MANIFEST Roundtable: Return Trip

This week on Manifest’s season 2 second episode:

Ben and Saanvi work together to orchestrate a surprising family reunion for an emotionally closed-off Flight 828 passenger. Meanwhile, Olive drifts further away from her family, Jared learns more about a growing cabal of anti-828 sentiment, and Michaela finds herself out on a limb when baggage from Zeke’s past threatens to destroy his tenuous new life.

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: Why won’t Saanvi listen when Ben tells her that doing testing on her own person is dangerous? That can’t end well at all when it comes to her safety.

But then there’s Zeke’s “wife” who is just too much so quickly. Why even bring her in if she’s gone now? Did she do anything for Zeke or Michaela besides be a point of drama outside of our usual ones?

MANIFEST — “Return Trip” Episode 206 — Pictured: (l-r) Danielle Burgess as Courtney, Matt Long as Zeke Landon — (Photo by: Will Hart/NBC)

Cay:  Yeah, Saanvi isn’t being smart and things didn’t go well the first time around, so it’s that much worse that she’s trying it again.

Jared was also really stupid this episode. I completely understand that he’s been traumatized and is very mad at Michaela. In some ways he has every right to be. However, going over to the dark side isn’t going to help him or anyone else.

But, the “stupid award” goes to Michaela and Zeke for thinking they could walk right into a drug dealer’s house unarmed and emerge unharmed. Yeah, they are safe and the dealer and his goons were arrested, but it could have gone (should have gone) so much worse!

Awesome:

Roz: Olive and TJ! I’m such a sucker for a young love story and these two getting closer as they find out more and more about those tarot cards was a welcome break from the usual.

Cay: I’m happy that Olive and TJ are hitting it off but I’m also happy that Ben and Olive are talking and she’s back to feeling like she’s part of the family now that she’s investigating things as well.

I also think the historical tie-in is pretty awesome – the idea that this has happened before opens a lot of potential storylines.

So-So:

Cay: It seems unlikely that this is the end of the Courtney plot unless it really was just intended to make Zeke feel like he had made amends and could move on with this recovery. If that’s the case, though, what about those pills that Michaela found? I don’t want to see a plotline with him going back to drugs.

Roz: We meet a new passenger and he gets to save his son’s life? That seems such a random chance and it’s making me uneasy.

MANIFEST — “Return Trip” Episode 206 — Pictured: (l-r) Marcy Harriell as Orlena Fischer, James Lynch as Theo, Parveen Kaur as Saanvi Bahl — (Photo by: Peter Kramer/NBC)

Your Thoughts:

Roz: The hell is with all that ash that Michaela, Ben and Saanvi all saw together? With Adrian on the outside? None of that can be good for ANYTHING!

Also what the hell is going on with Michaela’s boss? Who is she working for?

Cay: Yeah, that last scene was crazy! I thought it was ash when Michaela originally saw it, but she said snow, so then I thought maybe the special effects were just bad. My first thought was the volcano – they are known to spew a lot of ash that can fall like snow. But, that doesn’t explain that crazy last scene. A plane crash could explain it, as the scene seems to show, but then why Adrian?  Definitely getting LOST vibes!

MANIFEST — “Return Trip” Episode 206 — Pictured: (l-r) Andrene Ward-Hammond as Capt. Bowers — (Photo by: Will Hart/NBC)

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

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