Manifest – Season 3 Episode 3 Recap & Review

Wingman

Episode 3 of Manifest Season 3 begins with Vance being interrogated regarding his involvement with the tailfin. He’s on the verge of being charged with fraud and treason charges, giving him grim prospects for the future.

This also causes big problems for the rest of the 828 gang too, as Vasquez decides to head out and speak to Saanvi. He talks about the Major General and asks where she is. Sanvi obviously knows and she’s not exactly subtle about it either. Still, Vasquez hands over his card and asks her to ring, seemingly none the wiser to her mannerisms.

At the same time, Michaela presses a very stressed Ben, who believes his family is in danger and is doing his best to keep them safe.  Suddenly, Ben has another Calling, this time including a passenger called Eagan Tehrani. Thankfully the Callings make it nice and easy for him, with a slip of paper regarding this Chess genius falling straight off the wall.

Ben shows up to see Eagan while he too is receiving Callings and he’s living off the grid. He apparently follows the Callings but all he saw were art pieces falling on the floor. Eagan claims he didn’t see anything regarding a child.

Eagan has a photographic memory, as it turns out, and he uses that to retrace the moments of the Calling, including various random items. Together, they begin laying that out on a chessboard.

With all these trinkets laid out, they deduce that their target is the Harlem Freeport. While they head off, looking for storage room 109, the recurring motif of a peacock continues. Not only does Cal see one outside in the flesh, Olive finds a peacock feather while investigating the Ancient Egyptians. Could this all be connected?

Anyway, Ben and Eagan find a kid called Caleb passed out inside room 109 and take him outside to safety. While he does, Eagan heads off and takes his ID, selling an urn from inside the museum.

Back at the station, Michaela gets nowhere with Pete, who talks about destiny and something that seems to be linked to a Calling. A very frustrated Michaela heads home but receives some grim news regarding her best friend’s Mother, Beverly.

A deceased loved one is enough for Zeke and Michaela to team up together, with the former using his calming skills to help Beverly. Eventually this leads to Michaela deciding to look after Beverly full time – deciding Zeke and her are going to move in now.

Meanwhile, Vance is off the hook and allowed to come back to the NSA. He’s less than enthused about this though, although the officers apparently have something that’s going to change his opinion. Following them down to the basement, Vance is shown…  something. There’s some raucous chatter and some neon-lit lights but beyond that it’s unclear exactly what this is.

The Episode Review

Manifest returns this week with an episode that holds fire on the big questions to deliver four parallel subplots instead. This week’s Calling is much more mystery orientated too, which is a nice touch.

Seeing Ben and Eagan teaming up together to solve this, including the reflection with the numbers, does help to give this a sense of progression. Too often in the past these Callings have sometimes felt a little too linear, especially those that just outright explain what the group need to do.

While the mystery box is still remaining firmly shut for now, Manifest does feel like it has a sense of urgency about it this year. Having said that, this one is definitely reaching the point where it needs to start answering some questions.