“Hard Landing” – Aired on February 11, 2019
Written by: Gregory Nelson & Bobak Esfarjani
Directed by: Claudia Yarmy
Grade: 3 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

An odd penultimate episode “Hard Landing” is, for a show that has been, for the most part, riding an overall arc filled with conundrums and twists. Last week’s brilliant “Upgrade” did a great job of bringing the major players of Manifest back into the center of the tableau and set the last two hours up for a fantastic landing. Yet, unlike its title would suggest, “Hard Landing” contains no ‘hard landings’, not even mere ‘landings.’

Don’t get me wrong, the narrative works reasonably well as a self-contained episode. The problem lies in its position within the episode count. “Hard Landing” feels like an early-to-mid-season episode in its ambition and form. It focuses on an 11th-hour character, James Griffin (Marc Menchaca), while reducing the role of the characters that are central to solving Manifest’s main puzzle to either background visuals (Cal) or to nothing (the Major). 

This 15th episode of the 16-episode season seems more concerned with creating new storylines and questions than bringing any type of resolution to the numerous dilemmas tackled so far in the show. As a result, going into the last hour of the season, we have a whole new character pop up as a major villain who belongs to the same ‘blood-work family’ as the Flight 828 passengers and Zeke, a recurring character in Zeke himself who was added to the mix late in the season to expand the scope of the show’s predominant mystery and whose behavior continues to generate further questions, and Saanvi whose problems are compounded because she is now suffering from trauma due to the assault she had to endure in Alice’s house last week. Even its new minor characters seem to come out of left field, such as Dr. Matthews (Rey Lucas), another doctor at Saanvi’s hospital, who notices her discomfort and offers help, before she ‘gently’ brushes him off. Surely, there is more to follow on Matthews, or else, why even waste time on him in such an important episode. At the same time, how significant can his contribution to the season finale possibly be, if he is in it at all?

In the meantime, what about the Major? Cal? The light that Cal saw from the window of the plane? The physical manifestation of Cal’s connection to the passengers? The fact that there are now people other than Flight 828 passengers linked to this phenomenon? Peacock and the petroglyph? FBI and CIA’s involvement? Fiona and Daly’s destiny? The ‘what-really-counts’ list goes on and on, and yet, almost every item on that list remains ignored by “Hard Landing.” 

Now, there is only the season finale left to bring a resolution to all of the above and more. It certainly does not seem possible. In fairness, I doubt Jeff Rake & Co. planned to provide an answer to every question anyway, leaving some hanging in the balance for a possible – probable – second season (What on earth is taking NBC so long to give the green light?) Nonetheless, “Hard Landing,” while doing a decent job of handling its own contained narrative, dishes no assists to the season finale and effectively puts it into a corner.   

​At the end of “Upgrade,” Griffin was alive when the van was pulled up from the water. He is brought to the hospital in the beginning of this episode where Saanvi, in her trademark lovely and nerdy way, calculates that he has been under water for 82 hours and 8 minutes and associates it with “828.” The flashback in the beginning of the episode aptly provides the backstory of how Griffin ended up as the driver of the van. He stole money that he put in the van with help from a couple of buddies, whom he killed before driving the van away by himself. Michaela and Saanvi notice him having a vision in the ICU bed and yelling something about an explosion. This sets up the interrogation scenes between Michaela and Griffin, which act as the driving force of the hour.

Once Griffin is transferred to the precinct, Michaela attempts to extract information from him, with help from Ben, Grace, and Olive as they investigate the criminal’s past from their home to dig up dirt that Michaela can use to get under his skin. Her ultimate goal is to get Griffin to reveal the location of the upcoming explosion. Unfortunately for her, she also faces an insurmountable problem that she mistakenly created herself. For some unfathomable reason, she shared with Griffin everything that she knows about the callings and their tendency to portend future events while he was still at the hospital, although she knew by then that he committed a robbery and a double-homicide — Come to think of it, Captain Riojas may need a lesson or two in choosing his favorite cops. Jared and Michaela appear to be his preferred duo because he always calls on them to handle the important cases. Yet, the former does nothing but serve as the full-time caretaker of the Stone family while the latter is apparently prone to serious investigative blunders. Dear Captain, hire Stone, Ben Stone!

The most sensitive information found by the Stone trio involves Griffin’s foster brother Devon who saved Griffin’s life at one point only to be framed for murder by him later. Michaela speculates that Griffin may carry around bottled-up regret about Devon in the same way that Zeke and Michaela do about Chloe and Evie respectively, and tries to use that link to connect with Griffin, to no avail. Griffin, whose moral turpitude is apparent to anyone with eyes and ears, is well aware of how crucial the location of the explosion in his vision is to the authorities (there is also a token FBI agent with Riojas overseeing the interrogations). He is determined to keep the information to himself until they guarantee him full immunity.

The interrogation scenes drag on a bit too long, and unsurprisingly, Michaela fails in her endeavor. FBI Agent Dayton (Julee Cerna) and Captain Riojas are left with no choice but to give Griffin immunity. Once signed, he reveals the bomb’s location, a hot-dog cart in Times Square. The bomb is successfully diffused, and the episode ends with Michaela seeing the blood-curdling CGI-wolf growling at her before he disappears into the crowd.

The larger message of the whole Griffin plotline is that while the callings may appear to be benevolent in their nature, as in warnings to prevent future tragedies from occurring, they can also turn into weapons in the hands of a malevolent individual such as Griffin. It’s essentially the rehash of the over-a-century-old cliché of Alfred Nobel and his invention of dynamite. It takes 38 minutes in a 43-minute-long episode for this point to be explicitly expressed (by Grace and Ben first, then by Saanvi a bit later).

I don’t have the exact figures of course, but it feels as if Griffin occupies more screen time in this episode than any character, main or not, did in any other episode of the season. If I didn’t know any better, I would think that he is replacing the Major as the main villain in Manifest at the eleventh hour. But, surely not, although he looked the part when he said at the end that he would take the callings to a “whole new level.”  

The scenes with Ben, Grace, and Olive as they assist Michaela are marked by some pleasant moments. In one of them, Olive, who is working the internet with a much higher degree of efficiency than Ben and Grace are, delivers one of the most charming lines of the hour in the best teenage-y way possible when she says to her parents, “There was this thing called MySpace, it’s hilarious.” In another scene, Grace meets with Angela Graham (Jade Wu), the woman who used to be Griffin’s foster mother. In a meaningful dialogue, enhanced by good performances by both Karkanis and Wu, Angela talks of Griffin’s troubled childhood and concludes it with a premonitory warning that makes the viewer wish that Michaela was there to hear it: “Maybe not everyone deserves to be saved.”

Jostling for space and time in this whole Griffin mess is Jared who is rolling in some type of angst because Zeke has entered the picture and Michaela has not kept him in the loop (as if she ever has). He scolds her in the most ungainly manner possible, never mind that he did not have the courage to divorce his wife and set things on the right path with Michaela before Lourdes ended up leaving him, and that now he is arduously pursuing Michaela with the wedding ring still on his finger. He pulls the teenage move by bullying “the other boy,” much to to the dismay of Michaela who feels cornered into the position of playing “the girl in the middle.”

Jared thinks Zeke is a shoddy character and has him arrested when Zeke is caught trying to unlock the entrance door to a house with a pin (I am going to assume that the police car was there because Jared wanted him followed). Jared wants to also check Zeke’s background once he is brought to the precinct. By this time, Michaela has had enough and when he accuses her of trusting Zeke too much, she replies, “I don’t think that’s what you’re upset about,” as I cheer, “Yes! Go Michaela!”

At the same time, Jared may not necessarily be wrong about Zeke. We find out that the latter was actually trying to enter his mom’s apartment, but Michaela justifiably wants to know why he did not simply knock on the door. Zeke’s explanation is sketchy to say the least in my opinion, although you may need to listen to it and judge for yourself. And there is also the matter of him not giving his last name to the police at the precinct.

He does nonetheless come across genuine when he implores Michaela to believe in him and reminds her that he is not like Griffin. Michaela lets him out of jail so that he can visit his mom. The last time we see Zeke, he is at his mom’s door, ringing the bell. Of course, we are assuming that it’s his mom’s door because Zeke said so! If that is enough for Michaela, it is enough for the audience too, right? Or is it?

On the other hand, nothing Zeke can say is enough for Jared who is far from being done with him. The good detective is last seen turning the coffee cup used earlier by Zeke into the evidence-collection desk.

