Manifest Season 2 Episode 9: Airplane Bottles-Review And Recap-Dark Lightning, Wormholes, Dopamine, And Lumen

Everything is connected and finally coming together in Manifest Season 2 Episode 9 where silver dragons fly through time and Saanvi’s cure is anything but.

Nothing is as it seems where Saanvi’s cure is concerned. It has created more trouble than it solved and a joint vision has everyone seeing Dark Lightning again. Manifest is at its best when mythology and drama strike a balance. Sometimes that balance comes over several episodes and other times it comes in one complete episode that moves the plot forward in leaps and bounds. Manifest Season 2 Episode 9 was one such episode. Everything is connected from long lost philosophers and the newly returned in an exciting hour of television.

Zeke is freezing. Literally, freezing to death. His Death Day is rapidly approaching and time is running out. That being said, Saanvi’s cure is proving to be anything but. The serum she gave herself has taken away her “callings” but has made her impulsive and manic. Zeke is right to be concerned for her and himself. As an addict with decreased impulse control, the serum is a relapse waiting to happen.

Once he realizes how much trouble Saanvi is in he pumps the brakes and encourages her to get help. After initially refusing, she agrees to ask Alex for help. Zeke convinces Alex to help and she determines her Dopamine levels were off the charts. A dopamine interrupter has controlled her manic symptoms for now but with the revelation that to rebel against the “callings” is to invite disaster, it is only a matter of time before those symptoms and others come back.

Michaela is under investigation from Internal Affairs. They are accusing her of creating crimes to solve. It’s a form of hero syndrome which can make arsonists start fires to create situations to save people and in this case, they think Mich has conspired to manufacture cases. They don’t just threaten her either, but her whole family including Ben and Olive. Jared’s plan to get even with his former love is blowing up in his face. As much as he wants Mich to be brought to task for her “calling” driven investigation, he didn’t anticipate Simon’s ruthless end game. Simon has a single-minded focus and that focus includes removing Mich from the equation. If Jared is left twisting that’s not his concern.

The Chief thinks she has a handle on things until Mich’s union rep begins pushing for a neutral venue. After a conversation with Simon that does not go as Jared anticipated, he finally realizes that the Xer’s brand of action is violent. He is forced to take matters into his own hands to save Mich. Her union rep was not the warrior of her rights but a plant of the Xer’s all along.

The rep pushed to change to a neutral location to put Michaela at risk. She is very angry with Jared for arresting her but she doesn’t realize just how much danger she is in. Once she knows what was happening she will forgive him and they can begin to mend their relationship. How he will address things with the Chief, his girlfriend, and the rest of the Xer’s will be interesting moving forward. He may finally become the double agent we all wanted him to be. Zeke and Mich are good together but Jared could be a powerful ally. More than likely, he is beginning a redemptive arch that will play out in a showdown with Simon.

TJ has moved into the house with the Stones. It’s a practicality issue as he has no one else to help him recover but from a story standpoint its even more important. TJ needs to be close to keep the plot from becoming overly complex. Multiple side stories are fine, but with Zeke and Saanvi in one location, Mich and Jared in another, it is simpler to keep the remaining Manifester’s under one roof. Cal had a calling and thinks he remembers what happened the night the plane disappeared. He is driven by a desperate need to make something that resembles a spider web.

His desperation is contagious and the rest of the group excluding Olive are becoming equally agitated. Tensions are running high as Grace, Ben, Cal, and TJ try to decipher the journal and build Cal’s vision. TJ who reads fluent Latin reads Yusuv Al Zuras’ journal and determines everyone on board his ship saw the Dark Lightning, a silver dragon, and tried to thwart the Death Day.

The journal further explains that for all the good things that come from the “callings” something bad happens as well. It is nature and mysticism balancing itself out. It also warns that ignoring the “callings” is disastrous. For Sannavi who is openly working against the “callings”, it is dire. The crew of the lost ship went mad because of it. A page with an illustration of the ship, lightning, and web-like illuminations helps them construct a sail-type structure that transports the group on board the ship. Al Zuras wasn’t seeing an actual silver dragon but an airplane with the implication being it was Flight 828.

Cool story progressions mixed with interesting camera tricks allowed Manifest to shine this week. Overhead angles, fuzzy focuses, and rotating shots all convey the feeling of being lost at sea. Manifest Season 2 Episode 9 delivered on the promise we have been building towards all season. Something is coming from multiple angles. It’s only a matter of time before one of the threats catches up with them. Catch up on all our Manifest coverage here.

Stray Thoughts:

• Dopamine is a neurotransmitter and a precursor of other compounds like epinephrine. Dopamine is one of the hormones that make people happy. Many legal and illegal substances increase dopamine in animals and humans which is why addiction can be prevalent. There is also some link to high levels of dopamine in schizophrenic patients. Knowing what we know now about ignoring the “callings” Saanvi could be headed for trouble. Who knows how long until her dopamine inhibitor keeps working.
• Fans of the show who have watched from the beginning know Dark Lightning is a real thing. Dark Lightning is similar to regular lightning but is a release of high energy gamma radiation rays. Sources of the energy are supernovas and super black holes. As many as 1,000 white lightning strikes land on earth daily. Dark Lightning is much rarer. The origin of Dark Lightning feeds in the theory below that all of this is tied to a wormhole. For fellow science fiction nerds, think Stargate. If Dark Lightning occurs from a super black hole and all of the occurrences are tied to the same wormhole it would explain many of the Returners from various points in history seeing them. This theory also allows for a massive amount of room for future storytelling.
• Lumen in Latin means light or opening. In medicine, it refers to the cavity or space within a tube such as an intestine. With the shocker this week that not only is everything connected but everyone was probably in the same place at the same time it raises some questions about the possibility of a wormhole. Physicists posit black holes create wormholes that theoretically could support time travel. If there is a rip in time similar to Stephen King’s “thinny’s” that may be a factor in Hulu’s Castle Rock’s overall story arch, that may be the explanation for the converging Returned. There is no need for the Tartarus when you’ve’ got a garden variety stitch in time.