“Unclaimed Baggage” – Aired on Oct 15, 2018
Written by: Laura Putney & Margaret Rose Lester
Directed by: Craig Zisk
Grade: 4 out of 5
Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers
A decent, yet benign, fourth outing by Manifest, one that flows fairly well within its confines. While “Reentry” (ep.2) focused on character development and moved at a measured pace, and “Turbulence” (ep.3) was motivated by rapid plot advancement at the cost of character growth, “Unclaimed Baggage” manages to do a bit of both, although it carries less substance than either of the two previous episodes. No need to look for big revelations to the overall arc here. There are, however, two stand-alone stories that keep the hour interesting.
One of them centers on a stowaway passenger, previously unknown to everyone except Bethany (Mugga), the flight attendant. We first see him as a deranged patient when he runs into Saanvi at the hospital, asking for Bethany. Saanvi, with Ben’s help, locates Bethany and visits her to get the full scoop on him.
Well, the scoop is quite charged. His name is Thomas (Sheldon Best) and he is the boyfriend of Leo, Bethany’s cousin. Bethany was trying to help Thomas (who does not have a passport) escape so that he could join Leo who had already left for the USA. Thomas and Leo were in danger in Jamaica because they had caused a social ruckus as activists seeking justice for a third gay friend who was beaten to death. Bethany asks Saanvi, “You have any idea how dangerous being gay can be in Jamaica?”
Leo apparently disappeared during the years of Thomas’s disappearance aboard Flight 828. Poor Thomas is now alone, in shock, pumped with anti-psychotic drugs at the hospital, sought by the authorities, and he desperately needs help. It’s a well-written, elaborate-yet-plausible backstory, although its desired impact is held back by Mugga’s somewhat phlegmatic delivery.
Note: Hats off to writers Laura Putney and Margaret Rose Lester for coming up with a rich backstory to the mystery of the stowaway passenger. This is an instance where the writing room could have easily succumbed to the traps of lazy writing and spit out a pedestrian reason for Thomas’s risky trip, and probably gotten away with it since it is of no consequence to the overall story involving him, Bethany, Saanvi, and Michaela. Instead, they chose to pay attention to detail. Nice!
Saanvi wants to assist Bethany in getting Thomas out of the hospital before the NSA and Director Vance can get to him. She also has a personal interest in doing so, because Thomas is related to the visions that she is having. Earlier at the hospital, a gray, statue-like woman, who leaves wet footprints behind her, had appeared in front of her. Saanvi visited Dr. Feldman (Gary Lee Mahmoud), the head of the neurology department, asking his opinion on her brain scan, except she claimed that it was the scan of one of her patients. That is when Dr. Feldman noted that the brain scan was similar to another patient who happens to be Thomas. He noted that it could possibly be the early stages of schizophrenia. A worried Saanvi left Dr. Feldman’s office and noticed the wet footprints again. They led her to Thomas’s room at which point he ran into her arms frantically calling for Bethany.
Michaela is also having visions of a similar gray, statue-like woman, except hers has wings and whispers “save him” to her. This happens on a day where Michaela is part of the NYPD’s team that is helping the ATF with an operation that involves the busting of a rogue group while they are buying guns. The ATF also has an undercover agent on site posing as a member of the group. During a somewhat unimaginative discussion that Michaela is having with Jared (it basically amounts to Jared being worried about Michaela) while they are staking out the building and waiting for ATF’s word for action, the gray angel appears to her, repeating the words “save him” several times. Michaela takes it as a reference to the undercover operative and vigorously insists that they move in now to save him. Jared reluctantly agrees and gives the green light to the NYPD team standing by.
Michaela is wrong. The operation is botched. The operative was not in danger, yet his cover is now blown. Jared takes the fall for having made the call, Michaela wants to come forward, but both Jared and Ben convince her to stay quiet for different, but valid, reasons. She cannot reveal that she is having visions and attract even more attention to the survivors of Flight 828. As Ben warns, they would get locked up in “some government psych facility” if they were to come clean about the premonitions.
Of course, there is more to the gray angel appearing and whispering “save him” to Michaela, just like there was more to the calling “set them free” in “Pilot” than the two chained dogs. When Ben suggests to her that Saanvi has been having similar visions, Michaela decides to go talk to her. In the most contrived moment of the episode, Michaela’s car drives right in front of Saanvi and Bethany who are frantically running away from the hospital after almost getting caught by authorities while they were trying to sneak out of the hospital with Thomas, using fake discharge papers.
They conveniently – and naturally – get in her car and Michaela drives them away just as Director Vance comes out of the hospital one second later, looking for the two of them. They are long gone, thanks to the artificially coincidental appearance of Michaela in her car. Thomas is not with them either because he apparently had managed to leave the hospital undetected, earlier in the day. As Saanvi and Michaela are telling each other about the gray woman that they have been seeing (Micheala’s with wings, Saanvi’s with wet footprints), it dawns on Bethany that they are talking about The Angel of the Waters, the statue at the top of the Bethesda Fountain. The angel also happens to be a big part of Leo’s favorite play, Angels in America by Tony Kushner (Pulitzer Price winner in 1993). Thus, that is where Thomas must be, they figure, and that is where they find Thomas, of course!
