'Manifest' Season 2 Episode 6 Review: Can Ben and Saanvi solve the death date mystery before it's too late?
While we did not get even a little bit of Saanvi Bahl in last week's episode of 'Manifest', this week's episode solves that issue — while possibly making viewers hope that something could happen between her and Ben Stone.
When Ben gets a calling featuring Saanvi back in the flight asking for help, he thinks she is in danger. He rushes to the hospital and finds her collapsed once he gets a security guard to open her door. It turns out Saanvi has been experimenting on herself to find a cure for the death date.
When Ben talks to a revived Saanvi, she tells him the calling wasn't about her, but rather about a little boy. Since Ben has the seating chart memorized, he thinks it has to do with the passenger sitting there.
A little bit of sleuthing by both Ben and Saanvi — that sees them impress each other — leads the pair to realize that the boy who needs help is the son of the passenger sitting in that seat. The passenger's son was born from a one-night stand he had the night before he boarded Flight 828.
However, the boy's mother has been married for 10 years — meaning her one-night stand was more illicit than we previously thought.
When the passenger meets the woman and his son, Saanvi notices that the boy has motor issues. Combining that with the fact that she saw him with yellow eyes in the calling leads her to conclude that the boy has liver disease.
As it was found over time, the passenger is able to donate part of his liver to the boy. However, Saanvi worries whether doing so could have transferred the genetic anomaly found in 828 passengers to him, therefore saving him and cursing him at the same time.
This week's episode was memorable for a couple of reasons. For one, it proved again why Ben and Saanvi are fan favorites, especially in terms of getting together. The two actors — Josh Dallas and Parveen Kaur — share great chemistry and their scenes together are a delight to watch.
'Manifest' continues to give Olive a more central role, with her and TJ discovering a key piece of the mystery. However, Cal was noticeably absent and for a character that was so important in the first season, his absence and diminishing prominence leaves us scratching our heads.
Meanwhile, Grace's worry about people finding out about the 828 baby leads her to suggest to Ben that they tell people a different story — that the baby actually belongs to her former boyfriend, Danny. Ben understandably refuses to take that route, but she probably has a point.
As always, the episode ends with a surprise reveal. A common calling has Ben, Saanvi, and Michaela appear at a plane crash site — however, these are not 828 passengers, at least, not all of them.
Whether that means the death date will kill only part of the 828 passengers remains to be seen. The question is, will Saanvi be able to decode the mystery in time to save everyone?
'Manifest' airs on NBC at 10/9c on Monday nights.
