Manifest - Carry On

Discussing Ep. 2.8

I knew it! I fucking knew it!

They tried. Bless their hearts, they tried. And they did a good job but I still didn't believe it. And I feel like they cheated, dedicating much of the episode to the grief and loss of TJ, only for him to be alive at the end. I don't get what the point was other than perhaps to bring Olive and Ben closer together as well as to add a new dimension to the callings themselves.

Like I said, they tried. And they almost had me. Having Mick "identify" the body and having Isaiah be holding onto Olive's bracelet as though he was TJ.....pretty clever. But the episode just had this vibe that it wasn't going to be over with TJ. While seeing Olive break down when Mick came by to tell her the news was heartbreaking, the fact that Ben kept getting that chanting voice in his head and that he was the only one getting them, and the fact that it had to do with a Buddhist temple gave me the impression that, perhaps as the very least, Olive and Ben were going to get some kind of vision of TJ.

It's kind of funny when you think about it, how Olive and Ben went through the motions of saying goodbye to TJ by creating their own Buddhist practice and sharing their memories of him, only for him to be alive at the end. Like I said, I suppose the point was to bring Olive and Ben together seeing as how they seemed rather distant in recent episodes. But other than that, it felt very cheap to have them go through all of that, go through all of the emotion of accepting TJ's death only for him to be alive at the end. At the same time though, I'm kind of glad because I don't think Olive would have recovered from TJ's death. I think she would have had gone down a dark path, perhaps even start to hate the callings because they didn't save TJ and who knows where she would have gone after that. And TJ really endeared himself not only to Olive but to Ben as well, and I think he's become a really integral part in helping them figure out what the callings are all about. So I'm glad that he didn't bite the dust at this point.

I'm still wondering about Prof. White. I figured him to be a part of The Major's unit, trying to figure out and infiltrate the 828 community in order to collect intel for The Major. But it seems like he's kind of running a counter community to what Adrian had started with the 828 Church, inciting his followers to believe that the 828ers are a threat rather than a blessing. It's almost like the 828ers are like mutants and he feels threatened by them. So he started this community to stop them? It's rather strange, if not scary, how he could be so cold after some 828ers died in that fire and he still feels like they're a threat and is determined to see them wiped out. For that reason, I'm sceptical as to whether or not he's working with The Major as she seems interested in exploiting whatever powers they have, not seeing them wiped out of existence (at least not before she can weaponize the powers they have).

And as far as Jared goes, doubt in him is beginning to creep in though I haven't lost faith in him completely. Even Mick, while doing surveillance on him, couldn't believe that he had fallen so far. She admitted that he wasn't the same guy that she was willing to marry. Though I do think she bears some responsibility considering she was the reason he ended his marriage with Lordes only to reject him for a guy she just met, it wouldn't justify in any way Jared aligning himself with a group of Xers who were bent on doing 828ers harm, or especially aligning himself with someone like Billy. This turn from Jared really does seem out of character and like I said before, I can't believe that he'd grow so cold against people like Ben or Cal or Mick because of a broken heart, so I do think there's more to his involvement than meets the eye.

The thing is though, even if Jared is doing his own undercover operation, he's still going to be hurting Tamara in the end, which doesn't bode well for Jared's trustworthiness. Though Tamara may share some feelings against the 828ers with her brother, she doesn't seem as hardcore about it as he is. She cares about her brother but recognizes that he's an idiot. She seems to have fallen rather hard for Jared and is essentially pure in her intentions towards him and isn't in it for anything other than that she likes him and cares for him. So for him to betray her like that will just makes him look really bad and hurt her unnecessarily.

So thanks to the surveillance work of Mick and Mikami, the Captain was made aware of Jared's activities and I don't know if what she said to Jared at the end was "You've got a problem" or " We've got a problem." Because if it's the latter, then obviously Captain Bowers is in on it and is herself associated with the Xers, although that would make little sense since it really seems like Jared has been doing this all on his own. If she were involved, then I don't see why Jared would have to go to such lengths to get Mick's files when he could have gone to her directly for help. So if he's been doing it all on his own, I don't see how he's going to explain any of it. Even if he is undercover, it's not official and he is essentially doing his own vigilante work, which I can't imagine that Captain Bowers would approve of. So I'm really curious as to what is going to happen to Jared now.

I thought that this was a very interesting development. So it seems like Saanvi's "cure" had the unintended side effect of wiping her memory, at least as far as certain sections of it. She went to the trouble of tracking Alex down and giving her a big kiss on the street, only for Alex to come back and tell her it's definitively over and Saanvi doesn't remember doing any of it! How far does this effect reach? Will it erase all of her memory or is it limited to just short term memory? Will it affect anything else? I like this new wrinkle because even Zeke was looking for a miracle since he's suffering frostbite that seems to indicate he's starting down the path to his own death and Saanvi's cure, while it may save him, might also erase his memory of Mick. That would be an interesting choice: be saved from the Death Date but lose all memory of who Mick is and what you had together, or spend the remaining time you have (which is less than a year) and spend it with Mick. A very interesting conundrum.

So I feel like they've drifted away from The Major storyline, and while they kind of covered it by having it that The Major and her minions are busy pouring over Saanvi's research and trying to make sense of it all and therefore that's why we haven't heard from her, I'm beginning to miss it. What happened to Vance and his efforts in trying to find The Major and counteracting all her manoeuvres? Why wouldn't he be interested in Saanvi's ongoing research and the recent discovery she has made? Sure, she hasn't exactly made it public but now that Zeke and Mick know, it's only a matter of time before Ben knows and then the word will be out. What happened with Grace and her calling in regards to that woman, Erica, and that gargoyle vision and her association with the Xers? What happened with Cal? I kind of feel like they've drifted away from some very important elements that they introduced earlier on in the season and I hope they return to them soon.