Manifest season 2 premiere: Three things that need addressing
The first order of business feels easy to identity: The state of things with Jared and Zeke. Is one of them dead? We heard the gunfire but did not see where it landed. It feels too convenient to just pick up in the premiere and have a bullet hit the wall; if you’re going to do that, why do the cliffhanger ending at all? Someone likely got shot, but that does not mean that someone dies.
If Zeke does die, its significance does become of great consequence. That means that “death days” are not necessarily set in stone and that there may be some flexibility when it comes to the rules and the idea of destiny. On the flip side, if Zeke did get shot and manages to miraculously recover, this would give additional credence to this idea. Maybe these people become metaphorical cockroaches and can’t die, no matter what they are faced with until they reach that fateful day — the one that equals the same amount of time in which they were alive.
Related Video – Check out some more of what we want to see on season 2 below! For more, be sure to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube.
As for the other two objectives…
What does Ben decide to do next? – He has a better understanding of the prophecy and the amount of time he now seemingly has left. We know that Manifest is a show that is deeply rooted in mythology, but there is something very human and universal about the struggle these characters are facing next. It goes a little something like this — if you know the date of your death, what do you do in order to live? How does it inform the decisions that you make?
For Ben, he is now facing a choice to either live out the next several years with Cal and the rest of his family, cherishing every moment and hoping to savor them or finding another way. The advantage of this is that he will feel he has a life well-lived; yet, the disadvantage is that he’s not spending his time looking for another way. If he does fight destiny and pours time into resolving this mystery, maybe he can find another option, some sort of glimmer of hope that he’s not going to die at a particular moment. If he doesn’t, he puts himself in a position where he dies without using the time he had left to the fullest. It’s a high risk, high reward mission he must contemplate … but we lean towards him picking door #2 given that the alternative doesn’t make for the most dramatic of shows.
What’s the next twist? – You know one has to be coming. We could’ve addressed Grace’s pregnancy here, but that doesn’t feel like a storyline that needs to be picked up right away. That’s more of a process and something that she and Ben will work through together. We do need that next surprise to emerge from the other side; that is the jaw-dropper in the closing seconds that gets audiences buzzing and reminds them why they love this show so much.was so much to discuss here and so many theories and it’s one of the reasons that this is one of the few shows out there that is true appointment viewing television.
And yes, the central struggle is waiting several months to see it.
If you missed it…
We recently mapped out a number of possible renewal scenarios for Manifest, and you can check some of those out over here.
What do you think Manifest season 2 needs to do shortly after the premiere airs? Be sure to sound off in the comments. (Photo: NBC.)