“Deadhead” – Aired on April 8, 2021
Writer: Laura Putney & Margaret Easley
Director: Romeo Tirone
Grade: 3 out of 5
Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers
“Deadhead” is a barely passable outing of Manifest, significantly below the show’s regular standards, largely due to an excessive number of storylines running all at once, leading to a chaotic narrative with little chance of meaningful character exploration. Only one of them avoids coming across as rushed, while one other merely adds to the background of a main character. The rest is a combination of odd dialogues and pat coincidences for the sake of advancing the overlapping plotlines.
The actors, for their part, perform well and there are a few stand-out scenes, but the substance is overall thin and the constant oscillation between so many different subplots makes it hard to get invested in any of them. I say it with regret, but this is not one of Manifest’s finest hours.
The episode begins in the upper floor of the Stone household where Angelina is having a nightmare. She is chased by a spooky, faceless archangel with wings, hovering above, and wakes up in a cold sweat right before it is about to descend on her. Grace, with impeccable timing, walks in the door carrying Eden and offers Angelina a cup of coffee, as well as a few words of comfort.
There is not much comforting she can do for her husband though, other than locating his glasses, because Ben is on another one of his out-of-control “I must save the universe” modes. I am sure that Josh Dallas fans adore seeing him play the role of the glorified husband-spy-father-detective-professor-agent-savior character but from a storytelling perspective, it makes no sense that Ben Stone, a math professor and a family man with no background training in any type of secret operation, even entertains the idea of going into Ethan-Hunt mode and kidnapping a closely watched asset out of a foreign country like Cuba, while defying his own government, with only Emmett at his side.
What makes just as little sense, or even less, is Grace remotely considering allowing him to do so without an all-out sensory attack on his loony (non-)plan and drawing the definitive line at him leaving or staying. Because, while I have accepted Ben’s lack of common sense at times in the name of being the great savior, Grace’s common sense has mostly remained intact throughout Manifest. She does try to talk sense into him twice, because they get interrupted at one point by an unannounced visit by – get this – Director Zimmer of the Pentagon (Patricia Mauceri) and Agent Tim Powell of the NSA (Tim Moriarty reprises his role from the first season when he was Vance’s assistant), with the Assistant Secretary of the Department of Defense accompanying them! Three people with probably more power and access than hundreds of Ben Stones combined.
The conversation takes an unpleasant turn for Ben when Zimmer and Powell proceed with pointed questions and accusations, but the visitors are soon forced to leave only because Grace brings into the conversation the threat of calling a lawyer (or helping her with the calzone), and Ben adds the need for warrants.
So, forgive me, especially after seeing Ben revert to his dippy savior mode mere seconds following that rancid visit, for logically expecting Grace at that point in time to put her foot down and exclaim something along the lines of, “Are you freaking nuts? You have a family! You sound like a buffoon! Shut up and drop this right now, or else!”
Alas, no…
He sighs, rubs his eyes gently, and says, “At least I have to try.”
She holds his hand, looks at him affectionately, and says, “I know you do.”
I murmur to myself, “Um, ok…”
I guess it’s farewell to Grace’s common sense too.
At the NYPD, Michaela – the actual voice of reason on Manifest, please don’t ever change Detective Stone – is back from her extended honeymoon absence. Jared, who is now a Lieutenant, tries to tell her about Sarah Fitz insisting to see her at the precinct (in last week’s “Tailfin”), but she is fixated on a notification left on her desk. It’s a message from the Fish and Game Warden saying, “Cameras picked up 3 people exiting the lake.”
Alarm bells ring in Michaela’s head because she had asked the guy who patrols the lake where the skeevy trio supposedly drowned in “Icing Conditions,” that he should contact her in case of unusual activity at the lake. It’s 84 days later, and there is unusual activity indeed! Drea and Michaela are shocked as they watch the footage of Jace and co. walking out of the lake.
