When I say that Manifest is pulling out all the stops this season, I truly mean it.
There wasn’t a calm moment on Manifest Season 4 Episode 7 unless we consider Cal/Gabriel’s karaoke date night to be the lull in the action, but even then, the whole thing imploded right before our eyes in the most unexpected of ways.
I’ll admit, I definitely thought there was something off with Violet. She seemed like a great girl, but because I’ve seen my handful of shows, I know the moment that things seem too good to be true, they probably are.
Cal and Violet’s love story gave straight 90s rom-com vibes, which honestly—hats off to the creative team for transporting me into that joyful world amidst a serial killer chase with Mick, Jared, and the rest of the Flight 828 passengers. And don’t even get me started on what Ben and Saanvi uncovered.
But since Cal’s first date was so perfect, despite the meet-cute literally being the Flight 828 safe house that Angelina almost blew up, I was almost 99% certain that things to take a sour turn. And I thought that it was going to be somehow revealed that Violet was killing the passengers, especially after she explained that she once took Angelina in and helped her without knowing the full story.
By that point, I should’ve pieced it all together, but I was honestly too consumed by the feel-good vibes, and I never expected the series to throw Gabriel as the murder suspect into the mix. I did not have that on my Manifest bing card.
However, the moment Drea’s eyes locked with Jared’s, and when he came pounding on the door looking for Cal as Mick informed Ben that a third passenger had been killed, I knew it wasn’t good.
Jared has said over and over that he doesn’t want to be involved in 828 business, but he has no choice since he cares about the Stone family so much and is a good cop at heart. I don’t truly know how Mick and Jared went months without seeing each other and crossing paths because he’s been roped into every single situation with the 828ers since Manifest Season 4 began.
Anyway, Jared immediately told Gabriel that he needed to run—there’s no other option—or they would take him down to the station where they would fingerprint him, which would lead to the realization that he’s actually Cal, and when no one would be able to understand how he aged five years, they’d start running science experiments on him. And well, we all know how that ended: see—Ben and Saanvi following a Calling that leads them to all the passengers that were victims of The Major’s experimentations. More on that later.
All of this is happening while poor Cal is literally just trying to process that the girl he had feelings for and shared an epic first kiss with was murdered… while he’s still grieving the death of his mother. It’s a lot for anyone, but especially a kid also trying to figure out where he disappeared for five years, make sense of the miracles of the universe, and deal with a potential cancer diagnosis. Honestly, can they just leave Cal alone at this point?! The poor kid has gone through enough.
Ben was furious that Cal left the house, implying that this whole mess was his fault, but thankfully, Jared shut it down immediately because, at this point, none of that mattered. The reality was that they needed to find a way to clear Gabriel’s name.
And how could anyone even hold it against a teen who just wanted to feel normal for one day? Cal is a teen who will behave like a teen. For one day, he wanted to enjoy a normal teenage experience with his first love, without all this 828 stuff hanging over his head.
The real problem is that the Stone family doesn’t communicate anymore. They are all being pulled in several different directions, but if they had just sent a group text to each other about what was going down, Cal might have been able to save TKTK because he would have known that the common denominator between the other two 828 murders was that they also helped Angelina and Eden.
And you know what that means… Adrian is next.
In the final moments, right before Jared drops the “Cal, you’re being arrested” bomb, Mick has another vision of the X that they found painted on both 828 victims, and she immediately realizes that they’ve been looking at this all wrong—it isn’t an X at all, it’s a cross. A cross that leads right back to Angelina’s mother, who is just as unhinged as her own daughter. She blatantly lied to Mick and Jared about not seeing her daughter since they saved her from the island, but we know that she helped her hide after she was booted from the 828 safe house.
It actually makes sense if Mick’s right and the murderer is Noelle. We’ve been so focused on how deranged Angelina is but that kind of behavior has to come from somewhere, and the source of it all is her good Christian mother. And my guess is that she’s cleaning up her daughter’s mess so that no one that helped her can testify against her. If there are no witnesses, you can’t prove she ever kidnapped Eden.
I hope the Callings lead Mick and Ben right to Noelle and Angelina so they can finally answer for what they did. Ben was right, Angelina is dangerous and no one should associate with her. She’d likely gladly let Cal take the blame for the 828 murders in order to save herself.
