“Point of No Return” – Aired on November 19, 2018
Written by: Gregory Nelson & Margaret Rose Lester
Directed by: Nina Lopez-Corrado
Grade: 4,5 out of 5
Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers
The hour begins with a brief flashback of Flight 828’s landing to New York and Cal expressing his fear about being back to where his cancer is the center of attention. A scene in the present time ensues, with Ben and Michaela in which fig newtons and ice cream are the initial topic followed by some wise sisterly advice by Michaela to Ben about creating a “new normal” for his family. We switch over to the shady experimental facility at an unknown location where some guy in a suit named Lawrence is telling the scientist-doctor, previously seen in “Off Radar” phoning a “Ma’am,” to rapidly resume the experiments on the missing 11 passengers. He is not too happy about Vance “inconveniencing” them.
The aptly constructed sequence above launches another well-written, properly paced episode of Manifest, the second such in a row. “Point of No Return” follows in the footsteps of “S.N.A.F.U.” in that plots that matter advance at a satisfactory rhythm and, more importantly, supersede the creation of new mysteries, which is the right measure to take since the game-changing “Connecting Flights.” Showrunner Jeff Rake and the writing room seem to have a good handle on the series, thus its success so far in the court of TV-public opinion. This episode’s writers Gregory Nelson and Margaret Rose Lester do not go overboard with unnecessary dialogue or tackle too many on-going stories at once. It works. Solid performances by guest actors such as Francesca Faridany as Fiona, Brian Wiles as Lawrence, and Michael Drayer as Ronnie, complement the overall quality of the outing.
The first A story – yes, there are two of them in this episode – once again centers on father-citizen-agent Ben’s astonishing investigative skills with the ultimate goal of discovering the new location of the experiments. This time around, he is not operating alone. Vance, in a somewhat predictable move, and Fiona Clarke, in a less predictable one, are offering their services to our Stone, Ben Stone!
Nicely weaved into this storyline is also Ben’s effort to spend more time with his wife by the way of a dinner date, an idea warmly welcomed by Grace. Is it thus a coincidence that Saanvi does not appear in this episode? I bring this up because a portion of Manifest viewers appear to be cheering for the possibility of a Ben-Saanvi relationship with which I am personally not on board. And unlike most of those fans, I have not noticed any visible romantic synergy between the two either. In any case, let’s not opine on matters trivial to this episode and move on.
Michaela gets the co-A story, one that carries consequences unlike her story in the last episode. She keeps hearing “Don’t lose him,” and who him refers to is unclear at first, and not necessarily clear by the end, although Jared seems to be the leading candidate. There is a passenger from Flight 828 named Harvey, who initially appeared in “Pilot,” threatening to jump from the roof of a building to his death. Michaela attempts to psych-talk him out of it at the last second (she should take lessons from Dylan Reinhart in Instinct), but she does not succeed as Harvey plunges to his oblivion after uttering a few ambiguous sentences about him causing other people to die.
Michaela who thought “Don’t lose him” alluded to Jared at the outset, now believes that it referred to Harvey and that she failed the calling. Later though, using the vague clues in what Harvey said before he jumped, and with Jared’s help, Michaela figures out the details of what Harvey meant before he jumped. He apparently knew that the plane was going to explode during the two days after the landing (meaning that he heard a calling, I presume). Two people with whom he shared his premonition at a bar had died under suspicious circumstances. He no longer wished to be the “Angel of death” (written on the wall of his bedroom) and decided to solve the conundrum by committing suicide.
