Manifest Review: Cleared For Approach (Season 1 Episode 13)
The danger was always there, but Manifest Season 1 Episode 13, “Cleared for Approach,” puts it front and center.
The biggest development on “Cleared for Approach” is the growing movement of the Anti-828ers who are now daring to ask if the passengers are even human.
We’ve already seen the public’s reaction and have heard about people who think that the return of the flight is a conspiracy. The introduction of the website, the billboards, and the propaganda is an escalated extension of that.
This isn’t a new threat, it’s just a threat from a different source. There has always been a threat to the passengers, but in the past, it seemed to come from the people behind the plane’s disappearance. Now, it’s a mob, and it’s turned violent.
It hurts to see Ben’s family go through this, but it also feels like they would be the natural entry point for this storyline. Cal’s a young passenger, he is sensitive to the callings, and Ben’s status as a passenger, as well as his desire to protect his family, would make their house a prime target.
It also gives Ben and Grace the impetus to talk about their relationship. They started to address what was going on between them on Manifest Season 1 Episode 12, “Vanishing Point,” but this episode pushes them a little bit closer together.
Their last scene, trying to remove the red X from their door and Grace saying to Ben that it was “our family” is a very subtle hint that all isn’t lost just yet. It still doesn’t fix things, but mending their relationship is going to take some time.
“Cleared for Approach” also dispells a myth about the callings. Ben believed that if they told a non-passenger about them then that person would die. However, Olive coming to Ben and saying that she’s known for a while, and is still alive, means that belief doesn’t hold the water he once thought it did.
Olive is a character that has the potential to do more in the story, and I think this is a way of bringing her to that point. “Cleared for Approach” breaks the walls that isolate Olive and Grace from the rest of the family, and give the story a way forward.
Now Olive is also able to use her insight and skills to help with visions. She might be a teenager, but she can still have valuable insights into what’s going on, and a new perspective on the callings could push Ben and Michaela in a new direction.
Michaela and Zeke were also following a calling that takes them back to the cave where Zeke was trapped. The story that unfolds about his sister’s death and the role he played in it, is very touching. It also mirror’s Michaela’s story regarding her car accident.
Given that we also saw Michaela and Jared get together during Manifest Season 1 Episode 10, “Crosswinds,” it’s starting to feel like they may be setting up for a love triangle.
If that’s where they’re doing here, I can’t say that I am surprised. Manifest has done a good job laying the groundwork for some more complications in the passengers’ interpersonal relationships and it would be a shame to throw that all away in just a few episodes.
At the same time, I don’t know that Michaela needs a romantic storyline. Throughout this season she’s been in a place where she’s lost the love of her life because of this five-year jump. She was having trouble accepting Jared’s proposal because she had work to do on herself.
I think she’s come a long way, but like she tells Zeke, it’s not magic. There’s still work to do. Zeke seems to get that, and they could be a good support system for each other while they try to figure out the bigger picture.
On another note, I am ready for a Saanvi centered storyline.
From the beginning, I thought she would be involved more, but beyond living in the realm of science and helping Ben and Michaela, she hasn’t been developed enough in her own right.
I think the little threads dropping about her going to Jamaica and how the seat next to her was empty are great breadcrumbs. For the number of times that Saanvi has helped Ben, I think she deserves the space to have her story unpacked a little bit more.
With three episodes left in its first season, Manifest seems to be gearing up for some twists and turns. It’s hard to know what they’ll be with seemingly unrelated forces at work, but it’s definitely going to be an interesting ride.
What did you think of this episode of Manifest? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Manifest airs Mondays at 10/9c on NBC.
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Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.