‘Manifest’s Plane Calling: Did Ben & Michaela Save the Passengers? (RECAP)
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 2, Episode 7 of Manifest, “Emergency Exit.”]
Ben (Josh Dallas), Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh), Saanvi (Parveen Kaur), and the others are supposed to “save the passengers,” but from what? Manifest finally reveals the latest major (that has nothing to do with the Major) threat in “Emergency Exit.”
Following that chilling plane Calling at the end of Episode 6, Ben’s trying his hardest to figure out what the champagne glasses, burnt out plane cabin, melting walls, and dead bodies (some of which were passengers’) mean. But it all comes together when Grace (Athena Karkanis) and Zeke (Matt Long) have a Calling with Cal (Jack Messina), of a fire at a club. “Save the passengers,” Cal tells the adults. “It’s now.”
Everyone converges at a club where Isaiah happens to work — and where the champagne bottles from the Calling have been dosed. Ben goes to meet Adrian (Jared Grimes) for a drink to “keep his enemies close,” as his sister recommends — or so he thinks. But Adrian didn’t text Ben. He’s only there because Isaiah told him he needed to fill the place for some sort of promotion. Michaela’s supposed to be meeting Isaiah for information about the church attack. Olive (Luna Blaise) and TJ (Garrett Wareing) are looking to have fun. Finn (Rafi Silver) is supposed to be meeting investors. Bethany and other passengers are hanging out around the club.
(Peter Kramer/NBC)
Michaela and Ben put it all together a moment too late. People start dropping, and they realize a fire’s been set and they’re all locked inside. After Adrian tells him Olive’s there, Ben looks for his daughter and Michaela finds a way out. Ben and TJ break down the door Isaiah locked to keep people trapped in a back room, but on their way out, Olive falls and hurts her ankle.
When Michaela goes back inside, she finds Bethany pinned under a burning beam. To her surprise, Zeke joins them and is able to lift the beam long enough for Michaela to pull the flight attendant out. And when the three of them can’t find an exit, it’s Jared (J.R. Ramirez) who shows up to guide them.
Also trapped are Ben, Olive, and TJ, as the club burns around them. Isaiah suddenly takes Olive hostage, insisting, “you can’t leave. The miracle is upon us, but only if passengers are among the fallen. … We will all be miracles and transcend death, just like you did.” TJ charges him and holds him down while ordering Ben to get Olive out. Ben carries his daughter away, and it’s a bright light that leads him to the exit.
Just as Ben’s ready to go back in to get TJ, there’s an explosion. It’s too late, and TJ and Isaiah are presumed dead. But no one mentions finding their bodies, and given the very premise of the show, maybe we shouldn’t just to conclusions…
(Peter Kramer/NBC)
Meanwhile, Saanvi remains focused on her research, bringing in her ex-girlfriend, Alex, for help. (Yes, the same Alex who was supposed to go to Jamaica with her. They clearly still care for one another deeply, but Alex is also still married, so sadly, the chances of a happy ending there are slim. Poor Saanvi.) Following their conversation and an adjustment, Saanvi runs another test on herself and collapses. She has flashes of prior Callings and events since she returned. But when she comes to and tests herself, there’s no trace of the anomaly in her DNA. She got rid of the Callings, she happily says in a voicemail for Ben.
And might this discovery be a step in the right direction for Zeke, whose death date is approaching? Saanvi does, after all, find that instead of having burns on his hands like he should after the club, he’s showing signs of frostbite. He may be freezing to death.
Early on in the episode, TJ receives an email that Al-Zuras’s journal was found, and he has it sent to Ben’s office. Might the writing of a man who may have gone through what they are hold clues? Ben begins looking through it in the final scene and finds drawings inside, of the peacock — and what looks very much like him carrying Olive in the fire. Then, the journal glows …
But just because they solved the plane Calling — and saved as many passengers as they could (Ben walked right by an unconscious or dead Finn on his way out with Olive) — doesn’t mean it’s over. After all, Ben himself says to Grace, “it seems to me I figure out one Calling only to get another one more terrifying.” So, what’s next?
(Peter Kramer/NBC)
Manifest, Mondays, 10/9c, NBC
