The Pilot's Wife

In the past, it is awards night at the high school where Kathryn teaches history and music, as well as leading the school band. Kathryn is directing the school band in the auditorium as the night begins. Mattie receives an award, but Jack is not there to see it. When Kathryn tries to call him in London so that Mattie can tell him about her award, there is no answer at the crew apartment. She tries the number a few times that night, but gets no response. Finally, at nearly one o’clock in the morning, Jack calls. He tells her that he turned the ringer off the phone as he is coming down with the flu, and apologizes for being unavailable. Kathryn asks him if he still loves her, and he replies that of course he does. She can feel that something is wrong, but brushes it off.

With Robert helping, Kathryn finds cleaning the house easier than it might have been. When they are done, he brings in lobsters for dinner. Kathryn is suddenly struck by a memory of doing the same thing with Jack. When Robert apologizes, she brushes it off as something that happens frequently. They share a quiet, intimate moment. Kathryn briefly considers letting it develop into more, when Robert breaks the spell. He asks Kathryn about her music collection and tells her that he used to play piano.

Kathryn shifts the conversation back to the suicide theory. She brings up Jack’s actions that day and his making plans for the future to prove that he was not in that state of mind. Thinking about the dinner reservation Jack had made for two, she remembers the papers that she found in Jack’s jeans. One of them has a string of numbers that looks like a London telephone number. She calls but when a woman answers Kathryn is unable to speak, and the woman hangs up. Kathryn decides to approach the mystery from a different angle, and asks Robert for a list of everyone Jack ever flew with. While he does that, Kathryn spreads out the contents of Jack’s pockets again, reconsidering each item. The poem in particular draws her in. She pulls a poetry anthology from their bookshelf to see if she can find the passage.

After a few phone calls, Robert has the list of crew members she asked for. She realizes that, with his connections, he must know what is on the CVR tape, even if he hasn’t heard it himself. She asks and he agrees, after hesitating, to describe what he has heard about the tape. On it, one of the pilots goes into Jack’s bag looking for headphones, but finds something unexpected, although it is not clear what. When Jack returns to the cockpit from the bathroom, there is what sounds like a struggle. Jack swears and the tape ends. Kathryn quickly draws the conclusion that there was an armed bomb in his bag, but Robert points out that the recording could be interpreted differently. He tells her that smuggling small items through customs is common among airplane crews. Kathryn, however, follows the bomb theory, thinking that if Jack hadn’t known what it was, it would be obvious on the tape.

As she scans the list of crew member names, one stands out: Muire Boland. Kathryn connects the name with the list she had found in Jack’s desk that said Muire 3:30. She calls the London telephone number again and asks for Muire. The woman who answers knows Muire, but she is not there. Kathryn asks Robert to find an address for Muire Boland, and then calls Julia. The area is due for a huge snowstorm, and Julia tells Kathryn to stay at her house. When Kathryn protests, Julia tells her that Mattie and Kathryn both need space and time apart. Kathryn eventually agrees, and then takes a long, hot shower. When she goes back downstairs, Robert is playing the piano. He has found Muire Boland’s address for her, and left it on Jack’s desk. Kathryn picks up the poetry anthology again; she eventually finds the poem, but still does not understand the connection.

Kathryn goes to sleep and wakes, after 12 hours, in the middle of the night. She goes to Jack’s office and finds Muire’s contact information, with Robert’s note that the phone number was incorrect. Using London’s phone directory, she tries all of the phone numbers for M. Boland, and eventually finds one that, though the woman denies being Muire Boland, seems likely. When Robert wakes up in the morning, Kathryn tells him that she is going to London, and he decides to go with her.

In the past, Kathryn, Jack, and Mattie are at the annual school picnic. Mattie is 15 years old. Jack is willing to participate, but he is clearly not having a good time. When they have a moment alone, Kathryn raises the idea of her going with him for his two-week training session in London, which happens twice a year. He tells her she will be bored because he’ll be busy, but she pushes the idea. He evades her, instead inviting her to meet him in Spain after London. She agrees, but is not happy about it. Later, one of the other men teases Jack about flight attendants, a common, tired stereotype, and he is annoyed.

Kathryn and Robert are in the airport, waiting to board their flight to London. Kathryn only plans to be there for two days, but worries about the separation from Mattie. Julia, however, encourages her to go, saying the distance might be a good thing. As the plane takes off, Kathryn is overtaken by terror. She had never been afraid on a flight before because Jack had not been. When the plane is over the ocean, she imagines what it must have felt like to be on Jack’s plane as the bomb went off.

From the airport, Kathryn and Robert go straight to Muire Boland’s address, but Kathryn is not ready to confront her, so they go to their hotel. At lunch in the hotel’s pub, Robert has something that he wants to tell Kathryn, but she forestalls him, instead deciding to go meet Muire alone. She takes a taxi to the address. A woman answers the door, holding a baby that shocks Kathryn.