In the latest episode of Manifest, a Calling brings Ben and TJ to a subway, but it may be connected to something, or someone, even more significant. Meanwhile, Michaela, while dealing with Zeke’s worsening frostbite condition, teams up with Jared to bring down a meth lab after she gets a Calling of her own and the identities of the mysterious shadows are revealed.
Find out everything that happened in this week’s episode, “Unaccompanied Minors.”
Jared’s note actually reads: “A brand-new episode of #Manifest starts right NOW on @NBC.” pic.twitter.com/p3JX6k4ofJ
— Manifest (@ManifestNFLX) March 24, 2020
Ben and Michaela are in Ben’s garage, and Michaela is looking at Ben’s boards, telling him he’s gone off the deep end. Ben tells her just to hear him out, but Michaela doesn’t believe that they’re false prophets coming back from the dead. She thought he had come off that theory months ago when the Calling saved Grace and the baby, but Ben says pretty much every single night since then, Cal’s been terrorized by three looming shadows. “You must really be desperate for answers.” Ben’s been looking through the Bible and found something in Revelation that weirdly echoes Adrian’s apocalypse theory.
“I saw three spirits coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, out of the mouth of the false prophet.”
Michaela tells Ben to think about the good the Callings have been doing, and Ben says he keeps reminding himself of it, but what Cal’s seeing is so dark he keeps coming back to Adrian. So, what, they’re doing good but for bad reasons? “To lull us into obedience for some end-of-the-world scenario.” Michaela says it’s a messed up theory.
Michaela’s not so sure about Adrian’s theory on the Callings. #Manifest pic.twitter.com/L0SqzZzvUX
— Manifest (@ManifestNFLX) March 24, 2020
When she’s out walking, Michaela passes a convenience store. A guy runs out while the owner yells at him, telling him to stop and calling him a thief. Michaela runs after the kid, telling him to stop. The kid trips over a cart and falls over, Michaela catching up to him. She throws him to a fence and searches him, and the kid tells her it’s just a candy bar; it was the first time, he swears. Michaela hears a voice in her head, “Let him go.” She tells the kid not to be stupid if she catches him doing this again. The kid agrees and runs toward the bus that just pulled up. Michaela returns the candy bar to the owner, who wonders, “what the hell is this?” It’s what the kid stole. The owner says it isn’t. The kid took maybe 20 boxes of cold medicine while he was restocking; he turned his back for one second. He tells Michaela the bodega down the block got hit a couple of days ago, the same thing. They use it for cooking meth.
You can run, but she WILL catch you. #Manifest pic.twitter.com/8Bf8VArB3I
— Manifest (@ManifestNFLX) March 24, 2020
At the precinct, Michaela tells Jared what had happened earlier with the kid, the candy bar, cold medicine, and Calling. Jared thinks he could be part of a more significant operation. Maybe that’s why the Calling told Michaela to let him go so that they could catch the bigger fish. Jared tells Michaela that’s a terrible plan. It would be more helpful to bring the kid in so they could interrogate him. Why does it always seem like she’s trying to justify the Callings? “Because I gotta believe they’re good.” Jared suggests that he better help Michaela track the kid down.
At the Stone household, Ben struggles to get a crying baby Eden to calm down. Grace takes her and sings her a lullaby, instantly calming her. Ben asks her where it’s from, and Grace says Cal was singing it to Eden. Suddenly, Ben gets a Calling of a train, and the horn is blaring. He tells Grace what he saw, but the Calling had felt different. Different how? “Like I was gonna die.”