As for the side story centering on Saanvi’s PTSD, Michaela notices her condition first and notifies Ben who later comes to Saanvi’s office to get Griffin’s blood results only to find her visibly shaken. The magnanimous Ben that Manifest fans have come to love comforts her and lets her know that he and the others are there for her if she needs them. And there is also Dr. Matthews, not that Saanvi showed much interest in his offer to help.

As to this episode’s contribution to Manifest‘s overall arc, other than pointing out that the callings can also be exploited for pernicious reasons, your guess is as good as mine. I can simply say that it offered minimal progress toward resolutions. Now, the task of sticking the landing rests solely on the shoulders of the season finale’s writer(s) and director.

Last-minute thoughts:

– Cody the jerkwad makes a brief computer-screen appearance, one appearance too much if you don’t mind me saying so. I have zero interest in watching him or his storyline taking up valuable space and time.

– It seems as if Captain Riojas looks younger and younger with each episode. Did Alfredo Narciso request that his scenes get filmed in reverse chronological order?

– There is a terrific montage of scenes, further enhanced by great camera work (director: Claudia Yarmy) and an eerie score by Danny Lux, that begins with the end of the Grace-Ben dialogue around the 38-minute mark. It is the best visual sequence of the hour.

– Was I the only one whose heartbeat got elevated thinking that the bomb was going to explode when the squad agent gave the thumbs-up sign after cutting the red cable?

– The sarcasm in Michaela’s voice when she said, “All right. This was special,” following the initial snarky dialogue between Jared and Zeke, is the one moment in the episode where I literally laughed out loud.   

– The way Manifest’s showrunner Jeff Rake interacts with fans through social media and in public appearances should serve as a model for other showrunners. It’s one thing when actors do it, which also serves to increase their own visibility, but there is something special when the person helming the show remains accessible to the fan base, demonstrates the ability to absorb feedback, and responds to fans with bonafide sincerity, rather than being elusive like some others in their position mysteriously prefer to do. I am also assuming that Rake’s exemplary disposition in this department may pay off as fans will react with more brio if NBC’s lack of clarity in renewing Manifest lingers on any longer.

​Until the next episode…

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“Upgrade” – Aired on February 4, 2019
Written by: Matthew Lau & Ezra W. Nachman
Directed by: Craig Zisk
Grade: 4,5 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

In terms of pure screenwriting, “Upgrade” is a solid hour considering that Manifest is now markedly on the last stretch before crossing Season 1’s finish line. It checks most of the boxes usually reserved for late outings of a season, such as the further clarification of details in previously explored plots, revelation of secrets (preferably the ones related to family or romance – Manifest does both) in order to escalate the drama factor, influx of ‘cons’ to counteract ‘pros’ – or vice-versa – to cloud the decision-making process of the protagonists, and regroupment of various plotlines to ride the crescendo leading to an inevitable, fast-approaching climax. Couple that quality script with banner performances by lead actors in a few key scenes, and the end product is “Upgrade,” a compelling hour of TV.

Take for instance the dialogue between Michaela and Lourdes outside the precinct. Each woman arrives to that moment carrying a heavy amount of guilt. Most of it spills out into the open as both express their frustration over what took place since the reappearance of Flight 828, including their pent-up bitterness toward each other. They defend their individual positions in earnest, seeking some unattainable compromise. It is a terrifically written dialogue because neither Lourdes nor Michaela is wrong! And it is precisely, and sadly, why they end the dialogue burdened by regrets in the same way that they broached it, unable to solve anything in the process. Imagine the helpless feeling of giving your best effort to resolve a difficult situation, at the cost of hurting the feelings of someone you care for, only to realize that your best effort was in vain. Luckily, with Melissa Roxburgh and Victoria Cartagena acting the parts, you don’t have to!

The script requires two actors to adequately transfer the profound malaise buried in the pages onto the screen, and boy do Roxburgh and Cartagena deliver just that in this two-minute-long scene! The viewer can sense the emotional strain wreaking havoc on both Michaela and Lourdes as they confess to, and accuse, each other, and yet remain unable to get on the same page at any level. The sequence is a good example of how a predictable plot development (because, frankly, we knew for a long time that Michaela and Lourdes would eventually have this confrontation) can still engage viewers thanks to carefully written dialogues and actors invested in their roles.

The above scene, which takes place midway through the episode, comes at the heels of an unpleasant morning for the Jared-Lourdes couple in an earlier scene in which Lourdes attempts to make love to her disinterested husband. When she asks him what is wrong, Jared mumbles something along the lines of “I need some time,” which is probably the last thing an insecure spouse wants to hear. Lourdes is woefully aware of the fact that she is losing him to Michaela, although one would wonder what took her so long to question him, considering that he has been serving as the full-time caretaker of the Stone family, particularly of Michaela, since time immemorial.

This is where even a brief appearance by Lourdes in the previous two episodes to show the progress of her discomfort may have helped, because we basically dive into full-crisis mode as soon as her storyline begins with her ‘mounting’ Jared. This is a case where “Upgrade” was forced to fill a hole created (unintentionally) by recent episodes.

The episode also showcases Saanvi’s much-needed return to prominence that began with last week’s “Cleared for Approach,” after spending a few episodes with only minor appearances until then. Her storyline plays out as the bottle-plot of the hour, but it does serve to expand the portrait of how the survivors of Flight 828 are perceived by the general populace. Last week’s episode presented, in a run-of-the-mill way, how the xenophobic portion of the population perceives the survivors, and delved into the dangers that such perception represents for our protagonists. That examination is expanded this week via Adrian (Jared Grimes), one of the survivors previously seen in “Crosswinds,” and through a more engaging storyline than the one from last week. 

We last saw Adrian in “Crosswinds” walking up to a group of people who wanted to touch him in almost breathless reverence. This episode astutely provides continuity to that scene and it is always a good sign for a show when the writing room pays attention even to the smallest parts of the sum of its product.

Adrian has taken it upon himself to build on (or profit from, depending on your point of view, he is seen collecting money donations from the attendees) the view harbored by many that the survivors of the flight 828 are some sort of saviors with special powers to perform miracles. He has started the Church of the Returned, where a cringy looking poster of a dozen Flight 828 survivors, including our main characters, hangs on the wall. Those who revere the “returned” passengers, to whom Adrian refers as his “flock,” can attend sessions of prayer that begin with him saying, “Blessed is Flight 828, the vessel of the miracle,” and continue with his flock replying in unison, “Blessed are the returnees, the purveyors of that miracle.” Wide camera angles (just one example of the excellent work by Craig Zisk throughout the episode) showing the growing “flock” gathered in a closed space portray the beginnings of a creepy cult. And creepy is what Alice (Grace Rex), one of the Church’s attendees, becomes when she holds Saanvi hostage at gun point.

Rex is quite phenomenal in her role as Alice, the desperate wife with the capacity to resort to any means necessary to save her husband Jacob (Ben Cole) who is dying from cancer. She first approaches Saanvi at her office, pleading with her to take a look at her bedridden husband. Saanvi, our consummate doctor-scientist with a heart of gold, sympathizes with Alice who is quite convincing and agrees to pay a visit to their home. It’s unfortunately too late for Jacob, Saanvi confirms, and this is when Alice the wicked replaces Alice the desperate. She first slaps Saanvi, then shoves her to the ground, and finally points a gun at her, demanding that Saanvi work her “miracle” to cure Jacob, or else!

Ben, our model citizen-father-investigator-agent-genius, is alarmed that Saanvi has not answered his calls all morning. This eventually leads him to add the title “brother” to his ever-growing list of commendatory titles as he saves Saanvi with a clever move. If you have not seen the episode and you are wondering what I mean by that, I urge you to watch the related sequence, after which you may be tempted to start your own Church of Ben Stone, revering “Brother Ben” and him alone! Suffice it to say, this storyline is tightly written with the aim of drawing attention to a consequential development (Adrian’s church). Alice and Jacob’s gripping portrayal of a couple in despair highlights the destructive potential of excessive reverence a lot more potently than Cody the jerkwad’s portrayal of the conspiracy theorist did so last week with that of xenophobia.

In the meantime, Zeke and Michaela are finally back from their hiking expedition. They end up in the Stone household in the morning because Cal experienced the same nightmare that Zeke had, that of a scary looking wolf growling and jumping on him – Side note: I am not sure if the dismal-looking CGI representation of the wolf took away from the impact of the nightmare or if it ironically rendered it even more petrifying.

