A cryptic warning leads Ben to work with Bill Daly, the Captain of Flight 828 who has been publicly blamed for the disappearance of the plane. But how far can Ben trust the clearly upset Daly? Michaela struggles to deal with her feelings for Jared. Autumn is stuck between her fellow passengers and the shadowy figures controlling her.

Having been fairly low-key in its last instalment, Manifest dials things up quite a bit this time out, and really starts to delve into the genre part of its makeup.

Mainly we get to focus on Daly, the pilot who captained Flight 828 and the focal point of much of the blame assigned by the official reports both when the plane was presumed to have crashed and when it returned. Daly has been hinted at previously as an intense, slightly manic character and here we finally get to fully explore him at last. Flashbacks show us that he took some pretty direct action when the plane suddenly hit a storm, and the modern day stuff shows us how this has become his obsession. The official reports all show weather and circumstances that are much different from what either he or Ben remembers, and he’s driven to get to the bottom of it all.

Daly and Ben manage to track down someone who might be able to help, and what that someone tells them opens up a whole new part of the potential explanation for the fate of Flight 828. The only problem is that whereas Ben is content to pursue this whole new angle from a purely academic sense, Daly has a more direct method of exploration in mind, and while he’s at it, a grudge to settle with one of the other passengers, of whose involvement in all this he is convinced.

Elsewhere, Michaela is struggling to come to terms with her and Jared’s little indiscretion last week. Opting not to let these characters go for a fairy tale ending is indicative of the way the writers like to work the show, and watching both struggle with the idea of their love for one another and their respective love for Lourdes as best friend/wife is decent drama. My only hope is that they resolve this properly sooner rather than later. Similar applies to Ben and Grace: as fascinating as it is to see this play out, it may get to the stage where it overshadows the other stuff – which shows signs of really starting to hot up – if allowed to drag on too long.

And there’s the Autumn storyline, which is pleasingly difficult to get a true handle on. It seems as if she’s a genuinely good person (or trying to be) but at the same time she is working with the bad guys, albeit under some duress. Watching her walk that tightrope is interesting, and I genuinely can’t tell at this point where it’s going to lead.

But as I said, this episode really starts to grapple with some proper meaty sci-fi elements inherent in its premise and it’s good to see. If anything, the way things play out towards the end is a little crazy, but in the best possible way, and I’m not sure whether the show will take that sense and run with it or play safe.

Verdict: At the opposite end of the scale from last week in terms of action, this really starts to get things going. Fascinated to see where it goes next. 8/10

Greg D. Smith