“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 16^th-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 11^th-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 “16^th-century Egyptian scholar and artist,” but the camera shows that the writing on the box actually reads “16^th-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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“Coordinated Flight” – aired on February 3, 2020
Writer: Matthew Lau & Martha Gené Camps
Director: Marisol Adler
Grade: 4,5 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

Manifest continues to build on an entertaining second season with another well-balanced outing. The show’s success in fabricating a plethora of small and large-scale storylines that somehow remain connected for the most part is perhaps its most underrated asset. It allows, by extension, room for (1) throwbacks to scenes from earlier episodes without having them appear out of place, (2) nods to characters mentioned or seen in the past without deviating from the narrative at hand in the current episode, (3) and character growth, spread over several episodes, while keeping the viewer preoccupied with other worthy storylines.

Are there some clunky sequences along the way? Sure. Does one episode or another inevitably suffer from narrative overload at times due to frantic pacing? Every now and then, yes! Yet, keeping the stakes high in a serialized sci-fi/paranormal genre involves taking risks as long as they contribute to world-building and result in compelling stories. Manifest passes the test much more frequently than it fails because, in my opinion, planning and preparation appear to be notable priorities for showrunner Jeff Rake and others in the writing room.

“Coordinated Flight,” taken from this angle, is an episode that perfectly fits the Manifest lore, assuming it is acceptable to talk of a “lore” for a show that has yet to reach the middle portion of its second season.

It starts with yet another flashback – speaking of Manifest lore – with Grace and Olive at an amusement park, two years after Flight 828’s disappearance. Grace attempts to convince Olive that they need to move on with their lives, but Olive insists that Ben and Cal are not dead. They stop by a tarot reader (Johnnie Mae) at Olive’s insistence. The reader intuits that Olive lost someone who completed her and advises her to look to the future with hope as tears form in Olive’s eyes – Jenna Kurmemaj reprises her role as young Olive.

Flashback over, back to the present day where the Church of the Believers is being ransacked by Xers. Olive witnesses them beating churchgoers including Isaiah who first appeared in “Turbulence” as a suspect in the murder of Kelly.

We then cut to Agent-Investigator-Professor Stone’s office at the university where he informs TJ on the results of his research into the compass with the peacock engraving in the back – given to Michaela by Logan in last week’s “Black Box.” It turns out that the engraving was not part of its original design, meaning that someone added it later. The news of the attack on the Believers appears on TV as Ben hears the calling “Save her.”

Meanwhile, at the official Jared-Tamara (the bartender from “Black Box”) flirting headquarters (read: the bar), Tam’s brother Billy (Carl Lundstedt) and Jared are having an unfriendly exchange of words. Jared tells Tamara, “kids who fall into the wrong crowd tend to become bad kids,” in what is perhaps the most ironic sentence delivered by Jared this season so far, considering where he ends up by the end of the hour. Thankfully, these one-dimensional bar scenes in both last week’s and this week’s episodes remain extremely brief.

Grace is seen next, driving with Cal in the backseat and talking to Ben on the phone. A blue vehicle runs her off the road, causing an accident. The casual approach of the police officer taking Grace’s statement irks Ben who astonishingly arrived at the scene almost as fast as the first responder. Grace feels pain in her stomach, which stops Ben from unleashing any further on the officer, and they head to the hospital to have Grace and the baby checked.

The doctor first says “she” is doing fine, giving away the gender of the baby, unknown to Ben and Grace until then. No time to rejoice though, because upon a closer look at the ultrasound’s monitor, the doctor suddenly wants more tests done on the baby, leaving Ben and Grace worried. Now knowing that the baby is a girl, they deduce that the calling “Save her” must have referred to her. The doctor later informs them that the tests turned out nothing and that they can go home. Correct me if I am wrong here but it appears that the doctor’s ‘doubt’ period was merely a plot device to keep Ben and Grace preoccupied a bit longer, and thus, oblivious to Olive’s growing attachment to Adrian’s church.

At the precinct, much to the dismay of Michaela and Drea, Isaiah remains tight-lipped about the attack, claiming that he did not get a good look at the perpetrators’ faces. Michaela does not gain any ground when she confronts Adrian either. He is on board with the members’ desire to remain quiet in order to avoid further retribution.

Drea finds footage of a man appearing to be in a hurry to get in his car as three guys with baseball bats run by him near the Church. At first, she and Michaela believe him to be a passerby who may prove useful in identifying the attackers. His name is Walter (JD Williams) and he is brought in for questioning, except that his fidgety answers give away his active participation in the attack as an Xer himself, which he denies at first.

Seeing how emotionally distraught her mother is at the hospital following the accident, and hearing her father and TJ conclude that there is a coordinated set of assaults on 828 passengers orchestrated by the Xers, Olive decides to come clean to Michaela about witnessing the attack and being a member of the Believers. She identifies Walter from a line-up of suspects to confirm his participation, which gives Michaela and Drea leverage to pressure Walter into giving up the others in return for a deal.

Walter tells them about some “club” where they hang out and an NYPD team is rapidly assembled by Michaela to lead an operation on the establishment. Jared and Captain Bowers are present during Michaela’s briefing to the team at the precinct. Bowers is not on board with the plan at all, but lets it move forward nevertheless because she fears that it would look like retribution against Michaela “the whistleblower,” if she did not.

The Captain still gets her chance to scold Micheala when the operation bears no fruits because the Xers had abandoned the club before her team got there. Michaela is certain that somebody must have leaked the news of the operation to the Xers, but Bowers is not interested in entertaining yet another hunch from Michaela. Even the presence of a blue car, likely to be the one that ran Grace off the road, does not convince Bowers.

Episode writers seem to deliberately paint the Captain’s portrait as the mulish authority figure and it works frustratingly well here, because her injudicious opposition to Michaela blinds her to the possibility of a mole, portending sinister consequences for the precinct. Jared being that mole serves to further amplify the malaise originating from her lack of judgment on people surrounding her.

Jared’s reveal achieves its intended shock value because not only is he the mole, but the same scene also reveals that Tamara and Billy are Xers. Wait, there is more! Billy accompanies Jared to a plush limousine waiting outside the bar and opens the door. Sitting inside with a smile on his face, ready to chat with our (no longer) good detective is Simon, Ben’s so-called colleague at the university who played a major role in him getting hired back in “False Horizon.”

Is Jared’s spiral to oblivion complete now? It depends on your interpretation! Frankly speaking, his good-guy image had already begun to fade away back in Season 1. This episode brings it to a decisive end, and does so even before the Simon revelation as far as I am concerned. I am referring to the moment when he utters to Billy, “Any friend of yours is a friend of mine,” and toasts glasses with the dimwit!  

