how to write! 
 

I am a little ashamed of myself for apparently being invested in the Michaela-Zeke pairing enough to be bummed about the pink pills stashed in his razor handle and immediately hoping that his ex-wife planted them. But maybe he will be a hopeless junkie after all, and Jared will win back her heart by his undercover shenanigans.  
 

ETA:

Quote

I know some joked in last week's comments about the show veering into Lost territory, but if it turns out they have been dead all along, I'll have to throw in the towel.

@Bulldog, I’m guessing alternate universes bleeding into each other —which is still pretty Lostian. 

Edited February 11, 2020 by shapeshifter

[mertensia]

I'm glad Ben had an actual talk with Olive, and told her about some very real, valid concerns of his.

I think Church dude causes another crash trying to recreate the first one.

 

 

 

[ams1001]

9 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

But I do appreciate that this show had the fastest paternity cover up I've ever seen. Usually paternity lies lead to the kid having a deadly disease where only a donation from the biological father can save him. But I've never seen the whole plot wrap up in about a half hour. Glad the wife did the right thing in the end.

I was thinking: that had to be the fastest anyone ever went from "some stranger saw a vision of kid with yellow eyes" to "kid needs a transplant" to "bio-dad who just found out he exists is the perfect match!" How many days was this episode supposed to take place over, anyway?

Edited February 11, 2020 by ams1001

[basiltherat]

When you only have two or three years, you have to do shit Pretty Damn Fast!

Nice move there, Grace, wanting to cuckold your husband on national tv to "protect" the baby and move old Danny back into the picture.  Run to Saanvi, Ben!

[jabRI]

Pretty boring episode except for the last scene.  Micheala's undercover outfit was nice comic relief, though.  

[Orillia]

I hate to say it , but this show is getting more disappointing every week. I had such high hopes in the beginning , an excellent concept , and now it's just getting dumber and dumber.

Grace's idea of having her ex say he's the father .... I'm sure that would immediately stop all the haters. As if he'd do it anyways.

I'm not quite ready to give up on this show just yet , but I'm sensing a calling coming on telling me that it may be time to move on.

[Biggie B]

So last week's episode ends with the bombshell that Courtney and Zeke are married - and this week, *poof,* no, they're not, and never were. We didn't even get that straight from the horse's mouth (Zeke and/or Courtney) but rather, from an off-hand, breezy explanation from Michaela. What a blunder by the writers - they have Courtney show up and announce herself as Zeke's wife, which makes no sense, if they actually never did legally marry. Courtney might've spent a lot of time drugged up, but surely she must've realized at some sober moment that they weren't actually married. If so - why announce herself as Zeke's wife? Very poorly written - the writers switched horses in mid-stream and pivoted so quickly that it served only to  highlight the complete disconnect between the cliffhanger ending of last week's episode and Michaela's nonchalant explanation of the non-marriage this week. 

Speaking of Courtney - did she leave those pills behind? Do we care? I don't even buy Zeke as an addict in the flashbacks, so it's pretty hard to imagine he's secretly still using.

I get a little creeped out seeing Olive and TJ as a couple, especially when he mentioned his 25 year old friend, which I took to mean that that would be his age now if he hadn't been on that plane...or if not 25, then close to it! He's a good person, sure, but...if he and Olive pursue a sexual relationship, that will be coming close to or crossing a weird line.

No Cal - fine by me!

And Grace...really, do you for a split second really believe that you should claim Danny's the father??? REALLY? And you feel confident that he'll go along with this insane strategy? Wow - that was beyond bad.

[ams1001]

14 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

I hope Danny has move on and found his own happiness.

Maybe he'll hook up with Lourdes and they'll live happily ever after.

[Moose135]

17 hours ago, Bulldog said:

I know some joked in last week's comments about the show veering into Lost territory, but if it turns out they have been dead all along, I'll have to throw in the towel.

If we see Ben coming out of the shower...

