Manifest - Vanishing Point/Cleared For Approach - Double Review

This plane is picking up speed, folks, and are well on our way to our destination. Where is it? I don't know, but I'm enjoying the flight, especially now that the Flight 828 mystery has really started to pick up speed. These last two episodes spent more time on this mystery and less so on callings of the week, a move of which I highly approve. Let's go over them.

Vanishing Point

Where in the world is Cal Stone?

That's what everyone would like to know, and I mean everyone. Nobody knows where he is, not even the government. Everyone goes their own way to find him. Mick's first reaction is to go after Autumn, while Ben and Grace (who has been let in on everything) follow the yellow brick road of clues Cal left for them. It turns out Cal is even more psychic than we knew. All of the drawings he's been doing are of things that are going to happen in the future.

Mick is ready to go full on Liam Neeson on Autumn. She's more than furious about Cal's disappearance and will do anything in her power to find out what Autumn knows about it, including shoving her against walls and then bringing her into the station for an off-the-books interrogation. The only thing she finds out is that Autumn has a daughter that is currently in foster care and she's only cooperating with the government agents so they'll tell her where she is and let her be with her. But, Mick gets the goods on where this daughter is, trading that information for information on Cal, or rather that drawing Autumn stole in the last episode. Autumn gives her the drawing, giving a more exact location for where Cal is and reveals on the other side of it is a drawing of her daughter, the reason Autumn took it in the first place.

Meanwhile, Ben and Grace go on a road trip to a cabin where they believe Cal is, following the series of landmark drawings Cal left them. Pretty soon, the government agents are on their case, following them so Ben and Grace will lead them straight to Cal. When Ben and Grace discover this, and Olive sends them another drawing for extra proof, they realize Cal wasn't kidnapped, he went off on his own for some reason. Most likely following a calling that he got, and listening to it because he wants to be a hero like his dad. After Autumn helps throw off the cops, and Mick sends them that drawing, Ben and Grace are able to locate Cal, finding him freezing in a cabin all by himself. But he's not supposed to be alone for long, actually, because he's expecting the person he's supposed to help.

And show up that person does, breaking in the door and collapsing immediately. When Mick arrives, she realizes this is the guy from her vision calling, the one with his hand in the snow and holding a picture of Mick. So what's this guy's deal? When he wakes up, he reveals he's a hiker that got stuck in a cave after a sudden blizzard. He's been there for two weeks. The only thing that got him through it was this magazine photo of Mick. Looking at it somehow gave him hope. But he's surprised to see her and Ben, thinking that they're supposed to be missing or dead. He has no idea about the return of Flight 828, an event that happened more than two weeks ago. Looking at the magazine date, Ben and Mick realize he's actually been gone for a year.

This episode gave us a lot more forward motion not only on the mystery of Flight 828 but also some nice character progression for Grace and her and Ben's relationship. Grace is now fully in the know, and she and Ben come to an agreement to be honest with each other. She's much more understanding of what he's been going through and he's feeling more comfortable to be open about it. I'm also glad we're expanding this mystery to people outside of the Flight 828 passengers. How is this guy experiencing the same thing they did? Let's find out in Cleared for Approach.

Cleared For Approach

Written in the Stars

In December of 2017, the hiker, Zeke, decided to go for a hike and somehow ended up not returning for a year. Zeke think he's dead or on another planet, both of which I feel are absolutely plausible at this point, especially given how the episode goes on. When retelling his story, he doesn't know what happened to him except he was just caught in this sudden, unexpected storm (sounds familiar) which drove him into a cave. Then two weeks later (for him) another unexpected event freed him from the cave and he got a calling that told him to find Mick. Ben is immediately suspicious of him, thinking he's just a plant like Autumn and gets a sample of his blood to take to Saanvi.

Zeke, for his part, doesn't seem like a plant. Especially after Mick touches him and they get a calling together in which they are surrounded by the worst CGI ever stars at night with a voice (his) telling them to go back. Mick takes that to mean they're supposed to go back to the cave. But he doesn't want anything to do with any of what's going on so he takes off. But Mick discovers a missing flyer for Zeke and finds out through a talkative shop owner that Zeke had a sister that died here some years ago. Mick finds Zeke and talks to him about his sister, Chloe. He's moved enough to agree to keep on their adventure and takes her to the cave.

At the cave, they get another calling telling them to once again go back. So, Mick's initial gut instinct is wrong, again. I get that they keep doing this to keep the true meanings from being revealed until the end of the episode, but it's kind of making Mick seem like not exactly the brightest detective. Mick now deduces that the calling has got something to do with stars, which Zeke reveals he has a star necklace he's wearing that was his sister's. Mick deduces it's about the sister.

The next place they go to is his sister's memorial on the mountain, which he wasn't able to go to before because he feels guilty about her death. He accidentally sent her to her death because when they were kids, they were camping on this mountain and he got annoyed with her and wanted her to leave him alone, so she did. Unwittingly forever. Being at the memorial doesn't fully heal him, of course, but he thanks Mick and hugs her and they get another calling. This time it's them surrounded by stars but with lightning in the background and her voice tells them to go back. Wrong again, Mick. She thinks this means he needs to go back to his friends and society, but he's not ready yet. Oh, and then Mick is 0 for 4 because on their way back, they find a tree with a crude carving of the two of them as they are right now, in the dark, holding hands, with stars in the sky, and then dark lightning appears.

Conspiracy Terrorists

On Ben's side, Ben and Grace get to deal with a zealous hate group led by an Alex Jones type who believe the passengers are actually terrorists. Yep. This guy, or a follower of his on his anti-passengers website Infowars, attack Ben's house by throwing a brick through the window and drawing a big red X on their door. Ben is understandably pissed. Jared tracks down the website owner, Cody Webber, but doesn't have enough on him to hold him there. He gets released, and Ben tracks him down. He confronts him and threatens him to leave his family alone or else, getting himself arrested and ruining Jared's plan to get this guy a different way. Now Ben looks like the bad guy and fuels the fire for Cody and his followers.

Also on the homefront, Ben and Grace discuss telling Olive what's going on. Ben's worried about the people who find out dying, so Grace figures, if she stays alive, then it will be okay to tell Olive. A pretty morbid plan, but all right. Except, none of that matters because Olive reveals to Ben she already knows about the callings, has for a long time because Cal told her, and she's fine and dandy. She and Ben have a somewhat bonding experience over it later on when he finds a picture of a peacock in Olive's book, reminding him of his earlier vision. Olive says peacocks are like messengers for a goddess and represent immortality. Research Ben is on the move again.

Finally, after Ben gives her the blood sample, Saanvi examines it and finds out Zeke is just like them with the same biological markers. She also tells Ben there was dark lightning that day he went hiking too. Whatever's going on, it's got to do with that dark matter lightning.

Now that we know a little bit more, does anyone have any thoughts, theories, comments on the mystery? Or how about this new guy Zeke, am I the only one feeling some vibes between him and Mick? And am I the only one that totally wants her to go for it? Sound off below!