“Coordinated Flight” is confined for the most part to moving the pieces forward within the Stone family’s (including Michaela) immediate surroundings. It has almost no sci-fi content and it is devoid of Vance and Saanvi. Even the B storylines such as Jared’s downfall and Zeke’s efforts to make amends carry significant connections to Olive and Michaela.

Speaking of Zeke, following a beneficial session of soul-searching with the addiction-recovery group, he decides to set things right with people from his past . Except that it does not work out as well as he hoped. Far from it!

He meets with a blonde named Courtney (Danielle Burgess) at a café to apologize for having disappeared over a year ago. We learn quickly that they were lovers whose main past time comprised of getting high on drugs. Courtney is still using (she pops a pill in her mouth) and harbors ill-will toward Zeke. There is no indication at all that they are married during this meeting that ends with Courtney leaving even angrier than when she arrived, which adds to the bizarre nature of the twist coming later when she shows up at Michaela’s apartment.

She appears at the door as Michaela and Zeke were preparing to have dinner and introduces herself as “his wife” to Michaela. Zeke’s whaaat expression creates further ambiguity, as if he did not know himself that they were married. It comes across very strange at this point, I must say, that Zeke would make no mention of their married status during their talk at the café, let alone hide that fact from Michaela, especially considering that Courtney is alive and living in the same city. I am going to exercise my right to reserve judgment on this development until future episodes.

The most emotionally charged scene of “Coordinated Flight” takes place at the Stone household, led by a five-star performance by Luna Blaise as Olive. She decides to follow Michaela’s advice and bring her parents up to date on her ties to Adrian’s church. Needless to say, Ben and Grace do not react well, which in turn ignites fireworks because not only does Olive firmly stand her ground against the barrage of parental rebuke coming her way, but also dishes out some potent scolding of her own!

She rigorously defends Adrian and his teachings despite Ben and Grace explaining that Adrian is exploiting people finding themselves in difficult situations. She pushes back by saying that it is not Adrian’s fault if people are too narrow-minded to accept Flight 828 as a miracle. Ben and Grace insist that Adrian’s actions are reinforcing the public’s fear about the passengers being different than human beings, to which Olive exclaims “You ARE different!”

It is a powerful scene to watch and one on which it is extremely difficult to pass judgment. While it is clear that Ben and Grace make valid points, it is also their fault that this shouting match is taking place in the first place because they ignored Olive for so long, failing to notice how far under Adrian’s influence she had slipped. Although I did not agree with Olive as a viewer, I cannot deny that, once I put myself in her shoes, I found it hard to dismiss her arguments off-hand.

The resulting impasse of this family quarrel also functions as a prelude to Ben’s desperate attempt to stop Adrian in the closing seconds of the outing. “Coordinated Flight” depicts, with great efficiency I might add, Ben’s growing perception of Adrian as a bona fide threat. Once the said threat forms a direct connection to a member of his family, Ben’s doctrine of personal ethics goes haywire and short-circuits into the parameters of vigilantism, which is consistent with how he handled the Cody-the-jerkwad problem back in “Cleared for Approach.” Hence, while the curtain-closing scene of Ben accosting Adrian at the Church is supposed to come across as a ‘wow’ moment (and it does), it is a well-earned one to the astute viewer, thanks to the terrific build-up.

There are three Ben-Grace scenes in the hour and the most significant one takes place when Grace notices the peacock engraving on the compass in Ben’s Mulder-like investigation room in the basement. It triggers her memory back to that day with Olive at the amusement park, a nod to the flashback scene at the beginning. The tarot reader apparently gave Olive a card with the exact same image, stating that the star on it represented hope for her future. “We should look to the future with the possibility that everything will turn out well,” she added, the last part of which Olive repeats to her mother at the hospital, reminiscent of the “Tout est pour le mieux” quote that Pangloss incessantly repeats in Candide. I can only hope that Olive turns out right, unlike Pangloss did at every turn in Voltaire’s masterpiece.   

Last-minute thoughts:

– The rhetoric of Channel 12 anchor on Ben’s TV is cringe-inducing. He sounds more like a conspiracy theorist than a news anchor, spewing one-liner after another such as “two of these so-called passengers hi-jacked a plane” or “another one robbed a bank.” He is played by the real-life TV newscaster Kent Shocknek who is obviously skilled at doing drama. His acting résumé is impressive considering it’s strictly confined to playing the role of a TV personality.

– Oddly little screen time for Cal. We do not even know what kind of injury he sustained from the accident, if any at all. Where was he anyway during the family quarrel?

– A genuine conversation takes place between Zeke and the moderator of the addiction-recovery group. He is the one who advises Zeke to make amends with people that he hurt in the past. He adds that it is not about making them feel better, but rather about “taking stock of how far you’ve come and seeing yourself someone worthy of being loved.” 

– Jared is still employed at the precinct, which I found surprising. It is true that he is no longer getting high-profile cases, but is that all? I thought after the deeply damaging testimony of Michaela during Zeke’s trial, he should at least get suspended.

– “You did us a solid today” line by Billy is a good example of how a twist can effectively (and suddenly) be introduced by a brief statement from one of the on-screen characters.

– How on earth is the hang-out location of the Xers called a “club” is beyond me. A dump? Basement pigsty? Contaminated warehouse?

– I am curious to see where the increasingly miasmic tension between the Captain and Michaela is headed. I promise to be here for the drama!

– We see TJ holding Olive’s hand at the church. What is his endgame? Is he also buying into Adrian’s fairy tales or is he suffering through it just to please Olive? Or is he simply looking out for her? The jury is still out on whether the writing room can create a gripping storyline out of this particular duo’s synergy or not.

– Am I supposed to read something into the camera briefly zooming in on Isaiah’s face at the church toward the end, when he looks at Adrian leading the chant, “Blessed are the Believers”?

– Am I the only one who finds the score of the ending credits hauntingly beautiful? I watch the ending credits every week just to get my weekly fix of that music!

– Drea is to report on fingerprints to be collected from the blue car. I hope there will be a follow-up on this. I know, I worry about too many minor details, don’t remind me.

