Something’s rotten on Flight 828. Remember the cheerful flight attendant, Bethany (Mugga), who consoled Saanvi when her laptop got smashed to bits? Yeah, she’s hiding something. What that something is isn’t clear yet, but based on what’s happened to this bunch so far on Manifest, we can only assume it’s not good. Speaking of Saanvi… things aren’t going so well. Not only does she have the strange blood marker, but she’s starting to have vivid hallucinations of woman made of stone walking through the halls of the hospital.
She does that trick we see in all hospital dramas — she gives her scans to a fellow doctor and pretending it belongs to a patient. In this case, the head of neurology says that the CAT scan shows similar brain activity to a patient down the hall who had just been diagnosed with advanced schizophrenia. Yikes. Saanvi’s not exactly at his level, but still. When she walks by said patient’s room, he runs out screaming about — you guessed it — Bethany. He’s a Flight 828 passenger!
Michaela, of course, is seeing the same woman. She gives her a message, though — “save him.” We get a better look at this mystery woman. She’s a stone statue of an angel come to life. WTF, honestly. Michaela is on a stakeout with Jared when this happens, and she’s determined to blow everything to save an undercover cop inside the warehouse they’re staking. Here’s the thing; Michaela’s vision was wrong. Nobody needed saving in that warehouse, but Jared takes the blame. He’s totally still in love with her. She wants to tell the truth, but Ben freaks out, saying she’ll put the whole plane under observation once the authorities know about her visions. Good point!
Saanvi confronts Bethany about the crazy dude at the hospital, and she reveals that he was a stowaway on the flight. He’s the boyfriend of her cousin, and he was in danger in Jamaica for being gay. Her cousin was able to escape, but Thomas (Sheldon Best) couldn’t get a passport. When the plane landed, he escaped through the cargo hold and ran away, never to be seen again — until now. He’s not crazy, he was just alone in a foreign country and discovered the awful truth about their flight. His boyfriend, according to Bethany, had died a few years ago.
Meanwhile, Ben’s family life is still imploding. They’re in deep financial sh*t because the life insurance company wants their payout back. Rude. And Olive got caught shoplifting. The person she called to help her? Danny (Daniel Sunjata). That’s right; her mom’s ex-boyfriend. Of course, it’s Ben who comes to the store and finds this out. They have an after school special moment and everything’s cool. But Grace comes home and finds out what happens. Ben suggests she’s not over Danny, and now they may be contemplating a divorce. As they should!
It all comes together at the end. Saanvi and Bethany try to grab Thomas at the hospital, but he escapes before they can try! As they’re trying to run after him, Michaela rolls up to the hospital — she’s finally figured out who she’s supposed to help. The pieces are put together. When Saanvi sees the stone woman, she leaves wet footprints. When Michaela sees her, she has wings. Bethany’s got it! It’s the angel at the top of the Bethesda fountain in Central Park.
That’s where Thomas would totally meet his boyfriend, as the fountain is a central element of the play “Angels in America”. As Bethany puts it (and this is seriously a line someone wrote), “Thomas may not know New York. But he sure as hell knows Tony Kushner.” Wouldn’t you know it; they find Thomas at the fountain, and they fill him in on everything that happened. He’s not schizophrenic; he just freaked out when people told him what year it was, and that he couldn’t find his boyfriend.
Michaela knows that if the feds find him, they’ll be in trouble. She takes Bethany and Thomas to the abandoned mini mall Kelly and her crooked husband owned while they figure out their next move. It’s only going to get harder from here.