Manifest S01E05 "Connecting Flights" Recap

In a series of flashbacks, the lives of the people on the ground are shown on the day they received the news about the flight going missing. Grace and Olive are devastated when they find out their family is gone. Grace calls Jared to the airport and he brought Lourdes with him as she was reassuring him that Michaela would accept his proposal once she got back. Later on, Jared and Lourdes are shown to be getting closer and Grace meets Danny for the first time.

In the present day, Ben does not want to get involved with hiding Thomas or listen to any of the voices or calls because he doesn't want to risk his family. Michaela tells him he can't walk away from this but he still leaves. Meanwhile he has begun hearing the message "it's all connected" over and over again.

Vance is ordering his subordinates in the NSA that they need to find the John Doe stowaway from Flight 828. They've already pieced together that Bethany was involved since she was at the hospital as was Saanvi.

Ben brings Cal to Coney Island so they can just have fun without worrying about any voices or other mysterious happenings. Ben continuously flips coins for them to just randomly decide what fun things to do. At the end of their time there, Ben hears "it's all connected" once more but tries to ignore it.

Michaela visits Lourdes at home and tries to play it cool while seeing all the happy photos of her with Jared. Lourdes also gives Michaela back a box of photos she had looked after while she was gone. Michaela pleads with Lourdes to help her convince Jared to not take the fall for her doing something wrong and Lourdes is surprised that Jared didn't say anything to her about it. However, Lourdes says that Jared always does the right thing so she won't tell him to do something else, re-affirming the closeness of their friendship as a trio.

Ben follows Cal through random routes via subway stops. Cal keeps encouraging him to have fun, despite Ben panicking particularly when Cal says "it's all connected" out loud. Ben catches up to Cal and he ends up leading Ben back to Thomas. It's all the more shocking since Cal somehow already knows Thomas' name. When Ben asks him how he knew his name, Cal says it just 'came to him.' Ben asks him if he has heard voices but Cal says he hasn't. Thomas helps calm the situation by asking Cal to play chess, to which Cal agrees. Ben admits privately to Thomas that he intends to now get involved again because everything has changed after Cal has displayed these strange and remarkable abilities. Ben is surprised to see Thomas still there since she was supposed to leave with Bethany but Thomas says she never showed up.

Bethany has been picked up by the NSA for questioning regarding the "John Doe" she helped sneak into the States, while she was saying goodbye to her wife.

Michaela visits her father to get advice, saying how hard it was to be at Jared and Lourdes' house since it's like seeing the life she would have had. Her father advises her to go after Jared and that her mother believed that Jared never stopped loving her. He says that if it had been him returning home to his wife re-married he would have fought like hell to get her back. Michaela admits that she still wants to be with him. In a flashback Michaela's father is shown to privately disapprove of Jared marrying Lourdes because he knows that Jared still loves Michaela.

Jared has his hearing a disciplinary hearing and as a result of Vance's advisement his punishsment is just to be docked 10 days pay. Vance tells him again that he wants information on Michaela with no real clarification as to what the punishment will be if he doesn't agree. Michaela later meets Jared at the bar and says how much it meant to her that he stood up for her. But before she can admit her feelings to him, he says he wants to go home and not think about the hearing anymore.

Ben is trying to help Thomas but then Cal warns him that they need to go because someone is coming. Thomas tells them to go without him but Cal then says that the person at the door is a friend. Ben cautiously checks and finds out that it's Georgia, Bethany's wife. She tells them that Vance has arrested Bethany so she has arrived to help Thomas escape to a cabin in the mountains.

Jared gets home and assures Lourdes that there's nothing to worry about, despite her concerns that she didn't know about the problems he was facing at work until Michaela told him. In more flashbacks, Jared tells Lourdes about the return of Flight 828 just as Grace sees the story on the news and Danny decides to leave. He had been practically living at the house with Grace and Olive and treating Olive like a surrogate daughter. Danny has also visited Grace to explain that Olive called him when she was told to call her father. In the present, Olive admits to Grace that although she loves her father and is grateful for him to have returned, she also thinks of Danny as a father.

Ben tells Michaela about how Cal has developed his own unique abilities although they don't manifest in the same way as the others. He also admits to her that he is now re-committed to solving the mystery.

Finally, a flashback to Flight 828 shows Cal looking out the window while the other passengers sleep. He observes a glowing presence outside and uttering in response, "It's all connected."

Manifest airs on Mondays on NBC at 10/9c.