‘Manifest’ Season 2, Episode 2 ‘Grounded’ Review: Like Father, Like Child

You never really know what to expect of Manifest. One minute, you’ve got an NSA director coming back from the dead and then the next, you’ve got a Flight 828 passenger being convicted for murder. All in all, though, this unpredictability in the minor storylines of the show is doing it well. It makes for very interesting additions while the major part of the drama and mystery boils in the background.

For a short rundown of what happened in this week’s episode of Manifest, Ben (Josh Dallas) takes another Flight 828 passenger, a young college student, under his wing. Unfortunately, the boy’s calling lands them in the precinct. Meanwhile, Grace (Athena Karkanis) finally finds out who the father of her unborn child is. However, instead of bringing her family together, it somehow creates a bigger wedge in it in all the unexpected ways. On the other hand, Cal (Jack Messina), Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh), and Zeke (Matt Long) all experience callings that get stronger and stronger each time. But, as Cal keeps repeating, they need each other to figure it out.

If you think that’s everything, you’ve got another thing coming for you buddy. It’s only the second episode but, Manifest is already drawing us deep into its web. Here’s everything that happened in this week’s episode.

The Dead Don’t Stop Working

Ever since NSA director Vance (Daryl Edwards) fully turned over to the passenger’s side, the man’s been one hell of a great character. He’s like the very very mellow Nick Fury of Manifest. And having him back is pretty awesome! Apparently, the blast that supposedly took him out last season merely scarred him. However, it did give him confirmation that his life was in danger from his own comrades. So, he decided to make the world think he was dead.

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As it seems, the dead didn’t stop working. Under the guise of a rundown travel agency, Vance has been tracking down accounts that led directly to The Major (Elizabeth Marvel). Although he hasn’t found her true identity yet, he noticed that the accounts have been funneling in more and more money recently. And now, he’s working with the Stone siblings again to get to the bottom of it all.

After their little reunion, Ben meets up with another Flight 828 passenger, college kid TJ Morrison (Garrett Wareing). Ang though hesitant at first, Ben gets TJ to admit that he’s had some callings too. Much like the other’s, it’s a dark one. For TJ, it was seeing his own grave.

Meanwhile, Michaela heads back home and there, she and Cal go over their callings. Both of them feel that it’s more urgent than the death date issue. Cal also feels that the urgency might have more to do with Zeke because as he smartly points out, Zeke was in the plane in their callings even though he wasn’t in real life. No matter how hard Michaela tries to reach out to the man, however, Zeke keeps pushing away. Also, later on, as Michaela returns to the precinct, she’s reassigned a new partner. Now, it’s goodbye Jared (J.R. Ramirez) and hello to eager rich girl Drea Mikami (Ellen Tamaki).

Baby Flight 828

Later that day, after his talk with TJ, Ben accompanies Grace to do the paternity test. However, they don’t get to finish it. The nurse doesn’t even get to poke Grace with the needle. Why? Grace has a calling. For the first time in Manifest, a non-passenger of Flight 828 has a calling. What did I tell you about Manifest’s unpredictability?

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Grace hears her own voice calling out to her to stop. And on the third time, she jumps up and bursts out of the room. Ben follows her out and as they both work it all out, they realize Grace must’ve had the calling via the baby. And that only means one thing: It’s Ben’s baby!

Before they could fully celebrate the good news, however, TJ calls on Ben needing urgent help. When Ben meets up with the kid, TJ reveals he followed the calling and it led him to find the body of a dead girl. Upon investigation, the police find that the girl has been dead for 36 hours. And the only clue they have is a keycard found in her pocket. Jared volunteers himself for the case after seeing Ben’s name attached to it. But, after talking to TJ, it’s clear that Jared doesn’t believe the kid one bit. After all, TJ and the victim studied in the same school and TJ couldn’t just rely on the callings to avoid suspicion.

I Plead Guilty

On the other side of town, Michaela takes it upon herself to go to Zeke’s arraignment. To her utter surprise, Zeke pleads guilty to every single one of the charges filed against him. As the words start tumbling out of Zeke’s mouth, Michaela shoots out of her seat pleading with him. However, she’s kicked out and the case is closed. To add further salt to the wound, Michaela’s new chief, Captain Kate Bowers (Adrenne Ward-Hammond), gives her a good whooping for causing a scene once she gets back to the precinct.

