Manifest: What Does The First Half Of Season 4 Answer?

One of the most significant issues Manifest faced throughout its previous run on NBC was its stubborn refusal to give solid and concrete answers about the events of Flight 828’s disappearance. Instead, Manifest slowly unwrapped new layers of the mystery without making official confirmations. Does Part 1 on Netflix improve on that? Throughout the series, some things became significant knowledge. Season four remembers those things and even pulls out old hints and characters that had likely been long forgotten about.

Season four picks up two years after the events of the season three finale. Unsurprisingly, Ben is a wreck, singularly focused on finding Eden with everything and everyone else being pushed to the side. Ben has one mission and focus, and even his desire to know more about surviving the death date holds no meaning. While Ben has lost hope in everything except finding Eden, the rest have been forced to continue without leaning on him.

Michaela, Cal, Olive, and Zeke have picked up where Ben left off as the clock runs lower, while Saanvi works her scientific magic in her search for answers. In some ways, Part 1 of season four brings the emotions of the show’s early days back to when it was a family drama as much as it was a mystery.

Between Ben’s desperation to reunite with Eden and how that determination has resulted in his emotional isolation from the rest of his family, season four shares some of the emotional complexity that came from the first episodes of Manifest.

When Ben finally reunites with Eden, and she is brought home after two years away, Ben struggles to connect with her, given Angelina’s influence. Just as Ben worked to reconnect with Olive after she had aged five years, Ben does not give up on growing his relationship with Eden.

The return of Cal’s cancer and how that sends the family into a state of needing him to live is a reminder of the emotional stakes and depth within which the Stone family exists. But Manifest does not end Part 1 without an emotional conclusion, with another tragedy at the forefront of the midseason finale.

Season four continues the path of teasing answers or suggestions without giving official confirmations about anything while continuing a familiar passenger-of-the-week format. While the Stone family certainly knows more than they had in season one, it may not be clear what the truth is until the series finale.

Manifest has strived to explain different variations of events, such as the passengers dying and being resurrected and being chosen by a higher power, all while trying to connect the events to faith and myth or science. While an ambitious premise, Part 1 of season four continues the trend of teasing massive change without revealing a considerable follow-through.

The mid-season finale might be a game-changer. But, given the continuing uncertainties surrounding the new element at play, the Omega Sapphire, and the role Angelina plays in potential destruction, Part 2 needs to finally address the whole truth about Flight 828’s passengers while delivering a satisfying conclusion to a many-year-long mystery.