‘Manifest’ Season 1 Episode 8 Recap: “Point of No Return”

By
Kevin Finnerty
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Manifest Season 1 Episode 8
Melissa Roxburgh, Francesca Faridany, and Josh Dallas in ‘Manifest’ season 1 episode 8 (Photo by Craig Blankenhorn / NBC / Warner Brothers)

“What are you doing here, Vance?” asks Ben (Josh Dallas). “I’m here because we need each other,” replies Vance (Daryl Edwards) as he sets out to secretly team up with Ben to attempt to find the missing 11 passengers in season one episode eight of NBC’s Manifest.

Season one episode eight kicks off with a flashback of the plane landing and Ben and Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh) noticing they don’t have any cell service. Cal (Jack Messina) tells Ben he doesn’t want to be in New York because that’s where he has cancer.

Flash-forward to present day and siblings Ben and Michaela are up late, talking. Ben’s afraid the experiments are going to start up again. Michaela encourages him to let Cal go back to school since Dr. Saanvi Bahl says he can and Grace wants him to. “You need to start a new normal for your family,” says Michaela. She also points out they’re most likely being watched so they should act normal.

A man in a suit tells the scientist who’s running those strange and dangerous experiments on Marko to get back up and running in 18 hours.

Ben surprises Grace (Athena Karkanis) by telling her he’s okay with Cal going back to school, but only if she agrees to a date night with him. He believes they need it and she smiles and agrees. Olive (Luna Blaise) walks a nervous Cal to school, assuring him he’ll be fine and she’ll see him at lunch.

Michaela gets to the precinct and Jared Vasquez (J.R. Ramirez) teases her about being late. As she smiles and keeps walking, she hears a voice – “The Calling” – say, “Don’t lose him.” Just then her boss tells her he needs her to handle a jumper situation.

Ben’s at work talking to his supervisor when the fire alarm goes off. The building evacuates and when Ben walks outside, he spots Vance. Ben’s able to detach from the crowd exiting the building to talk to Vance unnoticed. Vance tells Ben he checked the flash drive and couldn’t figure out the numbers on it or what they meant.

At first Ben’s hesitant to trust him but finally agrees that if they’re going to rescue the missing 11 passengers, they need to work together. Ben takes the flash drive and tells Vance he’ll look at it.

Michaela arrives on the roof to talk to the jumper who’s a passenger from Flight 828 named Harvey. Michaela works her way over to Harvey who warns her if she comes too close, he’ll jump.

Ben checks the flash drive and calls Professor Clarke about the data, believing it might be about medical tracking. She recalls the people at Singularity were interested in her theory of electrical stimulation and mapping. She’s worried they might be doing experiments on the brains of the passengers. She warns that whatever they’re doing is dangerous. Ben approaches his supervisor and offers to help with the night reports in order to get more access to the information he needs.

Michaela keeps talking to Harvey, telling him she knows how he feels and that he isn’t alone. Harvey confesses people are dying and it’s his fault. He believes he’s going to be next. He lets himself fall off the roof as Michaela screams no and reaches for him. She’s too late and he plunges to the ground.

Michaela calls Ben and lets him know what happened. She also tells him she’s worried because The Calling told her not to lose him and she failed.

Grace is out shopping for her date night and runs into Lourdes (Victoria Cartagena) who’s buying pregnancy tests. She confides in Grace that she and Jared are trying to start a family.

Michaela and Jared check out Harvey’s place which is simple and has nothing personal in it. When Michaela opens the bedroom door, she sees “The Angel of Death” painted on the wall. His death is bothering Michaela, and Jared assures her she did everything right but sometimes it goes bad

Michaela and Jared do some more digging and discover two people who were at a local pub with Harvey are also recently deceased. Michaela now understands why Harvey thought he was the Angel of Death. They pay a visit to the pub and the bartender reveals Harvey told her and the two dead people about knowing things before they would happen. Michaela believes the other two people died because Harvey told them about The Calling.

Meanwhile, Ben meets with Vance and tells him about Clarke having another meeting with Singularity and that she’s going to plant a bug.

Professor Fiona Clarke (Francesca Faridany) meets with the man in the suit whose name is Lawrence and surreptitiously plants the bug under his desk. While she’s talking to him, Vance is listening in as Ben tries to access the company’s system. Lawrence gets a call and tells Clarke he has to end the meeting and reschedule.

After Fiona leaves, Lawrence makes a call to a military commander about someone attempting to access their system. Vance, who’s listening in, now knows Singularity is behind the abduction of the 11 passengers but wonders who in the military is involved.

Vance and Ben discover through a little more digging that they moved the 11 to somewhere in Brooklyn. Vance suggests Ben have his date night with his wife. He’ll have one of his people at the NSA triangulate cell phone use from Singularity and in Brooklyn to locate where they might be keeping them.

Over at the school, Olive and Cal have fun at lunch. When they get home, they plan on what they’re going to do together while Grace and Ben go on date night. Grace sees Michaela at the house and breaks the news about seeing Lourdes and that she and Jared are trying to get pregnant. Grace suggests Michaela move on with her life.

Ben meets Grace at the restaurant and they have a wonderful time toasting to new beginnings.

When they get home, Ben lets Michaela know she was right; Grace really needed date night. Michaela warns Ben she’s worried for Jared and Grace because they told them about The Calling. While they’re chatting, Michaela receives a text from Jared.

Michaela meets Jared at a crime scene and it turns out the bartender they spoke with is dead. Apparently, she was electrocuted in a freak accident. Jared, shocked, tells Michaela he’s not buying her theory. She confesses she couldn’t bear it if something happened to him because of her. She gives him her blessing to start a family with Lourdes and turns and walks away. As she leaves, she hears the voice once again telling her “don’t lose him.”

Ben checks on Cal who’s still awake. He reminds him it’s late, but Cal’s afraid to sleep thinking he might lose everything if he closes his eyes. Ben assures him he won’t, promising to make sure of it.

Ben visits Vance and they realize the information that wasn’t on the flash drive that they need is missing because it hasn’t been filed yet. Ben uses his supervisor’s security pass to get in after hours and find the file. Once he locates it, he snaps a photo on his phone and slips out.

Ben, Michaela, and Vance work together and narrow it down to the location of Red Hook. That’s where the 11 passengers are being kept.

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