“Connecting Flights” – Aired on Oct 22, 2018
Written by: Amanda Green & Margaret Rose Lester
Directed by: Tawnia McKiernan
Grade: 5 out of 5
Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers
Color me impressed! This tightly packed episode briskly advances a few narratives at the same time without conveying the feeling of being rushed, and still manages to sprinkle across the hour several genuine moments of character development. More importantly, it brings some desperately needed clarification to at least one area – the beginning and development of the relationships between Danny and Grace, and of Lourdes and Jared. After four episodes of mystery piling, some degree of hole-patching is always welcome.
Furthermore, “Connecting Flights” is a game changer. It moves the parameters of Flight 828’s central mystery from the “what” to the “how.” Cal’s storyline firmly lands Manifest (no pun intended) into the area of the paranormal. As Ben says late in the episode to Michaela: “It’s not like with us. He [Cal] is different.”
Don’t get me wrong, we had already been hovering (again, no pun intended) over the paranormal zone. Heck, the show’s premise is built upon the mystical. But the gist of the unexplained had remained, until this episode, in the domain of ambiguous callings leading to premonitions, and a plane that somehow disappeared five and a half years ago and reappeared recently. The show’s characters had essentially been busy tackling the complications brought about to their daily lives by the missing five and a half years. “Connecting Flights” changes that routine. Cal’s storyline confirms that at least one passenger directly witnessed the phenomenon that holds the key to the mystery that matters the most: how did Flight 828 lose five and a half years of earth time?
New information is injected into the narratives of the stifling Ben-Grace-Danny and Jared-Michaela-Lourdes love triangles. These triangles are still emotionally charged alright, but thanks to a series of shrewdly arranged flashback sequences that got complemented by pertinent follow-up scenes in the present**, the characters of Lourdes and Danny have now gained some depth. They no longer play the emblematic role of the supporting characters who only exist to complicate the lives of the main ones.
**Kudos to writers Amanda Green and Margaret Rose Lester for their obvious attention to detail with regard to the flow of those scenes, as well as to director Tawnia McKiernan for the impeccable camera execution.
Now, the ball is on the viewer’s court. Can you build some sympathy for Danny and Lourdes or not? Unlike many others, I never developed an aversion to either of them at any moment during the first four episodes. Why should they ignore their attraction to the other person, especially when it is being reciprocated? It is not like either Danny or Lourdes began “making a move” immediately after the plane’s disappearance. Or perhaps, the more intriguing question is, how do you feel about Jared and Grace**? How long is it acceptable for them to grieve before they can move on to other people without being judged?
**See my last-minute thoughts about the uneven – or, unfair – nature of the audience’s reaction on social media to Jared and Grace.
We are not far from the point at which the intricacies of these relationships will undoubtedly manifest their thorny side. Take Danny for example. He seemed like a great guy who showed a lot of love toward Grace and Olive, and seemed to fill the void left behind by Ben. So yes, I sympathized a lot with Danny until this episode.
Until… this episode.
My sympathy for him came to a screeching halt when he showed up at the Stones’s house against Grace’s wishes and used the Olive card on her. His point was so simple, yet so outrageous. According to him, it did not matter that Grace loves her husband and wants to stay with him (she had told him so). He was standing there, literally arguing that he does not want to let Olive go.
Grace: “Danny, I told you I am trying to rebuild my marriage!”
Danny: “This isn’t about you and me, Grace. This is about Olive.”
Excuse me Danny? You mean the daughter of someone else with whom you got to spend three years because you fell in love with her mother? Danny did not stop there either. He brought up his previous lover that he had lost before meeting Grace and continued: “So I know I’ll survive losing you. But I am not sure I know how to get over losing that… amazing kid.” Well, Danny, that is your problem, and not one for which you need to unexpectedly show up at the door step of the Stones and put pressure on Grace. The fact that you went that far in desperation of your desire to be with Olive when she already has a family (and one that loves her) is borderline creepy, dude! Plus, at least be honest. You want Grace back, you are not there just because of Olive.
To complicate matters, Olive later says to Grace that she loves her dad and she is glad that he is back, but then adds, “Danny is my dad too.” Grace replies, “I know.” And I am screaming to myself: “How are Danny and Ben put in the same boat here? Are you kidding me!?!?” In any case, Grace’s life is about to get unbearably painful and I am afraid Ben will be asked to play the adult in the room, thus find himself on the short end of the stick.
