The Entire Manifest Timeline Explained

As the series progresses, the Stone family is able to trace their story's origins back to ancient history through the Callings, which frequently depict details found in mythology and Biblical text. Since the Divine Consciousness seems to be timeliness, omniscient, and omnipresent, those who encounter it are able to tap into these moments.

The first known event in "Manifest" is the Great Flood, a cataclysmic deluge recounted in Judeo-Christian mythology as well as many other faith traditions. Although it is not known how the events surrounding the flood unfolded, the mysterious Project Eureka is gifted a petrified piece of 6000-year-old driftwood infused with Omega Sapphire and peacock DNA that Saanvi (Parveen Kaur) concludes is from Noah's ark. The presence of the sapphire and the ark's unique properties indicate that the ark traveled into the Divine Consciousness much as the passengers of Flight 828 would do several millennia later. At an unknown period in Ancient Egypt, the Last Trial parchment foretelling is also created.

Olive (Luna Blaise) and TJ (Garrett Wareing) later find clues connected to the Oracle of Delphi, the professional title of an Ancient Greek high priestess who lived sometime after the 14th century B.C. She also learns that the Biblical Ten Commandments are connected to the Omega Sapphire, implying that the tablets were given in connection to a Calling. Closer to the modern era sometime in the 16th century, Yusuv Al-Zuras' ship is swept into the Divine Consciousness where he and his crewman observe Flight 828 flying through the sky.

Shortly after landing, the passengers begin to realize the strange experience extends far beyond missing time. Fortuitously, Cal's cancer has not progressed during his absence, and the family soon learns that during the time they were missing, research from one of the 828 passengers, Saanvi, has been developed into an advanced pediatric cancer treatment. Although Cal is initially rejected by the study, Saanvi advocates for him and he is eventually approved.

Almost immediately, the passengers begin to experience Callings — hallucinations compelling them to take certain actions. Michaela and Ben hear their own voices directing them to a metalworking shop where they trespass and locate two girls who have been abducted and are being held captive. Later, 20 of the passengers and a crew member follow a Calling to their airplane, and upon arriving, they witness its spontaneous explosion. Understandably, this causes the NSA to dig deeper into the passengers. As the passengers begin to pick up the pieces of their lives, Saanvi discovers an unusual biomarker in Cal's blood and, later, a similar biomarker in her own blood. The revelation causes her to begin using her medical knowledge to research the physiology of the passengers.

Like the Stones, Captain Bill Daly (Frank Deal) has difficulty adjusting to his return after five-plus years. As the pilot of Flight 828, many believe Daly knows more than he is letting on and harbors the secret of the flight's disappearance, while Daly believes that some kind of strange "dark lightning" caused a paranormal event. During the original storm, Daly makes a split-second decision to head straight into the lightning, believing it the only way to save lives, but the official records contain no mention of the freaky weather event. After approaching his co-pilot Daniel Amuta Clarke (Leajato Amara Robinson), who also experienced the strange phenomenon, Daly and Ben learn that a meteorologist who also discovered dark lightning was silenced by the powers that be.

Intent on clearing his name, Daly reveals everything he knows about the gamma-ray-producing weather to Ben. He then abducts Fiona Clarke (Francesca Faridany), a neural psychologist and fellow passenger connected to the Singularity Project who believes that human brains can be networked together like a computer system. Before anyone can stop him, Daly forces Fiona onto a plane, and flies it directly into a dark lightning storm front and disappears right in front of the Air National Guard, who predictably cover up the event by claiming they shot the plane down.

After 828 passenger Adrian (Jared Grimes) finds the Church of the Returned — a religious cult that exalts the 828 passengers as miracle workers — a woman named Alice (Grace Rex) abducts Saanvi at gunpoint and demands the doctor heal her husband. Saanvi later sees a therapist for post-traumatic stress, not knowing that the therapist is really the Major working undercover to get all of Saanvi's juicy deets.

At Michaela's place, Zeke has a vision of a terrifying CGI wolf, and Cal experiences the same Calling. Zeke forms a friendship with the younger Stone and helps him understand that his drawings don't cause the future; they predict it. As Cal draws his wolf vision for Zeke, police pull an armed robber's van out of the bay three days after it crashes into the water, only to discover its driver — a career criminal named James Griffin (Marc Menchaca) — is still alive. Saanvi tests his blood, and discovers the same biomarker found in the 828 survivors and Zeke.

After Griffin receives Callings warning of a bomb threat, he uses the information to gain immunity for his past deeds, while the 828ers experience their own warning against Griffin's plan to go public about the visions. But before it can happen, Griffin drowns while standing on a busy Manhattan street, leading Ben to calculate that each survivor has a death date related to the time they were missing. According to his math, the 828ers' death will occur on June 2, 2024.

After the Major finds a breakthrough in Saanvi's 828 research, she has Saanvi fired so she can no longer access her own work. Saanvi tries to force the Major's hand by inducing anaphylaxis, but the antidote vial gets broken in their tussle and the Major dies. In her final moments, the Major reveals that the government plans to weaponize and replicate 828 DNA.

TJ heads to Egypt to research the Callings and find a way to evade the death dates, while Zeke, whose date is fast approaching, begins to experience frostbite and hypothermia. Zeke and Michaela decide to seize the day and start planning to tie the knot. All of that is threatened when Michaela ignores a Calling telling her to release three suspected criminals she's in the process of nabbing. Their leader Jace becomes obsessed with punishing her for her decision.

After the Meth Heads escape their prison transport, they kidnap Cal. Jared, Zeke, and Mick go after him, but Cal runs away and falls into a frozen lake when dark lightning strikes the ice, plunging the Meth Heads into the water with him. Zeke jumps in to save him just as his death date comes due and is resurrected moments later. Later, when police try to recover the Meth Heads' bodies, they find no trace of the three criminals, suggesting that they were resurrected as well.

