'Manifest' showrunner teases 'more urgent' tone in final season on Netflix

The surviving passengers of Flight 828 won't have much time to figure out a plan to save their own skins when the fourth and final season of Manifest premieres on Netflix this November.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly about the upcoming 20 episodes that are slated to premiere in two chunks, creator and showrunner Jeff Rake confirmed that Season 4 of the hit supernatural mystery thriller picks up a full two years after the events of the Season 3 finale. The dreaded Death Date for Ben (Josh Dallas), Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh), Cal (Ty Doran), Saanvi (Parveen Kaur), and the rest of the 828ers is now just two years away. "That makes things quite more urgent, makes people a little bit more out of their mind," Rake teased. "Even the most rational among us would start to lose it as you get closer and closer to a potential doomsday."

But hey, if Zeke Landon (Matt Long) was able to dodge fate and the Grim Reaper, then there's plenty of hope left for our heroes. While Ben and his minutiae-wired brain may be the passengers' only chance at salvation, he's not exactly in the right mindset to do anything about it following the devastating murder of Grace (Athena Karkanis) at the hands of religious zealot Angelina (Holly Taylor) in the final episode of Season 3. She not only killed Ben's wife, but also absconded with the Stones' newborn daughter, Eden. Losing your wife and child in the same day tends to send a person to the deepest depth of despair. Part 1 dives headfirst into a family once again shattered by unimaginable grief.

"Ben is questioning everything, not only the callings, but God and the Universe and his own goodness versus evil," explained Dallas, who was required to grow out a "grief beard" for the occasion. "The loss of Grace has left this enormous void in him and a profound depth of anger. The thing about anger is it begs to stick around. It can rob you of your light and leave you with nothing to offer. It makes you hurt the ones who love you, and Ben does a fair bit of that. I think a part of him wills that sorrow to persist, because he thinks that if he lets go of it and heals from his grief, he'll somehow lose Grace forever."

Manifest creator teases Netflix final season: ‘The endgame won’t change’

"The aftermath of that tragedy and how it has impacted every member of that family, their journey battling between desire for vengeance and attempting to get their head around the idea of forgiveness and healing is really at the center," continued Rake. "There's an entirely different aspect of this block of episodes that is steeped in the scientific and mythological."

J.R. Ramirez (Detective Jared Vasquez), Luna Blaise (Olive Stone), and Daryl Edwards (NSA chief Robert Vance) round out the principal cast. Jack Rapke, Jackie Levine, and Len Goldstein serve as executive producers alongside Rake.

Seasons 1-3 of Manifest are currently available to stream on Netflix. The first half of Manifest's final season lands on the platform Friday, Nov. 4. Click here to watch a sneak peek clip. A premiere date for Part 2 has yet to be announced. "I've been treating it as two seasons," Rake added. "I just decided, for my purposes, that I was going to treat the story as if we had been gifted two 10-episode seasons."

See below for a number of first look images:

Manifest Season 4 Episode 2 Photo: Peter Kramer/Netflix

Manifest Season 4 Episode 6 Photo: Peter Kramer/Netflix

Manifest Season 4 Episode 5 Photo: Peter Kramer/Netflix

Looking for more sci-fi? Check out Battlestar Galactica, Brave New World, SYFY's Resident Alien, and more streaming on Peacock.

Watch Resident Alien