Okay, so maybe TJ’s death wasn’t all that believable to begin with. It wouldn’t be surprising if half of the audience realized that the burnt body clutching Olive’s bracelet was actually Isaiah, and it’s not all that credible that the police would confirm the identity with such a small detail, even in the context of a TV show. But the anger Olive felt on TJ’s behalf when the Astoria campus displayed such an insincere outpouring of grief allowed us to target Simon as a scapegoat for her indignation, and his casing of the Stone household and Ben’s investigation wall took on another level of villainy.
He could use a boost in that regard because regardless of how well he organizes the X’ers, the idea that someone like Billy would follow an egghead like Simon is implausible at best. Similarly, Manifest still expects us to believe that, just because he got a haircut, Jared is really in bed with the hate group rather than playing them like a fiddle. Captain Bowers is actually more suspicious with her uncharacteristically calm acceptance of the off-the-books investigative work of Michaela and Drea. Mick’s partner meanwhile continues to win points with viewers by going along with the shenanigans even as we shake our heads at their belief that Jared is up to no good.
Off to one side are the underlying mythology stories we really care about: is Zeke going to freeze to death before Saanvi can effect a cure for the blood anomaly? Zeke’s newfound devotion to Michaela is certainly inspiring enough to encourage Saanvi to show her love to Alex despite all the heartache she expressed in the previous episode, and that was great to see. But the fact that Saanvi doesn’t even remember kissing Alex ups the stakes considerably. We may have expected some side effects to the doctor’s serum, but certainly not memory loss! Obviously Manifest is still quite capable of surprising us.
It’s true that the Believers and their opposites were owed a main story arc given how peripheral they were for most of Manifest season one, but hopefully the show won’t overcompensate by keeping them center stage for too much longer. With many other mysteries lingering over our heads, we’d love to see a return to the government plot and more focus on the death date, which the Al-Zuras journal can clearly shed some light on beyond the prophetic drawing of Ben and Olive. There’s little doubt that at least partial answers are in store; let’s just hope the show focuses more on the elements that make it great.