The budding relationship between Zeke and Cal is the cornerstone of this plotline. Zeke, with help from Grace, earns Cal’s trust by connecting with him through the loss of his sister, and then, by helping him understand the forces behind his drawings. The three of them work together to bring some sense to the wolf in Zeke’s dream. These scenes contain quite a bit of substance (credit to co-writers Matthew Lau and Ezra W. Nachman) and adequately contribute to Zeke’s character growth, an essential ingredient for a recurring character that joined the season late, especially if he is to play an important role in the final two episodes.

Cal eventually draws the image of the wolf lunging toward a blonde woman, “aunt Michaela” as Ben confirms, which begs the question, why did he not say anything before? He said himself that “it wasn’t just a wolf” before he began to draw the image, so it’s not like he did not know about Michaela. At the same time, a van is being lifted from the river by the NYPD at the waterfront under Michaela’s supervision. As she opens the driver door, a man who should have clearly been dead by now lunges toward her, and the episode ends with the sound of a wolf’s growling as the screen goes dark.

There is also a couple of brief-yet-purposeful scenes involving Olive and the Major. The former is helping Ben with her knowledge of mythology, searching for connections between the peacock and the petroglyph, and the latter is reiterating to her assistant Jansen that Ben is not to be touched yet because he is “only a vehicle to get to his son,” whom she sees as the “Holy Grail.”

The central plot surrounding Cal and his powers remain unsolved, as it should be. It is conspicuously linked to the overall mystery of Flight 828. Since the fall break, Manifest has done a good job of gradually bringing the spotlight back on Cal, the Stone family’s efforts to solve the puzzle, and the danger lurking in the form of a secretive operation being orchestrated by the Major. Recurring characters like Fiona, Captain Daly, Adrian, Vance, Bethany, and Autumn have been put to good use while avoiding the staleness that can rise from making their stories drag on for too long (ok, maybe not in Vance’s case), thus leaving room for the salient mystery to sufficiently evolve. I am eager to see if the show can also succeed in sticking the landing.

Last-minute thoughts:  

– The cliffhanger ending of last week’s episode, when electrical storms appeared on top of Zeke and Michaela as they were standing next to the tree with the petroglyph, is flatly ignored. Not sure if that is a good move as it chips away at the viewer’s faith in cliffhangers if you have a few too many of those, but we are not there yet.

– Captain Riojas (Alfredo Narciso) is looking for someone at the precinct to oversee the recovery of the utility van from the river. Naturally, Michaela and Jared, who are busy discussing their discombobulated love life, are readily available. Michaela volunteers to take the day shift and Jared the night one. Either the NYPD in Manifest are grossly uncommitted to their work or New York happens to exist in an alternate reality where there are hardly any crimes. It’s especially ironic that Jared, who has done nothing but serve as the full-time caretaker of the Stone family so far, snarks at the idea at first by saying to the Captain, “Isn’t babysitting a little below our pay grade?”

– Speaking of Jared – and here comes the part where I take my reviewer hat off and go on a rant –, it is twice now that he remained vague or silent when Michaela put him on the spot about being married to Lourdes, following his sappy declarations of love to her. He even admitted to still loving Lourdes when Michaela did it the first time in “Contrails.” At the end of this episode, he plays the devastated husband-cheater-lover, at first asking Michaela in an accusatory tone what she told Lourdes. Few seconds later, he changes tune and says to Michaela, “maybe this [Lourdes leaving] was meant to happen, so that we could finally be together.” Jared, you are an adult! Michaela is acting like one, why don’t you do the same? Ok, done, my reviewer hat back on.

– Saanvi’s heart is still broken from her boyfriend not showing up at the airport for the flight to Jamaica. Does (should) that deserve any attention? With two episodes left, is there enough room to create a compelling storyline from that? We shall see.​   

​Until the next episode…

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“Vanishing Point” – Aired on January 21, 2019
Written by: Jeff Rake & Gregory Nelson
Directed by: Millicent Shelton
Grade: 4,5 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

After last week’s stellar “Contrails,” showrunners delight the viewers again with the second game-changing episode of the season, first one being “Connecting Flights.” It’s another solid outing of Manifest that expands the parameters of Flight 828’s mystery. In fact, it appears that the mystery’s modus operandi has just grown bigger and transcended the flight itself. It has evolved into multiple time dimensions across more people than just the passengers.

We pick up right where “Contrails” ended, with Cal’s disappearance from the house. We dive into what is, in my opinion, the best first 10 minutes of any Manifest episode thus far. Hats off to Jeff Rake and Gregory Nelson, the co-writers of the episode, and to director Millicent Shelton. The narrative advances at a brisk pace yet, thanks to coherent dialogues performed passionately by the actors, and timely transitions between scenes, the sequence flat out works. Let’s unpack these first ten minutes because it aptly sets up the search for Cal that occupies the rest of the episode.

Police have arrived at the Stone household to investigate Cal’s disappearance. A detective named Chris Jackson (Lisa Ferreira) is questioning Grace. From Grace’s half-assed answers, she suspects something is not right. Grace vaguely implies that someone wants to harm her son. When Ben arrives, Det. Jackson pursues the avenue of “someone wanting to harm Cal” with him and asks his whereabouts the night before at which moment Grace immediately interjects, saying that this has nothing to do with Ben. Guest actor Lisa Ferreira depicts the portrait of the suspicious detective with dexterity while Athena Karkanis and Josh Dallas successfully convey to the viewers the precarious position of Ben and Grace who struggle to provide answers of substance to her questions because they have secrets to keep. Olive is in the background listening and she senses that Jackson’s pointed questions are targeting Ben as a suspect. She calls Michaela and asks her to come to the rescue.

The lovely sister that Michaela is, of course she will come, even though she is in the middle of jerking Autumn around and handcuffing her. Autumn’s cover as the mole for the Major is blown and Michaela is furious to say the least. She is harassing Autumn, demanding that she reveals Cal’s location, as well as the Major’s identity, but Autumn ain’t talking. When Olive calls, she heads to the house, bringing the handcuffed Autumn along in the car.

At the house, she joins Ben and Grace who are talking privately in the bedroom. Ben and Michaela reveal to Grace that Cal experiences callings and has visions stronger than that of any other passenger. Ben shows her Cal’s drawing book. At that moment, they realize that there is a page missing, reminding us of the moment Autumn stole the page when she was snooping around Cal’s room in “Contrails.” This leads to a powerful moment when the three of them notice another one of Cal’s drawings and realize that he drew the three of them in the present and now as they stand and stare at his drawing book. They explore the drawings further and come to the realization that Cal drew them a map of where he could be found. He drew images of a town that Grace recognizes as Tannersville, in upstate New York. 

Mixed in all of the above, there is a brief scene with Jansen (Brandon Schraml), the dubious black-suited all-purpose assistant of the Major, who enters a high-tech surveillance facility. Apparently, the Major and his agents have not located Cal either. Jansen is alarmed that Autumn has been taken into custody (because the high-sci-fi-tech cameras told him so) and calls the Major to alert her.

In the meantime, Ben, Michaela, and Grace need to get rid of the police at the house. Michaela cannot intervene directly, but knows who to call, and boy can we guess who that is. The faithful Jared puts once again his career on the line and shows up at the house in his NYPD uniform. He has a neat story concocted about Cal being located his grandpa’s house. Heck, he even produces a photo of the two of them together to assure Det. Jackson that it is a false alarm. Jackson appears unconvinced, but hey, who is she to doubt the all-magnanimous Det. Jared’s word, right? Never mind that he is pulling a false false alarm of the highest order. Jackson and her crew leave the house.

Ben and Grace decide to leave for Tannersville in search of Cal, in Danny’s truck no less (!) to avoid detection by authorities. Michaela stays behind to work the Autumn angle. And thus, we get past the first 10 minutes of the show, a suitable mix of scenes and dialogues that concretely set in motion the events that will occupy the rest of the episode while giving a purpose to each of the main or recurring characters. There is not one second of irrelevant action or pointless chit-chat. The sequence requires full attention, but the effort yields its rewards. Thanks to it, there are no fill-the-gap-in-the-narrative-with-your-imagination requirements on the viewer during the next 30-plus minutes. It’s a smooth and entertaining ride.

In order to convince the stubborn Autumn to turn over the missing page from Cal’s drawings, Michaela first needs to learn the nature of the Major’s stronghold on her. Apparently, she promised Autumn that she could reunite her with her long-lost daughter. To negate that leverage, Michaela tracks the daughter’s location and tells Autumn that she no longer needs the Major to reunite with her. In exchange, she gets Autumn to first call Jansen and steer him in the wrong direction to capture Cal, and then, to hand the drawing over to her. Autumn complies. Apparently, Cal foresaw their reunion because he drew Autumn and her daughter together, even though he was not aware of the daughter’s existence. On the backside of the page, Cal drew a cabin in the woods. It is where he is currently hiding? Michaela heads to Tannersville alone, much to Jared’s dismay, to join Ben and Grace in their search.

