Let's Break Down the ‘Manifest’ Season 4 Ending

If you have a Manifest fan in your life, show them a lil' grace right now because they're likely in mourning. The final episode of the final season has come and gone and let me tell ya, it's been a wild ride (both emotionally and literally on that airplane).

Heading into the season 4 finale, the passengers of Flight 828 were hurtling towards their Death Date, and IDK about you, but I had a lot of questions (and anxiety) about how this was all going to end. Now, to be fair, us Manifest fans were just happy to even have a finale to watch after NBC abruptly cancelled the show after season 3, and Netflix later swooped in to save it, so we'll take whatever episodes we can get.

With that said, let's buckle up one last time for a ride through the Manifest series finale.

The Death Date is here!!

The episode kicks off on the morning after Cal's self-sacrifice, AKA Death Day, with Michaela, Ben, Saanvi, and TJ all waking up having what seem to be panic attacks—unable to breathe, racing heartbeats, etc.. Honestly kinda shocking they were able to sleep the night before they thought they were gonna die? Anywayyy...

Olive, TJ, and Eden take a walk through the forest and find the volcano card. There's also an inscription on a rock that's kinda hard to read, so Olive, knowing that Ben and Michaela visited that same site as kids, offers to go back to the Stone house and look through old family albums for some clues. Oh, and in case you forgot, the evil Angelina and her culty followers were hiding out at the house.

The passengers aren't going to die alone

Michaela, Ben, Saanvi, and TJ start speculating that their panic attack symptoms are actually a preview of how they're going to die. As scary as that is, they at least won't have to go through it alone? Cal's sacrifice created a beacon of light towards Storm King Mountain that draws other passengers of Flight 828 to it (including Angelina's cult, but thankfully Eagan and Adrian are able to sabotage her van so that she and her followers can't make it there).

In classic Ben style, he tries to give a rousing, inspiring speech to his fellow passengers about Cal's sacrifice but things, uh, don't exactly go to plan when the ground opens up and reveals the freaking plane. Ben and Michaela come to the realization they'll have to go back on the plane if they want a chance of surviving their judgement from the Divine Consciousness.

Olive discovers a weirdddd prophecy

Back at the Stone house, Drea, Olive, and Jared are looking through Olive's grandmother's birdwatching photos, trying to find one of the inscribed rock. The photos are categorized based on bird names and one, the silver drake, catches their attention. Turns out "drake" is another word for dragon, and Al-Zuras had previously described the plane as a silver dragon, so they follow that hunch and find a photo of the rock, which reads "Forgiveness lightens the heart PIXLAZ.” Olive explains that in mythology, some people believe hearts are measured against a feather, and that lightening your heart is as important as any good deeds you've done.

They figure the "AZ" in "PIXLAZ" stands for Al-Zuras, so Olive starts reading through his journal. She finds what she thinks is a picture of Ben carrying her out of the fire (back in season 2), but she realizes it's not her at all. It's Angelina. She calls Ben and tells him the only way to survive his Death Date is to forgive Angelina, which is no easy ask considering she killed his wife and kidnapped his daughter.

The passengers get back on the death plane??

Angelina makes it to the plane (spouting all of her "Chosen One" BS, ofc) and after a confrontation that ends with Ben holding Angelina's gun, rather than shooting her or just leaving her to die from the whole end-of-the-world-volcanoes-exploding thing that seems to be happening on earth (like we all kinda wanted), he carries her onto the plane, just like in the picture Olive found.

Once everyone's on board, Captain Amuta, with his co-pilot Michaela, takes off. Some of the passengers start getting those panic attack symptoms again and then POOF, Paul suddenly disintegrates into ash. It quickly starts happening to others too. Our girl Saanvia starts to burn up but she tells Ben that she's ready to die, believing she's done some terrible things and she deserves it. Ben tells her that killing the Major was an accident and reminds her of all the lives she's saved, and Saanvia is ultimately spared. It's a super touching moment between the two of them but clearly even almost dying isn't enough to bring back their hot romantic spark.

Adrian also starts to crackle and Eagen begs for his life to be taken instead. Cracks start forming on Eagen but after owning up to his own mistakes and selfishness, he's saved.

Then it gets to Angelina, and despite miss thing thinking she's a literal angel, she gets poofed away into ash too. But things then take an even weirder turn (who thought that was even possible with this show??) when a Grim-Reaper-looking figure appears. Ben and Michaela yell at it, begging it to spare the lives of everyone who's left, saying they're worthy of a second chance. It seems to work because the shadowy figure disappears and all the volcanic activity down on earth seems to have stopped. Who knew all you needed to stop the end of the world were a few strongly-worded statements?!

Back to April 7, 2013

Captain Amuta sees the glow in the distance flies the plane straight into it. It's a bold choice but it seems to work 'cause they find themselves safely back on the ground in New York on April 7, 2013 (the day they were supposed to land) with the world going on as if nothing ever happened and only the passengers on the plane knowing the truth. Everyone who died over the past four seasons is alive and well, except for the passengers who combusted during the finale. RIP guys!

Ben and Michaela's mom and Grace are both waiting for them at the airport, Olive is still 11, and TJ's mom is alive! Grace asks where Cal is, until she spots a young Cal getting off the plane and handing Saanvi her computer (although he doesn't remember who she is). Now getting a re-do, Saanvi gets another chance with Alex, Ben tells Grace Saanvi will cure Cal, and Michaela ends things with Jared on her own terms (and sends him on his way to meet Drea for the first time). Eden was never born and Ben makes an uncomfy comment to Grace about how they "have work to do."

Vance shows up to conduct yet another investigation into Flight 828 since, ya know, 11 people didn't make it to the final destination.

Michaela takes off and finds Zeke driving a cab outside the airport, and although he doesn't remember their relationship, he doesn't even seem that surprised by Michaela hopping in the front seat, telling him to drive, and mysteriously saying she has a lot to tell him. If they hadn't found their way back to each other I would have rioted, but it's ok everyone! We can rest easy!

So wait, that's the end?!

Unfortunately, yeah! Manifest has officially come to an end! After its big NBC cancellation, fans finally got to know what happened next to the passengers of 828 and in true Lost fashion had us all on the edge of our seat until the last second. Don't worry though, this was all planned so yes, you got to see the show's true ending.

Watch 'Manifest' on Netflix

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