S04.E20: Final Boarding

[AnimeMania]

(Series Finale)

The Death Date has arrived. As tensions erupt and revelations emerge, the passengers of Flight 828 reunite and face the unknown together.

Premiere Date: June 2, 2023     Netflix   

[ottoDbusdriver]

Each of the 828ers in the camp wake up at the same time all having trouble breathing, which soon passes.  Followed by another seismic tremor.

TJ, Olive, and Eden find a rock in the woods -- with a volcano with a set of scales balanced on the peak, and some messages scrawled below it, including 'Class of 99' and something else.  They figure that Grandma Stone might have photos of that rock -- before it was defaced with 'Class of 99'.

Seriously, more filler -- Ben gives Olive a peptalk.

Angelina and her flock of 7 faithful hop in a van and drive to a pottery store/gift shop housed in a barn (would that make it a 'Pottery Barn' ?). Meanwhile, Adrian/Eagen pull up at the same location, and Eagen cuts the fuel line on Angelina's van.

Drea, Jared, Olive, and Eden go the Stone house -- where Drea turns on the TV to discover that a volcano is forming in New York harbor and could erupt at any time. And then there are radio reports of volcanoes forming near large cities around the world.
 
Right about this time all the other 828ers show up at the fissure in the park.  And we get even more filler of them all catching up with each other -- even though most of them have been locked up in the Detention Center for months.

The fissure starts to erupt just as Ben was making yet another inspirational speech.  And the Flight 828 plane emerges from the lava in the fissure.  Which is just ridiculous.

All the 828ers board the plane.

Meanwhile, Drea, Jared, and Olive go through Grandma's film slide collection -- where the find a slide with the defaced message: "Forgiveness Lightens the Heart PIXLAZ".  They try to decipher what PIXLAZ means.  All while Drea goes into labor.

Angelina and her flock show up at the plane and demand everyone get off "her ark".  Everyone ignores her and keeps boarding.  Then most of Angelina's flock board the plane too.  Angelina still wants everyone off the plane, gets a shotgun from one of her followers and during an earth tremor shoots Saanvi in the arm. 

Olive determines that the ONLY way they can survive the Death Date is for Ben to forgive Angelina -- at the same time that Ben picks up the shotgun and points it at Angelina only to pick her up and bring her on board the plane.

If all that wasn't ridiculous enough, Captain Amuta decides that they will fly the plane away from the fissure.  Despite the fact that the plane is kind of embedded in the lava, what with the lava ramp to the door and all, and they are surrounded by lava fields.  But the lava fields solidify and the plane takes off.

Just as the plane reaches cruising altitude, several passengers have trouble breathing followed by their skin cracking to reveal red lava-like lines, and then spontaneously turning to ash.  Kind of like Avengers: Infinity War.  Including several of Angelina's flock.

Adrian starts to get the red lava-like lines, but Eagen pleads to the divine consciousness to take him instead -- and Adrian's red lines disappear as fast as they appeared.  Only for the red lines to appear on Eagen, but those also disappear once Adrian convinces him that he committed a selfless act.

Saanvi also gets the red lines, but then they disappear as well.

Best scene of the episode -- Angelina turning to ash.  Until that pile of ash reforms into the Grim Reaper.  You have to be kidding me !!

Ben and Michaela yell at the Grim Reaper that they have done enough, answered every calling (well, maybe not every one), and done enough good -- and the Grim Reaper disappears.  So, yelling at the Grim Reaper averted the apocalypse and reversed all the volcanic activity.  I'm not buying that.

Captain Amuta spots a glowing blue area ahead of the plane -- and, along with Michaela, decides to fly into the blue area.

After entering the blue area, the plane stops moving and is surrounded by glowing white light.  They open the passenger door and everyone exits the plane into the white light -- where they find another door that opens into the arrivals gate of an airport.  And everyone has reverted back to the clothing they were wearing on Flight 828, only to discover that they have traveled back in time to 2013 to the original time the flight was scheduled to arrive in New York -- with Grace, Olive, and Grandma Stone waiting for them.  And Cal walks off the plane at the age that he was on the original flight -- Cal still has cancer.

All the 828ers that died in the past 5 and a half years also walk off the plane -- but the 11 people that turned to Ash are apparently still missing.  That's going to take some explaining to the FAA and TSA. Still no sign of Captain Bill Daly.  Or Fiona Clarke.

Michaela remembers that Zeke was driving a cab at the airport the day Flight 828 was supposed to return, so she goes searching the cabs until she finds him.  And asks for him to take her on a long drive to nowhere in particular.

Jared runs into Drea as she is getting out of her patrol car -- to investigate a flight that arrived with 11 missing passengers -- and they exchange pleasantries.

