Jared got demoted to a beat cop about a year before the fourth season of Manifest, because he punched a detective to defend Sam.
Manifest is a series with an interesting premise, and this is why fans keep coming back even though the show is not always as good as they want it to be.
For instance, the reason why Jared was demoted to a beat cop in the time between season three and four, is much more complicated than the fact that he punched another detective.
Is Manifest actually good?
When Manifest originally launched on Netflix in 2018, sci-fi fans were curious to see whether this show would live up to the hype that the NBC and Netflix marketing created.
The premise of the show is interesting enough. The passengers of Flight 828 fly from Jamaica to New York City, but when they arrive at their destination, they realise that five-and-a-half years have passed in the world outside of the plane.
This means that all 191 passengers who were on the plane need to reintegrate into their old lives with friends and families who had thought they were dead.
This interesting premise is what attracted fans initially and the show quickly shot to number one on Netflix.
Furthermore, even though the characters are interesting and unique, people were underwhelmed by the subsequent seasons, even if they did petition to prevent the show from being cancelled.
Why did Jared get demoted in Manifest?
The fourth season of Manifest is split into two parts and the first part was released on Netflix on 4 November 2022.
Although it is pretty standard practise for the creators of Manifest to leave their audience with more questions than answers, the first episode of this fourth season really did its best to intrigue the audience to binge the rest as soon as possible to find out what will happen next.
One of the first mysteries that left fans confused in this episode was the fact that even though it is set two years after the season three finale, Jared Vasquez arrives at the Stone household in a beat cop uniform instead of in his regular detective wear.
He later explains that he was demoted as a detective over a year ago. The answer for why Jared got demoted is only uncovered in the sixth episode, which is titled “Relative Bearing”.
In this episode, it is revealed during a flashback sequence that Jared was demoted because he punched a detective who was harassing Sam.
Although this is a sad turn for Jared’s character, fans of the show were happy to see him grow from having an inflexibly rigid moral compass, to accepting that he just wants to protect the people that he loves and that he is still a significant character even though Michaela chose Zeke over him.
How has Jared grown as a character throughout the show?
Jared has always been one of the most morally upstanding characters on the show, sometimes even to a fault. However, this season, fans of the show got to see his moral compass compromised a bit.
Although there are instances of change happening all throughout this season, it is clear that the biggest change happens for Jared when he realises that in order to protect Sam when she is being harassed, he will need to place himself on the wrong side of the law.
This feeds into what Vance was saying about how good people need to take advantage of moral grey areas in order to help the greater good.
Will Jared ever get his position as detective back?
Fortunately for Jared, his demotion to beat cop does not last forever. Jared is promoted to a detective again in the eight episode of season four, when Jared and Michaela gather evidence on Noelle in order to get her convicted as the 828 killer.
Even though Noelle does not end up being the killer, the NYPD can still sentence her for a myriad of other crimes, which is what earns Jared his shield back.
What will happen to Jared on the show in the future?
Even though the future of every character on a show like Manifest in always undetermined, the one thing that Jared’s character arc always returns to is his love for Michaela.
Michaela eventually ended up choosing Zeke over Jared, but they still have a close relationship, and he often helps her with the “callings”.
With the changes that have happened in the season so far, Zeke is no longer an obstacle standing between them and this means that there may be a chance for Jared to get his happy ending in the show after all.