Sandwiched in-between the above scenes, Captain Bowers reveals to Michaela that she intervened on her behalf when the Civilian Complaint Review Board recommended her termination. Bowers explicitly states that she put her “ass on the line,” so Michaela better play by her rules or she better quit, because the Captain ain’t planning on losing her job. The sincerity of the relationship-friendship slowly building between Michaela and Captain Bowers is one of the winners of Manifest in terms of long-arc subplots.
Michaela tells the Captain about the suspicious footage and wants to go with Jared to the lake. Captain Bowers reminds her that Drea, not Jared, is her partner, and adds: “Also, it isn’t 1973 – no one has to drive anywhere to see footage. Have Park Services email it.” It’s the best line delivery of the hour (with Zeke’s “I’m a muggle again” a close second) and I suspect that Captain Bowers is quickly becoming one of the favorite recurring characters, if not the favorite, of many Manifest fans, largely thanks to Andrene Ward-Hammond’s commanding screen presence.
Back at the Stone household, it is panic time. Michaela informed Ben and Grace of the skeevy trio’s resurgence and they are busy brainstorming on how to protect Cal for 84 days, the time the meth heads have before they die again à-la-Griffin, Ben presumes, in “Estimated Time of Departure” (Manifest excels, as usual, in nods to previous events and characters in meaningful ways). Grace’s solution is to take the children to her stepdad’s off-the-beaten-path place (not too sure about the “difficult to connect back to the family” portion). The problem is, her brother named Tarik (Warner Miller) resides in it and she has not contacted him in ten years following her departure that rubbed him the wrong way.
Ben, for his part, will NOT join his family in this time of urgency. Instead, he will prioritize his fixation with saving Vance, while taking on two countries’ governments, with Emmett! He sighs and says, “I’ve got to help him, Grace.” Grace sighs and asks, “How long do you need?” I sigh and say to myself, “Really? Twice, this same nonsense?” But I feel oh-so-much better a bit later, because the great savior Ben will “get a plan in motion” and inform Grace “by the weekend.” And somehow, Grace is “okay” with this. Oh-kay…
In a far better-written scene taking place elsewhere in the Stone household, Olive notices Angelina having another nightmare about the spooky archangel. It comes down on her this time and shatters into colorful pieces of glass. Olive, the wonderful listener that she is, decides to help Angelina. This means that the Stone gang will be divided three-way, conclusively putting Grace’s dreams to bed about all of them taking refuge in her stepfather’s place. Olive and Angelina plan to go on a quest to solve the puzzle of the nightmare, Ben plans to concoct a plan with Emmett to fool two governments while kidnapping Vance out of hostile territory, and Grace, Eden, and Cal are heading to Tarik. This effectively increases the number of storylines to six – yeah, I haven’t even gotten to Saanvi and Zeke yet.
Alarmed by the footage, Michaela and Drea venture out to the spot where the skeevy trio walked off the lake. They soon find a couple assaulted by them. The woman (Whitney Bashor) tells Michaela that one of them asked what month it was before they fled in the couple’s RV. It does not take them too long to spot the skeevy trio in the RV passing them in the other direction in the highway with Jace showing his face to Michaela for convenience. When you have six storylines running simultaneously, coincidences of this type are welcomed.
Saanvi’s check-up of Zeke at the clinic results in neither a trace of the frostbite that hampered Zeke three and a half months ago, nor of the ischemic blood marker that all other “returnees” carry. Zeke senses, however, that there is something wrong with Saanvi instead. She brushes it off to exhaustion from too much work but Zeke is not fooled, and neither is the audience because the writers are laying it on pretty thick with Saanvi’s behavior in the two episodes so far this season.
This C (or anywhere from D to F) storyline eventually ends with Saanvi admitting to Zeke that there is indeed something wrong with her. She has not had any callings since she medicated herself and she is worried about what options she has if solving the callings is the only way to survive the death date. She also asks how Zeke knew that it was eating at her. I cannot tell with 100% clarity if Saanvi is completely honest in asking him that question or is she using the “no more callings” explanation to hide the larger secret that is eating at her, i.e., her murder of the Major.
