Warning: Spoilers for Manifest season 4 part 1
Manifest season 4 part 1’s huge reveal broke all the theories on what happened to Flight 828. Ever since the show began, there have been all sorts of different ideas about the explanation for the airplane’s disappearance. Time travel, alternate universes, and divine resurrection were among the many potential answers to the show’s biggest questions. It was widely assumed that Manifest would have to pick one of them when the time came to finally explain where Flight 828 actually went.
In Manifest season 4, Cal and Olive finally figured out what happened to the plane. Reliving a memory of being on the plane with Captain Daly and Fiona made Cal realize the truth: they were literally inside a divine consciousness. Of all the major theories that have been postulated over the last few years, the passengers and the plane existing within the essence of a higher power wasn’t high on the list of possible answers. In fact, it was bizarre enough for it to serve as a shocking explanation. With theories about time travel and alternate realities picking up so much steam, Manifest avoiding either of them didn’t initially seem feasible, but the show pulled it off regardless.
What Happened Inside The Divine Consciousness?
The details of what went on during the five and a half years they were inside the divine consciousness hasn’t been discussed in depth yet, but the show has revealed at least part of the answer to this question as well. If the characters are right, it was during this time that the passengers actually received the Callings. Every Calling they’ve had over the last four years originated during this period, and they’ve just been recalling them gradually ever since. And when Cal disappeared in the season 3 finale, he went back into the divine consciousness, where he was on board what looked to be Flight 828. Since Captain Daly and Fiona were there too, that must also be where they went when they vanished in season 1’s “Contrails.”
Manifest’s Divine Consciousness Reveal Doesn’t Explain Everything
At last, Manifest has cleared up several of its lingering mysteries, but that doesn’t mean it’s answered every question. In spite of everything that was learned in the ten episodes, it’s still not clear how the tailfin exists, or why the plane wreckage disappeared in the season 3 finale. The passengers also don’t know what happened to Al-Zuras, which is key because how he survived his own Death Date could be crucial to understanding what to do next. And perhaps most importantly, there’s the matter of the impending apocalypse that the passengers have no obvious way of stopping.
Rather than drag out every reveal to the very end of the series, it was important that the show finally provide some much-needed answers – and that’s exactly what Manifest season 4 has been able to do so far. But it was also careful not to complete the puzzle too soon. It did leave some loose ends, which will most likely be tied up by when Netflix releases the second half of Manifest’s final season.