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While that’s happening, Ben and TJ have a little bonding moment while waiting for Jared. As TJ tells Ben, he was really close to his mom. Sadly, he lost her to suicide when the plane disappeared. And when he came back, all his things and his mom’s were gone and thrown out. So, he didn’t have anything to remember her by.

Finally, after a while, Jared reappears only to put handcuffs on TJ. Apparently, TJ’s fingerprints were all over the dorm room of the murdered girl. Suddenly, while watching the scene unfold, Michaela starts visibly trembling on the spot. Cal and Zeke also experience the same thing. Their visions start shaking and their bodies start trembling hard right where they’re standing as if they were on a plane experiencing turbulence. And then it’s over as quickly as it began.

Reunited

Upon Ben’s firm insistence that TJ is innocent, Michaela digs deeper into the case. She and new partner Drea hits up the murdered girl’s dorm room. And there, they find trash and throwaways that the victim was collecting for her art exhibit. Soon enough, Michaela realizes that the majority of the collection was TJ’s stuff that the school had thrown out in his absence hence the fingerprints. As Michaela sifts through the items, a keycard falls out. When she picks it up, she has a vision where she sees the boots of the girl’s true assailant.

This takes Michaela and Drea to the security office where they ask about the keycard. When they come face to face with the guard that was on duty the night of the victim’s death, Michaela immediately notices his new and polished boots. Finding the culprit, Michaela grabs his arm before he could step out and ends him with one comment about his boots. He tries to run but, Drea quickly backs her partner up even though she’s clueless as to what the hell just happened.

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Much like Drea, Captain Bowers is perplexed as to how Michaela managed to solve the case within hours no less. She’s also getting a little too suspicious with Michaela’s “anonymous tip” excuse for all her past cases. However, she lets this one slide with a warning for Jared and Michaela to stay away from each other’s cases.

With his name cleared, TJ gives his sincere thanks to Michaela. Although, he still wonders why the callings chose him for this particular case. As it turns out, it was all for heartwarming reasons. Later that day, the victim’s art exhibit went on. And among her creations was a touching and beautiful collage of TJ’s things and pictures with his mom. In such a twisted way, the mother and son were somehow reunited in the end.

Olive and the Believers

While all of that was happening, Grace accompanies Olive (Luna Blaise) to get some SAT prep books. As Olive heads out first, she meets Maxine (Erika Chase), a Flight 828 believer. And in their short meeting, Maxine hands Olive a pamphlet from her group and encourages her to check it out. Afterward, Grace rejoins her daughter and finally tells her the truth about the baby. Unfortunately, the happiness and relief quickly drain away from Olive as she realizes that she’s the only one who hasn’t had a calling.

When Grace tries to comfort Olive, later on, Olive explains that she’s not resentful of not getting the callings. She’s afraid. The callings put a death date on her dad, brother, and aunt. And nobody’s sure that Grace and the baby won’t be getting one soon as well. Because if the callings can be inherited, who’s to say that the death date can’t be? Cracking under her grief, Olive decides to check out Maxine’s group. And although it seems innocent at first, it’s one of the things I can never trust in Manifest.

The Major Moves Forward

Elsewhere in the episode, Saanvi (Parveen Kaur) has found herself an admirer in her colleague Troy Davis (Ed Herbstman). And although she’s always a little preoccupied around him, he proves himself very helpful in her research especially with the new update on Ben’s baby. He even gets her immediate access to the lab’s DNA sequencer. Unfortunately, this is one of the many details Saanvi divulged to The Major in their sessions. And later on, Vance informs Ben that the accounts show that The Major has purchased her own DNA sequencer.

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Meanwhile, Michaela, Cal, and Zeke receive another vision again. They’re all back in Flight 828. And after the turbulence calms down, flames start eating up the plane. Unlike last time, however, Zeke finally hears and sees Michaela and Cal. Unfortunately, before the whole vision can play out, Zeke is dosed with a sedative by the prison doctors to calm his tremors.

Manifest continues next Monday, January 20th, with “False Horizon” at 10/9c on NBC.