There is a scene that shows Jansen and his team locating Cal thanks to their high-tech surveillance equipment. But they lose time tracking down his exact location due to Autumn steering them in the wrong direction.

In the meantime, Olive, who performs the ultimate passive-aggressive form of teen angst in every scene that she appears, finds a note from Cal in a secret place in their room back home that only the two knew about. Cal obviously meant for Olive to find the note and it says, “I left,” with an odd-shaped “I.” She texts the photo to her parents in Tannersville.

Ben and Grace figure out that Cal had the whole thing planned out. He was not kidnapped. He departed the house on his own and left clues behind for them on the location of the cabin in the woods by Tannersville where he is in hiding. Even the shape of the “I” had a purpose. It’s a quasi-map that, when coupled with the word “left,” instructs Ben and Grace to take a left at a certain intersection. They realize this at the tail end of a sequence filled with contrivances, consisting of a car chase sequence and a show of Superman-like perception and memory on Grace’s part, that puts them at the exact spot where the “I” map would actually be relevant.

They find Cal and have a happy parent-child reunion moment. Michaela joins them in the cabin shortly after. But “Vanishing Point” is a lot more than an episode focusing on the simple task of finding Cal. The kid is apparently expecting someone else to show up. That individual, named Zeke (Matt Long), is suffering from frostbite as he arrives. Ben, who knows by heart the names of the 191 souls aboard Flight 828 (and probably their favorite brand of toothpaste and shampoo) confirms that he is not on the flight manifest.

The first revelation is that he is the person in Michaela’s callings – “Find her” – in the last two episodes. He also appeared in Cal’s visions, holding Michaela’s picture in his hand as he was walking in the snow. Michaela joins them in the cabin shortly before Zeke wakes up. The next revelation arrives when he remembers falling into a cave while hiking two weeks ago, according to him, during a blizzard. He was stuck in the cave, but eventually got out and began walking in desperation. He claims to have found inspiration in seeing Michaela’s face on a picture in a magazine that he randomly found in the cave. Seeing her face kept him alive, he says, although he can’t explain why. He cannot believe that Michaela is alive though, which makes it clear that he is not aware of the reappearance of Flight 828. It turns out that Zeke fell in the cave in 2017 and somehow lost a year during that blizzard while he thinks it was two weeks ago.

This extraordinary turn of event is presented in five-star fashion, through a conversation taking place in the dim-lighted cabin during which the camera work by Shelton and the low-toned (yet malaise-filled) music by composer Danny Lux blend together to amplify the crescendo effect of the final revelation.     

“Vanishing Point” begins and ends strongly. Despite couple of minor hick-ups, it is another stout addition to Manifest and, as noted above, the second game-changing one. It shifts the nature Manifest’s central mystery around Flight 828’s disappearance. With the new revelations, the nucleus of the mystery can no longer be confined to the flight. Zeke’s appearance suggests the possibility that there are other people experiencing a loss of time and that they are potentially connected to the passengers on the flight, or at least, to Cal.

Did I even mention that other revelation, the one through which we finally get to see the Major’s face? Well, I just did. Whatever her name is, she is played by Elizabeth Marvel, a ‘marvel-ous’ choice for the role!

Bring on next week!

Last-minute thoughts:

– Once Jackson and her crew leave the Stone household, Michaela thanks Jared for finding a way to get rid of them. Jared sarcastically replies, “Yeah, no biggie. Just my career.” It’s almost like he is aware of how absurdly implausible it is becoming that he still has not gotten caught abusing the privileges of his rank, and lost his job in disgrace, considering the numerous schemes that he has been pulling off, all in the name of helping Michaela. To top things off, Michaela says one second later that she wants to bring Autumn to the precinct for questioning. Jared asks the most relevant question du moment to Michaela: “You want to take a kidnapping suspect into the precinct after I just told half the NYPD there is no missing kid?” Watch J.R. Ramirez’s sarcastic smile as he delivers the question. It’s almost like he is asking, “What on earth are the writers doing to my character?” It is hilarious.

– His hectic life of late will not allow it, but when things calm down, I want to be Ben’s sponsor in scheduling some much-needed sessions with a therapist who can help him with interpersonal communication skills. For all the qualities he possesses, he is dismal when it comes to providing clear answers to questions. I’ve already touched on his communicative skills in my review of “Dead Reckoning,” and it shows up again here. Take for instance, the scene at the house when Grace, Ben, and Michaela are talking in the room with the police present in the house. Grace, obviously exasperated at the flood of half-baked information flowing her way, asks one logical question after another. Ben replies by either stuttering, murmuring, or uttering a few general sentences, if he finishes them at all. Michaela intervenes more than once, thankfully, and duly provides concise answers to Grace, or at least complements Ben’s utterances with the necessary information. It happens again later in Tannersville when Ben has an opportunity to tell Grace something more than the generic “Everything I’ve done has been for you and the kids” line. Alas, he stares at Grace after her next question (a legitimate one from her point of view) for a couple of seconds before the phone rings. Ben, we all love you man, but come on, stop being stingy with your word count!  

– On the plus side, the intimate conversation at the table in the cabin is a beautiful moment for the Stone couple.

– Lourdes seems to have disappeared. I can barely remember the last time that she played a significant role in a scene. Danny does not appear in this episode either, his name getting mentioned only thanks to his truck. These two continue to serve no significant purpose other than the emblematic “third-wheel” character, confined to the role of complicating the love story between two others who are meant to be together.

– For that matter, Saanvi’s role in the show, as well as her presence on screen, continue to diminish for better or worse.

– After Jared goes out of his way to help Michaela, again, he is firmly “dismissed” by her, again. She tells him to stay behind when she leaves for the cabin. I don’t know whether to feel bad for him, or to believe that he is better off this way.

– I am glad that the Major is a new character and not someone already mentioned for shock effect in a show that already possesses its fair share of shocks and twists. Plus, ladies and gentlemen, Elizabeth Marvel…

​Until the next episode…

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“Contrails” – Aired on January 14, 2019
Written by: Matthew Lau & Bobak Esfarjani
Directed by: Marisol Adler
Grade: 5 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

So, did Captain Daly and Fiona get blown out of the sky by the Coast Guard? Or did they vanish and get transported in time? If it’s the latter, why did the Coast Guard use the term “neutralized”? Are they in on the conspiracy too? And why are they reporting on TV no plane wreckage from Daly’s plane has yet to be found? We know that Cal has a special connection of some sort with other passengers, but how can he foresee events in the future? Which drawing did Autumn remove from Cal’s drawing book?

As you can see, plenty of question remain.

At the same time, “Contrails” does not neglect to address key issues and solidify the narrative of some previously not-so-fleshed-out plots. It is a down-to-earth outing, letting us breathe after the wild ride of “Crosswinds.” It moves at a reserved pace, focusing on a few key developments. It serves to reassemble the scattered parts of that which constitutes the linchpin of the show’s overall arc, the Flight 828’s disappearance. It gives Michaela much-needed depth through meaningful interactions with her close ones. It showcases the directorial dexterity of Marisol Adler and astute dialogues written by co-writers Bobak Esfarjani and Matthew Lau. Last but not the least, it is centrally driven by an outstanding performance by a guest actor in the role of an essential recurring character.

For all these reasons and more, it’s perfect…

The episode begins with a flashback of the frantic moments in the cockpit when Daly and his co-pilot struggled to navigate through the ferocious storm that appeared out of nowhere in front of them. The scene provides a bit more information on what occurred during the mayhem, except that we get the cockpit point-of-view this time. Daly apparently had no time to circumvent the suddenly materializing storm and decided to wing right through the heart of it. In the flashback, we also see Daly giving his account, after the landing, of those moments to Vance (RIP) who does not believe him because of the NTSB report that contradicts his account.

Daly runs later into Cal who asks if he can have the captain’s wings. Daly tells him it’s broken, Cal tells him “it’s ok” and thanks him for “bringing us home.” Daly is touched by the kid’s genuineness. It’s a clever flashback that gives us just enough extra information, except that it leaves out what happened in the final seconds when Daly dove the plane straight into the bright light. It also preemptively makes it clear to the viewers that when Cal mentions “the man from the plane” in the next scene to Ben and Grace back in the present, he means Capt. Daly. Every moment in that flashback is relevant to the rest of the episode and none of it feels rushed.

