TV Review: Pan Am 1.11, 'Diplomatic Relations'
This was an overall decent episode, dragged down only slightly by the distraction of the American-based subplots.
rating: 3.5
There are, on the whole, far worse ways to open an episode of Pan Am than with a shot of Captain Dean (Mike Vogel), hanging around shirtless. However there are perhaps several that would be far less distracting. The story starts up and begins moving pretty fast. Turns out Dean and Bridgett (Annabelle Wallis), have sort of picked up where they left off. Both are somewhat confused about their feelings, and Dean is constantly turning over in his mind the whole spy thing, trying to get that sorted out. As he does this, a call comes in. It turns out Juan Trippe, the head of Pan Am (played memorably by Alec Baldwin in The Aviator), wants Dean to come back to New York. Why? So he can fly a special flight to Moscow. Once in New York, we see the crew coming together. Ted (Michael Mosley), has plans to ask his girlfriend to marry him. Kate (Kelli Garner), is being sent on a mission while in Moscow. Laura (Margot Robbie), is there, but doesnt do much. Bridgett is also there, and is apparently already back in the air and ready to fly. Collette (Karine Vanasse) and Dean have a bit of a nothing happened conversation, and then we meet the skygod; a high level, Russian-speaking captain who will be joining them for their journey. Once in Moscow, Kate does her best to escape the KGB minder, but stumbles onto a surprising secret involving the skygod. On her second attempt, shes able to find the person shes looking for, but in the process, Laura and Bridgett get arrested by the KGB. Meantime, back in the States, Maggie (Christina Ricci), is continuing her affair with the war-mongering Congressman, whos getting ever more annoyed about the article she wrote that was published in The Village Voice. Never the less, he invites here to a fundraiser, where they run into Ted and his girlfriend. Maggies priority is to behave herself. Teds priority is to get some time alone with his girlfriend to propose. These stories intersect in an interesting way. As you can tell, there was a fair amount going on in this episode. The core story of everyone in Russia and dealing with things there was very interesting. I also really appreciated that there werent any flashbacks. There havent been any in a few episodes, so perhaps theyve finally abandoned them. I could have done without the Bridgette/Collette/Dean love triangle business. I dont really get any sense of chemistry between Dean and Bridgett, and I do with him and Collette, so the idea of him with Bridgett doesnt really work with me. Beyond her good looks I dont quite see what he sees in her. Then again, shes only really been on the show for a couple episodes, so perhaps this will change as time goes on. I also really think that the Maggie and Ted stories should have either been spun off into a different episode or we should have focused on just one of them. Showing both, and then having them intersect, didnt really work for me. This was an overall decent episode, dragged down only slightly by the distraction of the American-based subplots. Had those not been present, Id give this a higher score. As it stands, well, it wasnt bad, and thats a nice thing to be able to say about this series. For a change.