Megan Briscoe has finally resurfaced on “The Flight Attendant,” thanks to some sleuthing from Cassie, and apparently, she has a new friend — or, girlfriend? Or maybe a captor? If you weren’t totally sure, that’s exactly what series star Rosie Perez wanted.
In the second two episodes of the series, now streaming on HBO Max, Cassie (Kaley Cuoco) has tracked her friend down in Iceland, thanks to some clever emoji reading. Megan’s been on the run from the CIA for a year, after selling state secrets to the North Koreans. But apparently, she hasn’t been on her own.
When viewers first see Megan again — long before Cassie finds her — she’s grinding up the poisonous mushrooms she picked, in an apartment with a pretty nice view. As she’s working, a woman played by Margaret Cho walks in and pushes Megan to take a break and dance with her. Megan is a bit reluctant but finally caves with a smile, and it’s a bit hard to figure out what exactly their dynamic is. And according to Perez, that was something she pushed for.
“That was weird. Because initially, the way they initially wrote it was you didn’t know if she was being held hostage or what. And I told them, I said, ‘No. No, she wouldn’t be in that situation,’” Perez explained to TheWrap. “The way Megan is, she had the blinders on. She was focused into getting back to her family, making things right. I said I think that it should be a weirder relationship where you can’t really put your finger on it, instead of more of a hostage situation. And [Executive Producer] Steve Yockey was like, ‘OK, let me see what you got.’ And the chemistry between Margaret and I was very, very easy.”
In Episode 4, we learn that the mysterious woman is named Charlie, and she and Megan have devised a plan together to kill the North Korean agent that’s also been tracking Megan. When she introduces herself to Cassie in the bar where she and Megan have been working, Charlie grabs Megan’s hand — and Cassie doesn’t miss it.
That particular moment was improvised by Cuoco, and one that Perez truly enjoyed, because she thought she was “playing it subtle” with Cho.
“It was Kaley, as Cassie, she sees us hold hands. And we weren’t going to do that, me and Margaret just held hands,” Perez recalled. “And Kaley as Cassie went (makes questioning gesture). So that was fantastic for me, you know what I mean? But Megan was really just concentrating on getting back to Bill and trying to make it right.”
Unfortunately, Megan had to leave her new friend behind in the end, seemingly marking the end of Margaret Cho’s brief run on “The Flight Attendant.” But Perez is just glad it happened at all.
“Being with Margaret Cho man, that was sweet, because I’ve known her since the 80s,” she said. “You know, so it was really great. It was really great. And she cracks me up in the sauna! Oh my god!”
The first four episodes of “The Flight Attendant” are now streaming on HBO Max.