The Manifest season 4 trailer that the show is poised to break the season 3 finale’s biggest promise regarding Cal. His inclusion in the marketing for Manifest season 4 provides a glimpse at what comes next for his character now that he’s been aged forward by five years. Exactly what the tailfin did to him remains a mystery, but his final scene in season 3 put the series in a position to deliver some game-changing developments.
What’s shown in the Manifest season 4 trailer is an indication that the show won’t actually fulfill the finale’s Cal tease. When he came back at the end of the episode, he told Grace, “I know what we need to do now”. That remark alone set up immediate answers to some of Manifest’s key mysteries when the show returned. What it implied was that Cal learned some important information offscreen when he disappeared, and through him, the Flight 828 passengers would take a massive step toward stopping the Death Date. However, the trailer strongly suggests that Cal has amnesia and therefore won’t be as helpful as season 3 set him up to be. In the footage, Cal says, “I need to remember what happened” when addressing his disappearance.
What Cal’s Amnesia Means For Manifest Season 4
It’s hard to imagine how Cal can confidently claim to know what needs to be done if he doesn’t know where he’s been for five years. Whatever argument Cal makes about their plans for beating the Death Date – if he even has one – will be severely weakened by the lack of an explanation for his whereabouts. For Cal to truly have a grasp on what the passengers need to do, he’ll need to remember concrete details on what he’s been up to since he touched the tailfin in the season 3 finale. And based on the season 4 trailer, that appears to be exactly what Cal’s next story is all about. So instead of explaining where he went and what he learned right away – like the season 3 finale inferred would happen – it looks like Manifest will use Cal’s amnesia to stretch this story into a multi-episode arc.
Where Did Cal Actually Go?
Until Manifest gets around to revealing the answers to these questions, the mystery surrounding Cal's disappearance will linger on in Manifest season 4. Presumably, time travel has to do with what happened to Cal, which could be the very reason why the show is hiding the truth about where he went. Explaining that he was in the future or somewhere in the past would prove once and for all that Manifest is a story about time travel, and the show just may not be ready to go down that road just yet. Alternatively, it’s been postulated that Cal went to an alternate universe, which is another major reveal that Manifest would naturally want to avoid dropping as early as the season 4 premiere.
Regardless of where Cal went on the planet or in the timeline, his actions have the potential to present Ben, Michaela, and Saanvi with a clear solution to the Lifeboat problem in Manifest season 4. The implication of Cal being five years older is that he somehow survived the Death Date. If that’s true, Cal may really be the key to outlasting the Death Date and keeping the Lifeboat afloat.