When TJ and Cal get back to the Stone house after having gone out, TJ tells Ben and Grace he had a Calling and saw all these little pieces of glass that came together and formed a huge bird with talons. He thinks it’s a phoenix. Cal says it represents life and rebirth. TJ says the Calling was weird. It was so bright and cheerful, but he felt so sad, hopeless, almost. It was just different. This bird with talons, Ben asks if it could have been a dragon or some other mythical beast, and TJ says it looked like a phoenix. Why? TJ’s pictures, Ben’s trains, and Cal’s shadows all felt like doom and gloom. “Hopefully, not our doom and gloom.” TJ says the phoenix looked as though it were made up of tiny little pieces of glass. Maybe it was a mosaic. Grace points out some of the subway stations have those big murals, and Cal looks it up, pulling up a bunch of different pictures. TJ points to the one he saw, and it’s at the Bowery Street station. Ben and TJ leave to check it out.
Should we add TJ to the Stone’s family guidebook? #Manifest pic.twitter.com/poEZNiLQ2w
— Manifest (@ManifestNFLX) March 24, 2020
Ben and TJ get to the subway; a guy in front of them drops a small matchbox while walking down the stairs. TJ gives it back to him, and the guy thanks him. When they get down to the subway, TJ spots the phoenix mural on the wall, the same one he saw in his Calling. What now? Ben says to keep their eyes open. Both Ben and TJ start to get that gloomy feeling again as a train is heard approaching; Ben sees the same guy from the stairs, and he’s about to throw himself over the edge. Ben and TJ stop him, saving him.
“What the hell?”
Michaela and Jared return to the precinct after questioning a bus driver and getting the security footage. Drea had been looking over the footage, telling Michaela and Jared she has three kids who match Michaela’s description of the runner. Michaela points out the kid, and Drea writes down the high school he got off at. Jared tells Drea to send him a screenshot. He’ll call the principal and send it over for an ID.
Oh, Drea. 😂#Manifest pic.twitter.com/ET6ZiOvzRB
— Manifest (@ManifestNFLX) March 24, 2020
At the hospital, Ben and TJ are trying to figure out why the Calling wanted them on the platform to save the guy’s life. He’s not a passenger. Ben hopes they’ll get some answers when he wakes up. TJ says the guy was holding that matchbox when he tried to end it all. Ben takes it out of the ziplock bag and notices it’s a music box. Ben plays it and realizes it’s the lullaby Grace was singing to Eden that she got from Cal. So the song has to be a Calling, too, right? “A subway, a phoenix mosaic, and a lullaby. That’s a weird puzzle.” Maybe the lyrics are the key, but Ben can’t remember them. TJ says they should talk to Cal; he knows them. TJ says the guy seemed nice; it’s sad he tried to end his life. Ben tells him they gave him a second chance. Now they have to figure out why.
Ben visits Zeke in his hospital room, accompanied by Grace, Cal, and Eden. Ben tells Cal he needs to talk to TJ; they think his lullaby might be a Calling. Grace starts singing the lyrics, and Zeke sings along, wondering how she knew it. His dad wrote that. He would sing Zeke and his sister, Chloe, to sleep with it. He had a little music box he used to make up songs to. Zeke says no one else would know them. Ben asks Zeke when’s the last time he saw his dad. Zeke says he left a few months after Chloe died, and he hasn’t seen him since; he’s dead for all he knows.
“Actually, I think he might be downstairs.”
Cal asks Zeke if he wants to see his dad, and Zeke says he didn’t get as lucky as Cal in the dad department. After Cal leaves with Grace and Eden, Ben tells Zeke there has to be a reason the Calling brought them to his father. “The Calling wasted your time.” Zeke says his dad made it very clear he wanted nothing to do with him years ago, but Ben thinks he possibly changed; he gets the feeling his dad has lots of regrets. “Good. He should.” Zeke’s angry; Ben gets it. But that’s Zeke’s dad. Does he not get a second chance? There’s no excuse for what he’s done, but as someone with a brand new baby girl, Ben can’t imagine what he would do if something happened to her. Grief can make you do crazy things. “You don’t have to tell me about grief.” Zeke fell apart, and his dad moved on after Chloe’s death; no note, nothing. Ben tells Zeke he was about to take his own life. “That’s not my responsibility.” Zeke wouldn’t be doing this for his dad. He’d be doing this for himself. Maybe he can finally find that closure.
