Manifest: Turbulence
October 9, 2018 4:23 AM - Season 1, Episode 3 - Subscribe

Ben and Michaela investigate a shocking murder in fear that it's connected to Flight 828. Meanwhile, Ben struggles to accept the life Grace led in his absence, while Olive and Cal realize that being twins after five and a half hears apart is harder than they thought.
posted by oh yeah! (5 comments total)
 
I don't understand what we were supposed to take away from Michaela's flashback. What was the thing she wanted to tell Evie's parents about "what really happened"? That they shouldn't blame her for the crash because Evie was way drunker than she was? It's not like her only options were 'let Evie drive away hammered' or 'drive her myself despite being tipsy', even if Evie did refuse a car service - surely someone else at the party or within phone reach could have been called upon to help. If this was meant to make me feel more sympathetic to Michaela it kind of backfired.
posted by oh yeah! at 4:46 AM on October 9, 2018


I took the flashback the other way: Michaela was more at-fault in the accident than she's been letting on, and she wanted to talk to them to confess. ("Owning her truth" in a parallel to the murdered woman who had also planned on confessing.)

I'm completely fine with Michaela being a horrible person before the crash, maybe this is a redemption story. But what I didn't like was the coincidence-driven conclusion -- that's two in a row.

- Last week Ben's wife's boyfriend just happened to have a storage locker in the same place as the thief, and Ben happened to be there because Olive brought him there.

- This week Michaela goes driving to look for Evie's Mom, and happens to find her and also find the housekeeper of the murdered lady with a truck full of evidence at exactly the same time.

I was completely fine with episode 1, where the "set them free" voice led Michaela and Ben to the shop where the girls were being held, because that's the mysterious supernatural whatever giving them clues. But the supernatural whatever didn't lead Ben to the storage unit, and it didn't lead Michaela to the housekeeper.

I am starting to think this is a show like "Strange Luck" where mysterious forces are manipulating things on a whole other level -- Michaela's desire to "own her truth" was what led her to be looking for Evie's mom, and Cal's desire to get his Legos back led Ben to the storage unit.

But on the other hand, "The writers are lazy" also explains all of that.
posted by mmoncur at 1:27 AM on October 11, 2018 [1 favorite]


Aw, Strange Luck, I loved that show. It's one of those early 90's single-season shows that will sadly never make it to dvd/streaming, because there's no money in getting the music clearances & encoding for digital. (But there seem to be vhs-rips uploaded to youtube, glad it's still around in some form)

But what I didn't like was the coincidence-driven conclusion -- that's two in a row.

At this point, I'm assuming that's going to be a constant in the last act of every episode.
posted by oh yeah! at 7:26 PM on October 11, 2018 [2 favorites]


Yeah, you're probably right. Since they do seem to be pushing a Christian religious angle, maybe we'll find out that God (or someone else) is manipulating tiny details in their lives to create these coincidences. I'd rather there's a scientific explanation, but anything that explains it would be nice!

I loved Strange Luck too. That one was entirely driven by coincidence and somehow it worked...
posted by mmoncur at 10:34 PM on October 11, 2018


I don't know if it will ultimately be religious in nature, but I'm thinking the coincidences are anything but. (Note there's almost always an 828 reference.) The manipulation is ongoing.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 2:30 PM on October 12, 2018


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