'Manifest' Season 2 Episode 8: Michaela and Drea team up to investigate Jared's connection with the X'ers
Spoiler alert for 'Manifest' Season 2 Episode 8 — 'Carry On'
When Ellen Tamaki first debuted as Drea Mikami, Michaela Stone's (Melissa Roxburgh) new partner after the whole Jared Vasquez (JR Ramirez) debacle with Zeke Landon (Matt Long) on 'Manifest', many did not trust her. After all, the threats against the 828 passengers were increasing and Drea was an unknown factor.
However, over the past few episodes, Drea has been quite the supportive partner for Michaela. We thought it would be difficult for Michaela to pull off the mystery-solving with the help of her callings without anyone else knowing. Though Drea does not know yet, she has been just the partner that Michaela needs.
That was proven even more in this week's episode of 'Manifest' titled 'Carry On'. When the captain of the precinct, Kate Bowers, gives the officers a briefing about the attack on the nightclub (from the last episode), Jared says something that gets Drea thinking something is not right.
She goes to Michaela and tells her that Jared spoke in support of the X'ers — the group of people who have been attacking 828 passengers because they think they are a threat to humans.
Michaela is disturbed about this news and agrees that something is up, especially after Jared stole her case files in the last episode. Drea suggests tailing him to find out what's going on with Michaela's former partner and ex-boyfriend.
When they tail Jared, they come across the bar that the X'ers hang out at. With the help of a judge and some covert work by Drea, Michaela is able to sneak in a listening device. Using this, they record Jared speaking to his girlfriend Tamara about the X'ers and Billy, Tamara's brother who is a volatile member of the anti-828 hate group.
Michaela and Drea take the recordings to Bowers who says she will deal with it. However, we later see Bowers playing the recording for Jared and telling him that he has a "problem". This scene all but convinces us that Jared most definitely is working undercover.
Even when Michaela says that Tamara's bar is not Jared's scene, it gets us thinking that this could have been an undercover operation all along. We are just wondering why he has not decided to tell either Michaela or even Ben Stone (Josh Dallas) about it, considering the siblings' concern about the group.
What we did love in this episode was the way Michaela and Drea teamed up to investigate when their doubts about Jared surfaced. It's cool to see the two women being open with each other.
This leads us to wonder. Will Michaela clue Drea in on the callings? And if so, will Drea be a regular fixture on the show? The odds say otherwise. It is likely that some event will lead to Drea discovering about the callings and being put in danger somehow. Though TJ came back to life, Drea might not meet the same fate.
'Manifest' airs on NBC on Monday nights at 10/9c.