Manifest Season Finale- Things That Matter More Than Who Got Shot

Holy sudsy drama Batman.  Last night’s season one finale of Manifest took a serious detour from Lostland by way of Telenovela.  

 I enjoy a good soap opera as much as the next guy, but “Estimated Time of Departure” swung for the fences without giving away any actual information.  Very little was revealed in the finale.  There are still a lot of questions surrounding our 828’ers.  The only really big things revealed are The Major evidently has a psychology degree(no one’s really surprised by that though), Griffin had an expiration date, all those symbols really did mean something, and someone doesn’t know how to use birth control.  Lots of little nuggets were dropped about Zeke’s past, and the Stone’s death day but all of those were just more threads to pull on.  Mixed in among all the hair-sweeping and furtive glances some seriously smart re-direction was happening.

That’s how it is with the best “gotcha’s”.  You zig when you should zag.  You are looking intently one direction when all the while the monster is sneaking up on you from the other.  As with all good mysteries, Manifest has been selling us beachfront property in Florida that is actually someone’s pool house in Missouri.  I don’t mean this in any way disrespectfully.  I’m a fan of the show, but mixed up in all the emotional subterfuge are much more pressing questions than who got shot and who’s having a baby.  Here are the top 5 more important things to ponder.

1. We already saw one other Returned person who tried to profit from her fame, maybe Griffin didn’t have to die at the exact time he did.  If he had not been such a self-serving tool, the greater good may have saved him.  Another nifty plot point about how he died is the confirmation that something supernatural is going on.  This can’t all be government projects and Dark Lightning experiments gone wrong with the way these people are psychically linked and the hot tub’s worth of water that flowed out of Griffin.  If you obey the “callings”, maybe you serve the higher purpose and you are spared.  Sure, your life becomes one huge obtuse scavenger hunt led by an unknown entity that wouldn’t know what exposition was if it hit them in the head, but at least you’re not dead.

2. It doesn’t matter who got shot because we know Zeke will be around a year from now for the season two finale.  His death day is next August so assuming some Hollywood timing he may or may not bite it in next season’s finale.  Even if he gets shot by Jared, it will be just a flesh wound.  He expires quickest of the survivors that we know of now so season two will be Zeke-centric as we race against time to save him.  We also know using the same television theory, that Zeke will probably join the pilot elsewhere in time or be killed by The Major right near his death day.  If he dies by dirt or some such nonsense on the exact day he’s supposed to, there is no mystery anymore.  Now we will know for sure in the next three seasons we are just biding our time…boring.  On the flip side, if Zeke survives completely unscathed next season now we know the timing doesn’t matter at all.  A ticking clock if done right can put people on edge and keep them there.  Lastly, Michaela won’t die she’s a significant character(with eyebrow game for days), and Jeff Rake enjoys a good love triangle, so Jared is safe too.  I’m telling you people, nothing but a little grazing.

3. As I mentioned before, Manifest loves the menage a trois, so Danny has to be the baby daddy.  Daniel Sunjata(Danny) is a fantastic actor that would be wasted if he just faded away.  His intense good guy is the perfect foil to Josh Dallas’ Ben.  He is the type of character you want to root for even in impossible circumstances like this.  It doesn’t hurt that Price Charming has incredible chemistry with Saanvi so moving on from Grace is an inevitability, not a choice.  There is no point obsessing over it because we already know.  What is more pressing now is to watch every moment Sunjata is on the screen in his other projects.  You get a real sense of his acting prowess in USA’s Graceland, and he stole the show in One For The Money as the supremely sexy Ranger.  He will be back and with a tot on the way he won’t go away quietly this time.  How about this for a plot twist though…..Grace is having twins, one from each man?  It is a scientific phenomenon called Superfecundation.  It’s rare, but it does happen.  This would allow each man to be involved, keep the twin symbolism going, and allow for the question of Ben’s baby having the blood marker or not.

4. With Cal’s strange blood marker being discovered it is only a matter of time before some next-level E.T. experimentation takes place.  I do not want to see Cal get poked and prodded all season, not to mention we already know experiments don’t go well for the Returned.  If as I posited above, the question of Ben’s blood marker being passed on to the new baby could add one more facet to this already tangled web.  How many other Returned are out there running wild unknowingly carrying this marker?  The other question that must be answered is what does the marker mean?  Are the Returned from another place and time and Polchinski’s Paradox would allow for their deaths at the exact date and time determined?  It is a simple matter of physics.  The paradox explains that a ball could go through a wormhole and come out the other side at the exact right time to hit its younger self and prevent the travel from happening in the first place.  This could explain why everything happens at specific corresponding times.  The blood markers might be a bi-product of that travel or the radiation from Dark Lightning.

5. The Major is a woman of many skills and has ingratiated herself in our 828’ers lives.  Her motivations are easy.  If she gets in good with Saanvi, she will likely here all kinds of secrets about the Stones.  The motives of Dr. Stalker are far murkier.  How is he connected to The Major and her government agency?  Has he been involved since the beginning and has played the longest con of all time waiting for Saanvi to be lost, return, and then need a shoulder to cry on?  If that is the case, this guy has superpower level patience.

Will there be a season 2?  All signs point to yes.  The ratings have been consistently been high in the age groups that matter, and NBC has only renewed one drama as of now leaving all kinds of room for Manifest to join next season’s line up.  The ratings dipped a little last night, but hopefully, streaming numbers will bolster the ratings and assure us our second chance.