I mentioned in my Fall Television Preview that Manifest was a show that had me rather intrigued. It was the one new inclusion on the list this year and if the pilot episode is any indication, it will not disappoint.
Montego Air Flight 828 disappeared for five years, six months, and 28 days. All 191 passengers and crew that were on board were missing and presumed dead. When it requested to land on November 4, 2018, the world was stunned.
What happened to Flight 828?
Where were they for over five years?
These are the questions we will be exploring this year along with the passengers of Montego Air Flight 828. Something happened, they don’t know what and they don’t know how. But strange things seem to be happening to them that they can’t explain.
I don’t want to give you a long plot synopsis. I want you to go watch it yourself (either at NBC’s website – the link is above – or on Hulu).
The show focuses on four passengers in particular: Michaela, Ben, and Cal Stone and Saanvi. The Stones are coming home from vacation when the flight they were supposed to be on was oversold.
Ben, his sister Michaela, and Ben’s son Cal agree to stay and catch Flight 828 home while the rest of the family took the original flight back.
As the pilot calls to the tower in New York, the responses are odd (as viewers we know why – the tower knows what’s wrong where the flight doesn’t yet) and they are diverted to another airport and are asked to deplane on the tarmac.
That’s where they learn the truth.
From there, the rest of the pilot, and I’m sure a bit of the show, is going to be the story of the people who were aboard that flight as they adjust to a world that’s moved on without them while dealing with some strange things as well.
As for the time travel aspects, I do have some thoughts.
The one obvious place where the time jump happened was during some turbulence that occurred at some point during the flight. At least, that’s my current working theory. Was the turbulence some sort of wormhole or the byproduct of them being displaced from one set of temporal coordinates to another?
Until we know more, I have to acknowledge that something could have created a form of time distortion. Time could have moved slower on the plane than it did outside the plane.
Less likely, but it’s probably one or the other.
One thing that we know for sure. Someone or something is responsible for what happened to Flight 828 and they don’t want to be found. This early in the game it could be something based in science or something based in fantasy.
While the pilot focuses on the Stones and on a medical researcher Saanvi, I believe we will get to know some of the others as time goes on. And hopefully we will begin to get answers to the questions we have.
What happened?
Why that particular flight?
Why those people?
Who or what is behind it?
And what’s going to happen to the passengers and crew of Montego Air Flight 828?
The last of which will be answered as Manifest continues every Monday night.
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