Manifest season 1 episode 15: the newest victim isn’t a team player
NBC’s Manifest threw a curveball this past Monday when it was revealed that the man Michaela helped pull out of the river has a hidden agenda. He’s selfish and wants no part in teaming up with the passengers of Flight 828. He’s a criminal and the audience learned when the episode opened that he and a few friends robbed a bank; following that, Griffin shot his partners to keep the money for himself. He’s taken to the hospital where Michaela tries to help him understand the calling he’s been getting, despite Cal’s warning that Griffin is the wolf in his drawings. He’s calling was about a future terrorist attack. At first, he wanted to help, but after learning that he could get away with murder charges by giving up the information on the terrorist attack, Griffin’s true nature is revealed.
Realizing she is running out of time, Michaela asks Ben and Grace if they can find out anything on Griffin to keep him on their side. Ben and Grace discover he was in foster care with a brother. Grace tracks down the foster mother who tells her Griffin is a monster and doesn’t deserve a second chance after he falsely told police his brother was responsible for a murder he really committed. His brother died in jail. Griffin leads the feds to the bomb in Times Square, but when Michaela sees the wolf in the crowd, she realizes that Griffin is going to be a much bigger problem.
Elsewhere in the episode, Saanvi is still struggling with the trauma of her kidnapping. Everything scares her, makes her jump, and forces her to hide when something reminds her of the experience. Ben comes to the rescue and helps her realize she needs to talk to a therapist about her PTSD. Saanvi isn’t ready to talk until the end of the episode, but Ben being there for her was a great moment and shows how good of friends they are.
To make matters more complicated, there’s a love triangle forming between Michaela, Jared, and Zeke, and the fandom is split. What great about this triangle is that it works. Zeke and Michaela are connected by the callings, so they understand each other. Michaela finally has someone outside her family that she can talk to and relate to. Jared has always been there, but it’s hard for him to communicate. In addition to all of that, a love triangle always has to happen, folks. It’s a hallmark of television love stories. It makes this interesting and it forces characters to really think about their lives and who they cherish most. So don’t think this will be resolved anytime soon because we think it will be around even going into aeason 2. Why? Because there’s so much more the writers can do with it. There’s more to be explored. The moment there isn’t anything left to do with a love triangle, then Michaela will decide what to do.
With that said, we are also suspicious of Zeke after he was arrested for breaking into his mother’s house. For Jared, it doesn’t make sense; why break into to your mother’s house? Just knock on the door. Jared believes there’s more to the story, but Michaela, in the end, lets him go. As a result, Jared runs his DNA from a water cup Zeke threw away.
It’s hard to say what will be answered and what won’t be answered going into the season finale. However, what we can tell you sure is that “Hard Landing” showed a pivotal clue and it wasn’t obvious. You probably missed or believed that it in no way shape or form is a clue. So check out the episode again and see if you can find it.
Manifest airs Mondays at 10:00 pm on NBC.
This article was written by Samantha D’Amico.