After evading Michaela and Drea, the skeevy trio get in an argument in the RV, with Kory and Pete expressing doubts on the path Jace wants them to pursue. Pete is particularly convinced that they are the product of a miracle and that they were brought back “to do things differently.” This is the most notable outing so far in the show for Pete, and Devin Harjes delivers well in the role of the sibling who no longer desires to be pushed over by the other.
Ben visits Saanvi and Zeke and informs Zeke of Michaela’s discovery. He also updates Saanvi on what happened when he touched the tailfin, his plans for Vance, and the powerful individuals’ visit to his house. Saanvi is interested on the burn marks on his hand, leading her to collect a sample tissue for further examination.
Thank heavens, there is Emmett! In the ultimate relief moment of the episode (at least for me), he does what Grace should have done, emphatically scolding Ben with regard to his loony plan. I almost found myself pumping my fist every time Emmett spoke – “You’re not serious!”; “Stone, you’re a math professor!”; “We don’t have the resources”; “You need to stand down.” Preach brother Emmett, preach!
With Olive’s assistance, Angelina locates the stained-color glass in her old school that has the figure of the archangel from her nightmares. Its wings have peacock feathers (another nice nod to continuity) and Angelina remembers that she was burying a time capsule when some kid threw a stone that shattered the glass back in her school days. It does not take the them too long to figure out that ‘it’s all connected’ (my nod, this time) and they dig up Angelina’s time capsule. In the box, there is a picture of her with a slushie in her hand in front of a place named King Kone. Angelina reminisces on the happy days she had with her family – “They were almost normal then,” she says – and Olive consoles her in the best way a new, reliable friend can. As far as Olive is concerned, Angelina’s nightmare is a calling (she even refers to it as such) and needs to be pursued. Their synergy is one of the bright spots of the hour, and frankly, the storyline of their quest is the only one that does not feel rushed. They decide to visit King Kone.
While the two enjoy their slushies from the spot, Angelina accidentally drops the picture from her pocket. The skeevy trio park the RV to rob a store where Jace used to work, which also happens to be next to King Kone. People had already tipped state troopers about their presence in the vicinity, meaning that Michaela and Drea are on their way.
Jace and co. suddenly begin hearing Cal’s voice loud in their heads saying, “Go to her!” Spooked and aware of the police sirens approaching, they opt to flee, except that Pete is not moving. He found Angelina’s dropped picture and recognizes himself in it, standing behind her. Jace and Kory drive away but Michaela and Drea arrive in time to arrest Pete who now believes “Go to her” means that he is supposed to go the 10-year-old girl in the picture, Angelina. Olive and Angelina return to the spot to find Michaela arresting Pete who lets Angelina know that he is the boy standing behind her in the picture (and the one at the counter who had served her the slushie is Jace). Pete and Angelina blankly stare at each other as he is driven away in the police car, in a way that peculiarly made me feel as if this is not the last time they will be seeing each other.
Grace’s reunion with Tarik is not jovial at first, to say the least! Grace hangs around though, even after Tarik shut the door on her face after letting out steam about how she betrayed him 10 years ago by leaving when he needed her the most. A sentimental scene of Tarik being joined by Cal to shoot hoops ensues, with Grace watching from afar. It is essentially Tarik managing to melt the acrimony built within him toward Grace with an assist (not in basketball terms) from Cal, resulting in the brother and sister being reunited and him welcoming the family into the house. While the first talk between Grace and Tarik by the door was powerful and riveting (Athena Karkanis never fails to knock it out of the ballpark in emotionally taxing dialogues), the basketball scene came across a bit perfunctory for me, but I am glad if it worked for you.