Saanvi meets Alex at the gate.  They make up.

Then Vance shows up -- also to investigate this flight that arrived with 11 missing passengers.

So, happy endings all around (except for the 11 missing passengers) thanks to the magic reset button -- where everyone remembers the past 5 and a half years but have been returned to 2013 and they haven't aged a day (yet somehow Saanvi still has a a gunshot wound).

We never did find out what Cal saw outside the window of the plane.  We never found out where Cal went to age 8-10 years. We never found out who was sending the callings -- was it really the divine consciousness ? Aliens ?  Aliens with a divine consciousness ?  Who was it that had the ability to manipulate time and space -- to make the plane disappear for 5 and half years ? To resurrect a plane from a pit of lava ? Was able to create dark lightning ?

We never did find out why that guy was shot in the head at the start of Episode S04.E11.  Or what was found in that plane-shaped hole by the orchard ?

 

Edited June 4, 2023 by ottoDbusdriver

[BoogieBurns]

Fiona did walk out of the plane. It seemed to be implied that Daly was on the plane, as they only mentioned the passengers missing. Not the pilot. Everyone who died before the death date came back.

[Lebanna]

So… if that’s the ending, what was the point of this show, then?

[SoMuchTV]

Huh. I’ve been snarky and cynical all along, but I didn’t hate how they wrapped things up.  I mean, there were so many incredible things that got hand waved by a final incredible thing… 

imo every single episode of Lost was at some level believable except the finale, versus this where every episode was pretty much unbelievable yet I was able to buy in to the finale. 

[Artsda]

I didn't mind the ending with the going back in time, but do all the callings they saved then happen since we went backwards?

Michella should have ran right to Jared's arms at the airport, she was going to say yes. It was odd how 410-418 they were together plus the 8 month jump, it was all "I go where you go" then in a blink with a soap baby plot it was like they were buddies. That plot I didn't like.

Olive remembers? 

CGI was Cal? How did they get him back.

It wasn't the worst ending,but could have been better. 

 

[Badlands]

A lot of the show was a nonsensical mess, but they kind of... stuck the landing.

[Badlands]

7 hours ago, Artsda said:

Olive remembers? 
 

No. They met at the airport before the flight and TJ gave her book recommendations. BTW, TJ sure didn't waste much time in moving on to Violet (who was murdered after going on a date with suddenly older Cal).

So what happens from here? Maybe some end up in psychiatric holds from their crazy stories? Then again, it would be a huge story that 11 passengers from the plane went missing, so maybe they will be believed by their loved ones. After the way they were treated after the original landing, they would probably be smart enough not to say much publicly. Vance would end up interviewing the passengers and I would think Ben would tell him the whole story.

[tv echo]

This show made no sense right up to the end, but still I found the ending surprisingly satisfying.

Edited June 5, 2023 by tv echo

[shapeshifter]

18 hours ago, Badlands said:

A lot of the show was a nonsensical mess, but they kind of... stuck the landing.

You beat me to the punch [line], @Badlands!
How did such a terrible show have such a great ending?

 

On 6/4/2023 at 1:58 PM, ottoDbusdriver said:

Best scene of the episode -- Angelina turning to ash.  Until that pile of ash reforms into the Grim Reaper.  You have to be kidding me !!

Wait. The Grim Reaper CGI was Angela?!? 
I'll have to take your word for it. 
I am Not going to watch that part again.

 

On 6/4/2023 at 1:58 PM, ottoDbusdriver said:

All the 828ers that died in the past 5 and a half years also walk off the plane -- but the 11 people that turned to Ash are apparently still missing.  That's going to take some explaining to the FAA and TSA. Still no sign of Captain Bill Daly.

On 6/4/2023 at 8:12 PM, BoogieBurns said:

It seemed to be implied that Daly was on the plane, as they only mentioned the passengers missing. Not the pilot.

Oh. Okay. But why didn't we even get a glimpse of Captain Daly? That would have been a great addition.

 

[ottoDbusdriver]

32 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Wait. The Grim Reaper CGI was Angela?!? 
I'll have to take your word for it. 
I am Not going to watch that part again.

I stand corrected.  It started off as just the ashes of Angelina, but then it appears that the ashes of all 11 passengers that turned to dust combined to form the Grim Reaper.  Which really was not obvious on the first viewing.

[Daltrey]

Yeah, I don't care how ridiculous the show got as it went along, I really enjoyed this. It was way better than it had any right to be and I'm really glad they got to finish it.

[CCTC]

The show was not exactly perfect, but it had a few things going for it that made the ending effective.

From the behind-the-scenes glimpses and interviews, the cast and crew really seemed to like each other.  I think that showed up in some of their own screen chemistry.  The characters really seemed to care about each other which made some movements genuinely moving, such as when Vance and Ben said goodbye.