But hold on, you see what I did above? I could not resist, I took sides. I am certain that I am not the only one doing so either. The point here is that “Connecting Flights” creates clever human conflicts, engages the audience in these types of debates, and does so without spilling over to over-dramatization. The divide between good and bad treads on a thin line of ambiguity. I may not like some of things that character A, B, or C does, but my interest is piqued by their stories. This kind of story-telling is an asset, not a liability.
In the meantime, Ben takes Cal to Coney Island for a day of fun but can’t stop hearing the phrase “it’s all connected” in his head. As they are heading back home, out of nowhere, Cal begins to run away from Ben and heads into the alleys of the subway. He runs on impulse, but with conviction. He leads Ben, without knowing, to Thomas’s hideout in the subway. Ben asks Cal repeatedly how he knew where to find Thomas, but Cal does not know. He does, however, say “it’s all connected,” which is the same phrase that has been ringing in Ben’s ears all day. The hour ends on another flashback scene of Cal looking from the plane window into the bright light outside and saying, “it’s all connected.”
There is however more to the Ben-Cal storyline than this revelation. It causes Ben to reevaluate his earlier decision to drop his investigation into the mystery of Flight 828 and focus on spending time with his family. It is evident by the end of the hour that, the events of his day with Cal have led him to make a 180-degree turn-around from his earlier stance. “I can’t walk away now,” he confirms to Michaela. He is determined to seek answers.
NSA Director Vance is also in pursuit of answers. While everyone grapples with the “what” and the “how,” Vance is strictly preoccupied with the “who.” It’s all about security and control for the Director; security of the country (a noble cause) and controlling people (a not-so-noble one). He even weighs in with the NYPD to ensure that Jared gets no more than a light 10-day slap on the hand for his mistake from last week. He is aiming to gain leverage on Jared and twist the detective’s arm into reporting to him directly everything that Michaela does or says. He is quite intelligent and efficient, but his NSA crew is either grossly underpopulated or utterly incompetent. They cannot catch anyone, they are constantly late to the action (hospital scene in “Unclaimed Baggage”), and people under their watch seem to evade them without much difficulty. Is it a stretch to claim that, in a real-life setting, poor Dir. Vance would bear the brunt of the blame and probably be relieved of his duties by now?
Last-minute thoughts:
– Cal notices the door move in Thomas’s subway hideout, and insists that he and Ben leave. Only a few moments later, when everyone else notices the door being forced from the other side, he changes his tune and wants to stay: “I think she is a friend.” The person on the other side of the door turns out to be Georgia, Bethany’s wife. She is there to take Thomas to a safe house. Why did Cal want to leave so vehemently seconds earlier? We will never know (he does not either). But, we know that Ben is right. Cal is indeed different than the rest.
– So far, the writing room has pulled a respectable job of balancing between screen time between the few main characters and the recurring ones. One of the advantages of the show’s premise is that the writers have an abundance of characters from which they can draw to create compelling stories. Few of the names on the manifest have already been explored (ex: Kelly, Radd, Bethany). It would be nice to see one episode centering on the role (if any) that Capt. Daly played in the phenomenon. Considering the acting talents of Frank Deal who can bring any character alive (see him as Gary Levine on Gypsy, or his guest-star appearances in The Americans and The Knick), I certainly hope that his character is not slotted for a short-lived appearance or a quick write-off.
– There is a lot of anger on social media flowing in the direction of Lourdes and Grace. Am I sensing a hint of sexism here? Why is it that Grace is on the receiving end of a lot more anger that Danny is in the Ben love triangle, whereas in the Michaela one, people are not nearly as furious with Jared as they are with Lourdes? Grace and Jared are the ones who moved on in the absence of Ben and Michaela. Yet Grace the wife is getting slammed while the fiance Jared gets off hardly with a scratch. And no, the “one is just a fiancé, the other one is a spouse” explanation does not wash.
– Bethany is arrested. Does that mean we will not get to see her wife Georgia again? I hope not. Eva Kaminsky, who has guest-starred in more shows that I can name, is always a delight to watch.
– Did I say that I thought this was the best outing of Season 1 so far (with “Reentry” a close second)?
– This was the best outing of Season 1 so far.
Until next episode…