[ottoDbusdriver]

10 hours ago, ams1001 said:

 How many days was this episode supposed to take place over, anyway?

Considering that the last couple of episodes were easy to count based on the number of breakfasts Jared had at the bar, a quick re-watch should help.

After the Zeke/Courtney flashback, Ben states that Courtney has been staying at Michaela's place "for a week", so that moves us to the 2nd week of March 2019, around Mar. 9-10, by the beginning of the episode.

Based on the fact that it is only shown to be nighttime once at the end of the episode, I'd say that this entire episode only encompasses 1 day -- which would put us around Mar. 10-11, 2019.


I find it odd that despite Ben threatening Adrian a week ago Olive and TJ haven't been back to the 828 church for an entire week (since Adrian rebuffs Olive from attending anymore).
 

[Mrs peel]

I watched Lost, so knew this couldn’t really have a satisfying ending, but was hopeful this would work “along the way.l

BUT -Michaela goes on an undercover mission, knowing she’s very well known?  And brings along a civilian?  When her boss is just about ready to fire her.  STOP.

and the “let’s say the baby isn’t my husband’s” is just stupid.  Never mind the 5 minutes between seeing a child, confirming he has a horrible disease, to previously unknown Dad is a perfect match for a transplant.

though that storyline makes me want to know more about how the survivors are getting along with their lives.

 

 

Edited February 14, 2020 by Mrs peel
undercover is what I meant to write!

[KaveDweller]

3 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

If Danny were to go along with it, what would be his motivation?  Would he possibly think he still might end up with dirt bag Grace?

The only motivation would be if he wanted to be with Grace. Unless Grace just thinks Danny might be up for some kind of polyamorous relationship/throuple thing.

Seriously, why would a man want to pretend to be the father to his ex's kid, when the ex will still be around raising the kid? Especially when it makes you a target for harassment from a hate group. It would be pretty cruel of Grace to let him think doing that gave them a chance at being together. Especially considering a few episodes ago she didn't even want to get a paternity test.

[tennisgurl]

See, theres the asshole Grace we all knew and hated last season! Grace has actually been kind of alright this season, but now we have season one selfish jackass Grace back again! I mean, that is a grad A ridiculous plan she came up with, and its even more ridiculous that she just expected Ben to be cool with it! I thought that her plan would be to talk to the press and try to humanize the passengers, as Ben was worried that they were being seen as inhuman, but that would clearly make too much sense. No, lets lie to everyone about the babies paternity, force their whole family to keep this massive ass secret, force Danny to pretend to be the kids bio father, while Ben...just isnt? How would that possibly work? How could that arrangement last? Its horrible, AND its dumb! She wants to lie to this kid her whole life because it slightly more convenient? What a horrible thing to ask both Ben and Danny to do, as well as the rest of their family! What, is she related to Delilah over on A Million Little Things? Thank God Ben reacted with a very understandable "fuck no" response. Just saying Ben, Saanvi  is right there...

Nice to get a domestic Ben and Michaela scene, when they arent expositioning all over the place, they have a very natural sibling like chemistry, especially when Ben was teasing her lightly about the whole weird Zeke situation. Speaking of, maybe going undercover with a person who is not only well know, but is well know as a cop, might not be the smartest strategy ever?

On 2/10/2020 at 10:10 PM, KaveDweller said:

I didn't agree with Sanvi and Ben telling Finn if he tried to push to see his kid he'd be blowing up a happy family. Because first, they are likely not that happy if the wife was so quick to have an affair.

Yeah that was my thought too. They cant be that perfect of a family if the wife was cheating with random strangers and has been lying to her husband about her sons paternity for years. Who knows if Finn was even the only man she cheated on him with? Its not a great look for her, but at least she came around to the organ donation quickly enough. I was expecting a lot of drama and hang wringing about whether she should accept Finns donation and if she would tell her husband the truth, but she put saving her son first, which was a point in her favor.  

