‘Manifest’ Recap: Season 4, Episode 18 “Lift/Drag”

Megan
16 Min Read
Netflix © 2022

Season 4 part 2 of Manifest is here, and we are almost to the end! In episode 18, Cal is getting more and more exhausted as he’s the only one getting the Callings, but Michaela and Ben’s Callings each prove to be pretty important. Meanwhile, Angelina and Eagan take a surprising step forward, and Saanvi’s latest test becomes a game changer.

Keep reading to find out what happened in “Lift/Drag.”

Running Out of Time

It is already May 31, 2024, meaning the passengers only have two days to save themselves and the world. Dr. Gupta is in her lab, and an infrared map shows that the fissures are continuing to grow. Saanvi comes in, clearly not happy with the arrangements. Gupta tells her they are facing an extinction-level event, but all Saanvi cares about is the fact that if the passengers don’t face the final judgment, the world will end in two days. Troy comes up with a plan, though, to block the ULF. Gupta brings up the fact that the black box emits ULF, and she has Saanvi and Troy see if an electromagnetic blast will work on it.

At the detention center, Cal goes through the Callings he had and the passengers split up. Michaela had a Calling that included her saying, “Every life is worth saving.” Michaela thinks back to a conversation she had with Zeke while visiting him at work. He was dealing with a troubled kid, and he blew it; he snapped at the kid when he was just trying to work. She picked up a book titled Every Life is Worth Living,” and in the present, Michaela tells Jared she thinks Cal got the saying wrong. She knows where she needs to go.

Cal tells his dad he also had a Calling that involved buzzing noises and numbers he couldn’t make sense of that was 1-1-2-1. Ben goes to Vance to try to put the pieces together, and the three look at the boards. Ben sees that it’s the start of a New York City zip code.

New York, 1121 … 0

Peter Kramer/Netflix © 2022

Ben and Vance are still trying to nail down the zip code, and it will be like finding a needle in a haystack. Cal suggests going back on the plane, but luckily, Vance thinks he just found their needle. There’s a block that was condemned years ago under eminent domain. There are new solar panels on the roof. ConEd installed the panels just months ago. Cal remembers the buzzing he heard in the Calling sounded like something high-voltage. There is more power than any building would need, much less an abandoned one. The three leave to check it out.

Ben, Vance, and Cal get to the building, a government black site building. It’s attracted a lot of deliveries in the past few months. Thanks to a device Vance had, they’re able to get in. They walk through and hear radio chatter. Opening a door, it looks like a completely different building. There are no alarms, no sirens, no flashing lights. Cal wants to turn back since he isn’t sure if they have the right place, especially after Ben tries to put the numbers in the keypad, and they don’t work. Luckily, the steel door opens, and it’s Saanvi and Troy.

Life Worth Living

Netflix © 2022

Michaela is at the rehab facility Zeke worked at and asks Zeke to give her some sort of sign to let her know he’s there. When he doesn’t, she turns the corner and sees a giant sign that says, “Every life is worth living.” She thinks back to when she and Zeke were on a rooftop with a balloon, and having gotten the idea from Evie, Michaela suggests he write down his problems on a note, big or small, read it out loud, then attach it to the balloon and let it go to unburden himself. If Zeke doesn’t free his mind of Chloe, he won’t be able to help anyone. He wants Michaela to do it with him, but she convinces him to do it by himself.

She reads Zeke’s note, apologizing to Chloe, and she gives it back to him to finish reading it, but he breaks, and Michaela finishes reading it for him. They tie the note to the balloon, and Zeke lets it go. In the present, a woman recognizes Michaela as Zeke’s wife and wonders why she’s not at the detention center, and Michaela begs her to not call the cops.

The woman wants to know why Michaela is there, and she says she needs to look around for a second. However, the woman tells her she needs to go and calls for Oscar. Oscar, the security guard, comes down and tells Michaela she needs to go. Michaela tries to fight her way through, but as Oscar tries to stop her, she falls down the stairs. Someone tells Oscar to back off, and it turns out that Michaela’s met him before, Carlos, the kid who has Evie’s heart.

Michaela’s waiting in a room, and Carlos walks in. The two hug and Carlos grabs MIchaela’s hand to put it on his heart so she can feel it. Michaela thanks him for saving the day, and he says he owed her one; since it wasn’t so long ago, she did the same. Carlos says he was drawn to the place after hearing the phrase; he wanted to help people connect. Michaela says he sounds like her husband, and Carlos admits that Zeke taught him everything. Carlos was Zeke’s intern. Zeke always said that Michaela was his North Star, his Gemini.

There’s another flashback, and this time it’s Zeke and Carlos talking, and Zeke talks about Michaela and how they’ve supported each other and held each other up. There was a moment when he thought life wasn’t worth living, and Michaela reached across space and time to help him realize that it’s not just his life that’s worth living, but every life. Carlos shows Michaela the photo that Zeke drew of the two of them and tells her that Zeke is trying to reach out to her. She says that all day she’s been hearing the phrase “Life is worth living,” but she doesn’t know exactly who she is trying to convince that their life is worth living. Carlos wonders about her life and asks if she thinks it’s time for forgiveness. Michaela admits ever since Evie died, she’s begged for forgiveness. But Carlos isn’t talking about getting forgiveness; he’s talking about giving forgiveness — to forgive herself.

