Sophia Michaels
Flight 828 has finally landed. After four seasons of solving countless mysteries and trying to figure out how to avoid their approaching Death Date, the passengers at the center of Netflix’s “Manifest” have finally met their fate. (Needless to say, massive spoilers ahead.)
“Manifest” focuses on a group of people who board a flight home from the Bahamas in 2013 — only to touch down in 2018, though to them it seems like no time has passed. The passengers soon find themselves receiving mysterious visions they call Callings, which often lead them to save lives or solve crimes. As the show progresses, though, it becomes clear that the Callings are actually warning the passengers about an upcoming Death Date, which they eventually discover doesn’t only apply to them; instead, the whole world seems to be facing an apocalypse. Helmed by siblings Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh) and Ben Stone (Josh Dallas), the passengers set out to save the world.
“Manifest” was always building up to a climactic end, and in season four, episode 20, which premiered on June 2, we finally know what it all means. If you have questions, you’re not alone — so here’s an overview of what went down.
What Happens on the Death Date in “Manifest”?
Season four finds most of the passengers trapped in a government-owned detention center, as the rest of the world has become suspicious of the chaos and danger that seems to constantly surround them. A few have managed to avoid imprisonment, though, including Angelina (Holly Taylor), a sociopathic passenger who kills Ben’s wife and kidnaps his young daughter in season three.
Unfortunately for the Stones, in season four, Angelina’s evildoing capabilities are enhanced by a powerful piece of ancient sapphire she steals. In season three, Saanvi (Parveen Kaur) discovers that Flight 828’s tail fin is covered in sapphire, and she and the Stones soon figure out that the jewel can bring them unlimited Callings. Thanks to another passenger, Ben’s son, Cal (Ty Doran), gets a piece of the sapphire embedded in his arm, and in season four’s penultimate episode, Cal gets a Calling that makes him think he’s supposed to work with Angelina so that their joined sapphire powers can save the world. But Cal eventually remembers that there’s another piece of sapphire he might be able to join forces with; back in season three, Saanvi threw a sapphire-covered piece of Noah’s ark (yes, the biblical one) into a volcanic fissure.
On the day before the Death Date, the whole Stone family travel out to the site of the fissure, where they say their emotional goodbyes and somehow manage to fall asleep. In the middle of the night, the fissure starts to glow, and Cal steps into the light and disappears into it, creating a massive glowing blue pillar that all the passengers manage to see and decide to travel toward.
Soon enough, all the passengers gather at the site of the fissure — except for Angelina and the other passengers she’s convinced to join her side. (She believes only a few can be saved from the apocalypse.) Meanwhile, the Stones and their allies continue to insist that all the passengers’ fates are bound up with one another’s.
After nearly all the passengers arrive, the fissure starts spewing lava, and the passengers see none other than Flight 828 rise out of the ground. Ben and Michaela shepherd everyone onto the plane, but then Angelina and her crew arrive, and she starts threatening to shoot all the passengers — until a bit of lava spurts out of the ground, knocking her down. In a moment of desperation, Ben considers killing her, but after Angelina reveals she does regret killing Grace, he eventually decides to forgive her and carries her onto the plane.
Meanwhile, as all this is happening, Ben’s daughter, Olive (Luna Blaise), is at home following a clue that essentially leads her to realize her father has to forgive Angelina in order for them all to survive.
Do the “Manifest” Passengers Survive the Death Date?
In short: yes — for the most part. After all the passengers board Flight 828, the original copilot begins to fly the plane to escape the volcanoes exploding beneath them. As they begin to ascend, a few passengers spontaneously combust and turn to ash, seemingly because they haven’t passed the judgment of the Divine Consciousness — the name the Stones have been using to describe whatever force is behind their whole ordeal. Angelina and several members of her flock don’t survive the final judgment, but the morally ambiguous duo Eagan (Ali Lopez-Sohaili) and Adrian (Jared Grimes) wind up making it after the pathologically selfish Eagan offers his own life up in exchange for Adrian’s.
At the last minute, the ashes of all the passengers who didn’t pass the final judgment join together and turn into a shadowy angel of death. Fortunately, Michaela and Ben manage to fend it off by recounting some of the good things the remaining passengers have done since the flight landed.
After the angel disappears, the plane flies right into a blue light — the same light it entered during the original bout of turbulence that started it all. The passengers soon find themselves in a brilliantly lit, still, silent place. When the flight attendant finally opens the door, they realize that they’re back in Queens, NY, in 2013, right where the plane was originally supposed to land. Only the passengers who didn’t pass the final judgment don’t make it home.
What Happens to Ben’s Family in the “Manifest” Finale?
After four seasons of running around with the literal fate of their world on their shoulders, the Stone family all receive pretty happy endings. Cal manages to survive the Death Date, but he’s back to being a young kid and seems to have no memory of anything that happened, while the adults on the plane all seem to have their memories intact. Ben also promises his now-living wife, Grace (Athena Karkanis), that Saanvi will be able to cure Cal’s cancer, as she was able to do so after the flight landed for the first time. Grace is still alive, and Ben is sure that he and his wife will be able to conceive their third child again, even though she was born after the plane landed for the first time.
Do Saanvi and Ben End Up Together in “Manifest”?
Meanwhile, Saanvi reunites with Alex (Sydney Morton), whom she never stopped loving in the time-warp timeline, and the pair seem all set to walk off into the sunset. Saanvi and Ben had a one-night stand earlier in the season, but both ultimately agree that it was a one-time thing due to their enduring love for their partners.
Who Does Michaela End Up With in “Manifest”?
Meanwhile, Michaela finally makes a decision she’s been avoiding since episode one and decides to turn down her unfailingly loyal boyfriend Jared’s (J.R. Ramirez) marriage proposal. Jared has a casual fling with Michaela’s friend Drea (Ellen Tamaki) during season three, but when Drea unexpectedly gets pregnant and Jared is thrilled, Michaela realizes that Jared will actually be much happier with Drea.
Finally, Michaela remembers that her husband, Zeke (Matt Long), who sacrificed himself to save Cal in the time-jump timeline, is waiting outside. Though they’ve never met in the 2013 timeline, Michaela recalls that he told her he was in a taxi outside JFK airport when 828 was originally meant to land. She finds him, and while he doesn’t remember, it seems pretty clear that they won’t have too much trouble picking up where they left off.
Ultimately, it seems that all the endless, exhausting Callings the passengers followed did make some kind of difference in the eyes of the Divine Consciousness, as it helped turn judgment in the passengers’ favor. It’s somewhat unclear exactly what the whole sapphire ordeal was for, but regardless, all the passengers wind up together again when it matters most, and despite facing almost certain death, the 828 crew survive against all odds.
Fittingly, “Manifest” underwent a similar brush with oblivion. The series was canceled by NBC after season three, but fans launched a successful #SaveManifest campaign that led to Netflix picking up the show and renewing it for a final season. Just like the stars of “Manifest,” now that it’s all over, the TV show’s devoted fans can return to their lives with a bit of proof that miracles just might be possible.