Enter Michaela who is having another vision of the snowy place with the calling “Find her,” a carry-over from last episode. Jared wants to know why Michaela is avoiding him since their steamy moment in the sack last week. Then, he spits out a few pre-teenager lines reminiscent of the ubiquitous “confused man.” He tells her that they are meant to be together and that he wants to be with her, only to turn around a minute later and say, “of course I do,” when Michaela asks him if he loves Lourdes. Oh, there is also the pathetic “tell me what to do” line. Jared, dude, why is it Michaela’s responsibility to tell you what to do? Are you not a grown up? You just declared your love to her and to your current wife in the span of a minute. No, buddy, you don’t get to wash your hands off the decision-making duties by designating Michaela for the job. You deal with it, you make up your mind, this is on you! Thankfully, Michaela stands firm and rejects his proposal (whatever it was supposed to be). Ok, putting my reviewer hat back on…

There are two more scenes in the episode with Michaela at center stage. The first one is with Ben, the second with Grace. Dialogues come across natural in both scenes and the brother-sister intimacy between Ben and Michaela, as well as the close friendship between Grace and Michaela, are conveyed with great dexterity by the three actors involved.

The star of the episode, though, is Captain Daly – and by extension, the actor Frank Deal. In “Crosswinds” we briefly saw Daly who now seems to be only the shell of the cool and witty pilot that appeared in “Pilot.” He is anxious and high-strung. This episode wisely fills in the details of what he has been doing since the reappearance of Flight 828. He desperately wants to clear his name because as Ben affirms “the whole world thinks he’s responsible for what happened.” He repeatedly runs simulations in the pilot training center, recreating the same conditions at the exact moment of the storm during the flight. He has been collecting official documents, media articles, photos, and has turned his desk at home to that of an excessively obsessed detective with a wall full of clippings about the flight.

Daly is on to something and needs Ben to prove his innocence. Ben, the mensch that he is, agrees to help the poor man who has now completely lost his family (with whom, according to him, he had a strained relationship anyway) because for five and a half years, the news media declared him as “the guy who took a plane full of people, and killed them.” Since the plane’s reappearance, he acquired a new title: “the guy who made them all disappear.” Deal is on top of his game here, you can’t help but feel sorry for the good captain. Even the guard at the entrance to the training facility has his laugh at Daly’s expense, calling him “Captain Future.”

Ben accompanies him into the cockpit of the simulation plane Daly runs the simulation under the conditions found described in the official NTSB report. Clearly, it is not what happened on that day because the storm is barely visible in the distance. Daly believes it’s a government cover-up. He points to the incident report’s date, April 8, 2013, which proves that the government started hiding things not on the day Flight 828 reappeared in 2018, but rather, on the day it disappeared. The co-pilot Amuta**, who is back in Jamaica, backs the official story when Ben talks to him on the phone later.

**Nit-pick moment: the co-pilot’s name in this episode is Amuta. In “Pilot,” he was credited as “Co-pilot Danny Clarke.” But it’s the same person and both are played by the same actor Leajato Robinson. In a show packed with unexpected twists and turns, one’s mind can wonder though. Is he indeed the same person? Or, is there also something behind this mysterious name change? Have I become paranoid? Ok, I stop! Enough madness!

Ben notices in the reports that a meteorologist named Roger Mencin (Bruce MacVittie) was studying coastal erosion in the exact area that the plane disappeared. Although he was called to testify at the Congressional investigation in 2014, he never showed up, and abruptly retired to Massapequa, NY. Ben and Daly locate him at his retirement home. Mencin is afraid to talk at first, but eventually agrees to help. He was studying a phenomenon called “dark lightning.” Mencin explains what it is, using meteo-technobabble. Suffice it to say that one has to be close to the phenomenon to see it. Mencin discovered it on his instruments the night of the flight’s disappearance. But the DOD “suggested” to Mencin that he takes early retirement when they found out that he was going to testify. They made him destroy every copy and file, except that Mencin did not.

Daly and Ben go back to the simulator and recreate the flight with the actual data they received from Mencin. Daly runs the simulation six times and each time the plane crashes. Daly is ready to go one step further. He claims again that Fiona is behind everything – he calls her “the missing link” to solve the mystery –, and if you listen carefully to the way he lays out the clues, “he makes a strong case,” as Ben later admits to Fiona. The dialogues between Ben and Daly throughout the episode are full of pertinent innuendo and invite the viewer to contemplate on what is being said. Writers Lau and Esfarjani deserve all the accolades for effective dialogues between those two, as well as the intimate ones between Ben, Grace, and Michaela.

While Michaela is at the precinct, a police bulletin flashes on her computer screen with the picture of Mencin. He is reported dead in a boating accident. Michaela alerts Ben and this triggers the action part of the episode. The Stone siblings suspect that Mencin was eliminated by someone who knows that Ben and Daly met him. They do not realize yet that the mole is Autumn who was with Michaela when Ben called about Mencin earlier and overheard the conversation. Autumn apparently shifted her position once more and went back being the mole on behalf of the bad guys. This is given away by a brief scene in the episode when she gets accosted once again by the sordid man in the black suit working for the Major.

In the meantime, Ben and Michaela rush to Daly’s apartment to warn him, except that he is not there. The good captain got busy drugging and kidnapping Fiona. He drags a passed-out Fiona with him to an actual plane. He plans on flying into a storm similar to the one during the flight. According to the forecast, one such storm is supposed to appear off the coast. Ben and Michaela drive to the small airport to prevent Daly, but they are too late. He is already in the plane with Fiona who wakes up and tries to talk sense into him, to no avail.

During that time, Autumn is in Michaela’s house snooping around. Later, as she goes through the pages of Cal’s drawing book, she becomes startled by one of his drawings (that we do not see on screen). She rips it out and puts it in her pocket.

The Coast Guard is called, and two planes fly in pursuit of Daly who will stop at nothing. He believes that he will end up in the future and ignores Fiona who vehemently attempts to convince him that she had nothing to do with their disappearance. The warnings by the Coast Guard planes are ignored by Daly who flies straight into the storm. Through clever use of angles and cuts, director Adler shows us Daly and a panicked Fiona flying into a vaste bright light, the same kind that appeared on the night of the disappearance, then switches to Ben and Michaela’s point of view as they notice a resemblance of an explosion through thick clouds in the sky, followed by the voice of the Coast Guard saying on the radio that the “threat has been neutralized.” Gone are Daly and Fiona, but where exactly, we can’t be sure. Well done again by the writers and the director.

The question of how the bad guys found the meteorologist lingers on as Ben and Michaela reassess what happened. The only people who knew about Mencin were Ben, Michaela, Daly, and Fiona. It dawns on Michaela that Autumn heard her phone conversation with Ben about Mencin and Massapequa. We know already that the mysterious Major is after the “holy grail,” meaning Cal. And guess who Cal has been with this whole time? Yep, Autumn.

The episode ends with the best closing shot of Manifest so far, Grace walking up the stairs to Cal’s bedroom, seeing his bed empty and the window open. The camera work and the score are excellent here (as well as Karkanis) as Grace’s face tells it all.

Time to rescue Cal

​Until the next episode…

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“Crosswinds” – Aired on January 7, 2019
Written by: Amanda Green & MW Cartozian Wilson
Directed by: Michael Smith
Grade: 4 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

Back in October, NBC ordered three more episodes of Manifest bringing the total number to 16 for the inaugural season of the show. Considering the overall mazelike story arc that the show was building throughout the fall, the news seemed to hit the jackpot. Showrunners now had more room to untangle the intricacies of Flight 828’s mystery.

Well, “Crosswinds” is the kind of outing that makes you wish that NBC ordered yet one more episode from Jeff Rake and company. It carries multiple storylines that, for the most part, race toward compelling cliffhangers by the end of the hour. To that end, it also haplessly convolutes important details that could have been fleshed out so much better had it been a two-parter. Michael Smith’s stellar directing eases the plot-overloading to a point, but there is simply too much being thrown at the viewers’ faculties of perception. It’s an interesting contrast if taken into account the episodes that MW Cartozian Wilson and Amanda Green, co-writers of this one, penned earlier in the season. The former shared the writing credit for “Off Radar” that focused on a single storyline, and the latter was the co-writer for the game-changing “Connecting Flights” which was, in my opinion, the best outing of the show so far and advanced only a few plots while providing excellent sequences of character development.

“Crosswinds,” for its part, comes across like an athletic race – a sprint, more fittingly – in which there are six lanes for a dozen runners, and they are all zooming to the finish line but stumbling over each other in an attempt to fit into the limited number of lanes. As a result, it leads to a frantic crossing of the finish line, followed by confusion over what or who got lost in the shuffle during the race.

