“Ted won’t tattle.” – Maggie
When an older Pan Am captain insinuates that Dean doesn’t deserve his prestigious position at such a young age, Dean counters that “It’s 1963. A new generation leads.” As a line, it’s a little cheesy, though not as cheesy as half the things that come out of Maggie’s mouth at least once an episode, but as a sentiment of the era, a tone for the show itself, it’s pretty spot-on.
It’s the Ted and Kate show this week. I was thrilled to learn more about the Clipper Majestic’s co-pilot, but I wouldn’t mind going at least one episode without a (not-so) thrilling installment of Kate’s Super Spy Adventures. Everyone else appears to take turns sharing the dominant storyline each week, except Kate.
This week, Kate is tasked with delivering a camera to drop-off in Jakarta, only to realize that Laura “borrowed” it when she and Maggie went out partying. Oops. She flips out when Laura and Maggie return for the evening, berates her sister for not being an adult. She eventually feels bad about it, but by that time, Laura has moved out of their brownstone and into Maggie’s bohemian flat.
Ted’s origin, meanwhile, makes for a far more engaging story. Ted earned his wings as a test pilot. It’s implied that he was in the running to be selected as one of the Mercury astronauts. Ted’s passion for spaceflight is made clear throughout the episode as he argues with Dean that “Sputnik was a good thing” because it motivated America to take space exploration seriously. It provided a much needed “kick in the pants” and America could have beaten the Soviet Union into space if we hadn’t “chickened out and gone with the monkey instead.”
Oh Ted, so insightful. You’re like a history textbook personified.
Of course, it’s 1963 and Ted is a pilot for Pan Am, watching the last manned Mercury mission (9) launch from a small, malfunctioning television in Southeast Asia. His expression is wistful. He’s spent the majority of this episode elbow-deep in the TV’s innards in an attempt to get it functional. Laura offers to hold the antenna for him. I guess she’s over that awkward come-on from last week.
After the cathartic viewing of the Mercury 9 launch, we learn that Ted was discharged from the Navy after crashing a test plane. He claims, at his hearing, that the plane malfunctioned, but the higher-ups (of whom his father is a card-carrying member) state that there was no evidence of malfunction in the debris. Later, Ted’s father admits that Ted was correct, the plane did malfunction. Ted pleads with him to set the record straight, that this is his last chance to get into the space program, but Ted’s father declines, states that he can’t admit that his plane was faulty. His government contracts are up for renewal.
Ouch.
Later, while attempting to land in Hong Kong during severe weather conditions, Ted, in direct contrast to the daring pilot we see in his flashbacks, implores Dean to abort the landing. Dean uses the “I’m-the-Captain-so-sit-down-and-shut-up” argument and lands anyway. Ted later confronts Dean and implies that maybe that more senior captain who was ragging him back in New York was right. Maybe Dean doesn’t deserve his wings after all. How did he jump seniority anyway?
Dean reveals that one day he was stuck in an elevator with the CEO of Pan Am. They started talking about the Pan Am promotion policy. Dean argued that it shouldn’t be based on age or years of service alone, but they should be looking at the pilots’ merits, real experience, the type of leaders they are. In the end though, he admits, “I was in the right place at the right time.”
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.