“Inversion Illusion” – Aired on November 4, 2022
Writers: Jeff Rake & Margaret Easley
Director: Romeo Tirone
Grade: 3.5 out of 5
Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers
Note: This review was published little over two years after the episode aired, but written without any knowledge of the events taking place in future episodes.
On the one hand, “Inversion Illusion” is a fine exercise in what mid-season finales (or season finales) should strive for in terms of narrative content: stakes raised, characters in life-threatening limbos, major twists causing paradigm shifts, plenty of “wow” moments, characters from the past showing up unexpectedly, etc. A good example is the return of Grace (great to see Athena Karkanis again, even as a fake Grace) whose appearance shocks and exults the viewer at first, yet makes complete sense soon after. The aim is to create enough interest, or anxiety, depending on your definition, in viewers to make them eagerly anticipate future pay-offs to current story lines, and resolutions to the dilemmas facing their favorite characters. In short, you want to add fuel to their burning desire for the show’s return. In this exercise, “Inversion Illusion” checks the boxes.
On the other hand, the episode is also a lesson on how that content’s impact and value can promptly be diminished if presented in an amorphous structure in the name of elevating the shock barometer. “Inversion Illusion” is one chaotic sprint to the finish line with not much care given to how events tie together, or to the resolution of subplots from recent episodes. There are several instances that make the astute viewer say “wait a minute, when/how did that happen,” which usually means that a substantial amount of hand-waving is required, and that one’s suspension of disbelief is strained to its limits.
Considering the contrasts noted in the above two paragraphs, is “Inversion Illusion” a success or a failure? It depends on your perspective. Most casual viewers who binge shows as pure entertainment, or because they care for a specific actor and thus watch the show as a tangent interest, will probably be satisfied. And they likely comprise the majority of the audience. I’ll admit that I am part of this audience with certain shows (not Manifest) that I consider as light-viewing, and I enjoy them thoroughly.
For others with a more acute approach to what entails an hour of fictional story-telling on TV, priorities differ considerably. They are probably less in numbers compared to the group noted above because their motivation to watch a show goes beyond mere entertainment. They are likely to seek story telling that engages reflection, they pay attention to detail, and they obsess over things like production value, editorial quality, actors’ performances, plausible transitions between scenes, etc. For these people, of which I happen to be one for Manifest, I presume that “Inversion Illusion” didn’t quite pass the test.
For starters, its short running time of under 40 minutes (not counting the “previously on Manifest” part and the end credits) cripples the episode’s ability to flesh out the characters’ agenda behind their acts, and to emphasize the nuances needed to cohesively connect the chain of events. Add to that the exuberant amount of plot lines racing simultaneously, and you end up with one frenzied mid-season finale. I’d argue that the previous episode, “Rendezvous,” was better equipped to be a finale than this one.
Speaking of “Rendezvous,” consider its electrifying closing moments for instance. “Inversion Illusion” seems so preoccupied with running out of the gate at warp speed that it undervalues the thrill of excitement created by the cliffhangers of “Rendezvous” – although the fact that these two episodes, along with the first eight of the season, were released on the same date by Netflix may have lessened this effect, allowing the viewer to move straight to the next outing without having to experience the week-long anticipation.
If you recall, before the end credits started rolling, we had our heroes stuck in a calling that took them inside the 828 plane on fire, with volcanoes erupting down on the ground that could be seen from the plane windows. Eagan was knocked out in his hotel room, either dead or alive, and the Omega sapphire was no longer in his possession. Well, when “Inversion Illusion” begins, the only factor related to those last scenes is a brief glimpse of Angelina holding the sapphire as she walks through the streets of New York. All others in the plane are back home having quite moments, or elsewhere running errands. As for Eagan, we don’t even see him until 10 minutes into the episode, although him being in an emergency room somewhere is briefly mentioned a bit sooner. No talk of volcanoes erupting down below in the calling, no elaboration on why Jared, Zeke, Olive, and Alex were present in the plane, or on when, precisely, the calling ended. Didn’t those involved in the calling have a talk immediately after it ended? Were the viewers supposed to simply assume that the calling ended when credits started rolling? “Inversion Illusion” begins as if they should have, although that is the opposite effect of the intent behind cliffhangers.
Moving on…
Cal is on his death bed, so to speak, and Zeke is staying by his side comforting him in the loveliest way imaginable. He also reminisces about the times Cal helped him when his own death date was nearing (see season 2’s “Call Sign”). Matt Long excels here in portraying the caring adult who is getting crushed under the weight of his helplessness to save the boy. At one point, he asks Cal’s permission to use his powers to take his pain away, but Cal’s response is poignant: “You taking it on and making it go away, are not the same thing.”