Until the next episode…

PS1: You can find the links to all my episode reviews by clicking on “All Reviews” at the top.
PS2: Follow Durg on Twitter and Facebook

“Black Box” – Aired on January 27, 2020
Writer: Simran Baidwan & Bobak Esfarjani
Director: Sherwin Shilati
Grade: 3,5 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

In what seems to gradually become a Manifest tradition, the opening scene brings us back to the pre-Flight-828 era. At the airport in Jamaica, the ten-and-a-half-year-old Olive briefly meets TJ at a bookstore and develops a quick ten-and-a-half-year-old crush on him (TJ even refers to her by her age). He recommends her to buy A Wrinkle in Time (1962, by Madeleine l’Engle) after which an announcement looking for volunteers to take another flight gets his attention. He thus signs up for Flight 828. What makes this opening scene interesting is our learning of the fact that, in the name of spending more time with TJ, Olive also got in line to fly on 828. Except that there is only one place left and TJ takes it, but not before he asks Olive and she refuses. You can also blame Adrian who happened to be in front of TJ in the line. Olive could have easily ended up on Flight 828 if it weren’t for her bad luck – or, shall I say “good luck.” Although not consequential, these are the types of details that add to the storytelling and raise interest in the characters.

Back to the present, where we find Olive at the Church of the Believers listening to Adrian’s purple-prose speech about believing “in the miracle of Flight 828.” Among his basket of casuistries is the claim that Flight 828 survivors will be walking among them “for decades to come.” Olive confronts him to warn him about making unsound professions and tells him about the death date, even providing the exact date, June 2, 2024. Adrian is unfazed and produces more one-liners, “fear begets fear, miracles beget miracles.” They “just have to believe,” according to the enlightened one. Jeff Rake an co. have done a commendable job of developing and marinating Adrian’s storyline and I can only hope that the pay-off, whenever it may arrive, will be worth the wait. In any case, Adrian’s case is Exhibit A in how you effectively engage in character growth over the long haul in serialized drama.

TJ enters Ben’s office at the university to inform him that he had another calling and asks if the wise professor knows anything about “a bird, a bug, a fish, and a tiger.” He shows him an image with the four animals from his vision, with the year 2012 written below. Olive walks in by coincidence – just one out an inordinate amount of so-called coincidences in this hour – and recognizes the image as being the logo of the Gramercy Club, a members-only, fancy-schmancy athletic club. TJ and Ben are heading there, though they have zero idea on what to look for.

Dispersed in-between these opening scenes revolving around TJ and Olive are, brief updates on Saanvi and Jared, and the launch of the A story with Michaela and Zeke. Unlike the last few episodes, there is a clear A story here, with others spawning out of it (or, neatly tying into it at the end). Let’s begin with Saanvi.

She apparently set up a private lab at her home, unbeknownst to anyone else, and conducts tests on mice, aiming to solve the mystery surrounding the death date. Later, we see her at Vance’s secret underground operation center where he props her up for the next therapy session with the Major, a.k.a. ‘therapist Ellen.’ The plan to use Saanvi as a double agent seems to work so far because surveillance cameras show the Major’s puppet Dr. Matthews pilfering placebo samples from her lab, unaware that they are fake.

Vance is nevertheless in pursuit of bigger fish to fry than Matthews and the Major, so he wants Saanvi to temporarily cease her 828 research to be on the safe side, at least until they gather enough evidence to shut down the Major. Little does he know that Saanvi is moving forward full-tilt with her research at home.

Following Vance’s advice, Saanvi feeds the Major some story in their next session (while munching on a red apple) about a geneticist in Sweden who made a breakthrough discovery and expresses her desire to contact them. The strategy appears to be successful at first because, later in the episode, Vance picks up some communication in which the Major mentions something about coming across a new piece of information.

Jared’s update is far less elaborate. He is sitting at a bar drinking away his sorrows, while the bartender (Leah Gibson) is openly flirting him and wanting him to ask her out. The scene’s sole purpose is to set up a slightly more meaningful one, but just as brief, that comes much later.

Michaela, for her part, is walking along the street when she hears the calling, “bring him back.” It leads her inside a bank where she spots Zeke who is there for the same reason. As they are trying to figure out why the calling took them to this particular bank, some dude pulls out a gun and yells at everyone to get down. Michaela can immediately tell that the guy is an amateur and warns Zeke that amateurs can be more “unpredictable” and “dangerous” than professionals.

Yet, it is Michaela who gets up and approaches him while his back is turned, and startles the already agitated dude named Logan (Alex Morf) with a “hey” from behind. The fidgety Logan swings around and points the gun to Michaela, and I am wondering what Mick is thinking. Did she not just tell Zeke to be careful with amateurs? It’s a wonder that Logan, in his ultra-agitated state of mind, did not pull the trigger and blow her head to pieces.

Logan makes it clear that he doesn’t want money. He simply needs the vault opened. Zeke jumps on him and manages to take his mask off in the scuffle but the amateur fends off the attack and regains control of the situation. Michaela recognizes the man from the passenger photos on Ben’s X-Files-ish wall at the house.

Michaela proceeds to a second inexplicable move on her part (hello, Michaela?) by telling him that she works for the NYPD! The guy is in panic-attack mode because he just heard the sirens approaching and screamed at the bank manager (Harlin Kearsley) for having pushed the alarm button. You would think that the last thing he needed to hear is that he is in the presence of an NYPD officer at the very second where he is waving a gun in his hand and having a conniption fit about the police arriving outside. I mean, what could possibly go wrong with an amateur, right?

As expected, Logan freaks out and yells, “you’re a cop?!?” before jerking the gun at her direction. He doesn’t pull the trigger though (even though it would have made sense given his frenzied mental state) because his actions are dictated by an episode script for a show called named Manifest in which Michaela is one of the main characters and cannot die in episode 4 of season two.

Logan tells Michaela and Zeke that he is repeatedly seeing visions of his own tombstone. He believes he can save himself if he follows his calling prompting him to get a specific safety deposit box opened, one belonging to his brother Frank (Ben Loving). The episode writers cleverly leave the viewers in the dark at this point about the details of the deposit box until it’s the right time to tie Ben and TJ’s story into Logan’s. Michaela first convinces Logan to release the hostages in return for getting the bank manager to open the vault. She also holds off the SWAT team outside, with support from Jared who has arrived at the scene. Once Jared learns the perpetrator’s identity, he phones Ben to ask him about Logan Strickland, because ‘Agent-Investigator’ Ben Stone is who you call when you want info about any Flight 828 passenger.

This is where the execution of this otherwise clever plot structure begins to get hampered by a couple of plot machinations.

Remember how Ben and TJ left for the Gramercy Club just based on TJ’s vision of four animals and the year 2012 written below them with zero idea of what or whom to look for? Well, no more than 30 seconds following their arrival to the club, they have it all figured out. They find a plaque with a photo of Logan and Frank Strickland, brothers who won the club championships in 2012. Ben must find Frank immediately because, you see, just a few seconds earlier he received a phone call from Jared about Logan Strickland holding Michaela hostage at the bank, and by coincidence TJ found the plaque and read the brothers’ names aloud with impeccable timing, just a few seconds after Jared’s phone call, but also right before Ben leaves the club in a hurry. Lo and behold, Frank also happens to be on site playing squash (surely the calling knew that he would be there, according to Ben).

