This is a spoiler-free review of Season 4, Part 2 of the series Manifest, but contains spoilers for previous seasons. The series is now showing in its entirety online Netflix.
Perhaps you should all fasten your seat belts before embarking on the final turbulent flight of Flight 828, because it will take us on an exciting and emotional tour that will answer most of our burning questions that we have been waiting for answers for many years, and will remind us of the power of forgiveness, the importance of helping others and the meaning of working as a team. Our choices always have consequences.
I begin my review by admitting that I am not one of the people who have followed the series since its release in 2018, but I followed it later when it gave it Netflix Opportunity and offered it on its network after it was announcedNBC However, she became a huge fan of it and even took part in the Save ManifestWhich, fortunately, resonated with me Netflix As it decided to buy the rights to the series and produce a final season that concludes its story, it was divided into two parts, the first of which was released in November 2022, with the last episodes of it being released on June 2. Although I was sad to say goodbye to the characters I loved, I am glad that the series managed to get a chance to finish its journey.
Part 2 of Season 4 picks up more than half a year after the events in the final episode of Part 1, when Zeke (Matt Long) sacrificed his life to save Cal (Tye Doran). We saw at the end of the last part how the government decided to arrest all the passengers as criminals, and we witnessed how a father was detained in front of his child who was taken away from him, and now they are joined by Ben (Josh Dallas), Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh), TJ (Arit Waring), Saanvi (Parveen Kaur) and all The remaining passengers on the plane except for the 13 missing persons, for which the government has set a $50,000 reward for each person who returns a missing passenger, dead or alive.
Even worse, the passengers are being experimented on as lab rats under the watchful eye of Sanvi, who tries her best to help everyone. Where the government tries to understand and exploit the appeals. This further complicates matters as they are unable to resolve their appeals as the ‘date of death’ approaches. While Cal (A. Doran), Olive (Luna Blaze), Jared (J.R. Ramirez), Drea (Lane Tamaki) and other allies try to help the imprisoned passengers from outside, it’s Angelina (Holly Tyler), who has grown stronger over the past months and has become quite adept at faking calls. Deceiving travelers, she continues to abuse her powers for her own ends. There are only 9 months left until the “date of death”.
Holly Taylor delivers a brilliant performance that makes us hate Angelina to the point of arguably one of the most unbearable villains on show lately, whose delusions of being the real one take over some other people. On the other hand, Part 2 (like Part 1) delves into many minor characters other than the Stone family, allowing them to shine. It was great to see how many of them evolved over the course of the series, as we discover that there are evil characters who have the ability to find the good within them and try to get redemption before it’s too late.
But for me, the undisputed stars of the season were, of course, Ben and Miquela. Ben managed to come back strong in these last ten episodes, with a performance that managed to steal the limelight from Josh Dallas compared to previous seasons. and Mikaela with her strong personality who even after Zeke’s death manages to rise to the task. Together, they are still the main focus of events and the co-captains of the lifeboat, who get to know more deeply about their past with some quick flashback shots, and the bonds between them grow more and more after both of them went through the loss of their life partner, Zeke and Grace.
The darkness increases with the progress of the events, and in almost every episode there is an important event that stands in the way of the passengers of Flight 828, and as a result, the fourth season is full of emotional and poignant moments. After years of pleading, testing, fear, grief, and trauma, all the way up to the end-of-the-world death itself on June 2, 2024 (coinciding with the season’s Netflix premiere date), our friends have discovered a lot, including that there’s a possibility to skip the death date if they respond. to the calls without questioning them (as happened with Zeke), but also discovering (as we saw with the gang) that the passengers will be judged collectively when the day of reckoning comes. And with some individuals who did bad deeds, some of which amounted to killing, is it possible that if the amount of good was much greater, it would be able to displace evil? This is the big question that drives our commuter friends on their journey to solve the appeals.
The first 5 episodes of the second part suffer from varying pace, and sometimes it takes longer than necessary with flashback shots to convey a specific message or remind us of an old event that has an impact on today’s events, or to bid farewell to characters we have lived with for many years, and on the other hand there are important events or new emotional relationships. Important should have taken more time, but it passes quickly and does not get its chance much. But this is to be expected when we know that the authors had to cram a lot of events into only ten episodes because they are limited by the size of the season.
On the other hand, there are some events that took place in the past part that we expected to have a greater impact, such as the death of Zeke and his sacrifice, which we do not feel had an impact on anyone, and even Cal, who one might expect to be affected by what happened, only speaks about that in passing once in a conversation with Michaela. Only Mikaela struggles to get over his death, and the show gives her a chance to do so with moments they meet repeatedly through the glow, which answer many questions from previous seasons concerning Zeke and Mikaela, but sometimes these scenes feel too long and take up time that could have been better spent. to other events, especially with the intensity of what is going on around them.
But on the other hand the last kilometers of the trip make up for it and make it all worth it. Despite the many bumps in the air that the series was exposed to from the first season until the last episode, it managed to continue to attract us to know how the story will end. He also maintains the original vision that made him so special, which is that for all the horrors the passengers of Flight 828 have endured, there is enough love and hope to balance it all out. Of course, his core message is that man has a choice, and that when we are faced with a choice of good or evil, our choices will always have consequences in the end.
When we get to the final episode, there are many things in the finale that can be predicted, and although the series does not answer all the questions from previous seasons and even deliberately leaves them unanswered for the viewers to answer for themselves, it gives us enough conclusion to satisfy many fans. . It may not be the conclusion that will satisfy everyone without exception, and I expect that opinions will be different about it. But for me, everything fell into place, and the pieces of the puzzle were completed in a perfect way that covered all the important basic threads to see an integrated picture of this long journey that we and the passengers of Flight 828 went through.
Season 4 Part 2 takes us on an emotional journey, and while the first five episodes suffer from a stuttering pace, the final episodes pick up nicely and give us satisfying answers. The series may not answer all the questions in the end, but it gives us all the missing pieces of the puzzle to complete the big picture after years of anticipation. For a series this complex, Manifest has the most satisfying ending to such a story.
