The end has come for a favorite show of ours: Manifest. An American drama / supernatural television show that debuted in 2018 and managed to survive the global pandemic, as well as a cancelation, has made it to the final season. Season 4 was split into two parts with the first part coming out in November 2022. Season 4 part 2 was released in the United States on June 2, 2023 via Netflix.
Before we go any further, I must warn of spoilers! It is good... Really good. A tear jerker but good.
Let's start from the beginning.
The premise of the show was that, back in 2018, a plane filled with overflow passengers from a flight to New York, Montego Air Flight 828, took off from Jamiaca but disappeared. Five and a half years later, the plane (still containing all of its crew and passengers) lands in New York. The folks inside of the plane have skipped over time and haven't aged a day whereas the world went on without them.
The main two passengers we come to know and love are siblings Ben Stone and Michaela "Mick" Stone, and Ben's son Cal Stone. Their mother passed away during their absence. Ben's wife Grace got rid of all of Ben's and Cal's things and was trying to move on as she had to raise her daughter Olive Stone alone. Olive, being Cal's twin sibling, had said she thought he was still out there somehow, tried to help keep their memories alive. Trying to repair their family takes time and patience but Grace and Ben work it out and reconnect.
Mick's boyfriend (Jared Vasquez) had proposed to her before her trip to Jamaica with the family. Since he assumed she was dead, he ended up marrying her best friend during the absence. It doesn't mean he doesn't still love her a lot, though! This makes it complicated for him and he eventually starts trying to get back with her.
Saanvi Bahl is a doctor that was on the plane that was working to cure cancers like Cal Stone had been diagnosed with prior to Jamaica. She worked hard to figure out what happened to / with the 828 passengers (828ers).
Anyways, after the plane touches down 5.5 years after they should have landed, supernatural things started happening. The strangest thing is this thing called "Callings": premonitions, visions, hints of something happening/ going to happen, etc. Mick is one of the first ones to investigate these Callings as she is a police officer. Handy, isn't it?
She follows these Callings and, most of the time, they turn out good - save a life, stop a kidnapping ring, realize a connection between strangers, etc.
Ben and Cal and a few others start looking into these Callings and trying to do good. However, Cal gets a warning Calling that there is a looming Death Date, when everything ends. All of the 828ers will die on this preset Death Date, almost 5.5 years precisely from when they returned (which would mirror how long they were gone). So is there a way to prevent the Death Date?
Death Date: There were three instances aside the 828ersOne Calling led Mick to meet a guy named Zeke. He had disappeared in a cave and was presumed dead for a while. However, he had disappeared like 828 and returned. The equivalent amount of time that he had been gone passed and he started freezing to death. He ends up saving Cal from three kidnappers and survived his personal Death Date. Those three came back and also had their own personal Death Date, the result of which was not pretty and caused concern for the 828ers because one bad dude could cause all of us to die ("sink the lifeboat"). We also find out that Zeke had this crazy empathy thing that he can feel others' emotions, which in turn helps him become an awesome therapist.
Along the way, we see the Xers ("no to 828ers!"), radical believers that think the 828ers are God's messengers or chosen ones, and everything in between. To say the least, they have made a wave. We see 828ers being attacked and murdered. At one point, they are forced to start reporting weekly as if they are prisoners on parole/probation, for the 828er's sake and for the public's safety.
Then we have the radicals inside of the 828ers... There is Adrian, who started a cult centered around the 828ers. This cult eventually made bombs out of fertilizer! I cannot recall why but it was messed up. Anyways, Adrian saw the error of his ways and eventually tried to do good. Before turning his life around, though, he gave bad advice to another passenger named Angelina.
Angelina is just a sad character all around and throughout the series. She was raised by a strong Bible-thumping family that ended up locking her up in the basement when they found out about her Callings. Cal/Mick helped release her. She ended up living with the Stone family, getting obsessed with Olive (cutting her hair, wearing her clothes, etc). Olive wanted to kick her out but Cal said that she had a purpose for sticking around.
At one point, Angelina was convinced that Eden Stone (Grace and Ben's 3rd child, born after the return of the 828ers) was her angel. She lit Eden's bedroom on fire even! The Stone family survived and kicked Angelina out. She came back, used the hide-a-key, stabbed Grace [murdered Grace], and kidnapped Eden. (It doesn't stop there....)
