Before the Fall

Twenty-five-year-old Emma Lightener has been a flight attendant for four years, and she excels at her job even as she learns to set boundaries with her rich passengers. Her father Michael had been a jet pilot and he remains Emma’s ideal of masculinity. If there’s a downside to her life, it’s the time she spends on the ground—the “turnaround time,” when she lives with two roommates in a small apartment in the Village and worries that she is nothing more than a bit player in other people’s lives. Two days before her Martha’s Vineyard flight, Emma is in London, nearing the end of an exhausting series of flights. She showers in the company townhouse and does a line of cocaine with Chelsea, the other flight attendant. As she emerges from the bathroom, she finds Charlie Busch in the townhouse. Emma and Charlie had broken up six months earlier, after he became verbally and physically abusive toward her. After the breakup, he continued to gossip about her and abuse her on social media, but Emma hadn’t wanted to file a complaint because she knew that she would be risking her career. For the moment, she changes into a less flattering outfit and resolves to stay close to her friends—and away from Charlie—on this night out.

Doug waits outside ALC’s headquarters before his scheduled appearance on Bill Cunningham’s show. In the makeup chair, he goes over the events of the last several days—fighting with Eleanor about the money and being thrown out of his house. Despite his avowed commitment to living a simple, artisanal life, the idea of having $130 million in cash and $40 million in real estate at his disposal has gone to his head. He starts sweating as he thinks about Scott being in his home while he—Doug—is away. On the air, Doug struggles to speak, annoying Cunningham, who wants to make sure that Doug communicates the right narrative. Cunningham changes the track of the interview to Doug’s personal life, getting him to admit that he spent the last night in his truck while Scott was in Eleanor’s house. During the interview, Cunningham receives texts from his associate, Namor, who has bugged Eleanor’s phone. He alleges Scott has been intimate with Layla. He springs this information on Doug on the air. Doug is stunned.

By this point in the investigation, Gus and his team have gathered nearly all the available data from the wreckage. Ballistics analysis has confirmed that the bullets in the cockpit door are from Gil Baruch’s sidearm, leading O’Brien to speculate that the security officer had a part in taking down the plane and somehow escaped the crash, since his body has not been recovered. Toxicology reports on Charlie Busch revealed alcohol and cocaine in his blood, and the FBI is looking into his past. Gus goes over the black box data, which shows a typical takeoff and ascent, and a routine switch to autopilot. However, 15 minutes into the 18-minute flight, control is switched from pilot to co-pilot, autopilot is switched off entirely, and the plane begins a steep descent ending in the crash. Gus realizes he now has definitive evidence that the crash was not an accident, even though that fact raises more questions than answers. Still, having reached the limits of the insight that engineering can provide, Gus knows he needs to talk to the press.

Scott, JJ, and Eleanor are together when a friend calls to tell them Doug is on television. Eleanor is so stunned by the interview and its implications that she briefly reminds Scott of his sister’s body in her coffin. While Eleanor watches the segment, Scott takes JJ into the kitchen so he won’t overhear. He gives the boy the fountain pen he always uses to sign his paintings. Angered by the interview with Doug, Scott calls ALC and agrees to appear on Cunningham’s show.

Painting #5 contains a single sentence, white letters on a black canvas: “We are sorry for your loss” (352).

The chapter alternates between Gus’s and Scott’s perspectives. One of Gus’s associates calls to let him know about the media developments, including the fact that Scott is on his way to the ALC studios. Gus wishes there were a way to contact Scott to dissuade him from this move. Scott had left for Manhattan despite Eleanor’s warnings. He vowed to come back to “teach the boy to swim” (355). Later, sitting in the studio, Cunningham tries to trap Scott into incriminating himself, but Scott is elusive. When Cunningham asks about Maggie, Scott simply says they were friends, and that she seemed “happy.”