The show was good at using its history and getting early season guest stars to return and become recurring characters.  By the time the series wrapped up you cared about more of the passengers than just the main characters when the reunited with their family members at the end.  It was a nice touch to have TJ bump into Violet.  The TJ - Olive scene was also a nice, needed dose of bittersweet - a reminder of somethings that will be lost in going back.  

The Jared - Michaela break-up was maybe a little too pat to be realistic, but they did kind of seem like the high school couple that still liked each other, but really were not a good match any longer.  Him still thinking of her as a girl he needs to protect, whereas he seemed to treat Drea more as a partner.

Even though she was not a passenger, I would not have minded Director Zimmer making one last appearance just to turn into ash.  I also would not have minded seeing Dr. Gupta realize she had made some mistakes either (did not want her turned to dust - just to realize some of her arrogance).  Although she was not really off base on her concern about Sanvi playing God - it would have been nice for her to realize she was doing the same thing.

When Michela saw her Mom, I had a flashback of her reaction to her being dead in the finale.  The actress really has improved since then.    

There are definitely things to make fun of and mock - but will be more positive today.

 

[mythoughtis]

The ending was great-but this last season ( part 2 especially) was not.  I do like that they obviously filmed a lot of the ending way back at the beginning of season 1.   Otherwise people would have aged.   Yes, TJ moved on quickly- but was he supposed to show interest in a 9 year old?    I expect their storyline wasn’t supposed to be as involved during the series as what it turned into. 

[CCTC]

I have no issue with TJ moving on, and it is not like he and Violet were immediately going off on a date, it just showed that there was more for him besides Olive.  For a real short-term character, I really liked Violet, so I was glad to see her get a nice send-off.  Plus, I did not get the feeling that he and Olive were necessarily great soul mates.  Just a young college-age couple that might or might not have gone beyond them working together on trying to solve the callings (or a real-life analogy -- once they graduated and moved on from focusing on a shared class).

I was trying to figure how much of the final scene was CGI de-aging or old footage or good make-up.  The only thing that seemed a bit off was Sanvi's wig.  

[shapeshifter]

52 minutes ago, CCTC said:

For a real short-term character, I really liked Violet, so I was glad to see her get a nice send-off. 

I see that Violet appeared in 4 episodes, but the only one TJ also appeared in is the finale (imdb.com/title/tt8421350/fullcredits). 
A planned call-back would have been better, IMO.
I appreciate Chekhovian Easter eggs. 

 

57 minutes ago, CCTC said:

I was trying to figure how much of the final scene was CGI de-aging or old footage or good make-up. 

I thought maybe the young actor who played Cal before he was aged (Jack Messina) seemed slightly CGI'd to look smaller for the finale. Apparently he was 10 years old when they started shooting the first season, and might have been 15 when they finished imdb.com/name/nm9822829/bio).
Or they shot that scene back in 2018, intending to use it?
That could explain why it seemed a little CGI-y too (if they had inserted the earlier shots of him into the new stuff).

[Biggie B]

So the baby girl, Chloe,  that Polly had while in the Detention Center - do you think she'll be born eventually? She doesn't exist at this point, right, since she was born in 2024 and the surviving passengers are now back in 2013. That made me sad for Polly, although I now recall that Polly said she left the child behind with the baby's father (the nice janitor whose name escapes me). I hope Polly will somehow be reunited with her daughter, but unfortunately, she will miss a big chunk of the baby's childhood. 

Also - how old are the surviving passengers now? Are they the age they were in 2013, or their 2024 ages? 

When Angelina burst into ashes, my husband, son, and I simultaneously jumped up and shouted "YEAH!!!" Best part of the entire series, hands down. 

If you were one of the 828-ers, would you tell your family/loved ones/friends what happened, or do you think you would be deemed insane? I guess maybe your family might believe you if they found out that the other 179+ passengers had the exact same story to tell. And I guess once the authorities start questioning all the passengers about the missing 11, the story might come out. 

So bottom line - WHY were these 191 people targeted by The Grim Reaper thing we saw at the end on the plane to be responsible for either the end of or  for the saving of the world? I found that frustrating. The fate of the world rested on these people and we the viewers had no clue why (nor did the passengers!). Why were they "selected" to bear this burden? Just a random thing? Was the Grim Reaper bored and just chose that plane full of people out of nowhere? 

I have other questions but will think on them more. Overall, I thought the ending was fairly well done and did provide some fairly decent resolution.