This is when we get to the bottom of the mystery of the Strickland brothers and the reason behind Logan’s actions. Frank had rejected Logan once he returned five and a half years later because he did not believe that he could really be Logan. In other words, he could not wrap his head around the anomaly, so he resorted to mental gymnastics to justify that what he could not understand. The man posing as Logan is merely an impostor as far as Frank is concerned. So, as the family’s only heir, he locked Logan out of the family’s assets.

Logan’s hopes are further dashed when the bank manager cannot open the safety deposit box because, he needs both the bank’s key and the owner’s key to do so. Ah but, wait! Ben and TJ are talking to Frank at the Gramercy Club at the same time and guess what? Ben succeeds in convincing Frank to help his brother. The mention of the death date and its connection with the deposit box’s number, 6224, is enough to sway Frank’s mind, justifiably. Frank will also accompany him to the bank because, conveniently, he also happens to carry the key on his necklace!

They arrive at the bank just in time because the SWAT team leader was getting impatient with the standoff (a gratuitous subplot). It did not help either that Logan accidentally injured the bank manager via a ricochet bullet when he shot at the box in frustration (a gratuitous occurrence). Accompanied by two SWAT team members, Frank and Ben enter the vault.

Frank apologizes to Logan for not having believed in him and the two brothers reconcile. Logan gives up the gun and Michaela holds off the two SWAT guys so that the two brothers can open the box and see its contents.

I must admit that while I found Logan’s delivery of “It’s me Frank. It’s me. And I don’t want to die,” and the sentimentality manifested by the two brothers once they opened the box, to be effective tear jerkers (largely thanks to the guest stars’ performances), I could not get past the fact that, apart from Ben, Michaela, and Zeke who stare at the Stricklands like moviegoers, there are also two SWAT team members who had been on standby for an hour or more outside the bank, but are now in position to easily apprehend the suspect, and yet, just because Michaela asks them to “let them finish,” they hold back and join others in the VIP seats to watch the brothers’ reunion. Never mind also the question of allowing the brothers to open a box with no idea about its contents. It felt as if the demand for suspension of common sense was a little too high for my barometer; if it worked for others, I am happy for them. I did find it hilarious though, when Zeke whispered to Michaela at one point, “is this part of the magic cure-all?” as if to confirm the scene’s overall wackiness.

Nonetheless, the real star of the brothers’ tragic storyline is actor Alex Morf who poignantly portrays Logan, the passenger-victim-perpetrator-brother unable to come to terms with Frank’s betrayal while trying (and failing) to cope with the reality that his life may end unless he gets into the vault. Luckily, he finds a friendly ear in Michaela who understands his dilemma and senses that there is something more than just a bank heist taking place after recognizing him and learning that he is not after money. She becomes his trusted ally, so to speak, as the episode moves forward, and Melissa Roxburgh uses what the script gives her with great dexterity to convey that subtle dynamic, especially during the bank-lobby scenes.

Before Logan is taken to custody, he hands over to Michaela a compass that he retrieved from the deposit box. It was his grandfather’s and it saved his life by catching a bullet when American troops stormed Normandy during World War II. A peacock is engraved on its back, which triggers Ben’s memory of seeing the peacock moments after the explosion in “Dead Reckoning.” As far as Ben is concerned, the peacock on the compass, the safety deposit box’s number matching the death date, the calling bringing Frank to his brother, all represent signs of encouragement in solving the death-date conundrum. His eyes glow as he tells Michaela, “We’re gonna do this, Mick. I don’t know how, but we’re gonna crack it. Together.” Michaela appears to be far from matching her brother’s optimism as the two hug each other.

Michaela also thanks Jared for having her back during the ordeal but walks away with Zeke as the crestfallen detective watches them from behind in a scene that carries all the narrative and visual characteristics of a decisive separation. As if to further drive home that conclusion, Jared is later seen surprising the bartender from earlier outside the bar as she is locking up for the night. He asks, “How about we go not have that dinner?” and they begin walking with smiles on their faces.

Zeke and Michaela are at her apartment telling each other beautiful verses of cryptic love while Michaela cleans the wound on Zeke’s forehead. He is curious as to why she is always saving him; she poetically responds that a good heart is worth saving. Thankfully, the dialogue is over before it ventures into cheesy territory, and their lips lock. They are soon under the covers, taking a well-deserved and pleasure-filled break from the chaos invading their lives.

TJ accompanies Olive (speaking of romantic potential) to one of Adrian’s sessions at the Church of the Believers in an unconvincing and trite turn of events. TJ is looking at his computer in Ben’s office, alone, when Olive stops by. The two begin to talk and Olive rehashes Adrian’s talking points about approaching the miracle of 828 with hope instead of fear. TJ takes what she says at face value (despite her dismissive position of the views of her father whom TJ holds in high regard) and asks how one does that. Next thing you know, he is attending one of Adrian’s sessions at the Church of the Believers with Olive. Olive’s indoctrination was an example of a well-earned and developed narrative over a couple of episodes. I certainly hope we don’t already see TJ in the same boat as Olive the next time he appears on screen, which would be an example of the opposite case.

Finally, let’s catch up with Saanvi, shall we? As Dr. Matthews is stealing more vials from her lab, Troy happens to walk in, which can only lead to bad news for the poor guy. Matthews injects him with a needle from behind and Troy collapses down. His life’s last two significant memories consist of being relieved of his lab-assistant duties by the woman he most admired (will Saanvi regret that? What about Vance who had enough evidence to have Dr. Matthews arrested but deliberately held back?) and seeing the face of an impostor doctor as his life expired with a needle stuck to his neck. Side note: I am assuming that he is indeed dead (I did with Vance too, just for the record).

But we need something more catastrophic than Troy dying to end the episode, do we not? That is what the Major is for. Saanvi arrives home to find her private lab completely cleaned out. Her data, records, and even lab animals are gone!

The last scene shows Vance and his men raid the apartment from which they believed the Major operated. It’s also been cleaned out and everyone is gone. A single red apple is left in the living room, surely by the Major to taunt them. Vance accurately says, “We were David. She was Goliath,” but Saanvi has further bad news for him. She informs him of her secret lab and crushes his spirits with the news that everything has been stolen, “Vance, I think I figured out how to control the 828 anomaly, how to isolate it, eliminate it, and replicate it, and now the Major knows it all.”