Having had some sense knocked into him, courtesy of Emmett, Ben reformats his priorities and pays a visit to Vance’s wife Estelle (Denise Burse, strangely not credited anywhere for this episode). He gives her Vance’s ring, as promised. Estelle blames Ben for her husband’s troubles and sternly demands that he “fixes this.” Inside Vance’s ring, the sentence “You Shall Know the Truth” is engraved, and Estelle reads the one inside hers, “And the Truth Shall Set You Free.” The second is the sentence Agent Powell quoted out of nowhere to Ben in a low voice right before he left his house during the earlier unannounced visit with the Director from the Pentagon. Estelle says that only people who loved him enough to visit his grave knew about the quote because it is on his tombstone.
Next, Ben visits Vance’s grave and Powell appears standing behind Ben, saying that he has followed him all day. Ben spills out Vance’s movements since his supposed death and Powell, who is genuinely happy to hear that his ex-boss is still alive, is more than game to assist Ben in getting him back from Cuba. I have just one question. Why would Powell tell Ben an obscure quote that Ben would only hear again if Estelle happened to read aloud, directly to him, what is inside of her ring? Yes, it happened indeed, but Powell is obviously not Nostradamus, and he could not have known future events, so did he count on the extremely miniscule possibility of a certain succession of events occurring just to talk to Ben? Why not say to him at the house, “Hey, I need to talk to you in private, meet me at Vance’s grave”? Am I missing something here?
By the way, Ben’s plan involves something about Powell telling his bosses that there is something bigger in Cuba, such as a “piece of 828,” and them keeping it under wraps, and yet somehow that is supposed to help Ben retrieve Vance although Powell assures him that his ex-boss will be classified as a spy. Nothing makes sense about this plan, and it will soon blow up in everyone’s face, because the last related scene in the episode about the 828 is the bombshell news about “a section of 828 tailfin believed to be in Guantanamo.” So much for Ben asking Powell to keep it under wraps, although Powell is probably not at fault here. The media is already at the Stone household’s doorsteps, with Ben, Olive and Angelina inside. They will not be joining the rest of the gang at Tarik’s place anytime soon.
The episode ends with a montage – as “Destroyer” by Of Monsters and Men plays in the background — showing Grace, Tarik, and Cal having dinner, Michaela looking at a picture of the Major at the precinct, and Ben’s tissue sample glowing at Saanvi’s lab at the same time as Ben’s hand glowing at the house, as well as his handprint glowing on the 828 tailfin, securely locked away in some facility.
Last-minute thoughts:
— Ben receives a text message from “a friend” saying, “The truth has set him free.” He believes Vance is freed and texts the same sentence to Estelle who is filled with joy at reading it. I’ll wait one more episode to confirm before asking, how?
— Logan Crawford plays the news anchorman on TV, as he has done on several other TV shows. He is also an Emmy award-winning real-life newscaster. This is not the first time Manifest features an actual newscaster who also plays anchormen on TV shows. Kent Shocknek assumed a similar role in season 2’s “Coordinated Flight.”
— I totally felt for Ben when he was frantically looking for his glasses while they were within an arm’s reach, sitting behind the computer screen. Not to mention doing the same with my sunglasses outside, while they are sitting on top of my hat’s visor!
— Zeke is looking for apartments, for he and Michaela to move in together, I presume.
— Michaela insisted on keeping the picture as police evidence, much to the visible dismay of Olive and Angelina. It was a brief moment, but the way it was emphasized by the camera work, it felt consequential. Captain Bowers later handed it to Michaela at the precinct so that she can return it to Angelina. Will there be a scene devoted to that in the next episode? I am weirdly curious about this detail, and I admit that I may end up sounding stupid if there is nothing to it.
— Speaking of Bowers, she wants Michaela to keep a lid on the lake footage, partially because she is not sure what to make of the skeevy trio walking out of the lake alive after being assumed dead for over three months. Captain Bowers prefers facts over theories and I like how the show shifts between making that obsession work in her favor at times and against her in others.
— Cal’s voice functions as the calling in this episode. More to come on that, I hope.
Until the next episode…
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