Not even the warm caress of Ben Stone’s cashmere sweaters can bring comfort to the widower, whose wife Grace was murdered in the Season 3 finale.
Manifestreturns for its fourth and final season on Friday, Nov. 4 on Netflix, and things have not been well for our hero. Two years have passed, and Ben is still grieving Grace’s death while also desperately searching for their daughter Eden, who was kidnapped by fellow 828er Angeline. With his son Cal also returning five years older, it’s safe to say that the Stone family patriarch is in way over his head.
“He’s not dealing well,” portrayer Josh Dallas tells TVLine of Ben’s journey in the final season. “He is so shaken profoundly by Grace’s murder and Eden’s kidnapping and Cal becoming older that he can’t quite figure it out. He can’t figure out where to put his energy, so he can only focus it on one thing, and that is finding Eden.”
Ben and Grace had planned for a fresh start after the Death Date, but she won’t be around to see it through. “She was supposed to be by his side. He had missed five years, and they somehow found their way back to one another, and she didn’t make it through, and he is profoundly angry about that. [He] can’t let go of his grief about her,” Dallas adds.
“We’re going to see him questioning everything in the very beginning of Season 4. Not only is he questioning the Callings, but God and the universe and his own goodness versus evilness. He’ll go on a journey to where, hopefully, he can come out the other side and ultimately see and understand his own part to play in this story.”
As Ben grapples with an existential crisis, his sister Michaela will lead the efforts in keeping the Lifeboat afloat so they can somehow save the world. “Ben’s grieving, and Michaela is no stranger to grief. She knows what that looks like, but at the same time, that Death Date is coming up,” Melissa Roxburgh says. “She’s struggling with this balance of ‘I need help’ and ‘How do I be there for him?’ There’s tension, and there’s resolve, and there are all the emotions around what that would look like in real life.”
Read on for more intel on Manifest’s remaining episodes.
Get ready for an emotional, super-sized final season.
Season 4 will be split into two 10-episode parts, with Part 1 premiering Friday, Nov. 4 on Netflix.
Dallas describes the final season as an emotional ride. “It is compelling, it is twisty, it is turny, it is everything that you want out of a classic episode of Manifest and more,” he teases. “We get to find out the ultimate answer of what happened to these passengers on Flight 828. In my opinion, it is the perfect ending and resolution to each of these characters, and we can’t wait for people to see it.”
Zeke will have a bit of an identity crisis.
Zeke’s empathetic power has evolved over the last two years, and he’s been using it to help others. “It’s evolved so much now that he sort of has control over it, and he’s able to use it for good,” Matt Long, who plays Zeke, shares. “But it also has become his entire identity, and lost track of who he was before.”
According to the actor, that’s a “really dangerous position for somebody to be in, especially somebody like him, who has the past that he has with addiction issues and all the shame that he carries.”
Jared will continue helping the Stones as the Death Date nears.
The Death Date may be closing in, but the Stone family can still count on Jared to help them find answers. Season 4 will see Jared doing a lot of undercover work while working directly with Drea at a new precinct called “The Registry,” where the government keeps tabs on the 828ers.
“It plays a major part this year,” J.R. Ramirez says. “You’ll see him doing his cop work tenfold and trying to see how he can help this family figure out this crazy Death Date that they have looming over them.”
There will be some tension between Olive and Cal.
Cal’s disappearance and subsequent return five years older should be cause for celebration. But given that he is the reason Angeline was able to sneak into Stones’ home to kill Grace and kidnap Eden, his twin sister Olive won’t be so welcoming.
“It’s not an easy transition,” Luna Blaise, who plays Olive, shares. “In my eyes, Cal is to blame for everything that happened regarding my mother’s death and the kidnapping of my sister.” But over time, the siblings will come to learn that “we have the most power when we work together, so why not become a team?”
For Ty Doran, who portrays an older Cal, it’s a very complicated situation and many questions remain about his disappearance and return.
“Throughout this whole season, there’s this struggle of, ‘What was this for? Why all this pain and all this craziness? What are we supposed to do? How do we make the world better? What does this mean?’” he notes. “I think we get to a place where we can recognize how it all plays into this grand plan that’s coming from somewhere, and eventually, we internalize and accept that and use it as a strength as opposed to a weakness.”
Saanvi and Vance will be teaming up this season.
In Manifest’s final season, Saanvi will be hard at work trying to find a way to save the 828ers from the impending Death Date. Portrayer Parveen Kaur says that she “gets a lot more information, which then puts her on new paths of discovery, and so that’s a bit of a whirlwind.”
Saanvi will be working very closely with Vance in a top-secret location, and “doing what Saanvi does best, which is science-ing.”
As for Vance, actor Daryl Edwards says the former NSA Deputy Director is “trying to work clandestinely outside of official circles to accomplish the same things” while simultaneously having some unexpected difficulties in his personal life.” This season, fans will get more insight into Vance’s personal life, which he calls “challenging” as well as “really fun” to play.
Angeline is in her villain era, but things won’t go as planned.
After murdering Grace and taking Eden for herself, it’s hard to imagine that Angeline will let the young child go anytime soon.
“She feels like Eden is her guardian angel. She’s going to do whatever she can to have Eden with her and take care of her,” Holly Taylor teases. “But it doesn’t really go to plan, so we have to see how she pivots from that strategy and what new purpose she finds next.”
What are you looking forward to in Manifest Season 4? Sound off below!
