BLOGS
After flying all over the globe the past few weeks, Pan Am offered up its version of a bottle episode last night, keeping the action largely limited to the flying tin can that is the Clipper Majestic. "Unscheduled Departure" opened with the crew bound for Caracas, Venezuela when they're forced to make an unexpected pit stop in Port-au-Prince, Haiti when a passenger (Harris "Quentin Travers" Yulin) experiences a heart attack. Once on the ground after a hairy landing, they discover that the airport is abandoned and the only people around are a pair of gun-wielding men. While the menfolk dither, Collette takes charge, because 1.) She's a native French speaker; 2.) She's the only one with a backbone; 3.) She's just that awesome.
So Colette and Ted head off to find a doctor at a local village and return with both medicine -- albeit too late for poor Yulin, whose heart gives out - -and a young woman whose family was killed in the violence currently engulfing the island. Meanwhile, Dean tries to figure out how he's going to get the plane back in the air considering that the runway is torn up and they're carrying too much weight and Maggie repeatedly tells off wealthy party boy Miguel, who appointed himself Asshole-in-Chief for the entire plane. Because this isn't Lost, everyone eventually escapes the island in one piece and Colette celebrates by locking lips with Dean while all of us at home roll our eyes and say "Finally!" And on that note, Pan Am parks itself in the hiatus waiting lounge for a spell. See you back here in a couple of weeks for more lessons in '60s history courtesy of the good men and women aboard the Clipper Majestic.
In the '60s... Ginny Was the Name of a Hurricane, Not a Harry Potter Character
Bad weather has always been one of the perils of air travel and Dean and his co-pilots had to avoid a doozy of a storm as they navigated the Clipper Majestic towards Caracas. As Ted took great glee in pointing out to Dean, the hurricane-class squall that lay between them and their destination was named Ginny... as in the hot-to-trot mistress of the Pan Am executive that the blonde-haired flyboy had a fling with a few episodes ago. In the real world, Hurricane Ginny first popped up on the radar on October 16, 1963 around the Bahamas and gradually moved towards North Carolina before drifting back down within 50 miles of the Florida coastline and then up the East Coast again towards New England and on into Canada, where it eventually dissipated on October 30. Although it did result in some damage -- particularly in the Northeast -- overall Ginny was a relatively minor hurricane. Two years later, the Category 4-level Betsy blew through Florida and Louisiana and caused over a billion dollars' worth of damage. So if things with Colette don't work out, Dean might want to avoid dating any Betsy's until after 1965, lest Ted continue to taunt him.
In the '60s... Flight Attendants Delivered Seat-side Service
These days, you're lucky if a flight attendant has the time and/or energy to get you a pillow or an extra soda. But back in Pan Am's heyday, the stewardesses were apparently able and willing to pull up a chair and chat for a while. When widower and novice flyer Henry Belson (Yulin) expresses some reservations about the turbulence, Kate plops down beside him and strikes up a conversation to keep his fears at bay. She's also the one that sticks close to him while he's experiencing his heart episode and lays his body to rest on the Port-au-Prince tarmac with a few kind words. Now that's personalized service! (Incidentally, were we the only ones that got an Up vibe off of Henry? With his sob story about a dead wife, mason jar-funded dream trip to a South American destination and brown suit jacket, he was the spitting live-action image of Carl Fredericksen. All he needed was an annoying boy scout sidekick and a squirrel-crazy talking dog to complete the illusion.)
In the '60s... Haiti was Hostile Territory
As Ted helpfully pointed out, had the Clipper Majestic attempted to land in Port-au-Prince a few months earlier, they would likely have received a far more hospitable welcome from the U.S. troops that were stationed there. But Haiti's leader, François "Papa Doc" Duvalier -- who was elected in 1957 following a long period of military rule -- kicked the American soldiers out in July of 1963 in the interest of solidifying his hold over the Haitian military. An already explosive situation worsened the following year, when Duvalier declared himself President-for-Life and unleashed his own squad of enforcers called the "Tonton Macoutes" to intimidate and kill anyone who opposed him. Papa Doc stayed in power until his death in 1971, whereupon his son Jean-Claude "Bébé Doc" Duvalier took over and continued his father's dictatorial ways until a 1986 uprising forced him to seek refuge in France. In other words, it's a good thing that Colette and Ted got that young Haitian woman out when they did.
In the '60s... Everyone Got to Have an "I Am Spartacus" Moment
Stanley Kubrick's sword-and-sandals epic Spartacus arrived in theaters in 1960 and its famous finale, in which the members of the rebel slave's army all insist that they are the Spartacus the Romans are looking for, immediately entered the pop culture consciousness. Maggie, Kate and Laura must have had the film in the back of their minds when each stood up to say that she -- and not Colette -- was responsible for bringing the refugee onboard. "I think I get the picture," their interrogator replied, managing not to add, "Kirk Douglas was awesome in Spartacus, right?"
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