Michaela asks for a balloon and talks to Evie about hiding inside her own guilt, and wonders how many times she’s asked for forgiveness.

“I forgive you, Michaela Stone. I forgive you.”

Michaela ties her note to the balloon and lets it free.

Righteous Path

Angelina, Eagan, and the other fugitive passengers have taken over the Stone house. Autumn asks Angelina to go somewhere private, and when away, Eagan goes through Angelina’s things, including a journal. He hears a door, puts it back where it was, and leaves.

The passengers are sitting down, and Angelina tells them it’s time. While many of them have shown her their faith, there are still too many of them. One by one, she asks the passengers if they believe, but when she gets to Eagan, he gets down on one knee and pulls out a ring. He says he doesn’t want to be alone. They’re both broken souls, but maybe, they could come together and comfort each other.

“So I’m asking you. From one broken-hearted person to another. Be the other half of my heart?”

Angelina says yes, and they soon get married, with Paul as the officiant. Afterward, Angelina tells Eagan they have to lead the flock past end times, and then they can focus on the “Godly task of repopulation.” Eagan says he was thinking of depopulation. There were 10, now there’s nine, and soon there will be eight. He wonders about Astrid, and Angelina says she didn’t make the cut and met her judgment on God’s time. She’s glad Egan proved himself worthy because he almost didn’t. There’s a knock at the door, and it’s Adrian telling him it can’t wait any longer.

A Way Out

Saanvi is starting to crack and tells Troy they have to get out. She says there is no point in stopping the volcanos if the divine doesn’t want them to be stopped. They need to figure out how passengers can survive their judgment. Unfortunately, there’s only so much they can do in a limited space. Saanvi gets the idea to crank the pulse they were supposed to test to 11 so they can disable every camera and every lock. They can get out of there.

They crank the pulse, which turns off everything electrical, and when they open the door, they are greeted by Ben, Vance, and Cal. Saanvi and Ben have a heartwarming reunion, and Ben tells her about Cal and the Callings. Guards show up, and Troy leads them out before they’re caught. Troy stays behind to create a diversion so the others can escape and lets himself be caught.

Making Headway

Ben, Vance, and Cal return to the facility with Saanvi, and Ben takes her on a tour while Vance goes over the Callings outcomes with Bethany. Ben sees Cal, who seems to be in distress. He’s just going over the Calllings, clearly exhausted. Ben tells Saanvi that he’s been beating himself over all of it, being in the seats of every passenger, including those who have died and the ALNI patients. He has the weight of the world on his shoulders, literally.

Jared asks Saanvi to look over a patient in med bay, and it’s Astrid, who OD’d on her antianxiety medication. However, Saanvi says that it was not antianxiety medication that she was taking. Unfortunately, she’s been taking at least one every day since she left Angelina. Based on the test she ran and Astrid’s symptoms, she thinks it’s brodifacoum, poison. While Jared and Drea talk to Astrid, Saanvi checks on the ALNI patients, who haven’t changed. She says they’re locked into the God frequency, then changes her wording to ULF. She remembers Troy’s theory.

Saanvi tests Troy’s theory about the pulse and the ULF, hoping it’s enough to jolt them out of their Callings. Unfortunately, their activity doesn’t change. They have no more time. She tells Ben what happened and wonders if this is the end. He tells her they went down fighting, and the two kiss, soon doing a lot more.

Just when all seemed lost with the ALNI patients, they all slowly start to wake up. Marko wakes up and starts speaking Bulgarian.

Choosing to Fight

Netflix © 2022

Cal concentrates on the Callings again and is back on the plane. It’s completely calm. He starts sitting in different seats to see if he can see anything, but there’s nothing. He begs for Callings and sits on the ground, begging for help.

Ben addresses the passengers and tells them that their survival and the survival of the whole world depends on every one of them committing to doing the right thing. Cal comes back and tells Ben that he saw nothing, he heard nothing, he felt nothing.

“They’re gone, Dad. The Callings are all gone.”

Cal is devastated, but Ben tries to comfort him, thinking they solved them all. He sits Cal down and thanks the passengers for all their hard work. Ben says he doesn’t know why the Callings stopped, but he knows they’ve been given an opportunity, a reminder of what’s most important. He says it’s time to be with the people they love and hold them tight. Tomorrow might be all they got.

The passengers say goodbye to one another, and TJ chooses to stay after Ben says he has them as a family since it was always just him and his mom. Meanwhile, Cal is still upset about the Callings, and Henry comes in, telling him about a wooden figurine that people wanted to buy. Their Calling brought him to the shop, and it was the first time he was there in a while. He bought a wooden dragon, thinking of Cal. He thinks it was a sign. Cal never stopped looking for him, so why stop now?

Season 4 part 2 of Manifest is streaming now on Netflix! Check out the rest of our coverage on the series here, including episodic recaps and more!

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By Megan
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Megan has been passionate about writing since she was little and has been passionate about all things pop culture and nerdy since almost as long. Joining Nerds and Beyond in 2019, she also graduated from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh in 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia Journalism. Megan is constantly binge-watching shows and finding new things to obsess over. 9-1-1 and Marvel currently reign as the top obsessions. You can find her on Twitter @marvels911s if you ever want to discuss some certain firefighters.
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