Edited June 7, 2023 by Biggie B

[mythoughtis]

So who were the eleven?  Angelina, Autumn, some of the rest of her crew…

Edited June 8, 2023 by mythoughtis

[mythoughtis]

5 hours ago, Biggie B said:

 

So the baby girl, Chloe,  that Polly had while in the Detention Center - do you think she'll be born eventually? She doesn't exist at this point, right, since she was born in 2024 and the surviving passengers are now back in 2013. That made me sad for Polly, although I now recall that Polly said she left the child behind with the baby's father (the nice janitor whose name escapes me). I hope Polly will somehow be reunited with her daughter, but unfortunately, she will miss a big chunk of the baby's childhood. 

 

She doesn’t exist, just like Jared and Drea’s baby doesn’t exist.  Remember - Jared and Drea met at the end of the episode.  It’s 2013 and no one other than the passengers on the plane thinks more than a few hours has passed since the plane departed from Jamaica.  None of the family members remember anything, just the passengers.  The passengers that died between when the plane returned the first time and before it departed from the volcano are alive. The passengers are the ages they were in 2013.  Remember  we saw young Cal.  
 

Presumably the passengers memories will fade just as Zeke’s did.  He has no memory of Michaela- and as of now- never went into to the cave to die in the first place. 

Edited June 8, 2023 by mythoughtis

[shapeshifter]

12 minutes ago, mythoughtis said:

Presumably the passengers memories will fade just as Zeke’s did.  He has no memory of Michaela- and as of now- never went into to the cave to die in the first place. 

In my version, their memories do not fade. 🙃

[KaveDweller]

9 hours ago, Biggie B said:

Also - how old are the surviving passengers now? Are they the age they were in 2013, or their 2024 ages? 

Well Cal is a kid again, so I assume everyone else is the age they were in 2013 too.

3 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

In my version, their memories do not fade. 🙃

Same here. Zeke's memories faded when he was in "the divine consciousness" not when he went back to the real world.

When they first showed them going back to the airport I thought it was ridiculous, but they did seem to wrap up all the storylines nice and give everyone a nice ending. The main disappointment was Olive and TJ didn't end up together, but I guess they tried to say that they both had happy lives anyway. Olive gets to grow up with Cal and TJ's mom is alive and he can date other girls. Oh, and I guess Eden will not ever exist because even if Grace and Ben have another baby, it won't be the exact same child.

I just wished we saw what happened to the non-passengers in 2024. Last we saw Olive was reading to Eden and Drea was giving birth. Did they all just disappear? Did they feel anything? Or are they still living in some alternate timeline?

Thankfully Angelina got a deserved ending. Maybe she deserved worse, but when people started exploding I was thinking if anyone didn't pass judgement it should be the one who murdered a ton of people and called herself an angel.

The main ridiculous thing was when Michaela and Ben got the grim reaper to go away by....yelling about how much good they've done? I actually lived Eagan and that other guy saving each other by being heartfelt, but the grim reaper/smoke monster thing was just silly.

[shapeshifter]

8 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

The main disappointment was Olive and TJ didn't end up together,

Am I a terrible person because I can't stop imagining that Violet dies prematurely again in her rebooted life, and, say, 12 years after The Return Olive and TJ do get together?
Olive would be a college grad working at her first post-college job, and TJ would be at most 7 years older than Olive, so, Olive about 22 and TJ about 29.

A problem with my imagined scenario is that after the second return of the 828ers, TJ would have lived 11 or 12 more years than Olive, so he'd be more like 34 mentally, whereas when they met in the first season, TJ was just a couple of years older than Olive physically and mentally about the same. 
Or not?

 

8 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

I guess Eden will not ever exist because even if Grace and Ben have another baby, it won't be the exact same child.

During this last half season, I kept wondering if Eden was not "real" because of her perpetually stick-straight hair, but that's mostly based on my own family's traits.

But probably at least 2 out of 3 of the Stone kids should’ve had light colored eyes too, and they all had dark eyes.

But discounting any real science, I would imagine if Grace and Ben had another baby it might be destined to be genetically the same as Eden — just based on all the woo woo Divine stuff in the show.

Edited June 8, 2023 by shapeshifter

[Biggie B]

Thanks for confirming the non-existence of Polly's baby and Eden. I just wasn't totally sure but that makes sense (as much sense as can be applied to this show!). And, if the passenger's memories are going to eventually fade, then I guess Polly won't miss her baby after all (which is also sort of sad in a larger way, but...).

So if Micaela's memories are possibly going to fade - as Zeke's did - then I sure hope their relationship is solidified before that happens! Otherwise, Micaela might look at Zeke one morning and think, how did I meet this guy and why am I with him?? (I say that tongue in cheek).

