A Terminal Christmas

A Terminal Christmas is the eleventh episode of the second season on Wings and the 17th episode overall in the series.

Synopsis[]

At the ticket counter, a man desperately tries to get his gift wrapped new pair of golf clubs on board, but with the flight completely booked and at weight capacity, Fay tells him it's not an option. When he begrudgingly leave the gift, Fay puts the gift into Joe's office with several other gifts saying "Oh, Joe, we're doing a lot better than last Christmas."

With the terminal busy and decorated for Christmas, Brian enters and pleads with Joe to cancel their Christmas day flight to New Bedford so they can go skiing. The boys ask Fay about her plans for the holiday, and she says she's having a few friends over for a traditional dinner. Because no one has scheduled a reservation for the flight yet, Joe agrees to cancel it if no one is scheduled by 5 pm. To ensure that no one schedules a seat on that flight, Brian begins answering the phone pretending to be other businesses. Meanwhile, Joe discusses Christmas plans with Helen, who's parents are coming to Nantucket instead of spending Christmas in Hawaii with Lorraine and her family. At the ticket counter, Fay is unhappy to meet Frank, a rival of George's in the annual Christmas Boat Parade. Back at the lunch counter, Lowell discusses having Bunny's mother staying with them for Christmas. Back at the ticket counter, Joe discovers Brian trying to prevent a reservation, stops him and books a reservation for their Christmas day flight.

On Christmas day, Joe and Brian enter the almost entirely empty terminal and are shock to see Lowell, who slept in the hanger after Bunny kicked him out of the houseboat for hitting on her mother. The Hacketts are also surprised by Roy being at work. Roy's son, R.J., cancelled plans to come home for Christmas so he could see the Grateful Dead in concert in Gainesville. Finally Helen enters the terminal worried that her parents weren't on the last Aeromass flight. Lowell chims in to tell Helen her parents called the airport to say they missed their flight out of Houston because the camel from the local Christmas pageant fell on her mother and to share that the only passenger on Sandpiper's Christmas day flight called to cancel. Joe then suggests Helen come skiing with him and Brian only to be informed that the airport in Vermont is snowed in. With no where else to go, the gang heads to Fay's house to attend her Christmas party.

Once the gang arrives at Fay's the are shocked to find her sitting alone in the dark. Because this was Fay's first Christmas without George, she didn't want to celebrate. Worried about leaving Fay alone, everyone agrees to stay and have a Christmas dinner with whatever food Fay has but this results in them eating rice cakes, wheat germ, and croutons. When Lowell unexpectedly finds George's ashes in a cooking jar, Fay reveals that he wanted his ashes spread at sea, but she has not been able to bring herself to let him go. At the suggestion of her friends, Fay agrees to spread his ashes from the plane.

On the plane, Fay begins to have second thoughts when Lowell breaks George's cooking jar and has to vacuum up George's ashes in Joe's Dustbuster. Comforted by her friends, Fay finally gathers the courage to let go of George.

The next day at the ticket counter, Fay wishes for some way to know from George that she made the right decision. Frank enters and shares that last night during the boat parade, something fell from the sky and sank his boat before the judges saw it. Grateful for her confirmation, Fay thanks George as the camera pans to the Christmas tree in the airport's second floor balcony.

Credits[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

George Furth as Frank
Chuck Sloan as Passenger #1
Paul Bovino as Passenger #2 (uncredited)

Quotes[]

Brian Hackett - "Alright, alright, I'll tell you what. You give me Christmas day off, okay, and I will work Flag Day, Arbor Day, I'll even throw in St. Swithin's Day."
Fay Cochran - "Did I hear we're working on St. Swithin's Day?"
Joe Hackett - "Just a half day."

Joe Hackett - "So you excited about your folks coming in from Texas for the holiday?"
Helen Chapel - "You bet! And I'm even more excited that they are not coming to spend it with my sister."
Joe Hackett - "Why is that?"
Helen Chapel - "Well, they always spent Christmas in Hawaii with Lorraine and her rich, stupid husband and those little spoiled brat kids. Lorraine calls me every Christmas morning, Collect, and it's always "Haleakalā this" and "Kilauea that", well not this year! This year, when those two little monsters ask her "Where's grandma and grandpa?" She's gonna have to tell them "They're not here. They're at Aunt Helen's". Ha ha ha! Woo! Boy this is going to be an awesome Christmas!"