Last-minute thoughts:

– In the beginning of the episode, Vance reminds Saanvi (who is apparently giving Ben the silent treatment after his betrayal of her trust in last week’s “False Horizon”) that “this isn’t junior high,” that she should get over it, and start talking to Ben “already.” Oui, #JeSuisVance!

– While I enjoy visual tricks as much as the next viewer, the ultra-slow-motion shots of people in the street coupled with close-ups of Michaela’s eye in the opening scene when she first hears the calling did not do much for me, not that they truly had a purpose to begin with in terms of plot advancement.

– TJ learns of the death date as Ben is desperately trying to convince Frank at the health club. I understand why he would run away after learning that he has a death date stamped on him. I also took it as he was upset with Ben, but maybe I was wrong, because why would he then end up at Ben’s office working on his computer? That is where Olive finds him alone and begins the conversation that leads her to taking him to Adrian’s church.

– Nice nod to A Wrinkle in Time quote from earlier to alert TJ to recognize Olive. I know hardly anyone cares about details like this, but I find them neat and worth mentioning (just like the part where Adrian appears in line during the opening flashback scene).

Until the next episode…

PS1: You can find the links to all my episode reviews by clicking on “All Reviews” at the top.
PS2: Follow Durg on Twitter and Facebook

“False Horizon” – Aired on January 20, 2020
Writer: Jeannine Renshaw & MW Cartozian Wilson
Director: Nathan Hope
Grade: 4,5 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

Manifest delights the viewers with its second solid entry in a row, one that builds on the threads formed in the ‘crescendo’ episode “Grounded” and explores the substrates of various antagonists’ agendas. It disrupts some of the balances in the dynamics between Flight 828 survivors and those looking to understand, exploit, or control their nonpareil abilities. It’s a successful hour of TV because each storyline is given enough time to breath and absorb the additional layers added on the threads, allowing it to adequately advance from point A to B and even leave time for a glimpse of what is to come at point C (read: the next challenge for our protagonists).

The most glaring example of the process above is put on display in the storyline revolving around Saanvi and her therapist Ellen, a.k.a. the Major, a.k.a. General Major Kathryn Fitz, the latest addition to the list of names utilized by the fascinating villain aptly portrayed by Elizabeth Marvel. The malaise from watching Saanvi unknowingly interact with the enemy for three episodes culminates in a game-changing moment that results in that malaise being effaced. Nevertheless, it is also hinted that Saanvi and the Major are likely to continue interacting, although the dynamics between the two have now shifted to a new set of parameters.

We start with the two of them having a session during which Saanvi opens up about the day she was supposed to board the plane to Jamaica with her lover Alex. “Something died in me that day,” says Saanvi to describe the sinking feeling she had when Alex did not show up to board the plane. On an unrelated note, the scene ends on a surveillance-camera angle of the two, which comes a bit out of nowhere, because no further reference is made to the two being watched during their sessions. Is the Major recording her own sessions? Is someone else watching them? It’s a brief shot, but odd enough that it deserves an explanation. I don’t mind waiting for one, but one should eventually come.

Michaela continues her diligent pursuit of justice for Zeke and her task-du-jour is to find him a lawyer. Enter Teresa Yin (Czarina Mada), a public defender, who agrees to do so at the urging of Michaela. Her first move is to stop by the precinct to ask for Zeke’s arrest report, further unsettling Jared’s already tetchy state of mind (more on this below).

This sets off a chain of events that will have disastrous consequences for him, as opposed to merry ones for Michaela and Zeke. It plays as one of the two A stories of the episode – two A stories being a recurring pattern in Manifest outings – and relies heavily on its emotive foundation, while the other A story with Saanvi and the Major grazes on the analytical. Taken from this angle, building the former around two characters with big hearts in Michaela and Zeke (and the hapless Jared) while delegating the latter to your two brainy characters, is a decision that certainly makes sense.

Back to grouchy Jared… He scolds Michaela again – what’s new? – for not letting go of Zeke’s case. She asks him to clarify the report and say that the shooting was an accident. Jared not only refuses but also seems to threaten Michaela, “You keep pushing this, it’s not going to end well for you.” Unfortunately for him, it backfires when Michaela turns the tables on him by making clear that she is committed to saving Zeke at all costs and that he should “be prepared!”

She first has to track down Zeke who was apparently moved to an unknown location that will only appear in the system a few days later because, you see, the NYPD’s system somehow, mysteriously and astonishingly, needs that long to update itself. Can I get a wut? Shall I just fool myself into believing that no detective in the history of the NYPD ever needed to urgently speak to a prisoner who has recently been transferred, and thus the system taking a few days to update a prisoner’s new location has simply never come into question in this day and age? Oh-kay.

Fret not, however, because our hero Michaela is on it! Following a boatload of phone calls neatly shown in an accelerated montage scene, she finds his location. At that moment, she has the vision, again, of Zeke standing in the aisle of the plane with Cal sitting next to her. She extends her hand, but Zeke gets pushed back and blown out the hole in the back of the plane. In reality, Zeke was also having the same vision, but could not stay in it long enough to reach Michaela’s hands due to the drugs being injected in his veins by the doctors who noticed him shaking. Michaela eventually finds Zeke and instructs him to contact Teresa for legal representation before the guards come and kick her out.

Vance and Ben’s efforts have yielded no results in their investigation of the Major. Ben is all gung-ho about saving Saanvi from the mole, but Vance has a plan. He wants to use Saanvi as a bait to lead them to the Major and his plan involves feeding Saanvi “the ultimate soldier” – a fake passenger – that she can mention to the Major, which then would lead them to identify the mole. The problem here is that Saanvi, who is unaware of the fact that Ben has been collaborating with Vance or that Vance is even alive, must be left in the dark. And by God, for our Mr. Straight-as-a-die Ben Stone, the model citizen-father-agent, that indecorous plan is simply not acceptable! Vance, for his part, is not interested in Ben’s championing of virtues. “Set the trap,” he firmly tells Ben.

Ben obeys Vance at first, but gets veeery uncomfortable watching Saanvi turn all giddy about testing the DNA sequencer on this new passenger that he mentioned. Josh Dallas is pretty good in these scenes, distilling every droplet of morality from a character who redefines the boundaries of magnanimity. Ben is not going to be able to keep up the deception for long. You can see it coming from miles away.

The inevitable takes place later in the episode when he visits Saanvi in her lab. Before he arrives, Saanvi attempts to finish an email to Alex that she apparently began writing after he (or is it a ‘she’?) seemingly abandoned her. One of the sentences reads, “it was never my intention to break up a marriage.” Ok folks. I am fine with Saanvi the super-smart, beautiful, and awesomely nerdy scientist. I do not, however, wish to add “homewrecker” to her credentials. Don’t make me do it please. I shall resist!