[foxfreakinmulder]

On 6/4/2023 at 10:58 AM, ottoDbusdriver said:

We never did find out what Cal saw outside the window of the plane.  We never found out where Cal went to age 8-10 years. We never found out who was sending the callings -- was it really the divine consciousness ? Aliens ?  Aliens with a divine consciousness ?  Who was it that had the ability to manipulate time and space -- to make the plane disappear for 5 and half years ? To resurrect a plane from a pit of lava ? Was able to create dark lightning ?

We never did find out why that guy was shot in the head at the start of Episode S04.E11.  Or what was found in that plane-shaped hole by the orchard ?

They gave us a sappy ending but didn't answer a lot of questions. Why did the plane disappear and where did it go for 5 years? Did they answer that and I missed it? For me that's the biggest question I wanted answered and why I started watching this show.

[mythoughtis]

6 hours ago, foxfreakinmulder said:

They gave us a sappy ending but didn't answer a lot of questions. Why did the plane disappear and where did it go for 5 years? Did they answer that and I missed it? For me that's the biggest question I wanted answered and why I started watching this show.

Didn’t it have something to do with the death date?  As in they were gone for 5 1/2 years - therefore they ended up having that same amount of time ( 5 and a half years)  to prove themselves before the new death date?  There were people who had died by drowning etc, came back a few months later and then died the same way as the first time a few months after coming back on their new death date.   I think that all happened in season 1? 
The presumption is they died in the plane crash. and they and the plane were preserved in the glow. 

Edited June 9, 2023 by mythoughtis

[shapeshifter]

7 hours ago, mythoughtis said:

Didn’t it have something to do with the death date?  As in they were gone for 5 1/2 years - therefore they ended up having that same amount of time ( 5 and a half years)  to prove themselves before the new death date?  

That makes sense when I read it. 
But I don’t think they spelled it out so clearly in the show’s dialogue, and maybe not at all in this last half season.

Regardless, the “Death Date” was never something they could show and not tell, which seems like a pretty major storytelling flaw for a serial TV story.

[catsitter]

Hopefully the passengers' memories will not fade, at least not until Saanvi has cured Cal's cancer! Be a shame if she forgot how to do that.

 

There is some info in here about how they did the young Cal scenes:

https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/manifest-series-finale-ending-explained

Edited June 9, 2023 by catsitter

[shapeshifter]

43 minutes ago, catsitter said:

Hopefully the passengers' memories will not fade . . .There is some info in here about how they did the young Cal scenes: https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/manifest-series-finale-ending-explained

Thanks, @catsitter!
This fits with my perception of what was going on with the CGI of young Cal:

Quote

The scenes were filmed in 2022 so the show utilized body doubles and Jack Messina’s face to make him appear the correct age. “We had to make Jack, the actor, younger than he was,” Dallas tells Tudum. “So there was a little bit of movie trickery involved there.”

And this goes along with my belief that their memories will not fade:

Quote

“We bend over backwards to try to make clear that everything you’ve watched happened,” Rake said. “This is real. We’re not trying to mess with people's minds. It’s all real. This all happened.”

But I respect the rights of any viewer to believe their memories did fade, especially since, in time, all memories fade IRL, and often after a big event that physically affects a person's state of consciousness, memories fade quite a bit.

[circumvent]

This show never convinced me but I watched it anyway for pass time. When they abruptly ended it, then Netflix picked it up, I wanted to watch to have a closing. But since they came up with Noah's Ark shit, all I could do was to roll my eyes. I mean, this is B-science fiction at best. I know things are not supposed to be "real" but going all religion based, fantasy stories of something that is from the tales of the ancient to control the behavior of a population at the time is too lazy, it shows lack of imagination. If they wanted something so fantastic, they could have really created some good fantasy. Oh well.

But the worst part of the black and white definition of good and bad. Do one good thing after a life of grift, you are forgiven. Do one bad thing because you are led to a cult - possibly because life got too hard, everybody hates you - then you die. Literally explode. And some of the people can be forgiven just because "the bad you did was not intentional". Who decides that? Can human beings really judged people based on a few acts? 

I don't even know that we can really trace all the clues from season one to this ending and the conclusions they have drawn. I think it was forced and completely not what was initially intended. Basically, the context for the clues are just one of the possibilities, nothing that would lead to a definite resolution. But I am not the one going back to try and make sense of this. 

Pretty disappointing. Besides, Angelina didn't suffer enough. She just had a few seconds of woe is me and poof! 

Meh.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, circumvent said:

But the worst part of the black and white definition of good and bad. Do one good thing after a life of grift, you are forgiven. Do one bad thing because you are led to a cult - possibly because life got too hard, everybody hates you - then you die. Literally explode. And some of the people can be forgiven just because "the bad you did was not intentional". Who decides that? Can human beings really judged people based on a few acts? 