At the same time, it is undoubtedly the most ambitious episode of the season so far. For starters, it definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat. It contains some storylines that blossom and others that lead to more questions. It introduces two new consequential characters and welcomes back an older one. It teases the viewers about the identity of a powerful and mysterious individual. Some regular characters behave oddly while others make questionable decisions. Family matters take complicated turns. Finally, a multitude of cliffhangers close the curtain. Did I say how ambitious this episode was?

It all begins with Michaela standing in front of her mother’s grave and monologuing about the crossroads at which she stands in her life. Her monologue is accompanied by a clever collage of scenes that are designed to help us refresh our memory on past events. Next, we shift to a facility with a five-star ocean view where Fiona, Saanvi, and Autumn are observing the passengers that were rescued from the shady warehouse at the end of “Dead Reckoning.” The passengers are in a catatonic state and seem to twitch at the same time, reminding us that in the world of Manifest, “it’s all connected.” Saanvi suggests that all the passengers need to be brought together and share their experiences to get a better understanding of the phenomenon.

The intrigue of this scene is less in its contribution to the narrative than in its impact on viewers by challenging their perceptions of Fiona and Autumn. Fiona was last seen informing Ben and the authorities that she was taking the rescued passengers to a facility in a van. Given her enigmatic character development, many suspected, as I did, that she was scheming to “confiscate” the passengers away. That is apparently not the case, so the quandary over her true intentions will continue to linger on, at least until the identity of the Major – or the “Ma’am” to whom the shady scientist in “Off Radar” was talking on the phone – is revealed.

Autumn, at first glance, seems to have had a change of heart over Manifest‘s Christmas break. She is now ignoring the orders that she receives on the phone (with Laurence dead, I presume someone else took his place) and shows signs of wanting to join the good guys. As I mentioned in my review of “Dead Reckoning,” the possibility of an inner conflict in Autumn as a result of helping Laurence was explored in the flashback that showed her being taken into custody after the arrival of Flight 828. That conflict is further developed here, and Shirley Rumierk is up to the task with her performance. Autumn appears to have been coerced into helping the “bad guys” only because of her past criminal record. Kudos to writers on the attention to detail in maintaining this particular continuity, but again, I am not sure how many viewers were able to put together the two sequences and perceive the complexity of Autumn’s situation. Judging from dozens of social media reactions that I saw, many missed it and wondered why in the world Autumn made a 180-degree turn in this episode (she did not). This is an example of how overtaxing an episode with too many plotlines can lead to an unintended lack of appreciation for quality writing when it comes to details because it may go unnoticed in the brouhaha caused by all the other simultaneous twists and turns.

One of the passengers named Paul Santino (Kerry Malloy) wakes up when Michaela touches him. As she does so, she has a vision of a snowstorm and hears the calling, “Find her.” Just like that, another B storyline begins, with implications that may – but probably won’t – spill over to the rest of the season. Paul cannot remember anything from his past, including the fact that he is married. At first, we are led to believe that the calling refers to finding Paul’s wife, but we know better by now.

By the time this storyline gets solved, we find out that, according to his wife Helen (Frances Eve), Paul was an abusive husband. Michaela and Jared had trouble locating her because she went into hiding when Flight 828 reappeared. She feared for her life upon Paul’s return. It made me wonder for a while if the disappearance of the flight was initiated by someone or some entity who wanted one or more of the passengers to sink, or fly in this case, into oblivion (yes, it’s far-fetched, I know). In any case, the amount of time spent in Paul’s narrative would have been fine, in my opinion, if this were a two-parter. But with everything squeezed into less than 43 minutes, it appeared to distract from other significant developments that could have used more foregrounding.

One such example of a shortchanged sequence is when Fiona speaks to the passengers at the ocean-view facility, followed by Ben’s conversations with Captain Daly (Frank Deal) and Autumn.

Daly pulls Ben to the side and warns him about Fiona. He suspects that she is part of a conspiracy and that “this whole thing is her twisted science experiment.” It’s hard to blame Daly. After all, he just listened to Fiona inform everyone that she studies shared consciousness, that she believes to have been in the plane not by accident but because she was meant to be an “interpreter,” and that a “friend” of hers “lent” her the facility until the spring. Daly is indeed “aggro” as Autumn says after she approaches Ben following the captain’s agitated departure.

Autumn makes major revelations to Ben, confirming first that she did indeed hear “The Major” speak to Laurence over the speakerphone. Then, she says that the Major is a woman and that she made reference to a “Holy Grail.” Ben attempts to connect the dots, one of them being that the calling “Find her” may have to do with the Major. After he leaves, Autumn gets another text message, but throws her phone into the ocean in disgust.

Holy smokes! In that crucial sequence, apart from a major conspiracy theory advanced by Daly, the questioning of Fiona’s identity, three major revelations in relation to the forces behind the mystery of Flight 828 popping up during the Autumn-Ben dialogue, and the definite change of camp by Autumn, there is also the introduction of Adrian (Jared Grimes), another passenger who, by all accounts, will go much further than making a token appearance. Yet, these essential developments are compressed into less than three minutes. Again, I would have preferred to have seen this sequence, and the narratives in it, fleshed out a bit more, rather than having so much time sacrificed on Paul’s narrative that largely had no long-term consequences for one example, and on the Stone-family drama that had the same problem rehashed for another.  

Or is it that I am a fan of Frank Deal the actor (especially since his appearances on Law & Order: SVU and The Americans​), as I have noted in my earlier previews, and believe irrationally that Captain Daly deserves more time? Maybe. But if you want to judge for yourself the range of Deal’s prowess as an actor, consider the way he portrayed Capt. Daly in the initial two episodes of the show vs. in this one. In “Pilot” and “Reentry,” we saw a dexterous, composed pilot with a witty sense of humor, whereas Daly now appears to have metamorphosed into a perturbed man who appears to doubt everything and everyone related to that last plane he piloted. And Deal nails it each time, with flying colors. I cannot help but feel like Deal’s acting skills, and the scope of his character Daly, remain underused up to this point in the show. On the other hand, I know from the next episode’s teaser that he plays a central role in it, so I remain optimistic. We shall see.

Speaking of the Stone family crisis, I have officially quit my membership to ‘team Olive.’ It is hard to reconcile her behavior in this episode with that of the earlier ones. She literally guilt-manipulates Danny into coming to her house with the emblematic “If you still love us…” line. In doing so, she disregards her mother’s (and father’s) wishes, and seems to have forgotten that her brother exists. — Side thought: Not sure where Olive would be in the show, the cool Olive of the first few episodes or the idiotic one of late, without Blaise’s outstanding performance throughout the season. — Plus, it is not as if Danny has not already shown an inclination to drop by the Stone household – remember his ‘unannounced’ visit in “Connecting Flights”? He goes even further in this episode by accusing Ben of being “the whole reason this family is messed up” – whaaat? –  after Ben arrives to what happens to be his own family’s home and finds Danny there! Cal is the one who asked his dad to come to the house because, well, his feelings are ridiculously being ignored by Olive and Danny. As a matter fact, Cal, who is possibly the biggest outcast of the show, is the only one who does not behave oddly in this bizarre scene.

When Grace firmly tells Danny to leave, Olive yells at her mother and storms to her room. Grace goes after her while Danny ‘I-lack-common-sense’ continues to remain in the house. Never mind all the lying and deception by Olive, because nobody seems to want to scold her in any way. In fact, Grace consoles her at one point. Even Ben joins the bizarre parade of behaviors when he calmly tells Danny to stay in the house and decides to leave himself, not before hugging Cal, and Olive! Excuse me, Ben? No attempt to even take Cal with you? O-kay. Danny leaves much later in the evening, not without promising Grace that he will be there for her if she ever wants him back. It’s the weakest storyline of the episode, one that panders to mushy-melodrama lovers who are not concerned with whether the scene has any significant contribution to the show or not (this one, certainly not).

Hold on, there is more, a lot more. I will not go into the details of every plot line in “Crosswinds” or else my review will end up being too convoluted itself (it may already be so). I cannot, however, skip Jared and Michaela who finally had their major ‘moment.’ Yes, they finally caved in to their desires and hopped in the sack. It’s been a long time coming anyway, and quite frankly, what did everyone expect when Jared showed up at Michaela’s place after the emotional talk that they had at work earlier? Their storyline is handled much more adroitly in this episode than the one involving the Stone family. It also helps that both Melissa Roxburgh and JR Ramirez put forth some of their finest performances in all the related scenes.

