“Return Trip” – Aired on February 10, 2020
Writer: Laura Putney & Margaret Easley
Director: Mo Perkins
Grade: 2,5 out of 5
Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers
There is no easy way to put this, so I will flatly state it from the beginning: “Return Trip” is a clunker. Clunkers seem inevitable, especially in the current arena of serialized storytelling on TV. They may come around frequently (in which case, the show is likely to have a short life span) or only make rare appearances (in the case of a high-quality series), but they are inevitable either way. Perfection is rarely sustainable, even among series considered to be the golden standard of primetime TV drama. Don’t kid yourself dear fans of Breaking Bad, The Wire, The Sopranos, or The Americans. They have the occasional clunker too.
The introductory paragraph above may sound like an alert notice to Manifest‘s ‘fanboys/fangirls,’ and it is. You may not like reading this review, if you expect a celebration of the show and/or of its characters, although if you regularly read my reviews, you probably know that cheerleading without a valid reason is not in my pedigree anyway. That is not to say I don’t engage in any applauding – see many of my Manifest reviews for starters – because I do. When I review a high-quality episode, that is. Simply put, “Return Trip” is not one of those. I don’t enjoy saying this as a fan of the show but wearing my neutral reviewer hat, I must.
The problem does not lie in the pacing or the acting in “Return Trip,” but rather in the planning and execution of its A stories. As a result, most of the show’s beloved characters are portrayed in a bad light or downright devalued. In fact, unless you are a fan of Olive or TJ, or them as a unit, you are not likely to enjoy reading my thoughts below, but I can promise you that they are honest observations.
The hour kicks off with a flashback as usual and this one comes from when Zeke and Courtney were in love and using drugs. Their romantic morning consists of Zeke arriving home, waking Courtney up and feeding her two pills that he just collected from a drug dealer named Lucas (Anthony Ordonez). Apparently, that is all Courtney needed to bring up the topic of marriage. Cut to the present day, to an AA meeting where Courtney is confessing her sins to the group, with Zeke present, saying that the flashback we just saw was how they made the rash decision to get married, further confirming the bizarre news-shocker ending of “Coordinated Flight.”
Thankfully, this Zeke-Courtney-marriage madness, that was seemingly inserted just to create viewer anxiety over a week-long period of wait between episodes (because, nothing about it made sense, see my review of last week), quickly ends when Ben questions Michaela about letting Courtney stay at her place. As it turns out, Zeke and Courtney were never legally married because they never filed the paperwork due to being “as high as kites,” Michaela says. She tries to be understanding, claiming that Zeke was there for her so she should help him with Courtney’s situation, murmuring something about Courtney appearing to be nice. Ben ain’t swallowing the tale and Michaela knows it. So, she switches to honesty mode at once and admits to the whole situation being “awful.” “I just want her gone,” she adds. Melissa Roxburgh performs the mood-switching so well (with a touch of humor) that it almost makes you forget how frivolous the marriage sub-tale was.
Next is a gratuitous scene of Tamara giving Jared a haircut, bringing him a step closer in appearance to that which his character is transforming into, a skeevy prig – is the haircut meant to echo racist skinheads? J.R. Ramirez’s range is well showcased in Manifest, as he aptly represents both the amiable Jared from earlier in Season 1 and the thorny Jared of now. Yet, this is not even the most unpleasant scene for Jared in this episode. That award goes to the bar scene toward the end when he spits out a stream of invectives against Michaela in order to – get this – convince Tamara’s sleazy brother Billy that he can be trusted. Our poor, oh-so-downtrodden detective finishes his harangue with, “Michaela destroyed my life. My entire life.”
Olive and TJ are turned away by Adrian at the Church of the Believers, much to Isaiah’s chagrin, because Ben gave Adrian a clear warning (nod to last week’s closing scene) and Olive being a minor, Adrian must comply with her father’s demand.
