Over the last four episodes of Manifest, the focus of the show has been on the passengers of Flight 828 who returned home and have had to adjust to a life that has jumped five-and-a-half years forward. On this week’s episode, however, it seemed like half the episode consisted of flashbacks concentrating on what happened to everyone who wasn’t on Flight 828 and what they went through during those five-and-a-half years. It was an emotional episode that really gave some insight into the way the people around Ben and Michaela have been acting and why everyone is having such a hard time adjusting to the return of these lost passengers.
The Past
Grace, Olive and Danny
This week’s episode opened with flashbacks focusing on young Olive (Jenna Kurmemaj), Grace and her in-laws on the first flight out of Jamaica, where Olive is having a hard time being away from Cal. The space, however, allows Grace to talk with her mother-in-law about the problems Ben and her have been going through due to the pressure Cal’s leukemia has placed on them. They reach the airport in New York safely and are debating whether or not to wait for everyone on the second flight when Flight 828 switches from “on time” to “talk with agent” on the board of flight arrivals.
The next time we are focused on Grace, it’s a few months after Flight 828 goes missing and it is clear that Grace is not handling the supposed deaths of Ben and Cal well. While she has been lying in bed unable to deal with the events, Olive has been taking care of her, even making her soup after trying to make a sandwich with moldy ingredients left her with burned fingers. Grace realizes that she can’t continue on like this and needs to start getting her life in order, for Olive’s sake if nothing else.
The first step in regaining control of her life is to join a support group with other people who have gone through the loss of a family member. During the first meeting, Grace opened up about how she felt she had no one left after losing Cal and Ben, but eventually realized that she had Olive and that was what led her to the meeting. She also talked about how every time people told her she looked great or that she was strong, she knew they were being polite and she just wanted someone to tell the truth and say that she looked like hell. After the meeting, Danny (Daniel Sunjata) appears and gets her to smile by telling her she looks like hell. It’s a cute moment that brings some happiness into Grace’s life and is the start of their relationship.
Two years after the disappearance of Flight 828, Grace invites Danny over for dinner, angering Olive. Danny works to understand her, realizing that she is struggling with losing Cal (she’s unwilling to admit he’s dead) and that this is aggravated by Grace sometimes mistaking Cal’s favorite things for hers, in this case creating a meatloaf dinner. Though Olive runs off after this conversation, it is clear Danny has made an impact and that Grace is incredibly grateful to him.
The last flashback we see is Danny leaving after the news of Flight 828’s return. It is clearly a painful moment for everyone—they’re all crying in a group hug before he leaves. For the last three years or so, Danny has been a surrogate father for Olive and though he could get over Grace, he is not sure he could ever move past losing Olive. It is clear that both Olive and Grace have lingering feelings for Danny, and in the present day, Grace realizes that she can’t end Olive’s relationship with Danny, creating a conundrum on how these familial relationships will continue in the future (Ben certainly doesn’t seem very welcoming to Danny).
Jared and Lourdes
In their first flashback, we are introduced to Jared and Lourdes at a café where he is freaking out about the possibility of Michaela turning down his proposal. Lourdes is clearly a good friend of Jared’s, making the foundations of their romance more solid than if it was just based around the loss of Michaela. In the middle of getting reassurance from Lourdes that Michaela will say yes, Jared gets a call from Grace, learning that Flight 828 is missing. When he finds out that Michaela chose to take a later flight, he assumes that she was going to say no, an assumption that is part of why all of the events following occurred.
The next time we see Jared and Lourdes, they are taking Michaela’s stuff to her parents house. They come across Michaela’s memory box full of photos and reminisce over their relationship with her, which leads to laughter, something Michaela’s mother is very happy to see. She believes that Michaela would want them to be happy and gives the memory box to Lourdes.
Two years later, Jared and Lourdes meet in a bar to celebrate his promotion to detective. It is clear that both hold feelings for each other, and the romantic tension builds until Jared kisses her. While he is willing to call it a mistake and move on, she calls him out and they realize that they both were happy he did it and that they don’t want to have regrets. This kiss is the start of a more serious relationship that Michaela’s mother, now showing signs of the cancer that eventually kills her, wholeheartedly approves of, though Michaela’s father still believes Jared loves his daughter.
Five-and-a-half years later, on Jared and Lourdes’ three-year kissaversary, Jared gets another call from Grace—the plane is back.
The Present Day
In the present, Ben spends the day with Cal trying to ignore the mysterious voice in his head that keeps on telling him “It’s all connected.” The two of them decide to let destiny guide their decisions that day by flipping a coin every time there is a choice to make. Towards the end of the day, Cal takes the lead and, following his own instincts, runs through the subway, leading Ben to Thomas, the stowaway from last week’s episode, who needs their help. In between the last episode and this week’s, Bethany, the stewardess, and her wife had hid Thomas, but Bethany was arrested by the NSA before they could take him to a safe house, leaving Thomas unsure of what to do. Luckily for Ben, Bethany’s wife arrives and takes care of Thomas, leaving Ben’s main worry to be over what Cal is experiencing. Ben decides he cannot ignore the voice he is hearing and starts work on a comprehensive data collection about all the passengers on Flight 828.
In the meantime, Michaela is dealing with the fact that she still loves Jared, something she reveals to her father who advises her to tell him. Just as Michaela is about to, after she finds out he only got 10 days docked from his paycheck for his actions in last week’s episode, he blows her off and returns home to Lourdes. There, Jared reassures Lourdes that he loves her and that all he feels for Michaela is pity. Whether this is just Jared telling himself that to avoid any guilt due to his association with the NSA is unclear. Clearly Lourdes loves Jared, but she also loves Michaela and there is no clear solution to this love triangle.
The Revelation
The last important flashback we get is of Cal on the plane. While everyone was asleep, Cal looks out the window and sees a glowing white ball of light. While looking at it, he says that “everything is connected,” exactly what the mysterious voice has been telling Ben. It is clear Cal will play a bigger part in the coming episodes and the overall mystery of Flight 828’s disappearance.