MANIFEST Roundtable: Fasten Your Seatbelts

This week on Manifest’s season 2 premiere:

As the Stone family reels in the aftermath of a devastating shooting, they’re hit with their most foreboding Calling yet, sending Ben on a mission to locate two Flight 828 passengers who have mysteriously gone missing. Grace grapples with her new pregnancy, the Major attempts to tighten her grip on the unwitting Saanvi, all while the clock on the lives of the 828ers continues to tick towards zero. Starring Melissa Roxburgh, Josh Dallas, Athena Karkanis, J.R. Ramirez, Luna Blaise, Jack Messina, Parveen Kaur and Matt Long.

Join us as we use our new ratings system known as SASSY – S(tupid), A(wesome), S(o) S(o) and Y(Your Thoughts):

Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/NBC

Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/NBC)

Stupid:

Cay: Can I say how much I forgot of this show since it was last on? Almost a year is way too long a hiatus for a show this complex! Even rewatching the S1 finale left me missing some pieces. I like a complex show, but I also don’t want to have to rewatch or read synopses of every old episode before the new season starts! I’m going to blame the hiatus more so than the show.

Specific to this episode, it has got to be Ben running out to that van! Yeah, it seems like it probably worked out okay, unless Director Vance has changed sides, but so stupid!

Roz: I was initially annoyed by the two minute recap at the top of the show, but then I realized that there was so much in the show that we needed all of those small moments. I don’t think the long hiatus will help new fans at all, but maybe this had a bigger draw after the season ended that we know.

In the episode specifically, I don’t know what to make of the new captain or how much that white van was a possible red herring. When all the clues in the episode about the Vasiks turn out to be about another family I also have to worry how many more times we’re going to see that sort of bait and switch.

Awesome:

Cay: Cal’s new hairstyle for the win! Also thrilled to see Ben, Grace, Olive, and Cal seeming closer as a family. And Director Vance isn’t dead??? One of the only allies that Ben and company seemed to have – now this could get very interesting. Were they trying to protect the Stone family and others? If so, why grab Ben like that? Just to keep him from making a ruckus? Seems like it could have easily gone wrong and would have been easier to slip him a note for a meet-up.

Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/NBC

Roz: I just am excited to see more threads coming together. Even if I want to punch the General in the face, she’s getting something from Saanvi that needs to be shared/expressed. That everyone’s visions can connect and help real people is great, even if it means that many of those 828 passengers think there is something else much worse wrong with them.

Photo by: Peter Kramer/NBC

So-So:

Cay: While it’s good for the plotline, I HATE that Saanvi is being manipulated by her “therapist” when she finally was brave enough to reach out for help.  I also really have the feels for Danny! He did nothing wrong and everything right for Grace and Olive and now is effectively cut out of their lives despite the fact that Grace could be carrying his child. The guy just can’t win for losing!

Roz: Yes, Saanvi deserves so much better from her getting help than she’ll be getting from the General – because we all know that this new open Saanvi will give The General all that information she needs to figure out if Cal is what she needs him to be.

Your Thoughts:

Roz: I can’t tell if this death dates are the best or worse way to get people to work together from 828 in a few weeks or not. If you can come back from the dead like Vance did, what’s keeping anyone dead for a third, fourth or fifth time?

Cay: Here’s what I said at the end of the last episode: “If everyone comes back for as long as they were gone, we can assume that Zeke wasn’t fatally shot in the tussle with Jared, but does that mean Jared got shot? I feel it is more likely that Jared was injured or killed.” Apparently it didn’t even occur to me that Michaela would be the one who got shot. It does bring up interesting thoughts of whether any of the passengers can die before their death date – have we seen this happen yet to anyone that didn’t involve the Major?

Photo by: Peter Kramer/NBC

Photo by: Peter Kramer/NBC

You can check out all of our previous Manifest coverage here.

Watch Manifest on Mondays at 10/9c on NBC!