Luckily for us, the viewers, this unexpected turn of event for the two youngsters gives way to the most alluring storyline of the episode by far, Olive and TJ’s investigation into tarot cards and mythology, enhanced by genuine moments of connection and romance between the two. It definitely helps that Luna Blaise and Garrett Wareing are up to the task and do a stellar job of conveying the budding romance between the two outcast-youngsters via authentic dialogue that never once forays into syrupy territory. So, please indulge my desire to stick with their story a bit longer.
Olive takes TJ to the park where she encountered the tarot reader who gave Olive the peacock card three years ago (portrayed in the flashback scene that began “Coordinated Flight”). Instead, they find another reader (Sarah Folkins) who gladly supplies them with the necessary information, in return for cash in her tip jar, on how to get hold of the deck of cards to which Olive’s card belongs. It apparently comes from an out-of-print one named the Al-Zuras deck.
Once Olive and TJ return home with the deck of cards purchased in its neat original box, they make some fascinating discoveries. The Al-Zuras deck of cards was invented by a 16th-century Egyptian scholar and artist named Yusuv Al-Zuras. Thanks to a few clicks on “Infopendium,” Wikipedia’s fictional equivalent, TJ learns that Al-Zuras, according to legend, was lost at sea. Upon his mysterious return a decade later, he claimed he could “hear the voice of God in his head,” echoing the passengers’ ability to hear callings. Olive notes the possibility of a groundbreaking discovery here, that what is happening to Flight 828 passengers could date back centuries. She speculates that the calling led them to Al-Zuras who had possibly survived his own death date four centuries ago.
After being fascinated by the Al-Zuras story, TJ and Olive next focus on fascinating each other. A cute conversation ensues when Olive tries to distract TJ who is feeling overwhelmed by the possible consequences of his callings. She reads tarot cards to him, makes up stories, and most importantly, makes him smile again. TJ is fairly smooth himself as his disposition makes clear how much he appreciates her effort. I must reiterate that Blaise and Wareing knock these scenes off the ballpark like if they were all-star veterans of Hollywood.
Their story, the outing’s best by a long shot, ends with the two of them locking lips by the river, after TJ surprises Olive with a romantically lit path leading to a picnic spread by the water under the stars.
Back at the Stone household, things are not going as smoothly as they are for Olive and TJ. Some reporter from New York Life magazine left a message on Grace’s phone, leaving her perturbed to say the least, requesting an interview with her about the first 828 baby about to be brought into the world. Grace does not want anyone to know about the baby and Ben’s attempts to calm her down get interrupted when he finds himself on Flight 828 in a vision, with Saanvi yelling for his help from further back in the plane before vanishing into thin air.
Interpreting the vision as Saanvi being in trouble, Ben and Michaela hurry to the hospital and find her passed out in her lab. She was experimenting on herself, trying to catch up with the Major who stole all her material from her secret-not-so-secret lab at home, back in “Black Box.”
While recovering at the hospital, Saanvi reveals to Ben that her plea for help in the vision was not for her but for a five-year-old boy sitting in 14C. He looked scared and had yellow circles in his eyes. The strange thing is, as Ben quickly points out, there were no children younger than Cal on the plane. Naturally, Ben knows anything and everything about the plane, including who sits in what seat (and probably when they got up for the bathroom, if they did number one or two, etc.), and informs Saanvi that an adult by the name of Finn Nowak (Rafi Silver) occupied that seat.
Finn does not have a family and when Ben pays him a visit, he says that he got on Flight 828 by chance, after missing his regularly scheduled flight earlier that day. He was in Jamaica for a bachelor party and met a woman named Orlena (Marcy Harriell) with whom he spent one night. She was gone the next morning but she must have taken him to paradise overnight because he was looking for her so hard the next day that he missed his flight. As Finn finishes his interesting account, Ben spots a picture of a child who looks like the one he and Saanvi saw in the vision. Finn says it’s a picture of him when he was five years old, which begs the question, why did Saanvi and Ben see the five-year-old Finn in their vision?