Angelina then goes on to brainwash the young Eden. Ben and his family fight to find Eden, get her back, and un brainwash her, all while they're grieving Grace's death and trying to find a way to survive the Death Date.
Along the way, Saanvi, Ben, and a non 828er Vance (Director of the NSA investigating the 828ers and everything related to them) connected to research Flight 828. A theme about sapphire and the beyond/divine pops up for everyone to look into. Supposedly, during the time that they were disappeared, they were in this white light. This white light area allowed them visions of things that could happen and the Callings are memories of what they had seen in the white light. The sapphire has mythological and historical meaning that it is a "tool to connect to the divine", so they search for the purest sapphire to try figuring out what they can do about the Death Date. "The Omega Sapphire is the key", they think.
They also find that a piece of the Noah's Ark and a piece of Montego Air Flight 828 were both covered with sapphire, hence touched by the Divine. (Oh, and Cal touched the tailfin of Flight 828 and disappeared again. He also came back, more in touch with the divine/Callings and at his proper age for the time. Like literally the same age as Olive! So that had to be hidden from everyone so he wouldn't be a test subject for forever.)
Okay so that's bringing us up to the Season 4.
The Death Date is coming.
Cal's cancer is back. Zeke is losing control of his empathic powers or his own emotional well-being. Vasquez is seeing Mick's friend / ex NYPD co-worker Drea Mikami. Things are ramping up against the 828ers.
The Alpha Sapphire might help save us. Even the worm-of-a-man 828 passenger Eagan Tehrani tries to get a hold of the Omega Sapphire. One of his Callings would have led him directly to it long before season 4 but he didn't realize this. He searches for the Omega Sapphire but somehow it falls into the hands of Angelina. Or should I say "hand"? It fell into lava and she picked it up with her bare hand, embedding it into her hand. (That's where they left off the end of Season 4 part 1.)
So Angelina now has the Omega Sapphire embedded in her hand and she thinks that she is the prophet that God has sent to Earth to find the few chosen, saving them specifically from the world's destruction. Since that is the end, it is a nothing-barred take on survival. This includes poisoning a lady by swapping her anxiety medication out and putting rat poison in her pills.
Cal realizes, with signs and a dream, that two sapphires must connect to help save them. Since he cannot connect with Angelina and her "let everything burn" take, he searches for the Ark piece that Saanvi threw into a volcanic fissure years a while ago. This brings him, his family, Saanvi, Drea, Vasquez, Olive's 828 boyfriend TJ, and Vance to the place the piece was tossed. There in the road is the volcano fissure scar and looks identical to the dragon scar that Cal has on his arm. Coincidence? No, of course not.
There's a gathering of the group and, feeling the last hours before their Death Date, they talk about what life would have been like if the whole 828 thing had never been. Mick comes to realize that, since Drea is expecting Vasquez's kid and that the two of them really care for each other, maybe he should be with her instead. Ben says something about "would have Eden either way". Saanvi says that she still loves her ex Alex, and understands Ben's feelings towards his belated wife Grace.
Things come to a close for the night and everyone hugs. In the middle of the night, Cal wakes up, goes to the crack, and (after talking with his dad) goes to the glowing fissure. He disappears and a huge beam of light bursts upwards. This is the last we see of Cal (in that time line).
Morning comes but all of the 828ers at the site wake up choking. "It is the start of the Death Date. This is how we died - choking. It could be flames and other nasty things!" So Olive, Eden, Vance, Vasquez and Drea leave to go figure out one more thing at home as the 828ers are prepping to face their Death Date.
The beam of light had caught all of the 828 passengers' attention and they all came to the dragon mark site. Even the Flight 828 plane itself is "thrown up" from the ground, popping up through the volcano cracks and pushing out through magma. It was intense! (I definitely fangirled here. 😂)
This arrival also included Angelina and her "chosen" group. With everything that had happened to then, I was terrified to see her show up but nobody was killed in the stand off (Saanvi got shot in the arm). Her group got onto the plane with everyone else. Angelina falls when the earth quakes and hits her head. She tells Ben to leave her because she killed Grace and regrets it every day.
Olive, back at home, translates the signs and calls to let Ben know that the sign of Ben walking through fire carrying someone was not only when he saved her but that he needed to save Angelina. He never gets the phone call but he does pick up Angelina and carry her through fire to bring her onto the plane.