Anyhow, that is when Ben visits her and this time he breaks down after about a minute. He spills out everything. I mean, everything! Yes, he fed her a fake passenger. Yes, he knew it was a fake one and did not tell her. Yes, others are in on the scheme. Yes, Vance is one of them, and in fact, he heads the operation. Yes, he is alive. Et cetera…

Saanvi is devastated by what she considers to be a betrayal of their mutual trust and tells him to leave, after which she furiously smashes her phone and throws it in the trash. The news of a mole has now made her suspicious to the point where she doubts anyone and everyone she comes across. This is portrayed in a well-filmed scene as Saanvi advances through the corridors of the hospital, in fear of being watched, with camera angles emphasizing her point-of-view as people walk by her. Poor Troy ends up as the ultimate victim of her increasing paranoia when she curtly tells him that his services as her lab assistant are no longer needed. Parveen Kaur is impressive in bringing Saanvi’s insecurity to the surface in “False Horizon” more than she has in any previous episode, except maybe in the aftermath of her trauma following Alice’s assault in “Upgrade.”

There are two side stories to complement the two main ones, and the writers wisely converge all of them in a clever and satisfactory way by the end of the outing. The first one gravitates around Ben’s quest to get hired at the university where his old friend Suzanne holds the Dean’s position. She kept her promise from “Grounded” (her first appearance) and got the hiring committee to consider Ben for a teaching position. He is to be evaluated during a special-guest lecture to the students on some aspect of mathematics – feel free to listen to the math-o-babble uttered for more details.

This is a nice nod to continuity as not only Suzanne makes her second appearance, but so does TJ, the young man that Ben helped in “Grounded.” As a matter of fact, he plays a crucial role when Ben’s lecture gets derailed, because the students in the packed auditorium are more interested in learning about the anomalies resulting from his experience as a Flight 828 passenger – “Is your IQ higher than it used to be?” – than in hearing his presentation. TJ rescues Ben by asking a question that references the flight but also relates to the topic of his presentation, allowing Ben to reestablish control of his lecture. TJ may have become the favorite recurring character of Manifest fans after that stunt. More on how this plotline converges with the others later.

The second side story pertinent to the others involves Grace getting a new calling, namely, “Open her eyes.” When she first hears it, she also spots a gargoyle on top of the car of a woman named Erika (Susan Pourfar) whom she just met at the yoga studio. Later at the house, Ben advises her to track Erika down and offer her help. This leads to a hackneyed scene designed to beat the drums on Olive’s role as the outcast in the family, as she watches her father, mother, and brother discuss Erika and work together on the computer to locate her while she watches them from a distance. Moreover, she gets quasi-ignored when she asks if she can be of any help.

In a later scene, again designed to foreground Olive’s lack of connection with her family members, she makes a passing comment to Grace and Michaela about how they should share their abilities with the world to make it a better place (or something like that). Grace and Michaela are unconcerned and brush her comment off with a half-laughter. If only they knew that Olive was absolutely not joking and that she is headed straight to the Church of the Believers again, volunteering this time to stand up and declare her acceptance of the miracle in front of the members of the cult.

Back to Grace and Cal who manage to track Erika down at a soccer field… The previously friendly Erika turns icy when she notices Cal with Grace, and leaves abruptly after a short conversation. As she is walking away, Grace notices another gargoyle perched on top of the field’s lights. The shift in Erika’s attitude reaches explosive levels when Grace runs into her a third time as she comes out of the yoga studio. Still thinking that her calling is related to Erika, Grace asks her if there is anything she can do to help. Erika’s hostility barometer skyrockets in a matter of seconds as she briskly tells Grace to stay away from her family and refers to Cal as an abomination. When Grace gets mad, Erika doubles down with, “I hope you lose that baby,” as she walks away!

Zeke’s court date has arrived and Teresa tells the judge that her client moves to withdraw his guilty plea. If you are an astute observer and you hear Teresa explain to the judge that the reason for the request to withdraw is the veracity of the investigation coming into question under new evidence, and couple that with Michaela’s “be prepared” imperative to Jared earlier, you know something disastrous is about to take place. Especially when you hear Teresa call Michaela to the witness stand! Yes, Michaela is about to basically throw Jared under the bus. Oh, how far have the betrothed fallen!

Michaela testifies that the shooting was an accident and talks about how “Detective Vasquez abused NYPD resources to lift and run Zeke’s prints” and “had him followed.” She sharply rejects the idea of staying quiet while an innocent man is unfairly convicted. It’s an emphatic and genuine defense of Zeke (well-milked by a fine performance by Melissa Roxburgh) and it ultimately works. Zeke’s charges are reduced and he can go free thanks to time served. Michaela is there, naturally, to pick up Zeke as he finally walks out of jail, a scene featuring a sans-smooch hug with strong enough romantic undertones to make any sentimental viewer smile from one ear to the other. Zeke tells her that nobody has ever done anything like this for him, “you didn’t just storm the castle, you burned it to the ground.”

Jared, by contrast, is definitely not having a jolly evening. He is drinking to his woes in a bar. Some skeevy dude makes a vile comment about how “828 wingnuts” should not be allowed to carry guns, and there goes the melancholic Jared telling the bartender to put Mr. Skeevy’s drink on his tab. I must admit that I did not expect him to sink this low, and it feels as if he has yet to hit the bottom. Jared’s spiraling down has been meticulously embroidered into the fabric of the second season’s narrative and I appreciate the writing room taking the slow-burn route to convey his transformation rather than using the one-episode info-dump method or some shocking twist.

We catch up with Saanvi during another session with her therapist “Ellen” the Major. This scene is shrewdly set up following a phone call from Saanvi who expresses an urgent need to talk to her following that fall-out with Ben, leading viewers to think that the forlorn Saanvi is about to fall to the hilt into the clutches of the Major. We should know better though, shouldn’t we? This is Saanvi, the genius-nerd with an atmospheric-level IQ.

Thus, we should not be surprised when we learn that she has already considered the possibility, hatched up a plan, calculated every step, and put into motion her own little scheme to uncover the identity of the mole. After telling Ellen how much these sessions have helped her – is that the epitome of “buttering up someone” to lower their defenses, or what? –, Saanvi delivers the big news to the Major. She has made a “key discovery.” It’s “huge.” It may even be “the key to discovering” what happened to them on that plane. Heck, she even tells the Major its location, “it’s in my fridge in the lab.” The hook is complete. The Major’s interest is piqued. Her eyes appear perky.

