5 Ways Manifest Could Have Ended

Manifest’s recent cancellation has left many unanswered questions. So many things were left hanging when Showrunner Jeff Rake wasn’t allowed to continue his 6 six plan for Manifest. We probably will never know what was to happen after that shocking Season 3 finale. What really happened to the plane? Is Grace dead? Will Eagan continue to be a pain in the ass? Will Mich’s eyebrows ever be tamed? Dear God, I hope not.

Whether you just found Manifest on Netflix or have been a fan for the past three years, there is a lot of mystery and intrigue about the recently canceled sci-fi show. The series was a delicious mix of spirituality, sci-fi weirdness, and complicated mythology. Here are 5 ways the show could have ended, and none of them include purgatory.

Number 1: Dark Lightning comes for everyone on the Death Day

The Dark Lightning that took the plane in the first place and later took Captain Daly in Season 1 Episode 11 would strike again on the Death Day. Everyone who doesn’t measure up would disappear for good. Regular lightning is created when negatively charged electrons build-up at the base of a thundercloud. When you mix in a nearby object, the spark of light you see is the energy making the arch from cloud to tree or roof or ground. Dark Lightning is the aftereffects of that process.  It is the most energetic radiation produced naturally on earth.  X-rays and gamma rays are thrown into space from the combustion of the energy outlay. These cannot be seen, but they can be measured.

Yuzus Al-Zuras and his journals Ben and Olive are always studying detail Al-Zuras’ harrowing experience with the phenomenon. His crew likely was struck by the Dark Lightening and disappeared only to reappear five years later, just like Flight 828. Some of the crew committed suicide or were murdered, and others died trying to escape what they thought was their fate. It is the concept that spawned Season 3’s lifeboat theory. On the Death Day, our good group would all sacrifice themselves, drowning themselves in the submerged plane somewhere or crashing a plane into the ocean and thus would be resurrected ala Zeke. Anyone who didn’t willingly go along would die.

Number 2: The lifeboat theory plays out to to grim conclusion

The current working theory as of the finale in Season 3 is that the group is measured as a whole. If one person on the plane does terrible things, the entire group will be judged and punished for it. They believe this because Kory and Pete died just like Jace. The trio of methheads all did some pretty horrible things, but Pete and Kory were trying to redeem themselves. Unfortunately, all three died together. Ben posited the scale of justice weighs the entire group together, and if one falls, they all do. Knowing that Adrian probably set the fire in the club in Season 2 and God knows what else he has done and Saanvi killed The Major, it would already be too late for the Stones and the rest of the decent people on the flight.

If it is truly a more good than bad thing, then Kory and Pete should have survived. The Lifeboat theory, in addition to sounding dumb, wouldn’t work. Our group would never be able to tip the scales in their favor. Zeke was able to do it because he was alone and didn’t do anything that terrible, to begin with. When he sacrificed his life for Cal, he became as close to an angel on Earth as Manifest has. If somehow the lifeboat theory continued for three more seasons, in the end, they would all die just as the methheads did, leaving Eden and Olive orphans. Zeke would probably step up and care for them.

Number 3: The Multiverse of Madness

There is a wormhole that allows things to flow between the universes, and if you don’t get back to the reality you should be in, at the right time, you cease to exist in any reality. This theory holds water(pun intended) because when Saanvi pushes the piece of driftwood thought to be from Noahs Arch into the lava, the volcano stops flowing, and why when the Stones, Saanvi, and Vance get the tailfin back to the ocean where it belongs, Captain Daly and aged up Cal show up. It’s why Cal says he knows what to do now in the finale. The universe wants everything to balance out the way it should. When things and people go willy nilly through the time and space they shouldn’t be in; it disrupts the continuum.

The only way to fix it is for everyone to go back where and when they belong. Eventually, the show could have ended with the 828’ers all boarding a flight back through the Dark Lightning wormhole. It would move them around through space and time to before the original flight went missing. The entire group would end up before the plane disappeared and could all decide to ground Flight 828, thus restoring the timeline without anyone going missing for five years and preventing a Death Day. This would mean, of course, Grace and Olive would never know what their loved ones went through, and baby Eden may never be born.

Number 4: Angelina and Zeke will square off as avenging angels on opposite sides of right and wrong in the finale of Manifest Season 6

Angelina is the absolute worst. She almost burned baby Eden alive, not to mention the Stone’s house, and she stabbed Grace to death(probably). She is currently on the run with Eden, and the baby appears safe for now, but Angelina is a wackadoo. Season 4, I’m sure, would center around her rescue, and she would also figure prominently in the final battle between Zeke and Angelina. Angelina is right Eden is a guardian angel. She just isn’t hers. The magical baby that is part 828, Ben and part ordinary Grace, is there to help save those who are good. Zeke, on the other hand, is empathetic, self-sacrificing, and reformed. He is our hero.

The entire group of returned passengers has all been returned as angels. Not all angels are good, however, which is why people like Eagan and Adrian exist. The finale of Manifest would feature a full-on angelic war for the fate of our group and the world. There is a ton of religious iconography between the biblical passage that the Stones are so fond of quoting and all of Angelina’s warped rantings. Ben thinks they were resurrected, but I think they were upgraded to angel status and sent back for a purpose. It is why every time they try to ignore the callings, bad things happen. This would also allow a four-year-old Eden to grow some wings and beam down some Heavenly light in a powerful finale. It’s all in her name. She is here to herald a new Garden of Eden.

Number 5: Dr. Gupta would be the real Big Bad of Manifest and cause the collapse of everything

Captain Daly reappeared and then disappeared in the Season 3 finale because of Dr.Gupta’s experiments with Dark Lightning, similar to his disappearance in Season 1. Al of her foolhardy research is causing a collapse of all of the universes, and they would continue to have bleed through effects as the seasons progress leading to bigger and bigger problems. This would increase the public’s paranoia and make the 828 violence even worse. In the finale, Dr. Gupta would finally be killed by Eagan and his group of militant 828er’s while our group tried to return all of the things to their appropriate timelines.

Because Grace died in our timeline, we don’t get to see that would happen in Season 4. She would be resurrected just like everyone else. At some point, Olive would also be killed and resurrected, and in the finale, the entire family intact would return to their timeline via Dark Lightning, leaving Vance and Jared looking on wistfully in the final shot. It will once and for all answer the question of who Mich ends up with. It will be Zeke, as he is the only one who could travel to her appropriate timeline.

While I don’t have any inside information, just a wild imagination, it was fun to speculate for a while. Unless Rake and Company get a chance to finish their story on Amazon or Hulu, it isn’t looking good for them. Maybe the #SAVEMANIFEST crew has made a big enough ruckus he at least gets a movie to wrap things up. We will have to wait and see. Follow all our Manifest coverage here.