Manifest – Pilot

By starrymag | September 29, 2018

By: Luke Joseph

 

 

The episode starts off innocent where the viewers meet the Stone family who are sitting at the airport on their way back home from a trip to Jamaica. To the naked eye they seem like a normal family, but we soon learn they come with their baggage too. Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh) seems to be the narrator of the story. Ben (Josh Dallas) and his wife Grace (Athena Karkanis) are going above and beyond in hopes to find a cure for their son Cal (Jack Messina) who has leukemia. Seeing as Michaela needs a break from her mother’s (Geraldine Leer) advice and Ben is eager to take the $400 travel vouchers. They, along with Cal, decide to take the later flight. With that they say goodbye to their loved ones, not knowing who or what they are leaving behind.

 

During the flight the passengers experience major turbulence and fear for a few minutes and then just like that the lights come back on. That annoying passenger we’ve all encountered requests a refill on their drink and everyone breathes a sigh of relief. The pilot (Frank Deal) radios into JFK only to be asked for his name and the numbers of passengers on the manifest. Rather than following the protocol of landing at JFK, he’s asked to land at Steward instead.

 

Upon landing the pilot explains that they’re going to deplane on the tarmac instead. The passengers’ interest is peaked when they see first responders awaiting them as they get off. After being given no information Michaela speaks up and asks what’s going on, which is enough for the officer to finally address the passengers. “The problem is this plane left Jamaica on April 4th, 2013. It is now November 4th, 2018. You’ve been gone for over five years and presumed dead.”

 

Rather than being free to go home the passengers and crew are all kept at the hanger for interrogation. The pilot is confused when he’s asked where they landed earlier causing him to answer in frustration they had never landed at all, only now at Steward. Passengers and crew are berated with the same questions, all having the same answer of how they had experienced turbulence. Cal is having trouble understanding how he’s still alive if five years have passed and why they haven’t aged.

 

Thirty-six hours later families and loved ones are united. Ben and his wife Grace embrace. She’s not only relieved to see her husband alive but her son as well. Cal, who had been asking for his mom during the questioning, finally falls into her arms but soon runs away when he catches sight of his twin sister Olive (Luna Blaise) who is now five years older than him and not looking like his twin at all. Michaela talks to her father (Malachy Cleary) asking where Jared (J.R. Ramirez) is only to be told he got caught up at work. However, when she asks where her mother is, that’s when she and Ben are greeted to heartbreak as they learn their mother has passed away.

 

“All things work together for good,” is what Michaela finds her attention fixed on as they return home. It’s a bible verse from Romans 8.28 and is the flight number she had been on. Thoughts are diverted when Grace comes in and apologizes about how they had to give her apartment away. Michaela too has an apology to give about being a bad influence on the kids, but Grace isn’t having any of it believing that they’ve all been given a second chance.

 

Back at Steward Airport crews work relentlessly to see if they can find any traces of anything that might answer what happened. “Do I have to say out loud how that’s impossible,” questions NSA Director Vance (Daryl Edwards) to which his lead investigator (Erika Rolfsrud) reminds him, “Director, no one on that plane aged a day. I think we’ve taken impossible off the table.”

 

Since her return Michaela has been trying to get in touch with Jared but is having no luck, drawing her to head to NYPD. Before the flight she had been a police officer on desk duty and with five years gone by she’s still welcomed to reclaim that desk. Michaela’s position remains the same, but Jared’s does not when he tells her he’s been promoted to lead detective on an abduction case. That’s not the only thing he reveals to her. That hopeful reunion that people have of running back into the arms of their loved ones? Yeah, that won’t be happening for Michaela seeing as though Jared is married to her best friend.

 

Things didn’t take a turn for the better for Michaela but things for Cal are looking up when Ben and Grace are told that there is a new treatment for his illness and they can apply for the trail. Parents who had been preparing for the hell of having to say goodbye to their son have now been greeted to a miracle because the odds of Cal’s survival have risen. They can thank Saanvi (Parveen Kaur) for that because it’s her research that has been saving lives ever since they left. She too had been a passenger on 828 and believed the research she had been working on for six months hadn’t gone through, but it had and now it’s helping save countless lives.

