Ben tries to walk away from whatever force is exerting influence on his life, but is it really that easy? The NSA continue to try to hunt down Thomas. Grace struggles with what to do about Danny. Michaela wrestles with her feelings for Jared.

Unusually, this time out Manifest chooses to stick with the same ‘main’ plot thread as last week – continuing the tale of Thomas and what to do with him. Framed around that are a series of flashbacks that give us more insight into various elements of the lives of those left behind when 828 went missing.

For Grace, that means an unflinching look at just how low she got when Ben and Cal went missing, with poor Olive trying to do her best to look after a mother who has pretty much given up on life. We see the moment when she realises just what is happening and decides to take control once again, attending grief counselling and meeting up with Danny, coping with his own unrelated loss. We also get to see the beginning of the evolution of Danny’s relationship with Olive, which is a further complication in the present day, as the show poses the real question – what do you do with someone who has literally been a part of your life and family for years when your presumed-dead husband and child suddenly return. It was never going to be as easy as simply turfing the other person out. Here, to the show’s credit, it starts to really explore this dilemma, not just from the perspective of Grace, but also that of Olive, who has lost a father figure. Suddenly, her calling Danny rather than Ben last time out when caught shoplifting makes a lot more sense, and becomes about more than just thoughtlessness or even spite.

For Jared, we get to see the slow evolution of his relationship with Lourdes in the years after Michaela’s disappearance. Again here the show avoids any easy answers – if anything it perhaps makes certain characters a little too understanding – but it becomes very clear that Jared didn’t take any decisions lightly, and it adds organically to the sense of realism in Jared’s uncertainty now that Michaela is back.

Meanwhile, back in the present day, Ben wants nothing to do with Thomas or any of the ‘calling’ and elects to spend a day with Cal, with their decisions as to what to do determined by a coin toss. On one level, he just wants to feel like he and not this mysterious force is in control of his own life (and this ties in well with his story to Olive about the boomerang last time out) but on another he’s railing against the realities of his own domestic situation – Ben understands on some level the complexity of the choice he’s asking Grace to make, and the hole in the lives of both Grace and Olive that Danny has left. This feels like a child kicking against responsibility, and it’s nicely poetic, given that, that it’s Cal who sets him on the right course here. Judging by the final shot, we have much more to learn about Cal going forwards anyway.

Verdict: Endlessly fascinating, and always focused on the right things. Part of me wants to know more about what happened on that flight, sure, but most of me is just happy seeing the intensely complex domestic situations of all these people play out. 9/10

Greg D. Smith