Episode six of this season’s Pan Am aired this past Sunday. It featured Maggie (played by Christina Ricci) trying to hold onto her job at the airline during a flight to Rio de Janeiro and showed us why that job is so important to her. Meanwhile, Kate (played by Kelli Garner) stayed in New York to handle a difficult mission for the CIA.
This episode, quite frankly, reminded me of A Tale of Two Cities – and not just because of its frequent references to world literature. It really was the best of times and the worst.
The story arc that found Maggie in Rio was spectacular. It showed us much of Maggie’s back story without getting in the way of the main story. The interplay between Maggie and Laura (played by Margot Robbie) reminded us why these are two of the most critically acclaimed young actresses in the business today. They took each scene and fully made it their own.
I also really like the photography in this episode. Without giving away too much of the plot (for those who haven’t seen it yet, the full episode is available online) towards the end of this episode, Maggie is seen in a room filled with several other people. However, the scene was lit in such a way that each person was seen in their own pool of light with strong shadows in between them.
As the camera moved towards Maggie, it was clear without saying anything that this character was very much alone in the world – regardless of how many people were around her. That, in turn, not only sent a powerful message, it also foreshadowed the potential for some other plot twist in this story.
Of course, while the rest of the Pan Am crew was in Rio, Kate was back in New York with her Yugoslav diplomat of a boyfriend – and this was the portion of the story that I thought was seriously lacking.
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