The charred plane was creepy, but I still have no idea where this is going, of how the Callings actually tie into anything other than being vague than your average fortune cookie. 

I am torn on Olive and TJ as a couple. They're cute together and I like TJ a lot, but the age thing really is kind of complicated. So how old are they? TJ is, like, 19? 20? Olive is around 17? Its hard to really figure it out due to plane time and everything, but...

Edited February 12, 2020 by tennisgurl

[ams1001]

8 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

I am torn on Olive and TJ as a couple. They're cute together and I like TJ a lot, but the age thing really is kind of complicated. So how old are they? TJ is, like, 19? 20? Olive is around 17? Its hard to really figure it out due to plane time and everything, but...

I think she's 16? (But who knows at this point. I can't keep track.) Even without the timey-wimeyness of his being five years younger than he should be, at 16, 4-5 years older is kind of a big gap.

[alvajon]

22 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

The only motivation would be if he wanted to be with Grace. Unless Grace just thinks Danny might be up for some kind of polyamorous relationship/throuple thing.

Seriously, why would a man want to pretend to be the father to his ex's kid, when the ex will still be around raising the kid? Especially when it makes you a target for harassment from a hate group. It would be pretty cruel of Grace to let him think doing that gave them a chance at being together. Especially considering a few episodes ago she didn't even want to get a paternity test.

Why don’t they just do a paternity test--then deal with however comes. Period.

[LaylaGirl]

18 hours ago, ams1001 said:

I think she's 16? (But who knows at this point. I can't keep track.) Even without the timey-wimeyness of his being five years younger than he should be, at 16, 4-5 years older is kind of a big gap.

I think she was 10 and a half when the plane crashed - which would make her 16ish now. If TJ was in college at the time of the crash he could have been only 18 - maybe 19 now? It still seems like too big a gap...

 

[Artsda]

Jared's turn quickly made him more interesting to me than Michela/Zeke.

[alvajon]

4 hours ago, Artsda said:

Jared's turn quickly made him more interesting to me than Michela/Zeke.

So really, what’s the big deal with Jared’s “new do”--maybe he just wanted a new trendy look.  I really don’t get what he’s up to hanging around the bar either.  He’s the least interesting character in the show, except it is curious that he never mentions Lourdes or attempts to see her. 

 

[Jacks-Son]

On 2/11/2020 at 7:23 AM, basiltherat said:

When you only have two or three years, you have to do shit Pretty Damn Fast!

Nice move there, Grace, wanting to cuckold your husband on national tv to "protect" the baby and move old Danny back into the picture.  Run to Saanvi, Ben!

Yeah, you have to work pretty fast to get all your shit together, but that should NOT include a possible pinning the baby as Danny's so as to avoid any dangers. Who even thinks like that????

 

On 2/12/2020 at 7:37 PM, alvajon said:

Why don’t they just do a paternity test--then deal with however comes. Period.

Have they even taken a paternity test or are they still going by the fact that Grace had a calling? First things, first, people.

 

On 2/10/2020 at 8:39 PM, katalizt said:

I don't know how Ben recognized that picture of Finn, it looked nothing like the kid in the Calling...

Ben has developed a very discerning eye for details, after all, he was able to spot Saanvi at the back of the plane by recognizing her butt!  He's good.  /s

Edited February 16, 2020 by Jacks-Son

[Camera One]

I forgot to log my thoughts on this one.  I guess I didn't have much to say.

I thought the episode was engaging enough.  I liked the case of the week with the guy who had a one-night stand.  Nicest guy ever who donates parts of his liver to his kid, but sorry, the Callings sort of care about you but sort of hate you, so you're going to die.

Why were Michaela, Ben, Saanvi and the Preacher guy so special to get the falling ash Callings, but TJ and everyone else on the plane were excluded?

Did the Callings get bored of simulating earthquakes so now wants to have fun with falling not-snow?

The stuff with Zeke's non-wife was dumb but fairly entertaining especially with Michaela showing us how to carry out a disastrous sting operation.

