Captain of Her Own Sky

Episode 1

Summer Eaton has spent five years as Matt Newman's co-pilot — and five years as his secret. Now she walks into the bureau chief's office and says the thing she has been avoiding: she's ready to be promoted, ready to fly the new route solo. The chief has waited three years for this. But the route is the C919, and it runs east while Matt's route runs west. Two lines that never cross. Choose it, and she and Matt may never meet again. She says she has thought it through. She takes it. Meanwhile someone else is swearing forever to someone — and it isn't her.

Episode 2

A doctor delivers the news flatly: she's pregnant, but the baby has developmental problems, and carrying it to term may be very difficult. Summer is told to talk it over with her partner. Instead, she finds herself calling a hotel suite — Room 805 at the Wyndham — and asking if he's coming. Then Ruan Siying appears, and the temperature drops. Matt waited five years for her, he says. He gives her a Cartier bracelet meant to symbolize eternity. Summer once imagined a child with him, a family of three. Now the child is here, and she can't keep it — or him.

Episode 3

Matt promises a five-year anniversary she'll never forget, fifteen days out. Summer notices the lies come easily now, without a trace. She asks the question that has been building: how can one person's love be handed to two women at once — or is what she gets just copied from someone else? A gift she once loved suddenly means nothing. Then a clinic calls to confirm her January 1st, 3 p.m. abortion appointment. She says she'll be on time. Elsewhere, Ruan Siying reminds Matt of an old promise: the third item on his eighteen-year-old wish list — take her to Lover's Lake to see the orchids.

Episode 4

The transfer paperwork is already filed — she submitted it the day after deciding. Fly the last T28 flight, then report for the new post. Congratulations: she will be the C919's first female captain. Then Ruan Siying twists the knife, claiming Matt said she was always the one he loved, that Summer was only a stand-in. Summer starts taking down a photo from the wall. The nail has come loose, she says — it can never hang the way it used to, just like their relationship can't go back to what it was. Matt insists that as long as he's there, no one will look down on her, even as a co-pilot.

Episode 5

The crew gossip spills everywhere: Ruan Siying was Matt's flight attendant back when he first made captain, and now, five years later, she's his flight attendant again. Fate, they call it. They whisper that when Siying left, Matt cried himself hoarse and nearly quit flying. They remember the fireworks he set off for her over the Nanchang riverbank. Summer hears all of it — and realizes every romantic gesture he gave her, he gave Ruan Siying first. Five years of being hidden, of being his secret, suddenly makes sense. She asks the question out loud: after five years together, am I really worth less to you than her?

Episode 6

Summer packs — not flight gear, but everything she owns. Matt barely notices, promising to go public at the New Year's celebration, promising fireworks on their anniversary. She tells him this is her last flight on the T28 route, and the last time she sits in the co-pilot's seat. Ruan Siying corners her: after all these years, he never made her public — in his heart, Summer is just someone who can't see daylight. Summer fires back that if Ruan Siying has so much time, she should take it up with Matt. On the flight, Matt says he's more at ease with Summer as his co-pilot than anyone. She answers that it's the last time.

Episode 7

A luggage compartment door isn't properly closed at thirty thousand li. Matt's first instinct is to shield Ruan Siying — she was standing closest to the bags, he explains. Summer doesn't buy it. Ruan Siying then delivers the blow: the reason he protected her first is that she's carrying his child, and he's always loved children. On the flight deck, Summer keeps her voice level: this is her last time flying this route with him. Two days until she leaves. Back on the ground, someone notices the crew list — the co-pilot slot isn't Summer's anymore. She says she's just been unwell and took a few days off.

Episode 8

Matt reminds Summer of a promise — that they'd fly together for a lifetime. She answers that he's the one who can't be trusted; for five years she has lived inside his lies. He swears that after this flight, after New Year's, once the company's commendation meeting is over, he'll finally announce their relationship. Just wait a little longer. On New Year's Eve, fireworks light the riverbank — the same riverbank where their eighteen- and twenty-eight-year-old selves once stood. Then a call comes: something urgent. He leaves her mid-photo. She understands, finally, that they won't even get a proper goodbye.

Episode 9

Summer joins the C919 family — welcomed, applauded, wished a happy New Year and a bright sky ahead. She's no longer anyone's co-pilot. Meanwhile Ruan Siying pushes Matt about marriage. He refuses flatly: he won't marry her. Summer is his girlfriend, he says — if he marries anyone, it's her. Ruan Siying protests that he defended her in front of Summer, that he must care. His answer lands cold: did she really think he'd fall in love with someone who once abandoned him? Today, he says, is his and Summer's fifth anniversary — and he's going back to find her.

Summer walked away from the lies and into the captain's seat. Watch her fly her own sky — you'll want to see how it ends.