Saanvi’s mission is such a success that Vance, with his sly smile that is quickly becoming his trademark, cannot help himself but deliver the best line of the outing to Ben, “Oh, she is a much better spy than you, Stone.” Not only did Saanvi lift the Major’s mask, but her plan also outed Dr. Matthews when the surveillance cameras catch him looking into her fridge to retrieve the vial she mentioned to “Ellen.” Oh, and for good measure, Saanvi put a fake vial in the fridge that will occupy the Major’s team for weeks before they realize that she put them on the wrong trail. Her name is Bahl, Saanvi Bahl!

Vance pulls up the list of high-security clearance female officers working within the Department of Defense and Saanvi finds the Major among the photos. We finally have her real name: Major General Kathryn Fitz, a psychological warfare specialist with 30 years of black-ops background. It’s a key moment in the show, possibly a game-changer I reckon, because for the first time, our protagonists hold the initiative over the Major who is presumably unaware of them having discovered her identity. I am curious to see where this pendulum swing will lead and how it will be handled by the showrunners.

More good news ensue for Ben who has been offered a position at the university. One of the professors in the hiring committee named Simon White (Maury Ginsburg) welcomes him before walking to his car to leave with his wife, or so he says. Erika (!) is waiting for him in the driver’s seat, because no episode of modern TV can end without some teaser setting up a new question mark via the use of a big reveal. The reveal here being that Erika, with whom Grace clashed earlier, and Simon, the professor in the hiring committee, know about the Stones and have a secret agenda. The details of who they are and for whom they precisely work remain vague at this point, which is usually how episode-ending reveals work. As long as the pay-off is worth it, I am willing to wait.

Until the next episode…

PS1: You can find the links to all my episode reviews by clicking on “All Reviews” at the top.
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“Grounded” – Aired on January 13, 2020
Written by: Laura Putney & Margaret Easley
Directed by: Claudia Yarmy
Grade: 4,5 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

“Grounded” is what I would call, a ‘crescendo’ episode. A formidable one! It is an apt primer for what is to come. It builds, gaslights, intensifies, and ignites, but defers the joy or anguish of pay-offs to future episodes. While one conundrum gets solved, others are slowly turning into calamities, portending unbearable levels of hardship to come for our protagonists.

As an example of what I mean by ‘crescendo episode,’ take Cal and Michaela’s airplane visions involving Zeke. Remember how Cal insisted in the 2^nd-season opener “Fasten Your Seatbelts” that he and Michaela needed to be together, except that Zeke ended up in prison by the end of the episode. “Grounded” advances that plot by further intensifying the vision, but stops short of offering any explanation. We notice, for example, a fire spreading in the plane. Zeke’s vision in the isolation cell at the very end is even more chaotic, threatening his life. All three characters have a stake in urgently solving this vision, but they, along with the viewers, will have to wait until another episode. Similar patterns are adopted in the Saanvi and Olive storylines (see below), and it’s all done without stalling the narrative or taking attention away from the overall arc. Nice work!

Credit should definitely go to episode writers Laura Putney and Margaret Easley (who also collaborated for season 1’s “Dead Reckoning” and “Cleared for Approach“) for carefully crafting an hour of primetime TV drama driven by a series of poignant developments in preparation for potent pay-offs in the future. “Grounded” succeeds by gripping the viewer from the opening scene to the closing one by adding cogent layers to carry-over plots, and meaningful character-growth moments featuring delightful performances by guest and recurring actors.

It showcases one main character arriving at a crossroads in life, another one getting repeatedly scolded by anyone and everyone, a third one hitting rock bottom, and a fourth who ‘thinks’ she is having a good day while unknowingly setting herself – and her trusted ones – up for a disastrous downfall.

The hour begins with a flashback scene of Michaela watching Director Vance being put in an ambulance after the explosion in “Dead Reckoning.” The paramedic who pulled Vance out of the rubble was apparently one of his trusted men. The Director refused to go to the hospital because he had other plans. He reckons that his chances of identifying “the people inside the government” who tried kill him increase if they are duped into believing that they succeeded.

Since that day, Vance set up a rogue office under the disguise of a travel agency from where he is trying to unriddle the question marks surrounding the mystery of Flight 828. He clues Ben and Michaela in on a black-ops financial pipeline that appears to be funding a shadow 828 investigation. The flow of money into the investigation recently doubled, making him wonder the reason for the spike.

Next, we meet teenager and fellow Flight-828 passenger TJ (Garrett Wareing) who will be at the center of this week’s bottle crime story. Prior to flying to Jamaica, he was making his mom proud by doing well in school and studying Latin. His life turned upside down since his return when he learned that she overdosed on pills and died a month after his disappearance. In his absence, the school emptied his dorm room and the landlord tossed his mom’s belongings out, leaving him with nothing, not even a picture of his mom. Wareing’s fine performance enhances TJ’s authenticity, the young man to whom life has thrown a devastating curve ball. As expected, he is also seeing and hearing things, such as a vision of being inside his own grave, which makes Ben wonder at first if TJ is having a calling about his own death. As it turns out, it was the vision of a dead girl (named Frannie) because a subsequent calling leads TJ to find the burial spot and her corpse.

Jared is not buying the story about the callings although Ben vouches for the young man. The evidence available does not help TJ’s case either. From Jared’s perspective, he is guilty because he alone knew the location and his fingerprints are found in Frannie’s dorm room.

In the meantime, Grace is about to have her blood drawn for the paternity test when she hears a calling that repeatedly says “Stop.” Agitated, she rips the band out of her arm and storms out of the room with Ben following her. After a brief reflection, Ben and Grace joyfully conclude that it must be their child, because it is the only way to explain Grace hearing a calling. Ben’s offspring possesses his abilities, thus the callings. This is further confirmed in a much-later scene when Saanvi is holding the paternity results in her hand and looking rather giddy, and the camera briefly shows the words “Paternity confirmed.”

The question remains, why did the calling say “stop” if it is indeed Ben’s baby? This is neatly explored when no callings are heard at the time Saanvi conducts the paternity test. On the one hand, one can say that the calling wanted to stop Grace from having her blood taken by another physician who may discover the blood marker. On the other hand, if the callings have such omnipotent awareness powers, then why would they also not warn against Saanvi being privy to medical data about Grace and the baby? Is she not the one, after all, who is (unknowingly) passing all the crucial information to the Major about the baby, the blood marker, and the callings being genetically transferable? Taken from this angle, does Saanvi knowing about the baby not constitute a much greater danger than some random physician discovering (or possibly not) the existence of a blood marker?

Saanvi, the ultimate awesome-nerd-scientist, is also super-duper hyped about having proof that the callings can be transferred, as opposed to Grace whose immediate concern is the possibility of the baby getting tagged with a death date.