As the Earth was being overrun by volcanos, the only option was for the plane to take off. With copilot Amuta and Mick at the helm, the plane takes off. The final judgment then comes.
Flying above the Earth, some people start seeing volcano lines cracking their skin. If they are deemed of a heavy heart / bad person, they spontaneously burst and turn into a pile of ash! Seriously.
Adrian is one of the people that starts having volcano lines cracking his skin. He accepted it but Eagan, sitting next to him, says something to the effect of "no, you've also done a lot of good. If anything, I should be the one to go instead of you" since he didn't have the cracking. It fades from Adrian and starts on Eagan. Eagan just goes "yup, this is my fate" but Adrian goes "are you kidding? Sacrificing yourself is one of the least selfish things anyone can do". The cracking stops on Eagan and both of them survive.
Another significant person with cracking is Saanvi. She had accidentally murdered someone as she had been trying to solve the 828 mystery. The guilt on her consciousness made her tell Ben that it was right for her to die. Ben reminded her of all the good that she had done, and the cracking stopped.
Angelina, and a few of her followers, died and turned to piles of ash.
After a little bit, the darkness (of those that had died) collected itself and became a phantasmic Grim Reaper / Angel of Death. Ben called everyone together to stand against it. He reminds this Angel of Death that the 828 group was a random sampling of the world, nothing special about any of them, but they had followed the Callings and had done much good: stopped a kid smuggling ring, helped save many lives, etc. As he reminds the Angel of Death of all the good that they had done, they walk forward towards the Angel of Death and effectively "push" it out/off of the plane via the tail.
They look around and say "what now?". There is a blue light that Amuta has admitted he has seen before. It had chased them back before the 828 incident. Ben suggests chasing it. They do and eventually find themselves in a blinding white light, not moving. The door to outside opens. They take a "leap of faith" and walk out of the door.
...to walk back into the past. They walk back to when they should have landed in New York after leaving Jamaica. [Seriously. I was like "no..... 😕" at first.]
Everything is literally what it should have been when they took off. 2018. All the 828ers that survived can recall the last 5.5 years of the other realm and have learned a lesson: be kind to each other. Love.
A few passengers that were lost on the way (murdered, died) also came back with them. The Captain did not as he had admitted he had not been a good man prior to 828. The passengers that had been deemed bad also did not come back.
Vance was on that case immediately considering how many people disappeared from the flight mid-flight, though he did not know the 828 survivors. (And though the fact that the Captain wasn't there was also not discussed.)
Cal is a kid again, with cancer, but now the Stones know Saanvi and she can help cure his cancer. Saanvi met up with Alex and fixed that relationship.
Ben and Grace met back up. He apologized about being super occupied trying to save their son and that he cared for her, and that they had to go work on getting a third kid (he doesn't say "Eden").
Mick met up with Vasquez and she said that she appreciated his care but that there was someone better for him, that she did not want to keep him from it. As Drea had called their kid "Hope", Mick also says that Vasquez has to look for that other person and that he has "to have hope" (double meaning because of the kid's name they were going to have). Vasquez ends up meeting Drea as she's walking in with Vance to investigate the new 828 case. Immediately, they are dynamic (which made me squeal).
Mick remembers something Zeke had said from the blinding white light / divine. He had said there were so many "close calls" that they could have met before they had in the alternate line. One of them was that he was driving taxi the day that the 828 plane disappeared, so she runs off (after giving Vasquez her answer about the proposal) and searches the taxi cabs. She finds Zeke and manages to grab the cab - "sorry, can I have this one? This is my husband" she says to someone else. The guy lets her take the cab and she gets into the front seat. Zeke's like "wtf. Does that work often?". She laughs and says it was her first try. She immediately searches his glove box and finds snacks that she isn't surprised to find. He's like "so do I know you?". She says something to the effect of "just drive around. There's so much to catch up on". He shrugs and they leave.
That's it! I wish there was an epilogue but it was a good ending.
So in conclusion, the last episode really just reversed everything that happened in the whole show but at least there was a lesson learned for those that survived and remembered what happened.
For us viewers, we should learn from their experiences - Love, forgive, heal, and try to be kind. We won't be able to get a second chance at this life so make the most of it. "Live as if you're dying" says one song because you don't know what the future holds.
Rating Criteria
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful show all around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.
Last bit of a note- beware the cliffhangers. This show is riddled with cliffhangers.
Thank you for reading!
~ R
