Manifest Episode 14: Upgrade Recap and Review-Grey Wolf And Other Symbols

All signs point to Adrian and his followers, but as dangerous as they are, they are not even close to being the biggest threat.

Courtesy of NBC

This week the already symbol heavy Manifest got a few more in episode 14: Upgrade. There is already the number, peacock, Gemini twins,the recent addition of Adrian, the leader of the supremely creepy Church of the Returned lends a very realistic viewpoint to the show we have been missing so far. It was ridiculous to assume all of the returned would be good people. Autumn spied on the Returned for her child( not her proudest moment I’m sure) but did not seek to trade on her power or fame for personal profit. She was uninterested in money or power. Adrian is capitalizing on his notoriety to create a group of disciples. He craves the control he has over them and from the quickly growing group, new headquarters and large amount of money being dropped into the plate he is about to get power and funds. The problem with creating a cult-like church reliant on a singular living person or small group is the followers tend to become fixated and desperate. He creates an army of zealots. This makes for a dangerous situation. Adrian pretends for a time to believe the nonsense he preaches, but when confronted by Ben his facade crumbles and the truth is revealed, he is no different than any charismatic cult leader who seeks only to control people and reap the benefits.

His teachings created an environment that stoked the fires of Alice’s desperation and led to the kidnapping of Saanvi. I was glad to see her more this episode, but she really has become a B Team member, and that is too bad. She has far more to offer than just damsel in distress and tech support. Her keen mind needs to be employed more if we are to have any hope of solving the puzzle. In addition, her research may be the key that unlocks the entire thing. At the very least it could prove the returnees came from another place that altered them or they are doppelgangers from another parallel universe. Mich and Ben arrived to save Saanvi so off she goes back to the Scooby lab. The one piece of news she shared was of someone who left her hanging at the airport on the way to Jamaica. Who that was and why they left her is still unknown. It can’t be Zeke as the name didn’t cause any reaction with her and that definitely is not a common name. The importance of that story is unclear, but it is highly unlikely that this story is just another lousy breakup from a dumb bro.

Numerology continues to be prominent in Manifest. All visible numbers are derivatives of 828 in some way. It is literally like an odd number doesn’t exist any longer. Mich’s apartment is 414. Lourdes and Jared’s apartment number is 3528, and Alice and Jacob live at 2L. The electric van had some very exciting numbers as well. If everything is connected than the world of Manifest may be one colossal fractal. All dependent parts make up a whole and are self-repeating endlessly. Symmetry within chaos.

The Lourdes, Mich, Jared triangle is over for now. The cat is out of the bag now, and Lourdes is devastated. You have to feel sorry for both of these women. They are caught in a terrible situation where neither one can get what they want without paying a steep price. It really is a tragedy they find themselves in. Neither woman or Jared planned for this to happen and wanted to hurt the other, but the reality is Jared has always loved Mich and for her only hours had passed not years. It would be curious to know if Lourdes held a torch for Jared all those years ago and when she married Jared and then lost him to Mich just now if that is another example of history repeating itself even if no one knows it.

The Major believes Cal may be the strongest of the group. His ability to foretell the future and act as an antenna for the callings is crucial to her. What she wants from him is anybody’s guess, but she has a fully stocked war room and plenty of goons to do her bidding. Her operation is by no means slip-shod. She is a powerful enemy. For all her power she appears to have zero control over the Dark Lightning or the callings which is interesting. If she could control the bursts and jump people back and forth through time as in Continuum why can’t she avoid sucking in people like Zeke and potentially the electrician? Was the original flight an accident and the time jump became the experiment when something else was planned?

The elephant in the room is the cringe-worthy CGI wolf. It was bad, like laughably bad. The message is crucial however. Wolves are symbols of guardianship, instinctual thought, and trust in one’s self. Transformation and regeneration as the wolf cub starts life with eyes closed and slowly becomes aware of her world over time. If someone takes the wolf as their spirit animal or totem, they are seeking to continually transform themselves. The grey wolf in particular lives in climates that consistently require adaptation from the warmth and plenty of summer to the harsh, barren landscape of winter where food is in short supply. The grey wolf stands at the west door protecting change and knowledge. Life requires change however uncomfortable. The Christian biblical verse Mathew 7:15 warns of false prophets or wolves in sheep’s clothing. With Adrian starting his own commune banking on his status as a returnee he is the apparent wolf; however, Cal is drawing pictures of a wolf attacking Michaela. Zeke is in the clear as he also is having the calling and Cal trusts him, which leaves the newest addition, Mr. Schnitman Electric guy. He was pulled out of the river miraculously after driving into it in a freak electric storm. Those popup storms are wreaking havoc all over the place.

One final string to pull is dropped in our laps at the very end. How the man in the Schnitman Electric Van is still alive after being submerged for 80 hours, and what he wants from our core group is a mystery for next week. He knows a great deal and seems to have some superpowers. Either he had an air tank underwater, there somehow was a pocket of oxygen large enough to sustain him for that length of time, he came back to life like a spawn in Minecraft, or he’s Aquaman. Those explanations are all pretty faulty, so 828 immortality sounds as good as any. For now, the license plate number 0280-JQ is our only clue. In a series where every picture, every number, and every word means something the plate number must have significance. The numbers 0280 correspond to NOAA hazmat information for a form of powerful explosives, and the sneak peek from next episode seems to support the theory of a bomb. The license number of the electrician 25936 is the area code for Fayette County West Virginia and a human gene that aids in protein binding of chromosomes during cell division. It is WAY above my pay grade but suffice it to say with all the discussion of twins I am intrigued. At least we only have to wait one week to find some answers.