At last, there is Aaron Glover (Marquis Rodriguez), a podcaster who has the looks of a someone who just had his high-school prom last week. He is particularly interested in the mystery of Flight 828 and runs a podcast named “828-Gate.” Aaron is well-connected. Very well-connected. We do not need to ask how or why, we just need to know that he is. Our young podcaster has “sources,” you see, and those sources feed him so much information that he knows about secret meetings held by the Senate Intelligence Committee and House Appropriations, as well as the nature of clandestine funds earmarked by them. Heck, he even knows about code terms mentioned by the higher-ups like “Holy Grail” because he named the next episode of his podcast after it, “Chapter 6: Closing In on the Holy Grail.” Of course, his “confidential” sources can rest assured because Aaron “won’t name names.”

Naturally, Ben is intrigued by what Aaron knows and decides to collaborate with him. Aaron shares his information with Ben who, in return, agrees to be the guest on one of his podcasts. Except that Ben only wants the podcast released “if this ends badly.” If not, Aaron does not get to “blow the lid” and enjoy the ratings, but still gets to have access to a “Deep Throat” for an indeterminate amount of time into the future. Smart proposition Mr. Stone, very smart. I have a hunch that Aaron did not make his final appearance on the show. It feels like Manifest would benefit from keeping this side story alive.

Add NSA Deputy Jim Powell to the slew of characters in this episode behaving in ways that are irreconcilable with their disposition in earlier episodes. He secretly collaborates with Ben although as Vance’s assistant for several episodes, he showed more interest in questioning his boss who was expressing his own doubts about the mystery surrounding Flight 828, than in helping him. This shift in behavior is explained away by a vapid line earlier in the episode by Ben who says that although he does not trust Powell, he trusts his loyalty Vance. And I ask myself, what loyalty? Vance himself did not trust Powell enough to let him in on his collaboration with Ben.

“Crosswinds” ends with another collage of beautiful cuts – credit to Smith, again – accompanied by the wonderful sound of Mansionair’s “Easier” playing in the background. Some of these scenes depict the dire situations in which characters find themselves, such as Jared contemplating his marriage to Lourdes while she is asleep, and Grace doing the same while watching her children sleep. Others target the viewers’ already (and excessively) stimulated senses by throwing their way a series of cliffhangers.

In a coffee shop, Autumn gets confronted by a man in a black suit who instructs her to join “the Major” waiting for her in the car outside. Powell is manhandled by four agents in front of his home and pushed into an SUV with tinted windows. Out of nowhere, Saanvi makes a gigantesque discovery about what, or who, the term “Holy Grail” refers to (let’s not dwell on how on earth she did that). As if that were not enough, the last shocker comes when Cal, who is revealed to be the “Holy Grail” according to Saanvi’s epiphany seconds earlier, experiences the same snowstorm vision that Michaela had, except that he can see a picture of Michaela being held by someone in the snowstorm while hearing “Find her.”

It’s simply too many 11th-hour shockers and cliffhangers to throw at viewers on top of everything else that took place earlier in the episode. If the idea is to produce the “WHAT?!?!” effect by bombarding the senses, “Crosswinds” succeeds. I am just not sure how much justice it does to the characters involved, as well as to the essential plotlines contained in it.

Now imagine if this episode had a two-hour allotment to match its ambitions…

​Until the next episode…

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“Dead Reckoning” – Aired on November 26, 2018
Written by: Laura Putney & Margaret Easley
Directed by: Paul Holahan
Grade: 3,5 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

If I had to judge this fall finale based solely on action and production quality, I would give it a spotless five-star rating. Events occurred at an exciting pace, often leaving the viewers breathless and wondering what will happen next. Ben, Michaela, Jared, Director Vance, his squad, Dr. Fiona Clarke, Laurence the Singularity Project guy, the 11 passengers, and even Cal, all ended up at the same location (the warehouse) from converging plot-lines for an explosive (literally) conclusion to the storyline involving the experiments. The fact that the above events were not even spread throughout the hour, but rather squeezed into the first two-thirds of the episode, was even more striking.

“Dead Reckoning” begins with one of the missing passengers, Autumn Cox (Shirley Rumierk), magically showing up injured, outside the Stone household. She is specifically looking for Ben. She claims to have escaped from a van in which “they” were taking her somewhere! Somehow, Ben does not get suspicious at all about this woman’s sudden materialization out of the blues and reassures her, “we’re all in this together. You are safe now.”

He is not the only one swimming in the lake of naivety. Sooner than later, Vance, Saanvi, Clarke, and Director Vance (who would usually act like the epitome of suspicion) join Ben to brainstorm and make plans to save the 11 passengers, right in front of Autumn! Needless to say, she is an informer for the bad guys. This is only revealed at the very end of the episode and it comes across as a poor man’s cliffhanger because it was pretty much ‘telegraphed’ within a minute of her first appearance.

What I find more intriguing, however, is Autumn’s motivation. Is she a bona fide member of the “bad guys” or are they coercing her into snooping on Ben, Michaela and company, using her past criminal record as leverage? There is a flashback scene at the beginning of the episode that shows her being taken into custody from the facility where Flight 828 passengers were held, back in the first two episodes. Some guy in a suit gives Vance the outstanding warrants for her arrest as he is interviewing her. Vance lets the authorities take Autumn into custody, although she adamantly claims that she “didn’t do any of those things.”  

Back to the present time, where Vance and Ben have located the warehouse with the 11 missing passengers. Ben calls Michaela to inform her that he is going there with Fiona and Vance. Michaela will, of course, join them, along with Jared who happened to stand by Michaela at the precinct when she received the call. He heard the conversation and insisted on tagging along. This sets up an exciting sequence that takes place at the warehouse.

At first, Vance and his tactical unit do not find anyone, but then Cal shows up out of nowhere (more on this later) and insists that they search the smaller structure adjacent to the warehouse. He points to that location on his drawing from earlier in the day and exclaims, “They’re still here.” The squad finds a passage on the structure’s outside wall, one that leads them to the underground location where the experiments are conducted. Once the armed conflict begins, the action is potent, thoroughly entertaining, and greatly enhanced by director Paul Honahan’s skilled camera work, as well as by composer Danny Lux’s fitting score.

Alas, as is often the case with high-octane-action outings, parts of the narrative do not hold up very well under close scrutiny. I expect some gaps in storylines in a serialized format because one can always assume – or hope – that questions will be answered sooner or later. The long-term storytelling would fill in the missing pieces of the individual episodes. The other side of the coin is that those questions may never get answered, which would then point to slapdash writing. Unfortunately, a few (and important) details in “Dead Reckoning” appear to fit into the latter category.

Let’s take for example Cal’s storyline and his behavior. Ben calls Olive and asks her to check on Cal, because he knows that the experiments have resumed at the warehouse with the 11 passengers. Cal is indeed feeling the pain along with Marko like he first did back in “Off Radar.” Yet, when Olive goes upstairs to check on him, sees Cal (from behind) drawing something, and asks him if he is okay, Cal replies that he is fine, while bleeding from his nose and drawing a warehouse on a paper (Cal can see things, Cal can do a lot of things).

Why did Cal not simply tell Olive the truth? My wild guess is that he lied so he can escape the house without anyone noticing in order to make his way to the site himself. He leaves a note behind for his mom saying, “Dad needed me.” Could he not have told his father over the phone what he later told him face-to-face? Yes, he points to another structure adjacent to the warehouse on his drawing once he gets there to show his dad where to look, but he could have easily pointed his dad in the right direction over the phone and saved valuable time. It’s not like Ben would dismiss Cal’s word just because he said it over the phone. But no, he must lie to Olive, escape from the house so that his sister and mother can worry to death for the rest of the afternoon, and get to the warehouse himself.

And get there, Cal does, in the most outré manner possible. He appears at the remote site in the blink of an eye. No, Scotty did not beam up him up, although I could swear that Cal must have made it there at warp-speed nine. Make it so, Ensign Cal!

Oh, but wait, he took the bus! I kid you not! Naturally, he knew which bus line to take and at which stop to get off, because he has superpowers and just “knows” (which, on a more serious note, will hopefully be clarified at some point in the future). Chicago Transit Authority evidently has bus lines that can take you at lightning speed to remote locations in the middle of nowhere. They even drop you off near warehouses surrounded by the NSA’s squad team about to engage in an operation. And if you are a kid, you can seemingly walk right up to within a few feet of a group of people composed of the NSA director, his tactical unit team members with machine guns, and detectives, and still remain unnoticed until you use your voice!! O-kay.

