Checking Out

Pat collapses and dies from sudden cardiac arrest during a family barbecue, right after delivering a dad joke. Ray is devastated, but most around him respond with practicality or apathy as Pat's wife questions his choices. The event triggers Ray's grief and sets the story in motion.

Ray struggles to cope with Pat's absence while coworkers worry about the company's future. The grief dulls his usual buoyant temperament and he begins to view life through a clinical, risk-averse lens. This shift foreshadows the personal and professional turmoil to come.

The company promotes Ray to Pat's old Vice President position and assigns him Pat's office. The promotion intensifies his sense of loss and pressure to fill Pat's shoes. It also creates tension as old relationships shift under his new status.

To consolidate resources, the company informs Barbara that she is being laid off while Diana is moved to Ray's team. Barbara interprets this as a maneuver to re-create Pat's presence through Diana, fueling paranoia. Tensions in the office escalate as mistrust grows.

Ray's cardiologist arranges a session with psychologist Dr. Duffin to address his grief. The brief therapy gives him a fleeting sense of renewal and control. Two days later, news arrives that Duffin died from a freak infection after shaving.

Despite his doctor’s assurances that tests are routine, Ray becomes obsessed with his own health. He spends a fortune on home diagnostic equipment to monitor every heartbeat and symptom. The craze intensifies his paranoia and distance from family.

Jenny confronts Ray about suspected infidelity as his behavior pushes him away from family life. Ray deflects with rationalizations and focuses on gadgets rather than addressing the marital strain. The couple's trust begins to fray.

Ray installs a hydrotherapy device in the bathtub, hoping to control his anxiety through ritual health rituals. An escalating argument with Jenny is interrupted by their daughter's nightmare about a plane crash. The family fractures further as Jenny banishes Ray from the house.

Ray camps out in his car at the office to avoid home pressures, where Barbara confronts him about her job security. The confrontation erupts into loud, public sex in the front seat, witnessed by their boss. The moment crystallizes Ray's professional ruin and personal humiliation.

One of the company's planes makes an emergency landing, and Ray is summoned to meet the survivors for a press conference. He becomes convinced the flight is the one his daughter dreamed about and tries to stop takeoff with a bomb threat. The passengers panic, the plane is evacuated, and his boss fires him on the tarmac.

Back at the hospital, Ray undergoes an appendectomy and suffers a cardiac arrest on the operating table. He falls into a coma as medical staff fight to stabilize him. The moment marks a dramatic pivot into the surreal afterlife sequence.

Ray experiences a vivid near-death journey with Pat as they enter an odd afterlife—a desert motel where white crowds attend nonstop A cappella poolside concerts. Pat explains that their aviation ties landed them in Howard Hughes's Heaven, with peculiar rules and societal quirks. They confront their grief and admit they will miss one another.

Ray awakens in the hospital after a week, and learns his appendectomy was successful with a full recovery. The brush with death reframes his fears and his grip on life loosens. He begins to see his grief as a force he can acknowledge rather than deny.

Ray spontaneously recalls Pat's barbecued joke—the line about Italians and grills—and experiences a quiet moment of peace. He realizes his hypochondria was the emotional manifestation of his grief and not a real medical threat. The memory gives him closure and a renewed sense of connection to Pat.

Ray and his family depart the hospital together, carrying the memory of their adventures as children building model airplanes. He re-engages with life and faces grief with a tempered hope rather than fear. The final scene anchors his recovery in shared history and resilience.