They take him to a boiler room previously owned by Kelly, who was shot dead at the end of episode 2. According to Michaela, the building will be tied up in probate courts for years, so nobody should be coming down there anytime soon. Is that even a plausible expectation? Don’t ask me. The bottom line is, we now have a reliable hide-out space that can be used in future episodes, if needed. In any case, the weakest sequence of the episode that began with Michaela’s car cutting in front of Saanvi and Bethany, ends in some boiler room only known to our protagonists.
The second – and the better – story revolves around the strife within the Stone family. Ben, probably the most magnanimous character that currently exists on the land of TV shows, cannot seem to catch a break on the home front.
First, he learns that their household is basically bankrupt. Among the many updates that Grace did not care to give Ben in a timely manner once he reappeared, is the fact that the insurance company had paid her half a million dollars for Ben’s presumed death. Now, they want it back. To make matters worse, Grace used that money to cover the debt that she had accumulated over the two years following Ben’s disappearance because she had “shut down.” She even took out a home equity line of credit to finance her catering gig, so there is no equity left on their house. She is filled with shame and guilt as she confirms that “there is nothing left,” but Ben, the ultra-positive individual that he is, hugs her, consoles her, and says, “We’re gonna figure this out.” Oh Ben… If it were only that easy!
He also has a hard time connecting with Olive, and it goes beyond semantics (reference: “romper” vs “overalls”). Olive acts a bit distant. She later gets caught stealing at Bluemercury, the luxury beauty shop, and leaves a message for her mom to come and pick her up. Grace listens to the message in the middle of a romantic moment with Ben who offers to go and get her: “I need to work on my Olive speak. Perfect opportunity.” If you have not boarded the Ben train by now, I would recommend getting yourself checked, there may be something wrong. Let’s remind ourselves the context here. The guy just discovered some photos of Grace and her previous lover in a box at the basement while he was calculating numbers on a whiteboard to figure out how he can help the family climb out of debt. Grace entered and he put that aside to get romantic with his wife before getting interrupted by Olive’s voicemail to her mom (in all fairness, Grace also seemed to be disappointed there). He offered to go get Olive himself to give Grace a chance to rest. Little does he know that the biggest disappointment is yet to come.
Once Ben arrives to the store to pick Olive up, not only does he get slapped with the terrible news that his daughter got caught shoplifting, but also sinks deep into the well of disappointment when he realizes that Danny (Daniel Sunjata), his wife’s lover during his absence, is already at the shop comforting Olive while they are waiting for Grace. Meeting the lover of your wife unexpectedly, because your daughter chose to call him for comfort instead of calling you… Can a father feel anymore miserable than Ben does at that moment?
The brief encounter scene between Ben and Danny achieves its goal thanks to Josh Dallas and Daniel Sunjata who convey perfectly the malaise felt by the two men. This is followed by the strongest scene of the episode, a well-written dialogue between father and daughter, including a heartfelt confession by a teary-eyed Olive. Ben promises not to tell Grace about the incident upon Olive’s request as they hug.
Grace learns of it anyway and scolds Ben for not telling her, and in the process, gives away the fact that she had talked to Danny since she could not have known of it otherwise. Now, it’s Ben’s turn to scold Grace. The argument ends on an unpleasant note, with Ben angered by the fact that neither Olive nor Grace “seem to be able to let this guy go.” He wonders out loud if it is even fair that he asks them to, and leaves to get some air. In those last moments, only a timid “Ben…” comes out of Grace’s mouth, which officially makes me jump off the Grace bandwagon. Until then, I had been on Grace’s side, even when she was finding it hard to tell Ben about Danny, because I found her reassurances to Ben sincere when she said that she loved him and only him, and that she left Danny behind. I still believe that she loves Ben, but her passive stance while her husband was justifiably upset accompanied by a meek “Ben…” did not cut it. Plus, she is obviously still in contact with Danny, as the closing sequence showed. Grace needs to be honest with Ben and lay all her cards on the table, not just the few selected ones.
Neither of these storylines provide any answers to the many questions facing Manifest’s overall arc. I am not sure if that is a good thing. I will repeat what I said in my review of episode 3: You can build such a high pile of mysteries that you can drown yourself in it, not knowing how to climb out of the hole when time arrives for payoffs and resolutions.
I appreciated the writers avoiding the ubiquitous cliff-hanger finish to the episode for a change. A montage of the main characters dealing with their issues, ending with Michaela asking the Angel of the Waters statue, “What do you want from me?” is a fitting ending.
Last-minute thoughts:
– Maybe I have bad hearing, but it seems to me like the background music in scenes where the characters speak in a low voice, or whisper, is a bit loud, making them harder to understand. I don’t know who is responsible of setting the volume levels (the sound editor?), but it would be nice to hear without strain what the characters say.
– I said multiple times in my previous reviews that I was firmly on Team Olive. I must admit that I wondered a couple of times during this episode if I made that call too soon. Having said that, I am still, and undoubtedly, on the Luna Blaise bandwagon. Passionate, high-quality performances by her in each episode so far.
Until the next episode…