Finally, toward the end of the episode, when the Stone household finds itself smack in the middle of a crisis moment and Grace needs some answers as to what happened during the chaotic day, Cal is nowhere to be found. He could have easily told his mother what happened to help her understand. Or, he could disappear from the view during family scenes and do nothing to stop them from splitting up. He does the latter, although he is well aware of the rift forming between his mom and dad. He is even there to hug his dad as he is forced to leave. And playing the “he is only a kid” card goes only so far because he was not “just a kid” when he concocted a plan earlier in the day to lie to his sister, sneak out of the house by himself, while remaining cool-headed enough to leave a note behind for her mother, take the warp-speed bus, and join his dad, the NSA tactical unit, and others, just outside the warehouse of horrors. Corroborating his dad’s story to at least assuage some his mom’s concerns, I assure you, would have taken far less effort and planning than all the above.

Speaking of the Stone household crisis, Ben and Grace once again put forth the best that Manifest has to offer. Their storyline has been the most poignant one of the series so far and credit goes to Josh Dallas and Athena Karkanis for bringing alive the emotional roller-coaster that each character has experienced throughout the nine episodes. It is undeniable that their relationship either triggers the viewers’ sympathy, or stirs their anger, to the point where they take sides with far more frequency that in any other combination of characters in the series. If people care this much about them, it means that the writing room has succeeded in creating a winning synergy between Ben and Grace, and that the two actors in question have done a fine job of conveying that synergy to the viewers.

Let’s quickly examine what each had to go through in just this episode. One small advice before you read any further: drop your Ben/Josh-worship/hate or Athena/Grace-worship/hate fan boy-girl stance, and put on your impartiality hat (or else, the next three paragraphs will prove to be a futile exercise for you).

Consider Ben’s situation first and remember to limit yourself to only his perspective. Knowing that the experiments on the passengers are resuming, and having already endured a jolt himself, Ben’s urgent need to save the 11 passengers and his son increases exponentially. His window of opportunity is closing. Once he is at the site of the warehouse, he feels the bitter disappointment of not finding anything at first. Then, his son Cal shows up out of the blues and confirms that the passengers are there. Furthermore, as if Ben did not have enough pressure on him already, Cal designates Ben as the chosen one to save the survivors. Once underground, Ben indeed begins to see things nobody else can. Moments later, he gets mixed up in a deadly shoot-out. A bit later, he sees his sister fly 10 feet across the air following an explosion. He momentarily passes out himself. Once the passengers are saved (or so he believes, more on that later) and Cal is safe with him, he comes back home, only to face an angry wife who blames him for putting Cal in harm’s way. Worse still, she calls for an ending to their marriage later that evening. Can it get more roller-coaster-y than that? It’s hard not to feel bad for Ben.

Let’s now turn to Grace. Remember again to consider only her perspective and not what you know as the viewer. Her husband first goes back on his promise to spend the afternoon playing laser tag with Olive and Cal, saying “something came up with work.” Later that day, she cannot get in touch with him because Ben is neither answering his phone nor returning her calls despite her voice messages. She has to learn from a some agent in a suit, a complete stranger to her, who showed up unannounced at her home, that that he is not actually at work, that they are looking for him, and that his job had been terminated the evening before. In other words, she just found out that Ben lied to her more than once earlier in the morning about “something with work.” To make matters worse, Cal sneaks out of the house leaving a vague note about helping his dad. The next time she sees them is hours later when they arrive to the house in a car that appears to have came out of the war zone. They both look messy themselves and Ben has blood stains on his face. Later that evening, when Grace seeks answers, the only explanation Ben offers is that Cal just “showed up.” Grace actually has to push further by asking, “why didn’t you bring him home immediately?” To that, Ben gives the ultimate dodge answer: “You don’t understand. You weren’t on the plane.” Cal, who could help clarify things, is not speaking either. It’s hard not feel bad for Grace.

The point here is that the Ben-Grace storyline is engaging and well-written, with both short and long-term consequences being taken into consideration. I am not even sure that the Danny complication is necessary at this point. The Grace-Ben dynamics offer compelling enough drama (and dilemma) by themselves, and at some point, Danny’s insertion into the storyline as a third-wheel wrecking-ball character will begin to come across forced and petty – it already does at some level. He appears in the promo for the upcoming episodes after the break, so it is obvious that the writers want to keep him in the picture.

I just hope it’s not one of these “she ran to Danny’s arms after her husband left” type of plot advancement that they have in mind because not only would it feel artificial, but it would also not make much sense. Grace had already quit seeing Danny – despite her involvement with him prior to Flight 828’s reappearance – and directly told him so, emphasizing that she was going to work on rebuilding her family. In other words, she made a conscious choice, and followed it through with a genuine effort to make it work between her and Ben. The couple seemed happy together last week, taking major steps to restore their relationship. Hooking Grace and Danny up after this episode’s bad day at the office for the Stones would not only come across ham-fisted but also feel as yet another one of those tired narratives designed to make the woman appear as if she needs a man in her life to feel safe. Her husband left (never mind that she pushed him out), so she must move on to the next man available, because she cannot be without one – talk about the Danny’s role being reduced to an orbital tool!!

And what about Lourdes, the other “third-wheel” character of Manifest? Where was she in this episode? After a brief and somewhat otiose appearance in last week’s “Point of No Return,” Lourdes does not show up at all this time. The irony is that it would have only made sense for her to appear in this one as opposed to last week’s episode. Her husband is gravely injured at the hospital following the explosion, and Michaela is waiting by his side. He wakes up eventually, which means that he has now been at the hospital for a while, and Michaela is still the only one by his side. According to her, “Lourdes is on her way,” and that’s it. The writing room may have gotten the last two episodes mixed up in terms of giving Lourdes a week off.

I will miss Vance. Anytime a character grows in complexity and relevance through a number of episodes, I find it questionable to eliminate him/her from the show. This is what happened with Vance here. Actor Daryl Edwards brought his A game to the character, making him appear hateful or sympathetic, depending on the context du jour.

Speaking of recurring characters’ fates, it is hard to tell if Laurence is dead or not. He looks dead as Michaela walks by his unconscious body after the explosion, but one cannot be certain. He was the closest character Manifest had at this point to a one-dimensional villain. I am a lot more interested in Fiona, perhaps the most enigmatic recurring character in the show.

Fiona does play a major role in saving the 11 passengers from the warehouse in “Dead Reckoning,” but I am afraid Ben, Saanvi, Vance, and company are getting duped by her in the same way they got duped by Autumn in the beginning of the hour (even though they were both ‘telegraphed’). Fiona is last seen leaving the site in charge of the van transporting the 11 passengers away from the remote facility to safety. She says to Ben, “I found a remote property. I am going to take them there. They’ll be safe with me.” Ben agrees without a hesitation, naturally. Never mind that 11 missing passengers are possibly the most important group of people in the world at that moment, and that they are being transported to a facility in a truck with just Fiona and a driver, following a raid that caused the NSA Director and members of his tactical unit to die. In any case, I can’t help but think that Fiona is the “Ma’am” from whom the shady scientist was receiving orders on the phone in “Off Radar.”  

Last-minute thoughts:

– I don’t know if people get to see those brief promotion spots on Xfinity’s OnDemand menu featuring Melissa Roxburgh and Josh Dallas, but I find them corny as heck.

– I repeat, Cal’s increasing superpowers will need some type of an explanation. 

– I know some ‘Manifesters’ hope that Vance is not dead or that somehow he may have faked his own death. I wrote this review with the assumption that he died. People involved in the show have put up posts on social media thanking Edwards for his performance as Vance and saying that they will miss him. Unless they are pulling a massive wool over the eyes of everyone, Vance is gone.

– I should underline again the high-quality of the production during the action scenes in the warehouse. The explosion shot with Michaela (or her stunt) flying back in the air, and the few seconds following it were also very well filmed.

– Michaela’s explanation for Jared not dying in the explosion like Vance sounds too flimsy for me at this point. It has to do with her asking whoever is communicating the callings to spare Jared’s life, or something. I am curious to see if the writers are willing to delve into this narrative, and in case they do, how they would make it work.

– Back in October, NBC ordered three more episodes of Manifest. It will be interesting to see how the storylines will be handled once the season 1 mid-season premiere airs on January 7th. I would be curious to know if Jeff Rake and company changed anything of importance once they found out they had three episodes of extra room to tell stories.

– Dear Mr. Rake, please bring back Captain William Daly (Frank Deal) in one of the future episodes.

​Until the next episode…

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