Grace has a powerful Calling which leads her and Ben to someone they hadn’t expected. Jared and Michaela have some catching up to do. Grace and Ben’s baby is in danger.

Well, Jared has certainly been a little bit enigmatic these past couple of episodes hasn’t he? And as for his and Michaela’s new boss? There could be a tendency for the sort of reveal we get here to feel cheap, but Manifest pulls it off with deft adroitness, helped in no small part by not making it easy as it goes along. Linking back to Jared and Michaela’s complicated past, and their even more complicated present, the episode really feels like it earns every beat of this story as it plays out, and the value is all there for audiences like myself who have been watching since the pilot.

Elsewhere, as Olive and Cal prepare for the domestic bliss of a new sibling, Grace experiences a powerful and confusing new Calling which she and Ben elect to follow up together, When they meet Adrian there, the easy assumption is it’s him they were sent for, except why is their slipper fellow 828er there at all, and why would a Calling be that simple?

Of course, it isn’t, and things are further complicated by issues for Grace’s pregnancy. The way that the episode plays a sleight of hand here is really quite deft, made all the more impressive by it ultimately avoiding the obvious answer. For all that it seems to everyone that the Callings are all for a greater good, there is one person not convinced, and what’s surprising is that given we’ve only really ever spent time with the folks who are convinced, it’s difficult not to see that individual’s point of view when they express it.

There’s a lot going on here, as long term builds of narrative pay off and others still are introduced. All of it gets handled very well, leaving much to be explored going forward. There’s also a great deal of emotion in the episode, with some characters confronted with choices that may haunt them for a long time to come.

Verdict: Tense, twisty and satisfying. 9/10

Greg D. Smith