Brian Hackett - "Oh, are they still doing that thing? Oh, that's great, cause my brother Joe entered a little sailboat once and he spent hours making Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer out of all these colored lights, but I rearranged the lights to so that something other than Rudolph's nose light up. He didn't win."

Fay Cochran - "What a ranside little rooster he is! Oh, I know I shouldn't say that at Christmas time, but he used to make George so mad. Every year George would spend weeks decorating our boat then Frank would win the grand prize and really rumb it in. George would have given anything to be able to beat that little winker stinker."

Brian Hackett - "I'm telling you Joe, this is the worst Christmas ever. I used to think it was the one where mom and dad bought us those hamsters and forgot to poke air holes in the box. But at least that had a moment of dramatic tension."

Lowell Mather - "Well, I sorta made a pass at my mother-in-law. Well, I guess it was those hot buttered rums. One minute I'm feeling pretty loose the next minute Lowell Junior's running around screaming "Daddy's got his hand on Granny's num-num"."
Brian Hackett - "Why Lowell, you randy old seadog you."
Lowell Mather - "You pray for an observant child, and then this happens."

Joe Hackett - "We came here because we're all depressed and having a lousy Christmas, but it just so happens that Fay's having an even lousier Christmas. The least we can do is stick around and see her through this."
Helen Chapel - "Joe's right. I hadn't really thought about it much, but we're the closest thing to family she's got."
Brian Hackett - "Gee, us, family? I guess that would make Roy the weird bachelor uncle that no one ever talks about, huh?"

Roy Biggins - "Now what?"
Joe Hackett - "I know, let's have a Christmas dinner."
Fay Cochran - "Uh, well, all the stores all closed and I don't think I have the right food for Christmas dinner."
Joe Hackett - "Oh, Fay, nonsense. We don't need the right food, we'll make do with what we have like the Pilgrims."
Brian Hackett - "Joe, the Pilgrims were Thanksgiving."
Joe Hackett - "Oh, like they didn't eat on Christmas too?"

Lowell Mather - "Without a salad, croutons are just stale bread, right?"

Helen Chapel - "Shouldn't someone say something?"
Roy Biggins - "How about bombs away?"
Fay Cochran - "I don't think I'm up to giving a eulogy."
Lowell Mather - "Fay, if you'll allow me?"
Joe Hackett - "Uh, Lowell, I--"
Lowell Mather - "Please. Today we say goodbye to a loved one. Someone who filled our lives with joy and meaning, laughter and tears. Someone who touched our souls, moved our hearts. We thank him for the time he shared with us here on Earth and now, sadly, sent his spirit to the heavens and his body to the sea."
Fay Cochran - "Bye George."
[Fay release the Dustbuster contain George's ashes out of the plane]
Helen Chapel - "Lowell, I'm impressed. That was really touching."
Lowell Mather - "Yeah, well, I guess I flushed just one too many turtles in my time."

Trivia[]

Brian mentions working on St. Swithin's Day. St. Swithin's Day (or St. Swithun's Day) is a holiday commemorated on July 15th. According to folklore, the weather for a subsequent period 40 day period is dictated (i.e. if it rains on St. Swithin's Day, it will rain for 40 days, but if it is fair, 40 days of fair weather will follow). Swithun (died 863 AD) was an Anglo-Saxon bishop of Winchester and subsequently the patron saint of Winchester Cathedral.
In this episode, Helen claims that her parents always spent Christmas in Hawaii with here sister Lorraine, her rich, stupid husband, and her two spoiled kids. Lorraine was later retconned out of existence in Twisted Sister with the introduction of Casey Chapel who lived in San Francisco and who did have a rich, stupid husband, but not bratty kids.
It's revealed that George Cochran died some time in early 1990.
While trying to avoid booking passengers for a Christmas day flight to New Bedford, Brian pretends to be a New Kids on The Block hotline. The New Kids on The Block were an American boy band that enjoyed success in the late 1980s and early 1990s when this episode originally aired.
Joe implies that he believed in Santa Claus until four years ago (1986).
This episode is currently unavailable for streaming in the United States likely due to the music rights for "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" and/or "I'll Be Home For Christmas".