Unfortunately, this intriguing set-up for an A story loses steam from this point forward due to a few questionable liberties taken by the writing room, resulting in some uneven (“highly improbable” is also fitting) behavior by the main characters.
In one of the more ramrodded dialogues of the episode, one that begins with Saanvi not even knowing about Finn’s one-night stand, she and Ben deduce and learn in 28 seconds (1) that Finn must have left Orlena pregnant, (2) that Orlena must have therefore given birth 40 weeks after the one-night session in Jamaica, (3) that her baby must specifically be the one who appeared in their vision in his current age, (4) that the baby must therefore be in trouble, (5) the exact date and location of Orlena’s delivery, (6) that her last name is Prager, and (7) that the child’s name is Theo. Also included in those 28 seconds, for good measure, are Orlena’s full address and Saanvi quickly picking up her purse because, allez hop! They are already zooming over to Orlena’s house.
Now, we move into the territory of Ben and Saanvi sticking their noses into the affairs of people that they never met before, not to mention that they show up at Orlena’s doorstep as total strangers, giving creepy vibes by immediately letting her know that they have questions about her son Theo! Puzzled (which is a lot less severe of a reaction than mine would have been under those circumstances), Orlena asks why they want information on her son, to which Ben replies, “we’re not exactly sure,” and follows it up with, “do you remember Finn Novak?”
To turn such an outrageous move on the part of two main characters into a viable scene, some outrageous coincidence would have to be written in to stop Orlena from having the most common-sense reaction, most likely consisting of freaking out, telling Ben and Saanvi to get the hell away from her doorstep, shutting the door, and calling 911 about two creeps by her front door who are harassing her with questions about her son. Sure enough, the badly needed outrageous coincidence arrives when Orlena’s husband returns home with the three kids, including Theo (James Lynch), precisely at the same time as Ben and Saanvi are asking her about Finn. That interrupts Ban and Saanvi’s interrogation bordering on harassment and Orlena tells them to leave, adding some commentary about what a “good husband” he has, enough to indicate that he has no idea about Theo not being his biological son. Orlena didn’t just have a one-night stand; she had a one-night extra-marital escapade.
Ben and Saanvi are on a roll with their oddball moves though, and there is no stopping them. Next is their meeting with Finn during which they make one intellectually dishonest statement after another – I am trying hard to avoid using the term “hypocrites” here, only because it’s Ben and Saanvi.
Sitting inside Finn’s house, they basically give him the newsflash that the woman with whom he had a one-night stand was married and got pregnant that night, and is now running around with a son that Finn had no idea he had for the last five years. Absorb that first, dear Finn! I am going to leave aside the question of whether Ben and Saanvi even have the ethical blessing to reveal all this life-changing information to Finn or not (one that will undoubtedly have significant consequences for at least six people that Ben and Saanvi did not even know until a few hours ago), and move straight to the conversation.
After first hitting Finn with the news of his son that he knew nothing about, and knowing full well that the news would lead Finn to have the desire to see his son, Ben and Saanvi use the ubiquitous “oh-but” statement about how Theo’s current father is “very loving” and the family is very happy. I’m sorry Ben and Saanvi, you just slapped the guy with a colossal chunk of information, and now you are going to pretend “easing him” into the moral and ethical complications that his desire to see his son may bring as a consequence?
Second, when Finn asks if he could insist on visitation rights, Ben responds in the affirmative before, once again, bringing in the “oh-but” moral-warning clause about how Finn would be “risking blowing up a happy family.” Can I get a wut?
Wait, Ben is not even finished! When poor Finn finally asks Ben and Saanvi to help him at least see Theo one time, Ben’s response is, “Are you sure? Because as a father, I have to say, I think it would be harder to walk away than you think.”
Excuse me?!?! Heed the words of the mighty model-father-divine-citizen!
