MANIFEST Roundtable: Grounded

This week on Manifest’s season 2 second episode:

Ben forms a cautious alliance with an isolated college student from Flight 828, whose callings either uncovered a violent crime or helped him commit one; Saanvi strives to further her research into the Death Date.

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

Stupid:

Roz: Saanvi! Please stop talking to the Major/your therapist! Having that note written just makes me so so nervous.

Cay: Yeah, this pains me, but obviously from her perspective, she’s finally doing what she needs to do for herself. The knowledge of this does not keep me from yelling at the TV, though. The mantra “Trust No One” seems applicable here. I’m particularly suspicious of the lab tech – he’s too annoyingly wholesome.

My official “stupid” of the week is Olive going to the Believers meeting. Apparently making poor choices runs in the family! Seems unlikely that this choice ends up as well as when Ben rushed the kidnap van. I get it, some super crazy stuff has happened to her and she’s a teenager, but she needs to be more careful, not less.

Roz: Oh I was just ignoring that lab tech, but yes, he makes me nervous, too. There are now too many people taking an interest in Saanvi for it not to be related to the Major and her plans about all these 828 passengers.

MANIFEST — “Grounded” Episode 202 — Pictured: Parveen Kaur as Saanvi Bahl — (Photo by: Peter Kramer/NBC)

Awesome:

Cay: I’m really intrigued by how Zeke fits into it all. What is his connection – he wasn’t a passenger but he also cheated death and he’s now having the same callings as Cal and Michaela. I also wonder why he is so self-sacrificial. Does he just have so much overall guilt that he feels like he deserves to suffer?

Roz: I really like TJ and his calling this week. I felt so much for him as he saw his mom again for the first time in years. Zeke’s new role with these shared callings with Michaela and Cal are intriguing, but I don’t love him as much when he wants to be the sacrificial lamb to some other plan that he hasn’t said out loud.

So-So:

Cay: Not sure how I feel about bringing the baby into this, although I thought about the Death Date last week. Wonder what was up at that hospital that the calling stopped Grace having the paternity test done there? She’s going to need to go somewhere for prenatal care and if she can’t trust that place, she needs to find someone to trust. Saanvi is not an OB.

MANIFEST — “Grounded” Episode 202 — Pictured: (l-r) Athena Karkanis as Grace Stone, Josh Dallas as Ben Stone — (Photo by: Peter Kramer/NBC)

I’ll reserve judgement on Jared and Michaela’s new boss but I’m pretty suspicious about all new characters at this point! I can’t blame her for not taking their BS as it seems like they’ve had their run of the department for a while.

Roz: I get where Olive is coming from with being the only family member without any callings, but going to the Believers or thinking of doing whatever she wants to do is a bad bad idea.

You make a great point about the new boss in their precinct. What is her deal? I know we need a paper trail, but man, she won’t want to believe what Michaela has to say about her callings.

Your Thoughts:

Roz: I have so many questions about Olive going to this Believers meeting and that one girl knowing who she really is, but I think we need to see it play out before I worry too much.

Cay: It’s good to have Lance back, looking forward to seeing where they take his character. Good that they went back and showed us how he faked his death. I’d love to see the passengers get another piece of the mystery soon.

Obviously Michaela wasn’t going to continue working with Jared, but the new partner is super annoying. Could she be a spy for the Major?

What exactly is the purpose of the callings? Some have to do with the plane itself and that experience, others with personal things for passengers and still others seem to be designed to help others – e.g. Michaela rescuing the kidnapped girls at the very beginning of the show. Is there a tie that binds here? We definitely need a little chunk of mythology reveal here to keep us going so the show doesn’t get too soapy.

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

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