I've been liking Grace lately but that whole "Let's pretend Danny is the dad because we don't want the world to know the real daddy is one of those weirdos on Flight 828!" was totally out of the blue.  It's not like those wacko conspiracy theorists wouldn't immediately assume it's a lie anyway.

I like TJ but I wish he was actually high-school age.  Maybe he was on accelerated track and was taking university courses or something.  The age difference is a little icky.

Jared's haircut is so transformative.  Just like that, he looks like a scum lowlife targeting innocent people for no reason.  Oh wait, he already was one of those.

Edited February 16, 2020 by Camera One

[Jacks-Son]

1 hour ago, Camera One said:

Jared's haircut is so transformative.  Just like that, he looks like a scum lowlife targeting innocent people for no reason.  Oh wait, he already was one of those.

I must say, Jared was amazingly convincing as a lowlife and made me wonder who is the real Jared.  I always thought he was an inconsiderate prick.  Now, he's doing a damn good job of convincing me he is an inconsiderate prick AND a POS.

[Jacks-Son]

On 2/11/2020 at 9:14 PM, tennisgurl said:

See, theres the asshole Grace we all knew and hated last season! Grace has actually been kind of alright this season, but now we have season one selfish jackass Grace back again! I mean, that is a grad A ridiculous plan she came up with, and its even more ridiculous that she just expected Ben to be cool with it! I thought that her plan would be to talk to the press and try to humanize the passengers, as Ben was worried that they were being seen as inhuman, but that would clearly make too much sense. No, lets lie to everyone about the babies paternity, force their whole family to keep this massive ass secret, force Danny to pretend to be the kids bio father, while Ben...just isnt? How would that possibly work? How could that arrangement last? Its horrible, AND its dumb! She wants to lie to this kid her whole life because it slightly more convenient? What a horrible thing to ask both Ben and Danny to do, as well as the rest of their family! What, is she related to Delilah over on A Million Little Things? Thank God Ben reacted with a very understandable "fuck no" response. Just saying Ben, Saanvi  is right there...

Ding, Ding, Damn Ding!!!!  Total Summation of a Stupid Weird Ass Fucking Solution.  AND you capped it off with my favorite ship.  👏

[shapeshifter]

On 2/15/2020 at 12:37 AM, alvajon said:

On 2/14/2020 at 8:32 PM, Artsda said:

Jared's turn quickly made him more interesting to me than Michela/Zeke.

So really, what’s the big deal with Jared’s “new do”--maybe he just wanted a new trendy look.  I really don’t get what he’s up to hanging around the bar either.  He’s the least interesting character in the show, except it is curious that he never mentions Lourdes or attempts to see her. 

I thought we agreed Jared is playing the long con on behalf of the 828ers, no? If so, his haircut is transformative in that it signifies he’s a good guy in disguise. 

[Jacks-Son]

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I thought we agreed Jared is playing the long con on behalf of the 828ers, no? If so, his haircut is transformative in that it signifies he’s a good guy in disguise. 

We did?   You still think he's playing the Long Con?  If he is, he's a damn good con artist!  But we knew that didn't we? When he convinced Lourdes that he loved HER and not Michaela. I know it would be a total shocker (to me at least) to discover Jared was on a mission to bring the X-ers down, but I don't think he's THAT deep.  For a guy who doesn't seem to think about repercussions and just acts like a bull in a china shop, I can see him pulling a Travis Bickle ("Taxi Driver") and going rogue.  If, in fact, it's just like he says, Michaela Stone has ruined his life, then what the fuck does he have left to live for?

[Paloma]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the NA meeting where Courtney is talking about Zeke and their relationship while he is sitting right there. Not that I'm an expert on these types of self-help groups, but I would think that it is not allowed (or at least frowned upon) to attend meetings with your significant other (past or present) and talk about what the other person did or didn't do related to the addiction. I know she was not using his name, but still...it took me out of the (melo)drama of the scene.