Michaela, in the meantime, is having a dismal day. She tries to visit Zeke in jail but he refuses to see her. When she tries to pull the cop card to the prison guard to see him anyway, the guard stops short of mocking her. This all takes place before she even gets back to the precinct where she learns that Captain Bowers assigned her a new partner by the name of Drea Mikami (Ellen Tamaki). Michaela does not like it (nor does Jared, naturally) and dares to voice her concern to Capt. Bowers, leading to the first of a pair of scoldings of Michaela by the Captain in this episode. Poor Michaela gets scolded two additional times, one by Jared and the other by Ben (yes, even Ben!). Add to that tally, her being physically forced out of the courtroom at Zeke’s hearing in a slightly over-dramatic scene where he pleads guilty to all charges, and you can comfortably conclude that Michaela’s day just went from dismal to downright miserable.

She decides to take out her frustration on her new partner, one could almost say. She questions Drea’s motivation for becoming a cop, considering that she comes from a rich family, a conclusion she draws solely based on Drea’s vernacular habits and expensive watch — a bit judgy there, ain’t you Mick? Drea admits to having a wealthy background but claims to love her job. Michaela’s message is clear: Drea must earn her trust, or else. Roxburgh’s portrayal of the snarky-slash-mean-slash-peeved Michaela is on target as usual.

Later, as Jared arrests TJ at the precinct, Michaela begins to shake uncontrollably from a vision, along with Cal who is in his bedroom at the house and Zeke at the lawn of the prison. Ben believes it has to do with TJ being innocent and asks her – or rather, commands her – to further investigate the case.

Michaela and Drea discover notes in Latin in Frannie’s room only to learn from one of her sorority sisters that she was an art student and never took Latin. Her art centered on collecting stuff from trash bins to create her own works. This leads Michaela to understand that TJ had never been in Frannie’s room, but that Frannie happened to collect his stuff after they had been thrown out following his disappearance. Right at that moment, she gets the same vision as TJ, someone burying her in soil, and notices a hole in the perpetrator’s shoe.

This meticulously laid-out plotline eventually brings us to campus security where Michaela and Drea must figure out why there is not a log of Frannie applying for an extra key card, considering that she had two of them. More specifically, who was on the night shift a couple of days ago when Frannie came to request a new card? A guard named Wilkins (David Anthony Buglione), whom we briefly saw in the beginning at the crime scene, first gets called on his lie about not seeing any student requesting a new card, then attempts to run away (the classic device for any criminal to declare their guilt in the land of TV series) when Michaela brings up his shoes. After the arrest, Drea wonders about Michaela’s shoe angle and states, “I assume you’re gonna clue me in as to what just happened.” Detective Stone has zero interest in doing so.

Back at the precinct, it’s a happy ending for TJ, although he cannot figure out why the calling came after Frannie’s murder. The Stone siblings (a.k.a., the callings experts-du-jour) give him an ‘Introduction to Callings 101’ crash-course. As TJ learns for himself when he and Ben visit the art gallery where Frannie’s works are on display, callings can often be useful. One of Frannie’s art works on display is a piece that she created out of TJ’s stuff, with a picture of him and his mom at its center. Ben, never short of profound wisdom, says to TJ, “That’s why the calling led you to find her, ‘cause she found you.”

As for Saanvi, during one of her counseling sessions (or what she believes to be one) with the Major, she mentions the DNA sequencer and spills out her findings about the possibility of the callings being genetically transferable, information carefully noted by the Major. This is followed up later when Vance figures out that the Major ordered a DNA sequencer. “How the hell does the Major know about Saanvi’s discovery?” Ben wonders out loud. Saanvi is on fast track to find herself at the center of an epochal mess.

Lastly, there is Olive who is in a state of despondency as the result of being the only family member left not to experience callings. To make matters worse, she turns to the one source where she is the least likely to find solutions, as many teenagers who feel like outcasts do. Never mind that she is also putting herself in a position to hurt her family further. Coming out of a bookstore, she runs into a random but friendly girl named Maxine (Erika Chase) who passes her a brochure about the Church of the Believers led by Adrian, another Flight 828 Passenger first seen in “Crosswinds.” We got a glimpse of how quickly the number of his followers was increasing back in “Upgrade,” as well as his dismissal of Ben’s warnings about deceiving people.

Olive’s journey as a teenager in disarray who turns to a cult to fulfill a need for belonging is surprisingly well-depicted considering the limited time that the story gets in the episode. Hats off to Luna Blaise for painting Olive’s portrait so vividly, including her bitterness at first when she learns of Grace’s calling, and despair later when her desire to help Cal is brushed aside with a “you wouldn’t understand” response. I can only assume that watching Olive implore Cal, “I can help. At least let me try,” provoked an emotional response from viewers at a visceral level, the way it did for me. In any case, Cal’s response is the final straw, Olive’s had enough. We last see her heading into the Church of the Believers, accompanied by her new friend Maxine.

Last-minute thoughts:

– Olive tells her mom that she is not mad because she resents being the only one not to get callings, but rather because she is terrified that everyone in her family could be gone in 5 years. I must admit to having read Olive’s reaction wrong, just like Grace did.

– Ben thanks his sister, in a lovely brotherly way, when TJ gets released at the precinct. Chalk one up in the win column for Michaela. She sure could use one in this episode.

– Speaking of Michaela’s hardships, Captain Bowers is miffed about her flimsy “anonymous tip” explanation every time she solves an outrageous case. Is this type of exchange is even possible? Can detectives simply write “anonymous tip” in their reports and not have to explain in detail how they solved a case? For my part, I totally understand Capt. Bowers. The constant lack of transparency by one of my subordinates, instead of keeping me in the loop (isn’t that part of their duty?), would gravely irritate me. In any case, Capt. Bowers orders Michaela and Jared (who just vouched for Mick) to be nowhere near each other in future investigations.

– Michaela is moving to her own apartment, much to Cal’s chagrin.

– An old classmate of Ben named Suzanne (Yasha Jackson) runs into him at the gallery. She is now a dean and enthusiastically tells Ben to send her his CV. Obviously, we will see Suzanne again.

– Troy Davis (Ed Herbstman), the nosy lab tech from “Estimated Time of Arrival” who had also noticed the blood marker, helps Saanvi out with the DNA sequencer. I am inclined to believe at this point that he is a harmless dude who likes Saanvi. He even asks her out for a cup of coffee (assuming that counts as “asking out” nowadays).

Until the next episode…

PS1: You can find the links to all my episode reviews by clicking on “All Reviews” at the top.
PS2: Follow Durg on Twitter and Facebook