How Manifest Season 2 Hinted At Flight 828 Traveling To The Past

Manifest season 2 teased the possibility of Flight 828 traveling to the distant past. The whereabouts of the plane and the passengers is one of the most important mysteries on the NBC series. But so far, Ben (Josh Dallas) and Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh) still have no idea where it was for five and a half years.

Somehow, Flight 828 vanished and returned years later with no explanation. Ever since, a few of the passengers have been determined to figure out what happened to them and why they’ve been receiving these strange messages called the Callings. In season 3, Ben reached an important discovery when he and Vance (Daryl Edwards) took a trip to Cuba and found the Flight 828 tailfin. This led Ben to develop a theory that the plane and everyone on it actually died, and that they were all resurrected (along with the plane itself) just prior to their return in the series premiere.

Resurrection isn’t the only possible explanation that’s been tossed around. Manifest season 2, episode 9 hinted at time travel being part of the equation. Research into a 16th-century explorer named Yusuv Al-Zuras opened up an all-new can of worms with the reveal that he and his crew went through the same experience as the Flight 828 passengers. According to his journal, they disappeared for ten years after entering a storm and returned with both the Callings and an impending Death Date. If the shocking parallels between their journeys weren’t enough, Manifest piled on another massive twist: Al-Zuras somehow saw Flight 828. He noted in his journal that he saw a “silver dragon” flying through the sky. A shared Calling of the plane flying above the ship revealed to the Stone family that Flight 828 is indeed Al-Zuras’ “silver dragon.” In fact, it looks like the plane and the ship were in the storm together, rather than there being two different storms.

If this is true, that would mean that either Al-Zuras, Flight 828, or both of them were traveling in time. As Ben noted in the episode, the Calling appears to be telling them that the plane and the ship crossed paths. If that’s the case, it’s possible that this ties in to where the plane was all this time. It, and perhaps other victims of this phenomenon, were caught in some sort of time vortex that caused them to appear in different time periods. Before returning to its proper place in the timeline, Flight 828 may have briefly materialized over Al-Zuras’ ship, where it was mistaken for a “silver dragon”.

For some reason, Manifest hasn’t spent much time exploring the time travel option, with season 3 leaning more toward the resurrection idea. Cal (Jack Messina) disappearing and returning five years older in the season 3 finale was a sign that the show was about to head back in that direction. Either way, Al-Zuras and his crew laying eyes on Flight 828 in the 16th century was one of the show’s most interesting revelations, and one that feels like it deserved more attention.

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