When asked for one word to describe the Manifest Season 1 finale, Matt Long went with "cliffhangers," plural. The Zeke actor noted that there's always some kind of mystery cliffhanger in each Manifest episode, including one when his character arrived, and another one for the new guy who was just pulled from the river. But when it comes to the season finale, "Estimated Time of Departure," expect everything to be notched up to 11.
It's huge. You get a huge answer, but it also comes with multiple huge questions. Also, there are multiple cliffhangers having to do with different characters, and all of us together. There's a ton of stuff that happens over the next two episodes that people are going to be interested in knowing.
A huge answer sounds great, considering all of the questions that are already out there ahead of the final two episodes. When I asked Matt Long if the cliffhangers would be more mystery-based or emotionally driven, he said "both."
It depends on the character. Each character has their own stuff, and then there's an overall cliffhanger, or maybe a couple, that affects all of us.
There's so much we still need to learn about the Flight 828 mystery, and the weather events -- dark lightning? -- that also apparently led to mini time jumps for Zeke and new guy James Griffin (Marc Menchaca). The Episode 15 synopsis warns that, when that guy is pulled from the river after being submerged for three days, the passengers learn what happens when the Callings fall into "the wrong hands."
Matt Long used the word "nefarious" when hinting to James Griffin's plans. So we need answers on that van river guy, answers on The Major's (Elizabeth Marvel) plans, answers on why Cal Stone (Jack Messina) has the power to draw the future, and answers on what happened to the pilot and Fiona -- although we may not hear about that again anytime soon, but that's just my guess. And there are the personal questions, like what's going to happen with the love squares we have going on with Michaela/Jared/Lourdes/Zeke and Ben/Grace/Danny/Saanvi.
There are a lot more questions to balance, but it's good to hear that we'll at least be getting one huge answer ... even if it does come with more questions. That was expected, since they need the mystery to carry over into Season 2.
NBC has yet to renew Manifest for Season 2, but that official announcement should be coming soon, since the show seems to be a hit for the network. Season 1, Episode 15, "Hard Landing," airs Monday, February 11 at 10 p.m. ET. The Episode 16 season finale, "Estimated Time of Departure," airs Monday, February 18. Here's what else is airing on TV during midseason 2019.