This random (to me) determinations of whose sins warranted a death mimicking the eruption of a volcano seemed pretty realistic. I mean, justice tends to be random IRL. 
I suppose religious drivel is even more common, but that dialog bothered me more than who was randomly spared death (because they were main characters) and who was not (because they were villains or red shirts).🤷🏻‍♀️

 

1 hour ago, circumvent said:

Angelina didn't suffer enough. She just had a few seconds of woe is me and poof! 

Over time I’ve come to accept that living the life of a villain is punishment enough for the villain, and stopping the villain from ruining the lives of others is the only end I need to see.

But I too still slip back into thoughts of resentment at times, so if seeing fictional villains suffer somehow quells those joy-sucking thoughts for many viewers, then more violent ends for evil characters serves a purpose.

But watching drawn out suffering of villains just doesn’t do it for me. I just want them stopped. Which is why villains who keep returning every season annoy me so much.

So if there is another chapter to Manifest in some form, the inevitable return of unrepentant Angelina would probably keep me away. No amount of suffering for her in a new installment of the show would make me want watch. 
Probably. 😉

[catsitter]

I would have liked them to have Ben properly address the fact that he had lost Eden for ever. Even if he and Grace have another baby, and even if it is a girl, and even if they miraculously managed to make her genetically identical to the original Eden, and name her Eden, she still wouldn't be the same person because all her experiences would be completely different. I know he got Grace, Cal, and his mother back but he seemed to take the loss of Eden much too lightly. Remember his reaction when she was kidnapped! 

Now Ben and Michaela will have to worry about their Mom's "death date".

[shapeshifter]

4 minutes ago, catsitter said:

I would have liked them to have Ben properly address the fact that he had lost Eden for ever. Even if he and Grace have another baby, and even if it is a girl, and even if they miraculously managed to make her genetically identical to the original Eden, and name her Eden, she still wouldn't be the same person because all her experiences would be completely different. I know he got Grace, Cal, and his mother back but he seemed to take the loss of Eden much too lightly. Remember his reaction when she was kidnapped! 

This line sort of implies that Ben might still think Eden came off the plane with them?
Or at least her disappearance hasn't registered with him yet, perhaps because he's processing that the wife he grieved so intensely for so long is now alive:

• [BEN] Her name is Dr. Saanvi Bahl. I'll tell you everything, but, Grace, she's gonna cure Cal.
• [GRACE] What?
• [BEN] I swear on the lives of our three kids. 

But, Ben. Do you *really* think it's a good idea to tell Grace "everything" about Saanvi???

[Traesha]

On 6/8/2023 at 1:58 AM, mythoughtis said:

So who were the eleven?  Angelina, Autumn, some of the rest of her crew…

1: Angelina
2: Autumn
3: Paul
4: Randall
5-11: Probably rest of Angelina's group

With 191 passengers on flight 828, 180 surviving Death date... you have to be evil to not survive DD.

[circumvent]

8 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

So if there is another chapter to Manifest

If there is a sequel to this ending, all the passengers are going to be deemed insane because nobody can keep their mouth shut about what happened, and/or they will be neurotic, depressed, any other pathology will reach them. Imagine, if tis kind of thing is possible, the confusion of having lived years of a life that never wasn't. That's why I rated it a B science fiction movie.

[mythoughtis]

17 hours ago, circumvent said:

If there is a sequel to this ending, all the passengers are going to be deemed insane because nobody can keep their mouth shut about what happened, and/or they will be neurotic, depressed, any other pathology will reach them. Imagine, if tis kind of thing is possible, the confusion of having lived years of a life that never wasn't. That's why I rated it a B science fiction movie.

 One sequel plot line would be the government investigation because 11 passengers are missing.  Then the passengers would again end up being locked up and experimented on.  Would callings start again?      It would  be a never ending cycle of possible futures, only to be reset back at the airport in 2013 repeatedly. Just with a different oddity- missing passengers, extra passengers,   Etc etc. 

[shapeshifter]

6 hours ago, mythoughtis said:

 One sequel plot line would be the government investigation because 11 passengers are missing.  Then the passengers would again end up being locked up and experimented on.  Would callings start again?      It would  be a never ending cycle of possible futures, only to be reset back at the airport in 2013 repeatedly. Just with a different oddity- missing passengers, extra passengers,   Etc etc. 

Or . . . 
I would prefer a sequel in which the passengers neither have superpowers (callings) nor are in any detectable way different than other humans. 
This would be the Bizzaro version of Manifest.

Edited June 11, 2023 by shapeshifter
typo

[Cosmocrush]

On 6/5/2023 at 7:58 AM, tv echo said:

This show made no sense right up to the end, but still I found the ending surprisingly satisfying.

Same here.   Immediately after the finale I re-watched the pilot, making the last scene of the finale even better.  

