Pan Am Episode 3: Drama in Berlin, but 'Who Can Resist Pan Am?'

October 10, 2011 at 11:28 AM | by JetSetCD | Comments (2)

Laura, Village Voice man and Maggie walk through ~~the Village~~ Berlin

It's already the third episode of ABC's Pan Am and despite all the glamor shots of Boeing 707s, retro flight attendants and vintage airplane interiors, we're still not sold on the series. This episode inched us closer however, as we finally saw some on-the-ground drama, serious political intrigue and a stab at historical relevance.

THe episode, fittingly named "Ich Bin Ein Berliner," follows the usual flight crew of Maggie, Laura, Kate, Colette, Dean and Ted as they zip off from New York-Idlewild for Berlin, on a flight filled with journalists heading over to catch President John F. Kennedy's famous speech. While in Berlin, everyone pursues their own agenda in a flashback: Maggie is determined to meet JFK, Kate is determined to complete another CIA assignment, Laura is set on having a good time despite co-pilot Ted's advances, Dean is representing Pan Am at JFK's Berlin after-party while Colette has come to Germany "to forgive," as it's later revealed that her family was killed during the Nazi occupation of France when she was three years old. Whew.

Speaking of Colette, we're getting annoyed with her and all her pouting. She's simply got too many problems. Each episode has seen her drawing the shortest straw. First she was found out as an adulteress, then she had emotional issues working to seduce pilot Dean and now she's breaking down over a past we doubt she could remember as vividly as they depict, considering she was only 3. On the other hand, it's nice to see the series attempt to inject controversy as they clash a Nazi survivor with a potential Nazi supporter.

That supporter is Anke, a very young and very blonde woman who bungles her secret mission to deliver a book to CIA operative-slash-flight attendant Kate. Anke is being sought by the East German police, Kate wants her to defect to the US, the CIA doesn't give a crap about Anke and Kate ends up dressing her up as a Pan Am stewardess to gain entrance to the US Mission to go through with the defection, at which point it comes out that Anke's family were breadbakers for the Luftwaffe command during World War II, which gets Colette all frazzled just before the big party for JFK.

How do they get in to a presidential party without an invite? It's simple, explains Kate: "[Kennedy] likes stewardesses. Let's show him stewardesses. We're Pan Am. Who can resist Pan Am?" Maggie also namedrops Pan Am head Juan Trippe at the door, which was an unexpected factual reference that took us by surprise.

Colette continues to have serious issues in her head, has one flute of champagne, says "one clever speech by your President and instantly the entire country is absolved" to a pair of German and American diplomats, and ends up singing "Deutschland �ber alles" to a room steeped in awkward silence.

The flashback ends, everyone dashes for the night flight back to New York and Maggie gets stranded on the tarmac of her own accord after essentially bribing President Kennedy with Cuban cigars to wave at her from the door of Air Force One. Everyone is melancholy but out of trouble, and the previews for next week's episode promise an upbeat tropical rendezvous to recover from all this, but we're not so sure we want to.

This is Colette and Kate. They crossed their arms a lot this episode

[Photos: ABC]

Comments (2)

Return to » Pan Am Episode 3: Drama in Berlin, but 'Who Can Resist Pan Am?'

The Nazi's occupied France from 1940-1944. If Collette was three when the occupation began she would have been seven by the time France was liberated. Therefore she definitely would have been old enough to have more vivid memories of the events.

She was uber annoying in this episode. I actually thought Colettes storyline was moslt interesting as I had forgotten that the children of the occupation were adults in the swinging 60s. But overall, this series still needs to prove itself. I thought it started off so good and now it's faltering a little. Maybe the pilot drama this week will liven it up!

Jaunted

Select a Destination:

Pan Am / Travel TV Shows / Flight Attendants / Pilots / Retro Travel / Pan Am TV Show / → All Tags