‘Manifest’ Season 4 Episode 1 Recap: ‘Touch-and-Go’
Manifest Season 4 Part 1 has finally landed on Netflix. When we last saw the Flight 828 passengers in season 3, the Stone family faced the devastating loss of Grace (Athena Karkanis) after Angelina (Holly Taylor) killed her to kidnap baby Eden. A young Cal Stone (Jack Messina) disappeared with the tailfin and reappeared five years older (Ty Doran). Flight 828, helmed by a terrified Captain Daly (Frank Deal), also briefly reappeared and disappeared again at Eureka.
Manifest Season 4 Episode 1 catches up with the passengers and introduces a groundbreaking new clue in the Flight 828 mystery. Here’s a recap of the premiere.
[Spoiler alert: The following story contains spoilers for Manifest Season 4 Episode 1.]
Flashbacks reveal the immediate aftermath of the ‘Manifest’ Season 3 finale
Manifest Season 4 picks up two years after the events of the season 3 finale. However, thanks to a few flashbacks, viewers see what happened to the Stones on the night of Eden’s kidnapping. Ben Stone (Josh Dallas) raced home to find an ambulance and police cars. Olive Stone (Luna Blaise) sobbed as she told her father what had happened that night. Older Cal hid, afraid to show his family that he’d aged.
Later, at Michaela Stone’s (Melissa Roxburgh) house, Cal knocked on the door, and Olive immediately knew it was her twin brother. She was outraged at Cal as he admitted that he showed Angelina a key to their house, allowing her to kidnap Eden. Olive blamed Cal for their mother’s death.
Finally, in a third flashback, Saanvi (Parveen Kaur) visited a crying Cal to ask what happened when he disappeared. He said they needed to find answers on the plane, but where did it go?
Catching up with old friends in ‘Manifest’ Season 4 Episode 1
In the present day, Ben continues his search for Eden. He has mostly given up on the Flight 828 passengers, leaving Michaela to captain the lifeboat. She and Zeke Landon (Matt Long) seem to be doing great after last season’s love triangle with Jared (J.R. Ramirez), and they’ve taken care of Olive and Cal.
Cal reveals that he hasn’t had a Calling in two years. He’s also been hiding at home since he reappeared and identifies himself as “Gabriel” so that no one outside the family and passengers can know about his aging.
Zeke now works at an addiction center as a counselor. He uses his empathic abilities to help them identify their pain. Meanwhile, Jared is now an officer for N.Y.P.D. after he was demoted “for doing the right thing.”
The government has set up an 828 Registry to keep tabs on passengers. A few of them, Ben included, worry about their phones and properties being bugged. One person keeping an eye on the passengers is Vance (Daryl Edwards), who appears to be working with Saanvi at a new surveillance and research center.
Henry Kim introduces the mysterious black box of Flight 828
Manifest Season 4 Episode 1 introduces another passenger named Henry Kim. He was briefly mentioned in season 3, as the government in Singapore allegedly killed him. However, the opening scene of the premiere shows that he’s alive and being experimented on in Shanghai Province, China. Henry escapes the lab and runs away.
Michaela gets several Callings of cherry blossoms and the ocean, which leads her to a port. She follows the Calling to a shipping container, where she finds Henry Kim with “Stone 828” carved into his arm. Michaela rushes him to Saanvi’s lab, where he asks for “the boy” — Cal. In order to calm Henry down, Zeke arrives and uses his abilities to take the passenger’s anxiety. However, it leaves Zeke with a dangerously elevated heart rate.
Henry continues to ask for Cal and a “box” that he had with him at the port. Cal and Michaela head back to the shipping container to find the box, where Cal gets a Calling. He finds Flight 828’s black box — a recording device often used to investigate aircraft accidents.
Later, Saanvi listens to the black box and hears Captain Daly’s cries for help on the night the plane disappeared from Eureka. The sound was mixed with recordings from the plane’s initial flight from Montego Bay.
Ben Stone follows a new lead on Eden’s kidnapping in ‘Manifest’ Season 4 Episode 1
Elsewhere in the episode, Ben gets a Calling that points him to Anna Ross (Jacqueline Antaramian), an interpreter from Flight 828. However, he ignores the Calling and sends Cal to speak to Anna. Cal learns that Anna had her own Calling of a windmill and a graveyard. They figure out the location, and Anna heads there to follow the Calling.
Back at home, Ben gets a visit from Jared. He tells Ben that Eden has been declared dead. Ben refuses to give up hope that his daughter is alive. Then, he gets another Calling in the form of a windmill moving on Eden’s death certificate. He rushes to meet Anna at the cemetery, believing he’ll finally find Eden.
Ben and Anna follow the Calling to a river, where a child is Calling for their dad. Ben thinks it’s Eden, but he discovers that it’s a young boy whose father was injured and drowning in the river. He saves the father and son and heads home, where he gets emotional with his family about needing to find Eden.
Meanwhile, at Anna’s home, she receives another Calling of ash falling around her. She brings food down to the basement, where Angelina is hiding out with Eden. Anna tells Angelina about her trip with Ben, and Angelina tells Eden they need to leave.
Manifest Season 4 Part 1 is now streaming on Netflix.