When I mentioned the Stone family communication, that extends to Zeke as well. I know he’s willingly kept the relapse from Mick because he’s ashamed and afraid of her reaction—and I’m actually glad he’s working through it and seeking out help on his own—but it’s also kind of telling that Mick is just running around town with Jared and not even available to be a source of support for Zeke. She doesn’t know the extent of what’s going on, but her gut has to tell her that something is wrong.
But we can’t hold too much against her as Mick is out here doing her best to keep the Lifeboat afloat and keep the passengers safe from a serial killer.
I’m proud of Zeke for acknowledging that he fell off the wagon and going to AA on his own; it shows that, despite the setback, he’s committed to getting the help he needs to get back on track. And he’s also realizing that while taking on everyone’s pain, he failed to confront his own and make time for himself, which led to his relapse. The pressure of the world’s problems simply began mounting and the dam broke. I’m wondering if part of this self-reflection will include analyzing his marriage and Mick’s feelings for Jared. Zeke was all too cool about the fact that she still loves Jared, and he’s also very understanding about letting Jared back into her life, but honestly, I don’t think that’s healthy for either of them. She can’t have the best of both worlds, and, at some point, she’s actually going to have to make a choice.
I hope this is the start of some honest conversations between them, especially if they never find a way to beat the Death Date and Mick is really living on borrowed time. There were definitely moments and sparks between her and Jared, and while they seem dedicated to working the case together, there’s no denying that she likes being back in this place—in the job, in her life with him, in what used to be normal. He even put extra avocados in her sandwiches because he remembered it was her favorite. There’s something there that can’t continue on as pure friendship.
Saanvi explored her sapphire theory further. In short, sapphire was at the center of all the miracles, so she believes it could be used to tune the frequency into the divine and provide unlimited Callings, which she thinks could save the Lifeboat. To be quite honest, all of this is starting to sound very far-fetched, even for Manifest. Is the point of their return to beat the Death Date and have divine consciousness? Are they supposed to prevent something from happening? Ensure something happens?
I don’t truly know, but Ben’s lead, via Eden’s Calling, brought them back to the passengers that were experimented on, and after sweet-talking their way into looking at their files, Saanvi realized that the Major went to extreme and painful lengths to figure out how to connect them to the God frequency. The files indicate that all of the patients are brain dead, but the glowing light—pointing up like antennas—and the fact that Marko cried when Ben apologized to him, means that they are conscious on some level. Maybe their bodies are here but they are back on Flight 828. This could definitely further Saanvi’s research, and I’m curious to see what will come of it.
We also have to talk about that moment between Saanvi and Ben! It was almost thrown in there to appease all the Ben and Saanvi shippers who have been praying that these two will get together as a couple but don’t get excited just yet because it was immediately followed up by flashback footage of Saanvi, at her lowest before Vance reached out to “get back to work,” pining over her ex, which is a reminder that Ben isn’t exactly her type. While there’s a possibility that Saanvi is bi, we’ve only ever known her as a lesbian, so it honestly wouldn’t even feel authentic if she were just to fall in love with Ben now. They are good friends, and the fact that neither of them even addressed the spontaneous kiss proves that they didn’t think twice about it—they are just that comfortable with each other.
There’s also a subplot with Saanvi’s ex, Alex, who is helping Zeke and Cal/Gabriel by running tests to see whether his cancer has returned. Cal didn’t want to worry any of his family members since they just got Eden back, and with it a sense of relief and happiness, so Alex is their off-the-book doctor, who even agrees to run them under the name Gabriel.
By the end of the episode, Alex contemplates adding Saanvi as a friend on social media, which means that she’s likely interested in being part of her life again and that her marriage is no longer an obstacle.
Saanvi has been through a lot and she deserves a shot at real love with someone who won’t disappoint her. While the Stone family has become her found family, the truth is, without them and Vance, she’s been going through all of this all alone and without a partner or anyone to lean on when the going gets tough.
In some other reality, I actually ship Saanvi and Drea!
How do you think things are going to pan out next? Will Saanvi figure out what the Major knew by running wildly dangerous experiments on the returned? Also, I’m so glad they addressed the whereabouts of the patients that were experimented on because I’ve been wondering what happened to them for quite some time. Season 4’s motto seems to be—no stone left unturned, no plot line left unaddressed!
Will Ben save Cal? Will Mick find a way to prove who the real 828 serial killer is?
Share your thoughts with us now, Cravers, and read all the Manifest reviews on CraveYouTV.com/category/Manifest!