What do you think? Should Zeke go visit his father? #Manifest pic.twitter.com/P0NHvSistd
— Manifest (@ManifestNFLX) March 24, 2020
Zeke’s dad wakes up, and TJ tells him about the mural of a phoenix in the subway. Does that mean anything to him? Maybe he got a chance to try again. “What makes you think I deserve one?” Everyone does. It means a lot to TJ since his mother killed herself; he would do anything to be able to see her again. TJ’s sure someone feels the same way about him. Zeke comes in and starts talking to his dad while TJ steps out and joins Ben in the hallway. TJ can’t believe it, but Ben can. “Zeke needed this.”
Meanwhile, Michaela walks into Zeke’s empty room, wondering where he is. Zeke comes back, telling Michaela his dad’s downstairs because of a Calling. Zeke doesn’t know how or why, but it led Ben and TJ to him. He tells Michaela he’s carried so much anger and hurt, but just now, he seemed small, just a sad old man. He says the two of them are going to take a train out to Chloe’s beach, give them a chance to at least talk. Zeke’s done with his treatment. He’s been staying alive, but he hasn’t been living. He doesn’t want to spend his last days finding a cure. “I want to spend it with you in my arms.” Michaela doesn’t understand. Zeke saw his dad, and now he’s just giving up? Seeing his dad just gave Zeke some clarity. “Believe me, the last thing I want to do is cause you pain. It’s why I’ve been fighting so hard.” Michaela starts to break down, telling Zeke they’re going to find him a cure. But right now, Zeke needs to live every day like it’s his last. He’s lucky. He’s been able to make peace with everyone he needed to. “I feel closure. I’m ready.” Zeke needs Michaela to let him go.
💔💔💔 #Manifest pic.twitter.com/lreOnMFOAr
— Manifest (@ManifestNFLX) March 24, 2020
Saanvi tries to get into her lab, but her badge isn’t working. Two security officers come up to her, telling her that her hospital privileges have been provoked. She’s in the middle of tests. She’s trying to save lives. What’s happening? The officers escort her out, despite Saanvi’s pleas.
Later, Jared and Michaela bust the meth lab. Michaela starts arresting the guys when she hears the “Let him go” Calling. Just as it seems like Michaela’s going to let one of the guys go, he starts threatening her, and she finishes arresting him, reading him his rights. At the precinct, Michaela tells Jared about the Calling she had at the bust. Why would it ask her something like that? Michaela doesn’t know. Maybe it’s talking about Zeke and to “let him go.” She’s never defied a Calling before. However, Jared thinks she made the right choice.
That night, Zeke gets home and finds Michaela on the couch. He doesn’t know what comes after meeting with his dad, but maybe now, neither of them will die with regrets. Zeke tells Michaela that pretty much his entire life has been about regret and sadness. He doesn’t want to end it like that. “I want to go out on my terms with the love of my life, making one more memory I can take with me.” What is Zeke doing? He gets off the couch and goes down on one knee. “Will you marry me, Michaela?” “Yes, yes, I will.”
🚨SPOILER ALERT 🚨
She said yes. 💍🥰#Manifest pic.twitter.com/PGyBnzJPyt
— Manifest (@ManifestNFLX) March 24, 2020
Ben tucks Cal in and asks if he’s seen any of those shadows. He hasn’t; why does he think? Ben doesn’t know, but he bets they’re going to figure it out. All things work together for good. Ben turns off the lights and leaves, but after he closes the doors, the shadows loom over Cal. Those shadows perfectly resemble the three guys Michaela and Jared had just busted for the meth lab.
A lot happened in this week’s Manifest! We still have two episodes left of the season. So make sure to watch Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/9 CT on NBC, streaming the next day on Hulu.