The writers do an excellent job of sprinkling particulars here and there to justify Michaela’s increasing motivation to find out the actual cause of Harvey’s suicide. For starters, she remembers how he was an antagonistic loud-mouth with the officials in the hangar in “Reentry” and cannot reconcile that person with the broken-down one she saw at the roof. Secondly, her investigation of the bar where Harvey met the two now-dead people leads her and Jared to have a chat with a bartender who tells them that Harvey also informed her of his suspicions. Lo and behold, she also turns up dead later due to electrical lines falling and hitting her. Finally, Michaela hears the calling again although Harvey’s long gone. Hence, she is back to believing that it refers to Jared. JR Ramirez and Melissa Roxburgh (who, in my opinion, tends to over-act at times) put forth their top performances in “Point of No Return” and really work well together. Michaela’s ardor in the pursuit of the truth and Jared’s reserved-yet-reassuring disposition provide some of the best moments of the hour.
In the meantime, the Ben-Vance-Fiona trio is making genuine progress. Fiona visits Lawrence, the leader of the Singularity Project, in his office. She has a hidden mic in her pen through which Vance is snooping in on the c zeeonversation. The underlying idea is to give a “nudge” to Lawrence to put in motion a small chain of events that will help them figure out the facility’s location – a brilliant little detail added in.
Ben, for his part, takes advantage, like he did in last week’s episode, of the gullible Ronnie, his supervisor at UDS. He uses Ronnie’s pass to get into the Records department to retrieve the information on the properties that were recently purchased by UDS. The sequence of him getting the documents and leaving the building without being spotted is well-directed by Nina Lopez-Corrado, and well-scored.
That is the final piece of information Vance needs to locate the facility. Vance, Ben, and Michaela are on their way there as the scene switches to the remote facility in question where the experimenting doctor, with Marko on the bed in front of him, informs Lawrence that they are ready to resume. Marko is shocked once, and a brief ending shot of Cal shows him suffering simultaneously.
My review would be incomplete if I did not mention the lovely B story involving Olive and Cal. Cal decides to go back to school and recapture some of the normalcy that had sourly lacked in his pre-flight life in New York. He is apprehensive about how he will be perceived as a survivor of Flight 828 who has not aged a bit in 5+ years. This is where Olive comes in. She acts as his shield and protector, and makes sure that her brother does not become subject to any unseemly treatment from anyone. There are only a couple of minutes that pertain to this story and if the last shot of the two sitting together on the couch at home does not warm your heart, go see a cardiologist please!
There is also a perfunctory Z story (at best) involving Lourdes and Grace when they run into each other at some store. Grace notices the fertility kit in Lourdes’s basket. Lourdes reveals to her that she and Jared had plans to have kids once she would finish her masters. Her thesis got approved so she is indeed moving forward with the idea. The only reason for this store scene to exist is so that Grace can later tell Michaela about it with the intention of helping her to move on, in case Michaela was still stuck on the possibility of her and Jared getting back together. Does Michaela, who is in the middle of a frantic investigation that fully occupies her time and mind, really care? Do we? I am not sure. This bit comes across ramrodded and peripheral. It may have served the episode better if Lourdes took a sabbatical à-la-Saanvi.
Last-minute thoughts:
– Next episode is the fall finale and “Point of No Return” firmly does its part to prepare the viewers for it.
– Saanvi’s research seems to have taken a back seat. I am not pointing that out as a criticism. Showrunners have to make decisions and so far, they have mostly made the right ones. I am just curious as to when (and if) that research story will be explored more, and as to how dependent Saanvi’s role in Manifest is on it. If the research becomes irrelevant, what will become of her?
– I hope Rake and his team of writers have established long-term plans. All signs point to Manifest being renewed.
– Speaking of writers, I find it interesting that each episode has had co-writers (some enjoying the credit in another episode with someone else) so far except “Pilot” for which Rake got the lone writing credit. I am presuming that it’s usually someone from the show’s regular production-writer crew pairing up with a fairly new(er) writer, but I cannot be sure. In any case, I would love to hear someone bring this up with Rake in an interview and hear the reasons behind that choice.
– A little bummed out that the witty pilot of Flight 828, Captain William Daly, has not reappeared since the beginning of the show. The actor Frank Deal killed it in “Pilot” (no pun intended) with his dry irony.
Until the next episode…