'The Flight Attendant' Showrunners Reveal Why They Created Multiple Kaley Cuocos in Season 2 (Exclusive)

There's more going on in Cassie's mind palace in The Flight Attendant Season 2 than ever before. As a now-sober Cassie, played by Kaley Cuoco, embarks on work as an asset for the CIA, she's confronted internally by different versions of herself, adding even more chaos to the tone of the season. Ahead of Season 2's premiere Thursday, showrunners Steve Yockey and Natalie Chaidez opened up to PopCulture.com about the decision to duplicate Cassie inside her own mind. 

Coming in as co-showrunner for Season 2 of The Flight Attendant, Chaidez immediately had in her mind the idea of a split in Cassie's personas. "For me, it came from an idea of thinking about exactly where Kaley and Cassie landed at the end of Season 1, which was, 'I've admitted there's this other me, this dark me,'" she told PopCulture. "So for me, coming into Season 2, I was like, 'Okay, then there's two of us. What do I do with that other person? What do I do with that double?' And then Steve jumped on with that idea and the multiple Cassies in the mind palace was born, and that became really the spine for Season 2."

Yockey agreed that Cassie's sobriety was always going to be a focal point for the show's second season, as it felt like "the most rich, emotional journey" to follow as well as something that doesn't play out on screen much. Chaidez added, "I think the template that was set there of treating the sobriety journey in a realistic way, but also with capturing the humor, the dark humor, the pathos that you experience on that journey, I think we wanted to move forward [with that] into season two."

Cassie may start Season 2 off in the best place the audience has ever seen her, living in an adorable Los Angeles bungalow and dating her handsome sober boyfriend (Santiago Cabrera), but it's not long before the audience will see a different side – or sides – to Cuoco's character. Chaidez teased that as the "shiny veneer" comes off Cassie's new west coast life, the show will "take her to a very real and dark place." The first two episodes of The Flight Attendant Season 2 premiere Thursday, April 21 on HBO Max, with two more airing each week until the finale.