Meanwhile, Gus is headed to the airport when his team calls with the news that the flight recorder has been fixed. They play the recording over the phone so that Gus can hear. The early minutes are routine: The pilot and co-pilot go over the checklist and take off. Emma comes in to ask Melody if he needs anything, and Gus notices a portentous silence after Busch asks what about him.

Back in the studio, Scott recounts his memory of the flight—almost missing the plane, chatting with Sarah Kipling, the baseball game, and Rachel with headphones on. In his car, Gus hears the recording of Melody and Busch discussing a maintenance issue when Melody’s nose begins to bleed. Busch takes control while Melody goes to the cabin to clean up.

Scott continues to talk about the crash, noting that there is much that he doesn’t remember. Gus turns up the volume on his phone, and barely audible over the machine “hiss” of the plane, he hears a single word: “Bitch.”

Cunningham tries to get Scott to talk about his paintings and admits to seducing Layla and Eleanor. He asks if Layla “took off her clothes and got in bed with you” (365). Scott refuses to answer and tells Cunningham it’s none of his business. Then Cunningham plays the tape of a phone conversation.

Gus hears Busch muttering “Bitch” over and over on the recording just before he switches off the autopilot.

As a boy, Charlie Busch found himself near to greatness without ever achieving it himself. He did well at sports but carried the baggage of being “somebody’s nephew”—specifically, the nephew of US Senator Logan Birch, who loomed large in Charlie’s life after his father died in an accident when Charlie was six. Being Birch’s nephew helped Charlie advance in high school sports, supposedly a meritocracy. The other boys, superior athletes, were jealous of his privilege, and assaulted him one day, telling him to “watch your shit” (369). He enlisted in the National Guard and became a decent pilot. Between his uncle’s connections and his own personal charm, he landed a job with GullWing Airlines. From the start, Charlie saw the job as a path to sexual conquest, but the flight attendants saw right through him, except Emma Lightner. Despite his bravado, he feels insecure, like a fraud, and that insecurity “made him bitter. It made him mean” (371).

Six months after their breakup, Charlie is desperate to reconnect with Emma. He had tried to do so the night before, in London, but she left the club early and disappeared from the company townhouse before he could speak with her. Charlie traded flights with a fellow pilot so he could be on the Martha’s Vineyard flight with her. As he lands in New York on the day of the flight, he goes over his version of their relationship, regretting the actions that led her to leave him. Her rejection had left him with the urge “to push the yoke nose-down, to roll the plane into oblivion” (373)—now he sees her as the only person who can save him.

At Teterboro airport, he enters the hangar and sees Emma in the office, but she avoids him. After checking in, he enters the plane. Emma is there. He tries to embrace her, but she slaps him. Stunned, he retreats to the cockpit where he and Melody go over the pre-flight checklist. Emma storms into the cabin and tells Melody to “Keep him away from me” (380).

The plane takes off from Teterboro, heading for Martha’s Vineyard to pick up its passengers. Shortly before landing, Melody leaves the cockpit. Charlie’s sure he’s gone to talk to Emma. He decides to do nothing for the time being. After landing, he tries to talk to Emma, but Melody instructs him to run a “full diagnostic” before the next leg of the flight. 30 minutes later, Melody returns and finds Charlie asleep; he claims he’s run the diagnostic. He uses the restroom just as the Batemans are boarding. He convinces himself that, even during their relationship, Emma’s affection was a pose, that she was using him the whole time.

Gus continues listening to the flight recorder. He hears the sound of engines revving, the plane about to go into its death spiral. He hears Melody’s voice, pleading with Busch to open the cockpit door, the sound of gunshots. Then, the crash—four seconds of chaos and destruction.

Back in the TV studio, Cunningham plays the tape of Scott’s phone conversations with Layla and Gus. Scott is outraged both by the illegal phone tap and the line of questions. People have died, and Cunningham is probing Scott about his sex life. Scott chastises Cunningham, who stands, ready to fight. The producer and a cameraman restrain him. Scott walks off set. He resolves to reset his life, re-engage with the art world, teach JJ to swim, and begin to act like the survivor he is.