Jaunted

At least two things haven't changed: Maggie's (Christina Ricci) desire to flirt with the passengers and First Officer Ted's love of making jokes at the expense of Captain Dean. It just so happens there's a hurricane hitting Florida, a hurricane they'll be flying through, and her name happens to be Ginny (which is also the name of the kept woman having an affair with Dean in previous episodes).

In-flight medical emergency! From the moment the show introduces the elderly Mr. Henry Belson as a passenger who's waited forty years and saved "lots of mason jars filled with spare change" to take this flight, we know this won't end well at all. Turbulence causes Henry to ask of Kate, "is this normal—feeling like you're in a washing machine?" It isn't long after Kate calms his nerves that he goes and has a heart attack, forcing the plane to alter course and seek medical attention for him.

Cue drama. The nearest airports for a landing are all in the midst of Hurricane Ginny...so Port-Au-Prince, Haiti it is. Dean makes the decision to land even though the runway is "still ripped up from the last hurricane," the control tower only speaks French and the airport is closed. With some French skills over the radio from flight attendant Colette (against navigator Charles' protests that a stewardess shouldn't be communicating with a tower over the radio) and her pleas for "lumière, lumière maintenant," they manage to set the plane down hard on the runway.

The reception at Port-Au-Prince isn't anything approaching warm, as a jeep of armed men approach (how did the boarding stairs get out to the plane?). With a useless flight manual that only gives the girls directions to keep the heart attack passenger comfortable, they must seek a doctor in the humid Haitian night. Colette and Ted bribe the militants for the use of their jeep and they set out, coming across two dead villagers and one alive scared lady in the middle of the jungle. She promises to show them the way to the doctor.

Kate comforts Henry, the heart attack victim

Irony! The focus of much of the episode is the crew's search for a doc to come to the aide of the American passenger having a heart attack, but Haiti at the time is very much under the fist of the authoritarian ruler nicknamed "Papa Doc." Relations between the US and Haiti are strained to say the least, Papa Doc is in favor of shooting first and asking questions later, and now there's a whole US plane just sitting on the tarmac at the country's main airport. Instead of commenting much on all this, a nervous Ted talks about flamingos.

Reaching the doctor, Ted and Colette find that he will not help them and for good reason. He challenges: "what makes your passenger more important than these people?" And, "If someone sees my helping Americans, I will be killed along with my family." The most he can do is supply them with some nitroglycerin pills. Back to the plane!

Meanwhile, back at John Travolta's plane their Pan Am Boeing 707, Dean has determined that the runway is too short for them to take off again, 500' too short. Alas, Dean offers that the "manuals are written by engineers, not pilots," and is sure that he can get the plane back up in the sky so long as they drop some weight.

The drama increases! Passengers get restless over the short runway issue combined with Dean's youthful appearance, the armed Haitians board the plane looking for a hot meal, Kate comforts Henry-the-heart-attack-guy and, after telling him that she's visited "35 countries and counting" and that her favorite is Croatia, he dies.

Arriving a little too late to help, Colette and Ted (and the tagalong Haitian lady) turn their focus from the dead man to getting the plane back up the air. Dean burns off fuel in the engines as passengers are forced to dump their luggage. Mutinous attitudes reappear as passengers discover that while their luggage must be left, the Haitian stowaway is welcomed. To staunch their protests and lighten the airplane's load further, Kate suggest leaving the dead body of Henry behind.

Colette and Laura seat the Haitian stowaway

Just as Kate finishes covering Henry's body with a Pan Am blanket on the tarmac, larger and more dangerous-looking trucks are pulling up on the tarmac. The plane must take off now or face a hostage situation. Tensions in the cockpit flare as Dean pushes the airplane to clear the runway...and they do. Next stop: Miami. They divert there instead of continue on to Caracas.

The episode closes as Kate calls in a CIA favor to get the Haitian lady past immigration, Dean is chewed out over the situation but isn't fired since "Mr. Trippe holds [him' in such regard," and no stewardesses are punished since they all collectively take responsibility. Colette and Dean kiss right then and there in the Pan Am offices—oooo!

In three weeks, on the next episode: The preview gave very little to go on, but Kate will be saddled with a very trying CIA assignment that makes her want out altogether.

[Photos: ABC]