[Cigale]

Instant karmas!

And ridiculous redemptions.

[ShowsILoveToHate]

On 6/11/2023 at 10:18 PM, Cosmocrush said:

Same here.   Immediately after the finale I re-watched the pilot, making the last scene of the finale even better.  

You gave me the idea to rewatch the Pilot and you’re right, seeing and remembering all of that definitely made the finale even more satisfying than originally because I had forgotten all of those details. 
 

Thanks for giving me the good idea to rewatch the Pilot! I highly recommend this to any fan of this show, especially those of us who appreciated the way they seemingly tied it all (well, almost all) up in the finale. 😊
 

Edited June 14, 2023 by ShowsILoveToHate

[shapeshifter]

19 minutes ago, ShowsILoveToHate said:

Thanks for giving me the good idea to rewatch the Pilot! I highly recommend this to any fan of this show, especially those of us who appreciated the way they seemingly tied it all (well, almost all) up in the finale. 😊

And now I’m wondering if the best way to watch the series is to just watch the first episode and the last. 
Almost kidding.😉

[BoogieBurns]

Daly's fate was meant to be aired in the end credits. 
 

watch here

[shapeshifter]

36 minutes ago, BoogieBurns said:

Daly's fate was meant to be aired in the end credits. watch here

Thanks for this, @BoogieBurns, but I don't see it listed on Netflix menu for the series, just on that page you posted.

Hrumph.

And why was Daly deemed too evil to live???

Double hrumph.

[BoogieBurns]

19 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Thanks for this, @BoogieBurns, but I don't see it listed on Netflix menu for the series, just on that page you posted.

Hrumph.

And why was Daly deemed too evil to live???

Double hrumph.

It's a deleted scene. They shared it this way so the show had a happy ending. 
 

Not sure where else this clip lives.

[preeya]

Just binge watched the last 5 episodes.

To me the ending brought back quite a few flashbacks (in my mind) to LOST.

Edited June 17, 2023 by preeya

[preeya]

On 6/11/2023 at 7:18 PM, Cosmocrush said:

Immediately after the finale I re-watched the pilot, making the last scene of the finale even better.  

Just re-watched the pilot (after the finale) and it made the series more understandable, although I still don't fully comprehend the Daly issue.

[ShowsILoveToHate]

21 hours ago, preeya said:

Just binge watched the last 5 episodes.

To me the ending brought back quite a few flashbacks (in my mind) to LOST.

The biggest one, to me, was the Smoke Monster! lol.  I thought, are they joking?  Lol. 
 

What other Lost flashbacks did you see? 😀

9 hours ago, preeya said:

Just re-watched the pilot (after the finale) and it made the series more understandable, although I still don't fully comprehend the Daly issue.

I totally agree!

In retrospect, I don’t understand why they had to go through all of that drama with Daly and his son, anyway! It really didn’t add to the story, as far as I could see. 

[preeya]

1 hour ago, ShowsILoveToHate said:

1 hour ago, ShowsILoveToHate said:

The biggest one, to me, was the Smoke Monster! lol.  I thought, are they joking?  Lol. 
 

What other Lost flashbacks did you see? 

 

Yes, the smoke monster was the most obvious. Then when they landed and went through the door into the brightness reminded me of the last scene on LOST when Jack and his father entered the room with all the other LOSTies sitting and waiting for him.

[bourbon]

I wanted to find this ending uplifting, but it left me sad. 

So, Ben has essentially lost a child. Eden is gone

And what was the point of Michaela breaking up with Jared? Those people, that family of 3, ceased to exist. Drea's baby was never conceived much less born. All that stuff about him having "hope" for the future when Hope was snuffed out of existence. And even teen Cal was much different than kid Cal. Ben bonded with *that* kid. Granted, kid Cal will eventually *become* a teen, but he won't be *that* teen. 

The baby born in the DC to the couple...TJ losing Olive...Yeah, I wanted to be crying tears of joy, but I was just really kind of bummed at the whole thing. The ending was much more about loss...loss of people, loss of opportunities...than it was about reunion. 

[QuantumMechanic]

12 hours ago, bourbon said:

And what was the point of Michaela breaking up with Jared? Those people, that family of 3, ceased to exist. Drea's baby was never conceived much less born. All that stuff about him having "hope" for the future when Hope was snuffed out of existence.

I thought that part actually made sense.  Due to the wiped-out timeline Mick realized that she and Jared were fundamentally incompatible, in no small part because he really wants to be a father -- and in that timeline (which she remembers) she directly saw how much he wants to be one --  and she doesn't want kids.

Edited June 23, 2023 by QuantumMechanic

[Camera One]

I concur that this was a pretty solid series finale.  The climax and the ending were generally satisfying.  The rest of this season had questionable pacing, but at least they did a good job with this last hour.

