Manifest Season 1 Episode 6 Recap – Off Radar

Off Radar follows the significant characters on Manifest as their relationships are either strengthened or strained. Everything is interconnected, yet not all connections will last indefinitely. If the callings are tests, they are also tests of connections the passengers are willing to risk losing and relationships they will struggle to maintain.

We start back again on the plane. A guy was asking for help in Bulgarian. He asked Saanvi, but she could only speak English. Luckily, a lady understood him and helped him fill out the form.

At present, the Stone family is sleeping when Cal suddenly shouts random words — he’s burning with fever. They panic, so they bring Cal to the hospital.

Cal speaks Bulgarian while sleeping; it seems like he has bad dreams. Dr. Saanvi Bahl recognizes the language from one of the plane passengers. While Grace consults with the chief doctor about Cal’s condition, Ben checks upon the individual on the passenger list he compiled. Saanvi recognizes him — Marko Valeriev (Nikolai Tsankov), one of Ben’s twelve travelers he has yet to locate.

Marko is Bulgarian, which explains why Cal has been speaking Bulgarian. Saanvi recalls a woman on the plane assisting Marko, and Michaela figures out her name and where she might be found.

Cal is in the hospital, and Michaela takes a personal day, so she contacts Jared and asks him to cover for her. She locates Anna (Jacqueline Antaramian), the lady who helped Marko on the plane, and inquires about what she recalls. Anna reveals she assisted him in translating his customs documents, and the last time she saw him was getting on a government bus leaving the hangar on his way to a government shelter.

Grace questions Ben when he decides to postpone the antibiotics. Grace refuses to accept his decision, reminding him of the last time Cal was sick. He needs to stop being a scientist and start being a father, she added. Ben reluctantly tells Grace something terrible occurred to everyone on the airplane, and it’s happening again. Ben tells Grace he thinks Cal’s fever has something to do with it — that the fever is linked to Marko somehow. He leaves to go to someone he thinks can help.

Jared sees Michaela with Anna at the precinct, working out some probable remote sites where the government could have taken the missing bus. He’s furious because he thinks she lied to him — personal day. When she tries to communicate with him, he says, “I don’t care anymore. Just leave me out of it.”

Michaela discovers a site where she believes the missing 11 passengers, including Marko, were taken. She tells Ben she’s going to check it out, and he advises her to bring Jared; it’ll most likely be deadly. She says it’s a terrible idea, but Jared says it’s necessary.

Michaela makes fun of Jared’s playlist, which he has used for years. When they arrive at a massive farm, they notice drones flying overhead, as well as a guardhouse and security. A guard approaches carrying a gun; Michaela stabs the tire and pretends it is flat. When they leave, Jared realizes something very significant is taking place. They see patients being led inside the “red door” Cal mentioned in his dream. Michaela takes a snapshot of people outside the “red door” as they drive away, one of them dressed in a hospital gown. After driving far enough, Jared pulls over and demands Michaela tell him what’s going on.

Michaela describes how the voices assist her in solving cases and how she believes the passengers on Flight 828 were given a riddle to solve. Jared finds it hard to believe but assures her she can trust him. Michaela sends the photo to Ben and tells him what they saw over the phone.

Cal’s fever is becoming worse at the hospital. He feels the tests and shock treatment inflicted on Marko by some scientists. Cal’s primary care physician believes the fever should be treated with antibiotics. But if they do so, Cal will be taken off the experimental treatment helping him survive cancer, as Dr. Saanvi warns Grace.

Ben goes to NSA Agent Vance (Daryl Edwards) and tells him he knows what they’ve done, disclosing he is aware of the kidnapping of the 11 passengers. He then shows him a snapshot of the woman standing at the red door in the hospital gown. She resembles Lena, another missing passenger from Flight 828.

Vance and his crew insist they have no idea what Ben is referring to. Ben threatens “the truth will come out” as he is escorted out. Vance returns to the photo and Lena’s file after he’s gone. In both photographs, he thinks it’s her. He orders his men to look into the disappearance of the 11 passengers.

Grace asks Saanvi in the hospital what she thinks is best for Cal. She advises they double-check the antibiotics’ effectiveness before placing Cal on them. Grace disagrees, and as Cal begins to shiver uncontrollably, she instructs the primary care physician to administer antibiotics. Saanvi warns her that if she does, Cal will be kicked out of the program by Dr. Cardoso, and his cancer will return; he’ll perish. Grace changes her heart.

Grace later enters the ladies’ room and collapses, crying. A nurse knocks on the door and informs her Cal is awake.

Cal’s temperature returns to normal, and he seems to be doing better. Grace is enraged when Ben arrives, telling him he abandoned her when she needed him; he should never do it again. Ben, Michaela, and Saanvi are perplexed about how Cal has suddenly improved. Ben advises them to track down Marko; the situation is far from finished, and he has a plan.

Michaela’s visit and the poking in of NSA made the scientists and their patients relocate to another facility. Cal’s connection with Marko has been severed, at least for now. When they search the area, Vance finds a small used band-aid with fresh blood.

Ben’s primary focus is Unified Dynamic Systems, a conglomerate employing ex-special ops for security, such as the ones at the farmhouse. It is particularly interested in passengers without a family.

This week, Vance makes his first significant breakthrough when investigating the farm building. Although it has been emptied, Vance discovers a bloodied bandage. Could he be collaborating with the Stones later this season? It appears likely because the scientist conducting the experiments on the passengers promises to get the program up and running again. For the rest of the season, it seems that Manifest has found its actual big bad.

The same scientist running tests and torturing Marko talks with someone on the phone in the final scene. He says they had to relocate but should be back up and running shortly.

Our Thoughts

This week’s Manifest gives the audience a fresh take on the show’s premise while also bringing Jared and Grace into the circle of trust (or at least trying to). After a week off, it’s exactly what we needed, and kudos to Manifest for giving an excellent twist to its government conspiracy story arc, which has unfolded with admirable subtlety thus far. Although there was no resolution in this episode, Cal’s constant danger helps correct the show’s tendency to let the callings provide solutions, which made some victories feel unearned earlier in the season.

Manifest will become a more decadent combination of science fiction and conspiracy elements as it delves deeper into this new corporate exploitation narrative. Even though the series’ family drama has been its most vital feature thus far, Grace’s troubles in this episode helped keep that portion of the show on the table while allowing the other mysteries to take center stage. “Off Radar” is a successful deviation from the norm while remaining faithful to the show’s core appeal.