It appears that Jared has indeed accepted the position at the Registry. He gets a not-so-friendly welcome from Officer Wicks, but a delightfully sarcastic one from Drea (Ellen Tamaki’s representation of the witty, casual detective-girlfriend of Jared is getting better with each appearance). He and Michaela meet later at the hospital to question Eagan on what happened. Eagan says that the Omega Sapphire was taken from him by the “world’s smallest sociopath,” which is, I guess, enough of a description for Michaela to understand that it was Angelina. This is where I wonder if it would have had more impact to show Angelina approaching Eagan’s hotel room (instead of a mere shadow) in “Rendezvous,” rather than waiting until the start of this episode, showing Angelina walking with the sapphire in the streets, to reveal that it was her. I would say, yes, it would have. This opening scene would be more noteworthy, confirming the viewers’ fears that she succeeded. Then again, I am not in the writing room.
How did Angelina know about the sapphire’s existence, about Eagan being in possession of it, or even his location? Eagan’s explanation is, “hell if I know” (read: hand-waving moment). Inside Eagan’s bag Michaela finds a brochure given to him by Noelle, Angelina’s mom. Some scripture sentence in it leads Jared and Michaela to realize that Angelina believes Eden is her guardian angel.
At the house, Grace (yes, Grace!) appears to Ben. Let me first say that I am not a fan of dead characters reappearing and talking to the ones alive – a cliché nowadays in series and movies – and yet, even for me, seeing Athena Karkanis again was charming, even as a fake Grace. I was relieved even further when we find soon after that it is not indeed Ben’s Grace coming to chat with him from the after life. You see, this Grace insists that Ben brings Eden to her. At first Ben is confused, but he figures for the moment that Grace meant for him to bring Eden to her grave.
At the grave, Grace reappears, and this time she is telling Ben to to turn Eden back over to Angelina. Ben knows this time something is amiss, especially when he notices that the colors of Grace’s eyes are different. This isn’t his wife Grace. It’s a trick played by Angelina using the powers of the sapphire! She is standing on the other side with open arms, and Eden starts running toward her. Ben tries to intervene but Angelina pulls out a gun. Eden is her guardian angel and Ben cannot keep them apart, she claims. Ben says Eden should choose between them, and thus begins the awkward sequence of Ben and Angelina alternately pulling on Eden’s heart strings to convince her in one or the other’s favor (how wise is it to put a small child through that process, I’ll let viewers decide). Ultimately, Eden chooses Ben and they runaway from Angelina who screams in agony holding the sapphire, which causes a massive, pain-inducing calling for all 828 passengers across the country!
This includes a passenger named Joe (Bru Aju) at the Registry who was about to leave with his son before Angelina’s calling caused him to collapse and hold his head in pain. Wicks, the despicable officer, decides to detain him because the handbook says that if “a passenger exhibits particularly onerous or unusual behavior,” they can take him in. As far Wicks is concerned, a “mind-meld scream” counts as one. Joe’s poor kid Charlie (Jahleel Kamara) is in panic mode seeing his dad taken away but Drea calms him down temporarily. Much later in the episode, we will have another frustrating scene where the dickish Wicks apprehends Joe once more, sending his son into panic mode again, as Captain Fahey announces to everyone at the Registry that all 828 passengers in the US must be detained until further notice.
At the Stone household, Ben informs everyone that he left Eden with his dad for now. They need to find Angelina, and Michaela believes the calling she had earlier while visiting Eagan (an angel figure shattering into glass) can be a sign. Upon hearing that, Olive remembers helping Angelina with the same calling – back in season 3’s “Deadhead” – and figures out where they can find Angelina. She is at her old school where there is the stained-color glass with the figure of the archangel. That’s Michaela and Ben’s next destination.
Once there, they find Angelina kneeling down in front of the stained-glass window talking to the archangel on it. For some reason, she has now changed her view from Eden being her angel to herself being the angel (someone please make it make sense). She has also formed some sort of a lava passage in the middle that has a few people stranded on one side of the hallway. Ben and Michaela approach Angelina and make a futile attempt to reason with her on giving the sapphire back and put a stop to this madness. Angelina resists and even pulls the same trick as she did with Grace by making Evie appear, to distract Michaela by playing on her guilt about the night Evie died in the car accident (see season 1’s “Turbulence,” Michaela was the driver). Ben tries to convince Michaela to stay focused, telling her that Evie’s not real. It’s enough distraction however for Michaela to drop the gun she was holding into the lava.
Meanwhile, TJ checked the papyrus out from Astoria and brought it home. Olive is surprised they let him check it out but hey, once “the guy” (who happens to be Levi, the artifact dude with whom Olive had a temporary fling back in season 3) verified that TJ was the one who sent it from Egypt, he gladly let him check it out – funny reaction by an embarrassed Olive upon hearing the name Levi. A cleverly done nod, again, to a past character by the writing room.
After a load of astro-mythologico-babble, the use of infra-red filters, and a bunch of other not-so-clear images, juxtapositions, and dot connections, Olive and TJ discover the shape of the Dragon constellation on the papyrus. And what or who does this have to do with? Remember Cal’s dragon scar that appeared on his arm after Henry “activated his inner dragon”? — If you don’t, see “All Call.”
