Manifest – Season 4 Episode 1 “Touch-and-Go” Recap & Review

Touch-and-Go

Episode 1 of Manifest Season 4 starts with us in Shanghai, with scientists doing experiments on an old man, whom we later learn is Henry. Suddenly, and inexplicably, a blinding light protrudes out and the lab explodes. Henry stumbles away and heads out to the winder world.

Meanwhile, things are a mess with our rabble of characters in the Stone family. Grace’s murder has rocked everyone, and all fingers seem to point to Angelina. However, despite Eden being kidnapped, Ben has not given up hope. He’s a complete state though, and for the last 2 years he’s been living rough. He’s in Rockland and tries, in vain, to get Jared to help uncover where Eden may be. He ignores a call from Gabriel (who’s really Cal) and continues on his quest.

Michaela and Zeke are still happily married, but while Cal is kept hidden, Michaela and the others have to face the 828 Registry.  Michaela suddenly gets a Calling of her with a freighter and cherry blossoms. This is linked to Henry, so of course she heads off to investigate.

Lo and behold, a freighter happens to be there with cherry blossoms on, and for some reason no one has noticed the bright shiny lights coming from one of the shipping containers, which happens to have the sigil for blossoms on the front.

Henry is inside and he’s in a rough way, with “Stone 828” carved up his arm. Michaela takes the man to Saanvi, who has been fixated on trying to find the missing plane for the last 2 years. Now, she confirms that Henry Kim, a guy who was reported dead two years back by the Singaporean government. “The boy, where is the boy?” Henry moans.

Ben begins to experience his own Calling, with Anna Ross’ picture, the interpreter who helped Cal when he had a connection with a passenger and got so sick. Ben decides not to follow it though and chooses to leave this for Michaela. Cal believes he should be doing this himself, but Ben does not agree. He tells Cal to take his Gabriel ID to keep his identity in check, and leaves to visit Anna Ross.

Cal shows up at Anna’s place, but she heads outside with him, given she believes the 828 Registry have bugged her house. She’s had a Calling which happens to be of a windmill. And gravestones. It would appear it’s a cemetery upstate in Ramago.

While Cal heads off to investigate, Jared shows up with bad news for Ben. He has a death certificate for Eden. They’ve found Angelina and Eden’s prints at the bridge, along with he backpack that has floated downstream. However, they haven’t found any bodies, which Jared deduces is because of the river currents. Ben refuses to believe this is true, and decides to keep searching.

Now, it becomes clearer what’s happening with Cal and why Ben has been quite cold toward him, courtesy of some revealing flashbacks. It turns out Cal told Angelina where the key was to get in the house, meaning he’s partly responsible for Angelina taking Eden. If she’s taken her of course. The windmill that Cal’s gone to happens to be the same windmill that is on the front of Eden’s death certificate.

Seeing this as a sign, Ben is more determined than ever that Eden is still alive and races off to prove his theory. When he gets there though and follows the clues, he’s crushed to learn it’s not Eden but in fact another child who happens to have lost his father, who’s clinging on and struggling to survive in the river.

Meanwhile, Henry Kim regains consciousness temporarily, telling Saanvi that he needs to “give the box to the boy.” Cal and Michaela head back to the shipping dock, but since Michaela has already been spotted, Cal heads in alone instead. Vance infiltrates the call, using the CCTV at work to help him avoid troops and make his way to the container.

Cal arrives and hears ticking, leading him directly to the black box for the airplane. They bring it to the lab, where Henry Kim looks at Cal and immediately comments that he’s the boy. Saanvi listens to the black box recording and realizes it syncs up to the Eureka. It would appear that Daly is still out there, but we’ll have to wait and see on that account!

As the episode closes out, Ben’s theory is proven correct as it turns out Eden and Angelina are actually hiding and still alive. They’re at Anna’s place and she’s been keeping them hidden place. It wasn’t Anna’s Calling after all, it was Eden’s.

The Episode Review

Manifest is back and the Callings return with a bang, as Ben is sent on a wild goose chase to save a child… only to find out it’s not actually Eden after all. It’s surprising to see Netflix save this show from purgatory, especially with the viewing numbers dwindling over the seasons, but Netflix might give this an injection of life, you never know!

Either way though, it would appear that the mystery involving Eden and Angelina is going to continue, at least for a while, interspersed in with a bunch of different episodic issues for good measure.

Either way, we’ll have to wait and see what the next episode has in store for us!