film / tv / substack / social media / lists / web / celeb / pajiba love / misc / about / cbr
film / tv / substack / web / celeb

manifest-19021.jpg

Recap (Spoilers): The Key to the 'Manifest' Finale

By Dustin Rowles | TV | February 12, 2019 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | February 12, 2019 |


manifest-19021.jpg

The season’s penultimate episode of Manifest dealt primarily with James “The Wolf” Griffin, the man pulled from the inside of an armored vehicle after being underwater for 82 hours and 8 minutes (get it? Flight 828!) Turns out, the guy that was seen as a wolf in Cal’s vision is a villain. Who could have guessed? He has a calling of an explosion and lots of people dying, but as he’s a bad guy, he’s only willing to provide information about his calling in exchange for beating the rap on a murder charge. Michaela tries to convince him to give up the intel about the bomb for the good of humanity — and much of the episode is wasted trying to find leverage against Griffin to get him to speak — but he ultimately reveals the whereabouts of the bomb only in exchange for his release. Let’s not get into the logistics of the FBI giving a dude a deal based on a vision he has of the future. The important takeaway here is that bad people can use the callings, too.

Elsewhere, Zeke draws suspicion from Jared, whose mustache was so unevenly trimmed in this episode that I couldn’t concentrate on anything else when he was in a scene. It’s possible that Zeke is also a bad guy. Elsewhere, Saanvi is suffering from PTSD after being kidnapped and held at gunpoint last week. Her only real contribution to the episode is the realization that, “I can’t help but think we’re on the verge of discovering something awful.”

That’s the gist of the episode, and I’m not really interested in what happened this week. I’m more interested in what’s going to happen in next week’s season finale, and I believe the promo provided some very valuable clues.

This show is honestly not worth yarn-walling, because I suspect that the “epic season finale” is going to be hugely anti-climactic, even for those among us who expect so very little from this show. But, I couldn’t help but notice Cal’s vision board, mostly because before providing shots of it, the sister says, “The answer has been in right front of us all along.”

Here’s what’s on that vision board:

Screen Shot 2019-02-12 at 2.51.27 PM.png

Screen Shot 2019-02-12 at 2.52.44 PM.png

That is not actually a random assortment of images. There is a peacock, lightning, the Goddess Hera, a blizzard, and a cave drawing of a couple who appear to be in love.

What can we deduce from this? Well, Hera is the Goddess of Marriage (the couple in love). Her symbol is the Peacock. Zeus, her husband, was God of the Weather (lightning, blizzard). Note also the “twins” sticky? Hera had twins, Apollo (his symbol is The Wolf) and Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. (You can’t see it in this shot, but the card next to the “Hera” card is of Juno, who is the Roman equivalent of Hera. Juno was the protector of the state).

What does this have to do with a disappearing and reappearing plane? Given the nature of this show — they make it up as they go along — I suspect it will involve some generic environmental theme. Hera was known for being spiteful and jealous, and unleashing these “passengers” and “callings” was her revenge for the damage that humanity has inflicted on the Earth.

What does this have to do with Cal’s dragon?

Screen Shot 2019-02-12 at 3.36.07 PM.png

I’m not exactly sure, except that Hera used the dragon-like creature Ladon to protect “the golden apples,” which provide immortality.

But surely, the events on this show are not controlled by actual Greek Gods, right? Well, no. But I suspect that whoever is pulling the strings — The Major — is a big fan of Greek mythology, and whatever she has wrought is being inspired by Greek myths, and her ultimate goal is immortality.

I didn’t say it made sense, but neither does Manifest.



Header Image Source: NBC