Manifest - Black Box

Discussing Ep. 2.4

Whatever advantage and goodwill that Saanvi and Vance built up in the last episode, they COMPLETELY lost in this episode!

Seriously, Vance more than anyone was made to look like a complete fool and The Major was made to look like an evil mastermind. I mean....why would Vance let Saanvi go in front of The Major with that story about a Swedish scientist with nothing more than "eat an apple or something" to hide her obvious attempted duping of The Major? I give them credit for having Saanvi practice with Vance in the first place, and he obviously knew not to underestimate The Major's skills in reading body language and detecting a lie. But his solution of Saanvi eating an apple to hide her fidgeting while telling The Major this tall tale in an attempt to trap her was just asinine!

I give props to The Major. Her leaving that apple in the room, that clear message that she knew what Saanvi was trying to do was just brilliant! But now, not only does The Major have Saanvi's legitimate research and a potential way to 'create' 828ers in a lab, but she potentially knows that Vance is still alive. At the very least, she knows that Saanvi is working with some kind of gov't organization that is rivalling hers. So, Vance has lost some serious ground here. I don't know necessarily what he could have done but I have a feeling that he was too impressed with Saanvi's abilities from last episode that he put too much trust in her. She's not a trained agent and so she wasn't ready.

Speaking of being impressed, I was impressed and happy that at least someone in the Stone family recognizes Olive's abilities and contributions. It annoyed me to no end when Cal and Grace both brushed off Olive's offers of help simply because she wasn't receiving the callings. At least Ben remembered what she could do and she didn't let him down here.

She immediately recognized what these symbols meant and you really have to sit there and wonder what would have happened had she not walked in at that precise moment that Ben and TJ were looking at this. This is sort of what gets me about these callings.....a lot of times they work on coincidence and even accidents. They were sort of on a time crunch here because had they not figured what this picture meant on that specific day when Logan Strickland was robbing that bank, what would have happened? Without Olive walking in at that very moment, they might have spent days, maybe even weeks trying to figure out what those symbols meant. It was only because of Olive that they got the running start that they needed and all of it just in time.

I'm also curious to know what this is about. The coincidence that Olive spoke to and was enamoured with TJ before he boarded flight 828 and now she's seeing him again.....is there going to be a higher purpose to this? Are they giving Olive this love interest for a reason or just for the sake of giving her a love interest? I can't imagine it's to give her more incentive to find a way to stop the Death Date because she already has enough incentive with her father, brother and aunt potentially losing their lives in 5 years. So I'm really wondering why they started this relationship now.

The bank robbing scene was interesting if not confusing. Again, I don't understand how the callings work and who is giving them. Maybe that's part of the mystery, but it's kind of dumb. "Bring him back." Both Zeke and Mick received this message. Thing is, they didn't really bring anybody back! Mick interpreted everything that happened as them bringing Logan's brother, Frank, back to him. But that's not how it happened at all. It was TJ and Ben that brought Frank back. And they didn't 'bring him back' as much as they brought them together. And Ben didn't even get a calling....it was TJ! And why did Zeke get the calling? He didn't do shit! Had he not been there, it wouldn't have made a difference. Yeah, he got that injured bank manager out to get proper medical treatment, but that's it. More than anything, he almost made things worse as he usually does. He tried to take down Logan and got bashed in the head for it. Beyond that, he was pretty much useless. Mick did the negotiating with the police. Mick talked to Logan and reasoned with him. Mick was the one who was more in charge of everything.

I know I'm rather hard on Zeke but the fact of the matter is, he's contributed nothing but problems in this particular season and I don't know what his role is. Therefore, why did he get the calling? What was it that he was supposed to do? The funny thing about these callings that I doubt they will answer because they can't is....how do they work? In this episode, the calling was time sensitive. Maybe Logan would have been able to hide out in the bank with hostages for a couple of days that would have allowed Mick and TJ and Ben to decipher what those symbols meant that would have lead to Frank Strickland and led them to that key and bringing Logan and Frank together again.

Maybe.

Beyond that though, what did Zeke contribute to all of it? He had no role to play so why did he get the calling? Just to get him and Mick to the point where they'd have sex? Fuck man....try flowers and a kind word if you want to get into Mick's pants, for crying out loud! Why does God or the Universe or whoever is directing these callings going to such lengths to get Zeke involved with Mick? Is it just so he can get laid by Mick? Really?

I will say that I was somewhat impressed with Jared. He did have Mick's back in this episode and didn't brush everything off when he heard it involved another calling. He didn't have to call Ben (which is, again, another bit of contrivance. Had he not called Ben, they never would have connected the dots between TJ's vision and Logan and the safety deposit box key). And if he gets to relieve all this stress and anxiety and what not over Mick with this bartender....power to him! Maybe it will draw him back from that edge of being an intolerable asshole. And yet, this bartender has a brother who is a hardcore anti-828er and Jared bought him a drink last episode. So I'm wondering if he's still going to go down this path and become an obstacle for Mick and Ben or remain an ally.

As far as the calling and Logan's watch having the peacock on it....I was glad that they revisited this symbol from last season because we never got an answer on it. But again, how did it all work out like this? Logan got a Death Date vision, seeing his own grave with June 2, 2024 on it, the same as Cal saw. But in this case, it corresponded with 6224 which was the locker number that held his father's watch. So is this the Universe/God telling them that there is a way to escape the Death Date? Why get the vision now? And why wouldn't Cal get part of the vision? Why didn't Ben? Why TJ? Logan's grandfather and father both held this watch and it saved them under incredible odds from dying, so I could understand why he would see it as his salvation too. But how in the world is that going to help all the 191 passengers from dying in 5 years? And now that Ben has it, what does that mean for Logan? He's going to jail for a while so now he's leaving his fate in the hands of Ben and Co. What if they can't figure it out? I really hope they tie everything together somehow because there are so many elements that I can't see them explaining it all.

Finally, I just want to say that I was seriously wrong about Troy.

He came off a bit strong with Saanvi, bordering on creepy especially with what was going on with The Major. But he was merely interested in dating Saanvi, not wanting to ensnare her for The Major. Now he unwittingly got caught up in all of this and is, most likely, dead. That kind of sucks, man.

I wonder how many more casualties will come because of The Major. We'll see.