Manifest - Estimated Time of Departure - Review

It's season finale time, Manifesters. We've reached the climax of the season, and it's a little anticlimactic, to be honest. There aren't any real stakes here and no Major moves have been made by anyone. We got a little more information about the possible fates of people receiving callings, but no real answers still about why they're getting them or what happened to speed up/slow down time in these situations. I have no idea where the show is going with this in the second season, should they get one, and it doesn't seem like they know much either.

The Destroyer

First, we flashback to just before the fated flight. The entire Stone family are all enjoying their time at the beach. Grace suggests staying forever on the beach, which, yeah, would have been a good idea in hindsight. Mick and her mother have a nice moment. Everyone is super happy. Then we're pulled back into the present where everyone is not so happy anymore. Honestly, this scene doesn't affect me as much as it probably should. I think it's because everything isn't so drastically different now (with the exception of the death of Mamma Stone, which hasn't even been a thing since the first or second episode), or I just don't care about the situation they're in.

Currently, the Stone family is watching the news about James Griffon getting released. Olive is trying to figure out what the peacock means, behaving just like her father. Olive realizes it, too. She later admits that she finally feels like she and her father have something in common, something that they can work on together, and is glad. She doesn't even mention David. I guess he's a thing of the past for her now. He's basically been dropped. Well, maybe, if Grace's womb has anything to say about it, spoiler alert. Anyway, the family is interrupted when they find Cal destroying everything in his room. But he can't tell them what's going on, he'll only talk to Zeke.

Zeke is not in much of a mood to talk, though, because he is tempted to fall off the wagon and drink after everything that's happened. He buys a bottle of bourbon and brings it back to Mick's apartment. When asked by Mick, Zeke tells her he went home to talk to his mom, but she wouldn't even open the door. Zeke reveals there are things she doesn't know, but she does thanks to Jared, which I'll get to a little later on. She tells Zeke Jared showed her his police file. He admits he was arrested for assault because he got into a fight in a bar because the guy was mistreating the guy's girlfriend. Zeke is in serious self-hating mode, so Mick tries to bolster him up. They end up hugging, which gets awkward. She tells him Ben was looking for him for Cal.

When Zeke goes over to talk to Cal, Cal is at first closed off because what he saw he's really disturbed by. After making Zeke promise not to tell Ben or Mick, Cal shows him the drawing of his, Ben's, and Mick's gravestones. That's really morbid for a kid to draw, and to draw it in such detail. When Ben and Mick ask him about Cal, Zeke keeps his promise and just tells them Cal's worried about something happening to them.

Karma, Karma, Karma, Karma, Karma Chameleon ... Maybe?

What could lead to something happening to the three of them? Well, it all ties back to Griffon. At the police station, Griffon is all grins with Mick as he leaves. Mick can't let it go and follows him outside to remind him he's going to get his comeuppance somehow. Suddenly, everybody except Griffon gets a calling saying to stop him. They assume (because that always works out) that it's about Griffon. Saanvi thinks they should outright murder the guy to stop him for good. That escalated quickly. Saanvi is being savage. But Mick and Ben think the callings work morally and they should find another way or they'll get in trouble. Yeah, it didn't work with this guy last time, why would that work again? I'm not calling for murder here, but, this guy clearly doesn't respond to pleading to his sense of morality.

Griffon decides he's going on the news to talk about his abilities. Yeah, because the last time a calling person went on the news, it turned out so well for them. Everybody wants to stop Griffon before he can go on because they're worried about exposure. But, they are already exposed to the government and already have a target on their backs for being different because of Cody's anti-Flight 828 zealotry. Is the world finding out really a problem?

At the news station, Griffon is arriving, surrounded by adoring fans. Ben and Mick confront him and try to convince him not to reveal the callings. It doesn't work. Big surprise. But that's okay because plot takes care of it for them. He suddenly starts throwing up tons and tons of water, and then slumps over, dead.

Saanvi gets the autopsy records for Griffon. He died by drowning. But how and why? Mick thinks it was the calling, but there's got to be something else behind it, so Ben looks into it. He finds out that the amount of time he was gone is the same exact amount of time he was alive again. That's why he died. If this is true, Ben, Mick, and Cal are in a similar boat. Olive realizes they have until June 2nd, 2024. How does she know? Because of the peacock. The peacock being representative of the goddess, Juno = June. The petrograph of the constellation Mick and Zeke found means Gemini, which is representative of 2. Then Cal's wooden dragon project. The year of the wooden dragon in the Chinese zodiac is 2024. Also, Ben knows just from doing a quick calculation. They didn't even need the clues. Way to get owned by your dad, Olive. Basically, Ben, Mick, Cal, and the other Flight 828 passengers (except for maybe Fiona and the pilot. Remember them? I sure hope the shows does) have about 5 years left to live. Everybody is upset except for Cal, who sadly already has dealt with this before because he's been facing death half of his life. He knows how it goes.

Jared is the Worst Part 374

Like I said earlier, Jared showed Mick Zeke's police file. She's mad he did this. Not just because it was behind her back, but because it was ILLEGAL. Mick accuses him of acting out of jealousy, but he denies it, and then has the gall to turn it around on her and accuse her of behaving badly because of her emotions. She tells him they're just friends (not that it's any of his business).

Jared still won't let it go, though, and hires somebody to follow Zeke. The guy follows Zeke and finds him buying a gun, but thinks it is drugs. Zeke, in actuality, bought a gun to maybe kill Griffon with, but didn't go through with it. Jared, again, confronts Mick about this and she still won't have anything to do with it. Again, they have a conversation where he wants to be with her and again, she says she wants it too but won't be with him for reasons. We don't really get a reason-of-the-week this week.

JARED STILL WON'T LET IT GO and busts into Mick's apartment to look for the drugs he's sure Zeke has. He and Zeke get into a fight. Jared actually tells him this whole Zeke situation has been thrust upon him and he doesn't want to deal with it. THEN DON'T. YOU DID THIS TO YOURSELF. Anyway, they have words and Jared throws the first punch. It's on like Donkey Kong. But then Zeke pulls out the gun he bought. He and Jared fight over the gun. Then Mick, who heard the voice telling her to stop him again, (because of course it wasn't about Griffon, it was about something else. AGAIN) thinks it's about Zeke and runs home to stop him from doing whatever. She arrives just in time to see someone get shot, but we don't see who it is.

In other news

Grace is pregnant. Ugggggggh. Ben is happy until they realize it might not be his. UGGGGGGHHHH. I'm sorry, I've just seen this storyline too many times. It feels like this show is just copying other show's storylines and not coming up with enough of their own.

The Major is again doing a whole lot of nothing except now she's going to be Saanvi's therapist. Please have her actually do something here guys, and preferably not five episodes into the season. I honestly expected her to do a lot more than she did ever since she made her appearance. The longer she waits, the less of a threat she feels like.

That's a wrap. Honestly, the show hasn't gotten me invested enough to really care about what happens to these characters. It feels like this show is half family drama half mystery, and both sides are not getting the care they should. There is a lot of family drama and relationship drama, but it's not the kind of drama I'm interested in or the kind that would fit well with a show that's supposed to be very sci-fi. But I'll keep watching if it gets a second season and just hope it improves. There's a lot of potential here, and it was going well after that midseason finale, but then the quality dropped again once they brought back the love triangles and family drama. Maybe if they just stick to the mystery and expanding on that, The Major, the threat of the government and this Cody guy, it would do a lot better.

That's my take on it. What do you all think?