Saanvi, distraught at accidentally killing the Major, realizes she is no longer experiencing Callings. Zeke's Callings are gone too, but he soon learns he's been gifted with a powerful empathic ability that he gladly uses to help others. Vance works his way back into the NSA and ends up heading Project Eureka, a highly advanced secret operation devoted to researching 828-related phenomena. He brings Saanvi on board as a researcher and allows Ben access to the headquarters, where the team has been piecing the recovered wreckage of Flight 828 back together. There, Ben learns that one of the passengers killed by a gunshot wound now has injuries reflective of an airplane crash in the Caribbean.

Ben and Saanvi conclude that even if one person in a Lifeboat fails the Death Date, everyone inside of it dies. Saanvi also discovers sapphire — a substance that's also found on Ben's hand and the tailfin — inside the Meth Heads, which causes Dr. Gupta (Mahira Kakkar) to reveal her belief that sapphire is the signature of the Divine. To boot, Eureka has received a piece of sapphire-infused driftwood they believe to be from Noah's ark and learn it was pushed up from the ocean floor by a dormant volcano.

Ben is arrested while out on a Calling, and the Stones learn that 828ers are getting arrested all over the world. Michaela worries that Saanvi must also turn herself in for her role in the Major's death to save the Lifeboat, but when she learns of Henry Kim's (Clem Cheung) execution and her own censure by the NYPD, Michaela turns in her badge instead of Saanvi. Cal sneaks the increasingly unhinged Angelina into his house, hiding her in his bedroom, and the 828 Stones begin having painful visions of themselves burning alive, which Cal manifests as physical burns on his abdomen.

With the ark fragment gone, Eureka experiments on the tailfin, which Saanvi worries will end badly. Stuck on house arrest, Ben tells Saanvi and Mick they have to destroy the tailfin. Angelina convinces Cal to visit Eureka, and in return he tells her where the Stones keep their hidden house key. When the Stones learn Cal is at Eureka, Olive removes Ben's ankle monitor and places it on herself. At Eureka, Saanvi discovers Cal's burns have worsened and are strangely covered in sapphire. The Stones prepare to leave for the hospital burn unit, but Cal, who refuses to leave without the tailfin, sneaks off, touches the tailfin, and disappears instantaneously. Using drawings found in Cal's room, Ben and Saanvi convince Vance to let them drop the tailfin in the ocean, which causes Cal to reappear, but restored to his original age.

Two years pass following Cal's reappearance, Grace's murder, and Eden's kidnapping. The Stones have no leads as to where Angelina has taken the child. Ben is holed up in the attic with nothing but his grief beard and his evidence board to keep him company, while poor Cal struggles with the fact that he is five years older without having actually experienced growing up. He's also receiving his share of cold shoulders from his surviving family members. Meanwhile, Angelina has been hopping around from safehouse to safehouse teaching Eden to think of her as "Mommy." Although disturbed by her behavior, Adrian allows the pair to shelter at his compound where he and the 828 cultists have taken up residence.

Despite reports of his execution, it turns out Henry Kim is alive in Shanghai Province, China, apparently undergoing forced experimentation by the Chinese government until unexpectedly teleporting into a cherry blossom orchard with a blinding flash of light. He stows away aboard a cargo ship to New York where he's discovered by Michaela Stone with the help of a Calling. Henry gives Team Stonevi the plane's black box, and helps Saanvi find Callings hidden in the audio file.

Reunited with Eden, the Stones search for a new normal despite the fact that Eden distrusts her father thanks to Angelina's brainwashing, while Cal's health rapidly begins to decline. His relationship with his father suffers further damage when he continues letting Angelina contact Eden by phone. And like the other Stones, Eden, now a preschool-age child, continues to experience regular Callings. Michaela begins to receive Callings about murdered 828ers, and she, Jared, and Mikami (Ellen Tamaki) soon begin to realize there's a serial killer targeting the 828 passengers. Although Cal is temporarily a suspect in the killings, the real killers turn out to be Angelina's fanatical parents who believe themselves to be doing God's work.

Zeke, now a counselor, continues to take others' pain away as part of his therapy sessions, but it means taking the pain into himself — a sacrifice that comes at great personal cost. The pressure finally gets to him, causing him to fall temporarily off the wagon, but he gets his head straight when he sees Cal collapse. After quietly having some tests run, Cal confirms that his leukemia has returned, and it seems to be progressing rapidly.

While holding a group of kids hostage at her former religious school, Angelina's rage and the sapphire cause lava to rise up through fissures in the ground, creating a dangerous situation in the sanctuary. Powered by the sapphire, Angelina seems virtually unstoppable to everyone except a dying Cal, who psychically battles her with help from the sapphire in his blood and dragon scar. Although he manages to shatter the Omega Sapphire during the confrontation, giving Mick and Ben a chance to free the kids, Angelina reaches her hand into the lava for a sapphire shard that fuses into her flesh. As she runs away, fissures spread all around her, creating an apocalyptic scene much like the one in the 828ers' visions.

Back at the Stone household, Cal has expended what little life he had in his epic duel with Angelina. After Zeke, who previously spends Cal's final day granting him bucket list wishes and has not left his side during the battle, feels the life drain out of his nephew, he takes a moment to call Michaela and tell her goodbye. In one of the show's most heartbreaking moments, Michaela and Ben arrive home to find a dying Ben and a lifeless Cal. As Michaela weeps over Zeke's body and Ben and Olive over Cal's, Cal awakens, saved by Zeke's sacrifice for a second time.