Sure enough, the next scene tunes into Cal whose scar starts moving on his arm and glowing sapphire. “I am the dragon,” announces Cal, dramatically. At that moment, he finds himself back in Flight 828 with Angelina alone. He pleads with her to stop the madness, to no avail. Angelina attacks him with the sapphire in her hand but hey, Cal is the dragon, right? So, he resists. Angelina then pulls the fake-Grace-appearance card once again with Cal, who momentarily sees his mother in front of him and gets distracted. Grace tells him to let go and join her. Cal realizes that she cannot be his real mother because she would never tell him to give up the fight. Angelina’s ruse is over and we are back to the duel. Cal soon grabs Angelina’s hand that holds the sapphire and they both start screaming and shaking, at which point the sapphire in Angelina’s hand back in the school shatters into pieces and Cal wakes up back in bed, before falling back on his pillow with his eyes closed.
Note that while this sapphire duel was taking place in the calling, Ben and Michaela, who had been trying to reason with Angelina in the school building, saw her suddenly freezing while standing, and Zeke was observing Cal looking catatonic back at home as if the boy were about to die. Ben and Michaela took the opportunity to save the people stranded behind the lava (why not apprehend Angelina first and grab the sapphire while she is distracted? Because… reasons). Zeke, for his part, was panicking as he was watching Cal slip away.
At the Bird’s Nest, Saanvi informs Vance of Angelina’s shenanigans, which alarms Vance because they will now be unable to tell if a calling is real or false (always nice to see Darryl Edwards back to the screen). Saanvi decides to call Dr. Gupta for help.
Saanvi notices Cal’s scar sample suddenly glowing while working at the Bird’s Nest. She has also seen it before on Ben’s hand. It’s sapphire! Later in the episode, after the Cal-Angelina sapphire duel ends, Saanvi sees the scar sample’s glowing fade away. It’s enough to confirm that the Major was right, Saanvi underlines, Cal is the holy grail! At that moment, there is a raid on the Bird’s Nest and Vance tells Saanvi to destroy everything in a hurry. Saanvi first destroys the scar tissue and they both delete their computer files as the SWAT team raids the lab. It turns out that Gupta helmed the raid, which sends Saanvi in a rage of fury toward her. Gupta blames Saanvi (who dropped the driftwood into the fissure in “Compass Calibration”) for losing the Omega Sapphire and putting the whole world at risk.
Realizing that he’s on his last legs, Cal asks Zeke to get Olive and everyone else by his side. Zeke is torn, and hearing Olive discuss upstairs with TJ how a passenger touched by the sapphire could “tip the scale” and allow everyone to survive makes him further ponder his next decision. “Cal can save all of us,” affirms Olive, not aware that Zeke is eavesdropping on this conversation from the stairs. A couple of timely flashbacks of Zeke thanking Cal for saving him, and Zeke no longer needs to ponder. He must save Cal! — this is a great sequence showing the progress of Zeke from an undecided man to one firmly convinced in his decision. Kudos to Matt Long who conveys that progress well to the viewers, to the writing room for the apposite flashbacks, and to the editing team for the nuts and bolts of putting the cuts together. For me, this was the best two minutes (approx.) of the outing. Even better than the formidable next scene in which he calls Michaela to say goodbye. Bravo, if you can hold your tears through these moments.
Michaela and Ben urgently head home to join Cal and Zeke, leaving Angelina behind in the building. They arrive just in time for Michaela to have a few last words with Zeke before he passes out (or dies, we do not and cannot know. This is the mid-season finale, after all),and Ben to hug Cal. But hang on, Cal wakes up, looking a lot livelier than he ever did throughout his sickness. It looks like Zeke’s pain-transfer method has served its purpose.
As for Angelina, the stained-glass shattered on top of her earlier as the building was collapsing – as seen in her nightmares in the past – and she fell to the ground. As she gets up, she notices a shard of the sapphire on the rubble. As it falls into the lava, she reaches for it with her hand. She screams in pain because the shard is embedded into her burnt palm in a fairly petrifying scene. The last shot of the hour is Angelina walking away from the building with her ‘sapphired,’ coal-colored hand, quoting scripture, and with fissures forming all across the land as the camera zooms out toward the sky.
Last-minute thoughts:
— The shot at the end from high above, showing Michaela in tears holding Zeke on the floor on the side of the bed, while Cal lies awake with Olive and Ben standing next to him, was great camera work. Tragedy and miracle captured in one shot.
— Nice touch by Zeke to play the 2014 Yankees’ title game with Derek Jeter to please Cal who probably got on the 828 flight back then as a budding fan of the player and never got to see it.
— Olive and TJ have another romantic scene that hits it out of the ballpark, or should I say, Wareing and Blaise act the heck out of these scenes. TJ should have been back from Egypt earlier in the series, that’s all I’ll say on that topic.
— Nit-pick time: As Ben comes out of the burning building, he tells Michaela that “Angelina is gone.” Say wut? She was still in the building when he left. She may have died in it for all Ben knows. Why say “she is gone” as if he saw her escape the building and leave?
Until the next episode…
PS1: Click on All Reviews at the top to find a comprehensive list of my episodic reviews.
PS2: Follow Durg on Twitter and Facebook