‘Manifest’ Season 2 Episode 9 Recap: “Airplane Bottles”

By
Kevin Finnerty
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Manifest Season 2 Episode 9
Melissa Roxburgh as Michaela Stone in ‘Manifest’ season 2 episode 9 (Photo by: Peter Kramer/NBC)

“You know what happened to Flight 828?” asks Ben (Josh Dallas) to his son Cal (Jack Messina) after he’s had another calling in season two episode nine of NBC’s mystery drama, Manifest.

Episode nine begins with Cal dreaming of being on Flight 828 with his dad and Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh). He sees lightning out the window and a bright glowing white light. He whispers, “It’s all connected.”

Cal wakes from his dream breathing heavy and begins frantically looking around the house as a storm whips up outside.

Zeke (Matt Long) treats Michaela to a homemade breakfast in their apartment. They talk about maybe taking a year off and traveling if Dr. Saanvi Bahl (Parveen Kaur) is really able to create a cure for Zeke and save him from the death date.

Back at the Stone home, T.J. (Garrett Wareing) is staying over until he’s healed from the wounds he received during the nightclub fire. He and Olive (Luna Blaise) dig into the journal again trying to decipher its meaning. They’re committed to discovering more clues to surviving the death date.

Cal, meanwhile, struggles to try to build something he saw in his calling. He can’t quite remember what it was he saw and is getting more and more frustrated as the minutes pass by.

At the precinct, Michaela gets pulled into an Internal Affairs investigation regarding the information she gave Captain Bowers on Jared. Early on during the interview, it becomes clear the two detectives from Internal Affairs are trying to steer the investigation into Michaela and the nightclub fire instead of Jared. They ask questions about why she seems so determined to ruin the career of Jared – her former lover and partner – and how it appears she has a vendetta against him.

Realizing she’s the target of the investigation, Michaela asks for her union rep to be present.

Zeke shows up at Saanvi’s office to start treatment and he quickly realizes she’s wired and keeps repeating herself. After this goes on for a while, he tells her he thinks she’s in real trouble and asks if he can get a doctor to take a look at her. She initially says no but finally tells him she trusts her ex, Alex Bates (Sydney Morton). Zeke, seriously concerned about Saanvi’s mental health, Zeke heads to Alex’s office to seek help.

Back at the Stone home, the storm’s getting worse outside and Cal’s still struggling to build what he can’t quite remember from his calling. Ben offers to help and asks him to try hard to remember. Cal says it was like a spiderweb with a plane trapped in it.

T.J. and Olive continue to pour over the journal and figure out the author, Al-Zuras, thought the callings were a curse. They believed after fixing something a calling warned them about, something bad would happen to one of them. Al-Zuras and his men decided to set out to find a way to get rid of the callings.

At the precinct, Michaela’s union rep defends her from the two Internal Affairs detectives who seem determined to tie Michaela to the nightclub fire. Concurrently, Jared (J.R. Ramirez) speaks with Captain Bowers (Andrene Ward-Hammond). He’s worried about the investigation and how he could be implicated, but Bowers assures him she has his back.

Once more to the Stone home we go and there’s a lot going on. Olive asks about a Silver Dragon while T.J. has become convinced he shouldn’t have survived the fire and this latest calling could be because of him. Cal becomes more and more upset and frustrated over not being able to build what he can’t remember. Grace (Athena Karkanis) is feeling seasick and Ben is getting short-tempered. He warns everyone the storm’s getting to them and Olive, clearly puzzled, asks what he’s talking about. Ben and T.J. point to the big storm outside, but Olive proves to them it’s actually a sunny day.

Ben realizes the storm he, T.J., Grace, and Cal are seeing is a calling. Ben calls Michaela and leaves her a message asking if she’s experiencing the same calling.

Zeke’s able to convince Alex to check on Saanvi and she quickly figures out after doing a few tests that Saanvi’s dopamine level is off the charts. Alex gives Saanvi a shot that should help and that also puts her to sleep.

Meanwhile, Ben has T.J. and Olive continue deciphering the book. They discover Al-Zuras and his men started to go mad trying to get rid of the callings. Ben sees a flash of lightning in the dark sky and realizes his family is experiencing what Al-Zuras and his men went through.

Jared goes to see Simon White (Maury Ginsberg), upset about the Internal Affairs investigation. He claims he wouldn’t have given him and the Xers her files if he knew it was going to get him investigated. Simon tells him to relax, assuring him he has allies at the NYPD. Simon also tells Jared that passengers of Flight 828 can see the future and might even be able to manipulate it. “Michaela is a threat,” warns Simon.

It’s clear Internal Affairs is trying to tie Michaela to the nightclub fire, hinting that she might have caused it just so she could rush in and be a hero. Michaela strongly denies it and her union rep declares she’s being railroaded.

Michaela changes her mind and offers to answer all of Internal Affairs’ questions. Michaela indicates she’s willing to talk about everything Jared has done that’s not by the book. Her rep intervenes and says he wants the investigation to be moved downtown, hinting there are too many ears at this precinct. He also needs to give Jared, another detective he’s assigned to protect, a heads-up about the course the investigation has taken.

Manifest Season 2 Episode 9
Garrett Wareing as TJ Morrison, Josh Dallas as Ben Stone, Jack Messina as Cal Stone, and Athena Karkanis as Grace Stone in ‘Manifest’ season 2 episode 9 (Photo by: Peter Kramer/NBC)

Back at the Stone house, Ben finally realizes what Cal’s trying to build; it’s the mast from the ship Al-Zuras and his men were on during the storm. As soon as they finish making it Ben, Cal, Grace, and T.J. experience another calling and find themselves on the ship. They look up in the stormy night sky and see flashes of lightning. They also discover the Silver Dragon in the sky referenced in the book is Flight 828. The calling ends and they find themselves back in the house with the sun now brightly shining outside.

Saanvi wakes up and apologizes to Alex for involving her in her work and for making her worry. She wants Alex to go back to her family. Alex tells Saanvi to take care of herself and to be safe.

At the precinct, Michaela and her union rep come out of the interrogation room and Jared recognizes the rep as an Xer member who’s friends with Simon. Bowers speaks to the two Internal Affairs detectives and learns the remainder of Michaela’s testimony will take place downtown. Jared realizes Michaela’s going to be killed en route to the neutral location. He intervenes and arrests Michaela on charges of arson, conspiracy to commit arson, and homicide. Michaela gets incredibly upset, yelling at Jared as he handcuffs her and takes her away.

Ben and T.J. talk and Ben has realized Al-Zuras was saying the only hope to survive is to follow the callings and that all other paths lead to disaster. Ben says Saanvi out loud as it dawns on him her search for a cure will put her in danger and could lead her to madness. T.J. and Ben also realize Saanvi is in the drawing of the crew onboard Al-Zuras’ boat.

Episode nine’s final scene is of Michaela swearing she’ll pay back Jared even if she has to tear down the entire precinct. Jared tells her to shut up as he puts her in a holding cell. As he locks the door he says, “I just saved your life!”




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