Manifest Season 1 Finale Review

Back on September 24th this year, NBC’s Manifest launched its pilot episode. The pilot episode drew in 10.4 million viewers, making it the highest viewed premiere in two years, and has been claimed as the best new TV series of 2018. The series starts with a voiceover by protagonist Michaela Stone (Melissa Roxburgh) looking back on the events that took place as she and her family were trying to get back to New York after a vacation in Jamaica. In her opening monologue, Stone says the following “No one can explain what happened to us on April 7, 2013. Some people called it impossible. Others called it a miracle. All I know is it was the day my life changed forever. If you’d seen us that afternoon, you probably would have thought we looked like a typical American family returning home from vacation. My brother, Ben, and his wife, Grace, still in love after 15 years. Their twins, Olive and Cal, always bickering like an old married couple. And the real old married couple my parents. Still in perfect health, still trying to run my life”.

Stone’s words are said as she begins to look back on an event which changed her life, that of course being the disappearance of Montego Air Flight 828 in which she, her brother Ben Stone (Josh Dallas), her ill nephew Cal Stone (Jack Messina) were bumped to flight 828 on their way home, separating the family. The plane lands and the passengers soon would discover that it has been five years since the plane initially took off. Since then, things have changed and most passengers have their lives turned upside down and conspiracies about the plane, its passengers and those tasked with investigating what went down, and what the passengers went through while they were gone. Additionally, the passengers must deal with having been gone for the last 5 ½ years, the investigation into them, crazy beliefs about the passengers, and the mysterious force called “the callings”, which passengers have been experiencing upon their return that binds them all together and prompts them to help people, commit certain acts, and so on. 16 episodes have come and gone and the mystery behind the passengers and the callings is just one of many on Manifest. What exactly happened in the season finale of Manifest? Let’s dive right into it.

James Griffin

Early on in the season, the passengers believed that they were the only ones who could experience the callings, but with the introduction of Zeke Landon (Matt Long) a but later, it was revealed that whatever happened to the plane that cause it to disappear also happened to certain others. Doctor Saanvi Bahl (Parveen Kaur) calls this the aftershock theory, in which the dark thunder the plane encountered that caused it to disappear also affected others much like an earthquake would have an aftershock. The theory also means that James Griffin, a man accused of double homicide and stealing a massive amount of money before his truck went into a lake and was uncovered 82 hours and 8 minutes later, was saved and “brought back” like the passengers on the plane and he too received callings, but he exploited them to get his way out of the double homicide charge and make a deal with the government to use his closings for fame and fortune.

Michaela, Ben, Saanvi, and Zeke all have the same calling: a voice saying “stop him”. At first everyone assumed it is about stopping Griffin from going on the news and exposing his callings, but this is proven wrong when Ben and Michaela go to stop Griffin before he enters his interview on the air. Zeke shows up too with a gun that he illegally purchased in order to protect Michaela and himself in case the calling meant to permanently stop Griffin by killing him. Griffin expresses no interest in stopping what he has done, even with Ben’s warning that the callings being investigated by the government, but before Griffin can go through with it, he starts to spit up water and ends up drowning on land. It is later revealed that Griffin died 82 hours and 8 minutes after he was removed from the lake and kept out of the truck. With Griffin gone, it leads Ben to believe that he, Cal, and Michaela may have an “expiration date” just like him too, as he only lived for as long as he was gone. Which brings us to our next point

June 2nd, 2024

Once Ben, Oliva, and Grace think about Griffin dying after the exact amount of time that he had been gone had passed, Ben starts to think that maybe that could happen to everyone on Flight 828. As previously mentioned, they were all gone for 5 ½ years. Ben does the math and figures out that it was exactly 2,037 days, which equates the day June 2nd, 2024. Olive is able to deduce the time faster than Ben by looking at the board of events the family has compiled throughout the season. This means that the passengers could very possibly die on June 2nd, 2024, which is interesting to think about especially when Zeke, who was only gone for a year, is taken into account for this.

Saanvi’s Trauma and the Bloodmarker

Saanvi is still dealing with PTSD from her recent hostage situation a few episodes back, which she has struggled with ever since. She finally is given a card by a doctor to go see one of his colleagues, a highly recommended one at that, to help her get over it. Saanvi later goes to the appointment and the person she is going to see is none other than the mysterious character known only as “The Major”, someone who has been monitoring the passengers of Flight 828 very closely. Clearly The Major is after some information about the passengers, but Saanvi tells Ben prior to this that no matter what, she will not give away any details of what has happened to them, so what exactly does The Major hope to get from Saanvi before some red flags go off? We’ll have to tune in next season to find out.

Another problem came up for the passengers as the bloodmarker that the passengers, Zeke, and Griffin all have in common was discovered. This links everyone who was involved in these incidents together and could be a bit of a problem if discovered, especially with the government. Saanvi did everything she cam for now to hide the bloodmarker, but it appears as though it will only be a matter of time before it is brought to light in front of everyone. We’ve already seen fanatical cults and religions based on the passengers of Flight 828 and the callings, we know that there are a myriad of people who hate the passengers for returning and Ben even had an altercation with someone of this sort, so will the bloodmarker help to fuel this unjust hate towards them once it is uncovered? It sure seems that way and speaking of unjust hate, it’s time for our next topic.

A Personal Investigation

Police Detective Jared Vasquez (J.R. Ramirez) has been skeptical of Zeke since he first met him and his skepticism is motivated by worry over Michaela and jealousy over how close the two appear to be. Jared pulled DNA from Zeke’s coffee cup and discovered that he has a criminal record, which prompts him to pay a fellow officer to follow Zeke, who later finds him purchasing the aforementioned firearm. Jared decides to confront Zeke on his own, uncovering alcohol Zeke had purchased but never drank (Zeke was a former alcoholic). Zeke and Jared get into a fistfight and his gun is pulled. Michaela rushes to stop it, but is just in time to witness a gunshot. The gun goes off and we don’t see who was shot. Was it Zeke, Jared, or Michaela? The signs don’t point towards the latter, so it must be one of the prior two. Who was shot, what does The Major want with Saanvi, and will the passengers die on June 2nd, 2024? Stay tuned to find out!