It made sense to kick things off by sending off all the non-passengers, though you would think taking a child to Angelina's location was a tad risky.  With Angelina, I wouldn't be surprised if she had rigged the Stone's house with explosives or something.  I guess no one in her flock had the job of cleaning up the house?  Anyway, it was fun seeing Olive piece together the "clues" one last time.

The government went from super surveillance of the 828 passengers to not having a clue as they all wandered around freely, including driving around visiting truck stops.  Eagan wrecking Angelina's car was hilarious, but again, I think Angelina would have just shot him when he left.

On 6/7/2023 at 6:31 AM, CCTC said:

Even though she was not a passenger, I would not have minded Director Zimmer making one last appearance just to turn into ash.  I also would not have minded seeing Dr. Gupta realize she had made some mistakes either (did not want her turned to dust - just to realize some of her arrogance). 

I think Zimmer should have gotten stuck in one of those volcanoes that were popping up.  She certainly deserved it after her cruel treatment of the passengers.

At least Angelina got her comeuppance.  It was hard to listen to her to whining about herself yet again.  I didn't buy that she had felt badly for killing Grace at all.

The airplane returning as "Noah's Ark" was an entertaining climax.  

The judgement on the plane was a tad horrific.  It was a bit annoying to see Saanvi being treated like she was morally on the level of Eagan or Angelina.  I had mixed feelings about Eagan but sacrificing his life for Adrian was sort of a nice moment.  

I liked the happy ending, including the return of passengers who had died over the last few seasons.  I didn't even catch Fiona or the comatose patients leaving the plane so maybe they could have featured them for a few more seconds at the end.  

I'm glad they cut out that Captain Daly scene.  He was bad but he was allowed to spend time in the light for years?

From behind, it was obvious Child Cal was a body double and the CGI wasn't very convincing, but I guess there was nothing they could have done about that.  Too bad they didn't have the foresight to film a dream sequence of everyone returning back in Season 1 so they can use the footage in the future.  I never believed the showrunner had 6 seasons planned as he claimed. 

I suppose Season 5 could have been the 8 months with everyone stuck in the detention facility (which they mostly skipped over between episode 16 and 17), and Season 6 could have started with that final month where Cal took everyone's Callings, (which they skipped over between episode 17 and 18) and they could have ended the same way.  The Writers on this show would have had no problem dragging both of those out into 10-20 episode seasons.

It was nice to see Ben unite with Grace, Saanvi with Alex, and the various passengers with their families.  It was nice they brought past actors back.  I think this series might be better binged from beginning to end, so a viewer could actually remember them (since I didn't).

I didn't feel much chemistry between Michaela and Zeke, and definitely not Jared and Drea, but that was a clever resolution in some ways.  At least some of those boring Ghost Zeke scenes paid off, since he had mentioned he was driving a taxi the night 828 was supposed to land.   If this had been endgame, I think they shouldn't have bothered with forcing a triangle with Jared and Michaela again this season.  They also should have built up Jared and Drea properly so we would actually care.  They could have done that in the first half of Season 4 easily, since they were working together.  The showrunner sure loved his annoying triangles.  In light of this finale, choosing to have Ben and Saanvi sleep together was just unfathomable.

I guess the only "unhappy" ending was Olive and TJ.  I liked Violet when she dated Cal briefly, but having TJ be all flirty with her right away was a bit off-putting. 

I can see the pregnant lady seeking out the janitor.  It is sort of neat how the passengers now have foresight about what could happen and could live their life with some of that knowledge.  As someone said above, it would be difficult for Ben and Michaela to know their mom would die soon but maybe that was originally related to the stress of the plane disappearance.

I'm glad they got this final season.  This show was a hot mess, but the characters were generally likeable and it is rare we actually get to a see a resolution for long-running series.  Abrupt cancellations of shows are the rule rather than the exception (and if shows are pre-warned, sometimes, they have a single episode to wrap it up, or an ambiguous finale that may or may not continue the story).   And as subpar as this show was from the beginning, I think it maintained its lukewarm quality pretty consistently throughout.

I still don't believe most of the random plot points on this show fit together in the end, but I don't think I would have the energy to rewatch this exhausting series again to check.  I'm a little tempted to rewatch the pilot again, as some suggested above.

I never expected them to answer any of the "big" questions - like why 828 was chosen to decide the fate of humanity, or why Angelina was "favored" and got blue glowing powers, or why some passengers were stuck in a Calling for 5 years, or why Captain Daly and Fiona went into the light and then came back, or heck, why the Callings did what it did 99% of the time.

I woke up this morning and the clock said 815 not 828, so I guess we know which show still wins.