Manifest Recap: A Major Development

Matt Webb Mitovich

This week on NBC’s Manifest, the hunt was on for the mole spying on Saanvi. How far would Ben go to draw out the rat?

Knowing that someone in spying on Saanvi, Vance has the idea for Ben to dummy up a file on a new “Holy Grail” 828er and bring it to her, so that she might unwittingly pass it onto the mole. Ben, with some hesitation about using his friend this way, does so, and Saanvi is intrigued by the implications of someone with advanced callings. Ben, though, must put a pin in her plan to meet up with this passenger in Philadelphia, claiming he’s busy chasing a job.

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Which he truly is, of course. Ben’s old friend at Astoria College gets him a “try out” gig, as a guest lecturer in some math-y class. He arrives ready to dazzle the head-down young souls with math-y goodness, but almost immediately the classroom discussion turns to Flight 828 gossip/theories. Things are looking bad, especially with his lecture being evaluated by potential colleagues, but T.J. gets the class and Ben back on track with a question that connects the lesson to flight paths.

Later, when pressed by Saanvi to hunt down this new “Holy Grail,” Ben confesses that the discovery is a fake designed to out a mole in Saanvi’s orbit. Saanvi is pretty upset to be lied to by her friend, and after dismissing her over-eager lab assistant, phones her shrink for an emergency meet-up. Saanvi later shares with Dr. Ragier her sense of betrayal, then lets slip that at work she had made a breakthrough, which she locked away in her lab fridge. But that (clearly) turned out to be a trap of her own that she was setting, as revealed later when she shows Vance and Ben hidden cam video of a stooge stealing from her fudged vials. Vance then runs by Saanvi a list of high-ranking female DOD employees, and she spots her shrink — aka the literal, psy-ops trained Major. Now, how best to exploit their advantage….?

Elsewhere this week:

*Michaela convinced a lawyer friend to take on Zeke’s case, but was told that Zeke himself needed to actually retain her. Mick went to see Zeke at prison, only to learn he had been transferred to… somewhere. After some detective work, Mick tracks down Zeke and manages to see him, and they realize they both had the same calling of him being on and then sucked out of Flight 828. Later at court, Zeke pleads down to illegal weapon possession or something, earning him release from the hoosegow — and straight into a warm hug from Mick.

*Olive started attending Believers gatherings, earning some oohs and ahhs when she first gets up to speak and reveals her multiple familial ties to 828ers. As the old song goes, she’s now a Believer.

*Grace had another calling — “Open her eyes!” — when chatting with Erika, a fellow expectant yoga class member, after which Grace saw a CGI gargoyle atop the woman’s car. When Erika realizes that Grace is the mom of that “abomination” (sorry, Cal), her prejudice becomes clear, and Grace reckons it was her (unfulfilled) mission to open Erika’s eyes to her bigotry. But later, we see that Erika is married to (or at least in cahoots with) the Astoria College dude who just gave Ben a job.

*Thoroughly snubbed by Michaela, Jared retreated to a watering hole to let off some steam — and buy beers for some good ol’ boys who apparently are Xers. (I have to imagine Jared is playing the long game, embedding himself with Xers to eventually thwart them and prove something to Michaela.)

What did you think of the episode “False Horizon”?

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