Manifest – Vanishing Point

By: Luke Joseph

“We are playing into their hands,” proclaims a frustrated Ben (Josh Dallas) when he returns home and sees that the cops are there. In Grace’s (Athena Karkanis) defense, any parent whose kid has gone missing winds up calling the police. But Cal (Jack Messina) isn’t just any kid. He’s the holy grail.

Following her suspicion that Autumn (Shirley Rumierk) has something to do with Cal missing, Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh) confronts her demanding that she gives answers. Before she can take it further Olive (Luna Blaise) calls and says that the police are questioning Ben in the disappearance of Cal. Knowing that she needs to be there to help, she takes Autumn into custody and heads to the house. Considering that Grace isn’t understanding all this, Ben and Michaela decide that it’s time to tell her the truth. The whole truth. Grace asks Ben why he kept all of this from her and both siblings end up revealing they feared that the lives of those who knew would be in danger. They didn’t want to take the risk, but Grace isn’t having none of it. “I would rather die than not do everything in my power to save our son,” she asserts and it’s this proclamation which causes Ben and Michaela to reveal everything about why Cal is the holy grail. They show her each sketch he has drawn and explains the meaning of them. They’re all shocked when they come across a sketch that has all three of them in his room – a moment that is happening now.

Cal has also drawn multiple sketches of scenery and they believe it to be some sort of map that will lead to him. Unfortunately, there is a page that has been torn out, but Michaela knows who is responsible for it. With some form of knowledge on where they need to head they’re about to head out till they remember they have cops still on the premises. Putting in a call to Jared (J.R. Ramirez), he comes to the house and reveals that it’s all a false alarm and that Cal is safe with his grandpa. It’s enough for the cops to take their leave along with Ben, Grace, Jared and Michaela.

At the precinct Michaela continues to interrogate Autumn demanding she give her the answers she seeks along with the sketch that was torn out. However, Autumn remains a closed book declaring she can’t say anything because the Major knows things. Those things are revealed to be her daughter. Clarissa Ford is the foster mom of Autumn’s little girl and the Major knows this. Though her heart is in the right place to want to protect her daughter Michaela is quick to remind her this isn’t just about her daughter stating, “You sold out another child to save your own.”

Meanwhile, Ben and Grace continue their wild goose chase in the hopes to find their son. Hope is found though when Olive follows her twin intuition and finds a note left by Cal that reads “I Left” and she immediately sends the picture to her parents. Relieved that Cal hadn’t been taken they hit the road again only to discover that they are being followed. However, during the trailing the SUV turns around and heads in the opposite direction leaving Ben and Grace to believe that they’ve located Cal. Thankfully, Autumn has finally stepped up and chosen to do the right thing by giving Jansen (Brandon Schraml) a false location and also more time wasted in actually finding Cal. For doing this good deed Michaela does her part in rewarding Autumn with information regarding the location of her daughter and in turn is handed the missing page from Cal’s sketchbook. Autumn explains how she had taken it because it had been a sketch of her and her daughter. But it’s the picture on the back that’s the most useful because it has a drawing of a cabin, red truck and radio tower in the back prompting Michaela to send the picture to Ben and Grace and tell them she will meet them there.

The “I Left” note isn’t actually an “I” because Ben realizes when they come to having to decide whether to turn right or left Cal is telling them go left. It’s another map and it leads straight to the cabin and to Ben and Grace right to Cal. They enter the cabin and all Grace wishes to do is take Cal home, but he refuses to go telling his father he’s had another calling. “This is where I’m supposed to be. I can’t leave. He’s coming. He’s almost here,” Cal ominously states.

The “he” turns out to be a man by the name of Zeke (Matt Long). Unlike the others though who needed help, he’s not a passenger of Flight 828. However, he knows who Michaela is. Zeke shares his story how he had been trapped in a cave because of a blizzard and that in order to keep himself warm he burned pages of a magazine to keep the fire going, but the only page he refused to burn was an article that was written about Michaela and showed a picture of her. He explained how looking at that picture gave him strength and the will to live. It drew him to want to “find her” and it’s then that Michaela realizes it’s his visions she’s been having. They ask how long he’s been gone and he says two weeks, but something draws Ben to want to know more asking Zeke what is the year. He says 2017, which shocks the Stone Sibblings because it’s 2018.

It looks like this hiker had hiked through whatever wormhole the passengers of Flight 828 were transported through. Does this mean that the blizzard came out of nowhere as well? More questions present themselves and they better figure it out soon because the Major (Elizabeth Marvel) is not only in New York but is relocating there as well. She knows eventually Cal will turn up again and the family will return home and that’s when she will obtain the Holy Grail.