Let me recap how awful the whole scene makes Ben and Saanvi look. They waltzed into Finn’s house and took it upon themselves to ‘enlighten’ Finn with one big reveal after another, involving a son he did not know he had, and now that the poor guy reacts in the same way that most people would, they give him these oh-so-adult warnings amounting up to nothing more than “we’ll cite some ethical and moral family doctrine to you and rid ourselves of the responsibility, in case your reaction causes harm to anyone.” Lastly, let’s be honest, Ben and Saanvi are not even pursuing this matter because they care so deeply about Finn, Theo, or Orlena at the end of the day. They are doing so, primarily because they want to know Theo’s role in the vision, and hope to use that knowledge to advance their own cause, which is to save their own patooties from the upcoming death date.
I mentioned how an outrageous coincidence was needed to render the scene with them visiting Orlena viable. Well, to make this messy scene with Finn also viable, something outrageous is also needed, such as, oh I dunno, maybe portray Finn as one of the most magnanimous and mellow-natured guest characters ever seen in TV shows?
Lo and behold, Finn turns out to be just that!
He meets his son, wants to be involved in his life, treats Orlena with respect despite finding out that she had hidden a son from him for five years and planned to do so for life. Finn also saves Theo’s life by donating a liver to the boy. Earlier, Saanvi asked Orlena to take Theo to the hospital when she observed the boy having motor issues at the park and remembered the yellow circles in his eyes during the vision. Once there, he was diagnosed with liver disease. Hey, at least, some good comes out of Ben and Saanvi’s machinations. I am a fan of both otherwise, but do ends justify the means here? I think I made my position clear on that, others may well disagree.
Upon arriving home, Michaela finds her apartment in disarray and Courtney beaten up because Lucas and his men stopped by to collect the $20K drug money that she owes him. Either she begins working for Lucas or her days are numbered. Zeke had enough and wants to “take care” of this problem by confronting Lucas. Michaela gets another vision right then, seeing ashes snowing down, which then prompts her to help Zeke. She is going undercover with him, posing as his junkie friend Ella, in probably one of the most impulsive decisions of her career as a sworn law enforcement officer.
Their visit to Lucas’s house made me wonder at first why the drug dealer would even allow an unknown woman to accompany Zeke into his house, but then I realized, who am I kidding? Michaela must be present for that run-of-the-mill narrative to work. There is nevertheless one entertaining sequence when Lucas requires that Michaela injects herself with drugs. In order to get out of this unexpected quandary, Michaela and Zeke engage in an amusing, made-up-on-the-spot argument giving Michaela the occasion to land a potent slap on Zeke’s face. I chuckled at his expression, I must admit.
Let’s not dwell on why a “really scary” drug dealer, as Zeke refers to him earlier, would have only two bodyguards protecting him at his house during the meeting. Zeke and Michaela conveniently out-muscle Lucas and one bodyguard when Mick’s cover is blown, because Duncan (Sterling Jonatán Williams), the other bodyguard, ‘amazingly’ recognized her (you know, her being a cop and Flight-828 survivor and all). Duncan is then neutralized when Drea appears behind him with a gun. Don’t ask how she entered this “really scary” drug dealer’s house so easily.
In any case, Lucas is caught and will no longer bother Courtney. Speaking of Courtney, while Zeke and Michaela were busy saving her, she left Mick’s apartment for good, leaving a note behind saying that she decided to “move into the sober house.” Zeke tells Michaela, shortly before they lock lips, that he is perfectly happy to leave behind the Courtney chapter of his life.
Is he though? Is he really leaving it all behind?
I ask because Zeke exists in a TV show that draws breath in 2020, meaning that it must behave like its serialized contemporaries and not dare to bring down the curtain on the heels of a happy moment without an 11th-hour whaaat moment. That requirement is fulfilled when Michaela finds two pills inside the barrel of Zeke’s razor, a method that he had used before to hide drugs, according to Courtney earlier in the episode.
