Manifest Season 2 Episode 9 Recap – Airplane Bottles

The episode kicks off with Cal on the plane listening to the music. He then sees the light out of the window, opens it bigger and says, “It’s all connected.”

Fast forward to the present, Cal wakes up and walks into the empty room of their house. He sees the open window and hears the thunderstorm.

Zeke prepares their breakfast at Michaela’s apartment. She says her normal is just coffee and pizza. She then asks about Zeke’s father. They discuss taking a year off and traveling if Dr. Saanvi Bahl is indeed able to discover a treatment for Zeke and save him from dying.

At the Stone’s residence, TJ is in the kitchen pouring a glass of orange juice when Ben comes in. He thanks him for helping him and letting him stay at the house. He is still confused about what happened.

Olive comes in with the journal and talks about a star. He and Olive delve further into the notebook, attempting to grasp its significance. They’re determined to find additional clues to surviving the Death Date.

Meanwhile, Cal is struggling to create what he saw in his calling. He can’t recall what he saw and becomes more agitated as the minutes pass. Ben and Grace get concerned.

Michaela is drawn into an Internal Affairs investigation at the station because she told Captain Bowers (Andrene Ward-Hammond) about Jared. 

Early in the interview, it becomes evident the two Internal Affairs officers are attempting to direct the inquiry away from Jared and toward Michaela and the nightclub fire. 

They ask why she is so desperate to derail Jared — her former boyfriend and partner — and why she appears to have a grudge against him. Realizing she is the subject of the inquiry, Michaela requests her union representative be there.

When Zeke arrives at Saanvi’s office to begin therapy, he immediately finds she is wired and continues repeating herself. After a time, he tells her he believes she’s in severe difficulty and asks if he can get a doctor to look at her. She declines but eventually tells him she trusts her ex, Dr. Alex Bates. Zeke, worried about Saanvi’s mental health, goes to Alex’s office to seek assistance.

The storm intensifies outside, and Cal is still laboring to construct something he can’t quite recall from his summoning. Ben offers to assist and urges him to remember as much as possible. Cal describes it like a spiderweb with an aircraft stuck within.

TJ and Olive continue to read the diary, determining that the author, Al-zuras, believed the callings were a curse. They were afraid if they fixed anything a calling had warned them, something horrible might happen to one of them. Al-zuras and his troops resolved to discover a solution to free themselves of the callings.

Michaela’s union rep defends her at the station against the two Internal Affairs officers who appear hell-bent on linking Michaela to the nightclub fire.

The Internal Affairs keep on questioning why she is in the nightclub at the time of the fire. Jared converses with Captain Bowers at the same time. He’s concerned about the probe and the possibility of being implicated, but Bowers tells him she has his back.

TJ is sure he shouldn’t have survived the fire, and the current summoning is because of him, so Olive asks about a Silver Dragon. Cal gets more irritated and disappointed as he could not construct what he could not recall. 

Grace feels seasick, so she decides to lay down even though she wants to help his son.

Cal tells everyone the storm is getting worse, but Olive, plainly perplexed, wonders what he’s talking about. Ben and Grace point out the massive storm outside, but Olive shows them it’s a bright day.

Ben recognizes that the storm he, TJ, Grace, and Cal are seeing is a hallucination. Ben tries to contact Michaela and leaves a message asking whether she receives the same calls as him.

Zeke persuades Alex to check on Saanvi. After a few tests, she discovers Saanvi’s dopamine levels are out of control. Alex administers an injection to Saanvi, which should assist and put her to sleep. Zeke asks her what will happen to Saanvi, but she is also not sure. She just hopes Saanvi does not end up in the Emergency Room, worse, hospitalized.

Meanwhile, Ben deciphers the book with the help of TJ and Olive. They uncover what the people did to get rid of the callings: They went insane in an attempt to free themselves of the callings. Ben notices a flash of lightning in the dark sky and thinks his family is going through what Al-zuras and his family did.

Jared visits Simon White, concerned about the Internal Affairs inquiry. He maintains he would not have provided him and the Xers with Michaela‘s data if he had known it would lead him to the interrogation of IA. Simon encourages him to calm down, reminding him he has supporters in the NYPD. Simon also informs Jared that passengers on Flight 828 can look into the future and may even be able to alter it. “Michaela is a threat,” Simon cautions.

Internal Affairs attempts to link Michaela to the nightclub fire, implying she may have started it to rush in and be a hero. Michaela vehemently denies everything, and her union representative says she‘s being railroaded.

Michaela reconsiders and agrees to answer all of Internal Affairs’ inquiries. Michaela states she is prepared to discuss anything Jared has done that isn’t by the book. The IA says the cross-examination should be in another place, downtown.

Ben discovers what Cal is attempting to construct: the mast from the ship of Al-zuras and his men during the storm. Ben, Cal, Grace, and TJ feel another calling and find themselves aboard the ship as soon as they finish creating it. They see bursts of lightning in the stormy night sky. They also find the Silver Dragon mentioned in the book in the sky resembling an airplane — Flight 828. The summoning ends, and they return to their home, the sun shining brilliantly outside.

They realize all of the happenings from Flight 828 and Al-zuras were the same because it was only one storm.

Saanvi awakens and apologizes to Alex for including her in her job, causing her to be concerned. She wishes Alex would return to her family. Alex advises Saanvi to take care of herself and be cautious.

Michaela and her union rep exit the interview room at the station. Jared recognizes the rep as an Xer member who is close with Simon. Bowers talks with the two Internal Affairs investigators and hears Michaela’s testimony will continue downtown. 

Jared knows those people will kill Michaela on the way to the neutral place. He steps in and arrests Michaela on arson, conspiracy to commit arson, and murder charges. Michaela becomes enraged and yells at Jared as he handcuffs her and takes her away.

Ben and TJ talk about their calling. Ben realizes Al-zuras was saying the only way to live is to follow one’s callings and all other pathways lead to destruction. Ben speaks to Saanvi aloud as it dawns on him that her pursuit of a cure will put her in danger and may drive her insane. TJ and Ben see Saanvi among the crew sketching on Al-zuras’ boat.

Michaela swears she will make Jared pay, even if it means tearing down the whole precinct. Jared instructs her to stop talking as he places her in a holding cell. “I just saved your life!” he adds as he closes the door.

Our Thoughts

There are still a lot of loose ends in this story, including Vance and the Major’s fate. Nonetheless, this week’s Manifest has reignited the public belief that the series has not forgotten the elements introduced previously in the run. Al-zuras’ backstory has become a vital element of the show‘s mythos, and ‘Airplane Bottles,’ with its joyful perplexity, makes us ponder what prophetic voices have to do with time travel once more. It reminds us that this series’ line between physics and metaphysics is hazy, making it stand out among sci-fi shows, particularly on mainstream network television.

I am also curious about what will happen to Jared after he helped Michaela on the possibility of kidnapping, worse, to be dead.