 

As Michaela rides home on a bus she hears a voice that says “slower” in her head. She’s confused at first but eventually asks the bus driver to slow down causing him to give a sarcastic quip to her. Again, she hears the voice only this time it’s more commanding, making her demand the driver to stop and it’s just in time because he had almost run over a child that had been crossing the street. How did she see the child? How did she know that? She’s probably wondering that too and it’s enough for her to confess to Ben what happened. The only advice Ben offers her is to not say anything or else she might end up in a psych ward since he’s sure the government has their eyes on them.

 

The voice isn’t done making itself known because during a jog Michaela comes across two German shepherds. “Set them free,” the voice tells her but rather than listen she runs off with the belief that she can just ignore it and it’ll go away. Unfortunately, that night she hears it again and it’s enough for her to head back to the spot. She’s surprised; however, when she encounters Ben who (surprise, surprise) heard the same voice telling him to set them free. She’s angry and for good reason since he basically called her crazy, but it’s understandable since he has so much else he needs to focus on like finding a job and fixing things with his daughter who grew up too soon. Eventually, he cuts the chain, freeing the dogs. And as the siblings watch them run off they are left wondering if they are meant to do more.

 

It’s no surprise that Ben and Michaela were recorded freeing the dogs causing Jared to confront her about why she did it. In a typical male fashion, he questions if this is her lashing out because he’s married and it’s in that moment when she finally reaches her tipping point and lets it all out. She’s upset about losing her mother because even though five years have passed to Michaela it’s all fresh. She’s devastated that she lost five years of her life and she’s overwhelmed with everything that has happened. The sight of her breaking down in enough for Jared to draw her into his arms and comfort her. He apologizes for not giving his condolences to her before and admits he’s still trying to wrap his head around everything. After a few minutes of reassurance he reminds her they still have to take care of the dog issue.

 

This leads to them heading back towards the spot and Michaela once again being told to “set them free.” As Jared goes to return the dogs Michaela waits outside and notices that the address is 828 – again, the number of her flight which is enough to make her realize this can’t be a coincidence. She ventures off to take a look while Jared explains and apologies to the owner who is more than understanding and not going to press any charges. “Set them free,” says the voice getting louder and louder as Michaela spots a trailer and begins to strike the lock repeatedly. It’s at this moment when Jared reappears and for the first time the viewers witness the owner lose his cool telling her to stop. The “set them free” hadn’t been speaking about the dogs. They had been referring to the missing girls who have now been found in this man’s trailer. These girls are alive because of Michaela and it’s enough for her Captain to tell her to take some time off work and then come back. She thanks Jared for his support and he tells her how he’s happy to help. “You still take my breath away,” he confesses and it’s in that statement alone that lets viewers know he’s still very much in love with her. We’re guessing his marriage was more so done for comfort and companionship not love.

 

Ben and Grace have a heart to heart as Cal, thanks to Saanvi fighting for him, receives his treatment. “I spent every day of the last five years blaming you not for taking that later flight but for making Cal so desperate for your attention that he wanted to stay with you. I had maybe what six months left with him and even that you took away from me.” However, Grace now understands that Cal was meant to be on the plane because it was that flight and the treatment that he is receiving now that is reason for why he’s still alive.  She tells Ben that he saved Cal, but Ben believes she did as well considering that she’s the one who suggested they all take a trip. They share a kiss and even though the moment is quite tender we later learn that Grace has moved on but she’s keeping it from Ben because she needs more time.

 

Later, Ben finds Michaela at church and when she asks how he knew where she was he says he just knew. It looks like she is desperate for answers on how they are still here. What she really wants to know is what’s so special about them that they are the only ones experiencing this, but Ben adds his two cents saying he doesn’t think they are the only ones going through this.

 

“It wasn’t just the two of us,” Michaela begins as we see various passengers and crew from flight 828 hearing the same messages that Ben and Michaela have been. All of these people, including the siblings, have turned up at the airport. “Ben and I didn’t know any of these people yet, but soon we’d know them as well as we know ourselves. As for whatever force brought us all here, it had no interest in it being investigated”, she explains as the crowd of people watch the plane explode before their very eyes. Yup, looks like the NSA Director Vance isn’t going to have a chance to take the plane apart like he wanted. Talk about an explosive premiere and the crazy part? Our journey has just begun.