If it only ended with that whaaat moment…
Michaela next notices ashes snowing down in the bathroom, just as Saanvi does at her lab when she is preparing to inject herself with the experimental serum, and Ben does at home sitting in his Agent-Mulder-like office at the basement. That paves the way for the ultimate whaaat moment where all three find themselves in the same vision, inside a crashed airplane, presumably Flight 828. Everyone is dead, except that only some of the passengers were on the actual flight (like Finn) while others appear to be unknowns. Michaela, Saanvi, and Ben are not the only three staring at the macabre scene either. Adrian is standing just outside, looking equally stupefied.
Whaaat?!?!
Last-minute thoughts:
– Putting aside all else, I am glad the mythology/sci-fi portion of the show made a comeback this week. It is an integral part of Manifest‘s overall arc and good for the soul as far as this nerd is concerned.
– Ben is impressed by Olive and TJ’s discovery of the Al-Zuras connection. The ensuing dialogue between father and daughter appears to be the first step in mending their strained relationship since that powerful family-quarrel scene in “Coordinated Flight.”
– Ben is not impressed, however, with Grace changing her mind about the interview with the reporter from New York Life magazine. He is effectively dumbfounded to hear her advance the absurd theory involving them publicly claiming that it’s Danny baby, in the hopes that everyone will then leave them alone. I don’t even know where to start with that lunacy, and thankfully I may not have to, because Ben vehemently rejects the suggestion. I can only hope that Grace, along with the writing room, shelved the idea away for good.
– Michaela asks Captain Bowers if she received any news of a leak from the internal affairs division, to which the Captain reacts negatively, as if one would expect anything else. She has scolded Michaela on every occasion for three episodes now, including on this exact issue, so I am not sure what that particular scene accomplished. Considering their earlier talks on the topic, why would Michaela expect the Captain to request anything at all from internal affairs? I thought she’d made it clear that she had zero intention of doing so.
– I loved watching Michaela take a strong stance with regard to Courtney’s intrusion into her private life, remaining cool-headed and not succumbing to petty jealousy. Nice decision also by the writers to put Michaela’s resolve on a pedestal. Surely, it took a lot for her to put aside the knowledge that Courtney appeared at her doorstep donned with two gigantic deceptions, first hiding the fact that she initially came there to hide from Lucas, second being that she presented herself as Zeke’s wife. Add to that Michaela’s place being trashed and the constant presence of an unstable woman likely to try her luck at seducing her old lover back while Michaela’s at work, it becomes clear that the good detective Stone took quite a leap of faith with the whole situation. It is precisely why her getting rewarded at the end is a rare victory in the name of positive portrayal of maturity in today’s drama-TV landscape where, for the sake of ratings and melodrama, storylines of this type bank on negativity via the use of vindictive jealousy and sappy tantrums. Having a scene specifically showing Courtney’s recognition of Michaela’s benevolence was the icing on the cake.
– Nitpick time: when Olive reads the top of the box of Al-Zuras cards, she says aloud “16th-century Egyptian scholar and artist,” but the camera shows that the writing on the box actually reads “16th-century Egyptian merchant and artist.”
– Orlena and Finn have a congenial moment at the hospital when she thanks him for his sacrifice and tells him that he deserves to be a part of Theo’s life. Will she think the same when the moment comes for her to come clean to her husband? Not sure, and I assume that we will never find out.
– Ben grabs the understatement of the year award when he tells Saanvi at the end that Finn is a “good guy.”
– I am surprised that Cal, one of the central figures of the opening season, has taken this much of a backseat so far in the second season. Ironically, the last time he was seen on screen was in the backseat of a car, in a token appearance two episodes ago.
– I must once again note how large the aisle is inside Flight 828. The largest I’ve ever seen, real or fictional, and I fly a lot!
Until the next episode…
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