Manifest flies into uncharted territory in ‘Turbulence’ (Recap)

This week’s Manifest is all about owning your truth, but that message means something different for each of the passengers. Here’s your recap of “Turbulence.”

Tonight’s episode of Manifest starts with a flashback to before the plane took off. It zeroes in on Kelly Taylor, the woman who was on the news last week and who ended up dead at the end of the episode. She’s on the phone telling someone that she got booked onto another flight and she happens to be sitting across from Ben, Michaela and Cal.

Ben and Michaela are talking about how the vacation was like a little break for Ben and Grace. Michaela knows he’s under a lot of stress with everything they’re going through with Cal.

Before they take off, Kelly says she’s never flying Montego again. “I’d rather die,” she says. Flash back to the present and the police are at her house taking pictures of her dead body.

At the Stone residence, Michaela and Cal are playing word games while Grace gets work done. Olive is watching the news and Ben sees the news about Kelly’s death. They’re talking about how vocal she has been since they returned. Grace becomes concerned that Kelly was all over the news and so were they. Grace spots the word game and sees that Cal wrote, “Own your truth.” Upstairs, Cal watches Olive sneak out.

Ben gets a call from Saanvi about an unknown marker in Cal’s blood that wasn’t there before the flight. It’s not dangerous, but it is mysterious. Ben recalls the vitamins they got in quarantine. Saanvi promises to keep him posted.

Michaela gets into a car for the first time since being back and she has a flashback from the accident. She goes back into the house and asks Ben for a ride, and he wonders why they allowed her back at work. She didn’t tell them about the nerves.

On the way, Michaela tells Ben that he has to stay in the car but he says he needs to find out what’s going on to protect his family. He feels cooped up without a job to do and he wants to help her.

When they get to Kelly’s house, there are tons of people all over the street praying for Kelly. Michaela flashes her badge and gains entry. They think it was a botched robbery but they also think she was a target because she was on Flight 828. NSA Director Vance arrives and takes over the scene, revealing Michaela and Ben’s identities. They’re escorted outside, and Ben wants to know why the people are there praying. They’re zealots. They find Mr. Taylor and he’s upset because he told his wife not to talk about what happened but she did anyway. She said she had a “calling” that made her talk to the media.

The next day, Ben tells Grace that she needs to be careful. She still has to go to work because their expenses doubled. He promises to get a job.

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Michaela reviews the tapes of Kelly on the news and she keeps saying the phrase “own your truth,” which is what they wrote with the word game. Jared tells her that the detective called and was upset but Michaela says that she could be in danger. He relents. Outside, Ben is waiting for her and Michaela tells him about the phrase. She says it was the message in her head, too, and Kelly calling out the government was probably why she was targeted.

Mr. Taylor tells them that Kelly started using the phrase all the time two days prior. She said it about everything, and then she went on television even though she hated politics. Apparently she thought there was clicking on the phone and black SUVs outside. As they leave, they see everyone gathered for the funeral, and Michaela has a flashback to the funeral of her friend Evie who died in the accident. Ben sees her discomfort and takes her out.

Grace is at work with Cal, and she tells her partner that she ended things with Danny because of Ben coming back. Rob wonders if she is happy with her decision, because he’s protective of Danny. Grace admits she’s not sure she made the right decision.

Michaela goes to see Evie’s parents and her mother Beverly answers the door. She says she needs to “own her truth.” She welcomes Michaela inside, and soon Michaela realizes that she has dementia because she starts calling for Evie. Her husband comes in and marvels at Michaela’s appearance before going to help his wife. He tells his wife their daughter is at the market because he couldn’t bear repeating the story to her and seeing her fall apart again and again.

Back at the station, Jared tells Michaela that he did some digging but he sees that she’s upset. She says she went to Evie’s house, and he wants to know why she did it. He reminds her that she was cleared. “Don’t waste your miracle on your pain,” he tells her. He tells her about the Taylor family and that she owned a mall. That’s probably where she got her hair done when she came back with bruises.

Ben talks to Saanvi and says she has the same marker in her blood. She’s going to run some tests. In the meantime, Ben searches his house for bugs and wires and he finds a condom in the nightstand. The doorbell rings, and it’s Cal’s best friend Kevin, all grown up. Cal gets home from school and Kevin offers to go for pizza some time, and Ben asks if he plays Fortnite. Maybe they can play. It turns out that Kevin’s there to see Olive. Grace arrives home and tells Kevin to text Olive later.

Inside, Ben tells Grace that he found footprints outside and Cal volunteers that Olive snuck out. She gets home and tells her parents that they need to work out their issues. Grace knows Olive messed up but she’s also confident that everything is okay. Ben admits he’s still not sure how to deal with it all, and Grace understands.

Michaela arrives and says that she has a lead. Since Kelly owned the mall, maybe there was another message about “own your truth” that they’re missing. They go to the mall and a woman runs away when she sees them coming. As they run, there’s a clock that says 8:28. The woman says that Mr. Taylor is very strict on rent or he will call immigration. She thought Kelly was coming to collect and she ran, knocking her down. Michaela asks about “own your truth” and realizes Kelly was trying to shut it down.

Olive finds Cal playing. She asks why he ratted her out and he says he was worried about her safety. But really he’s upset because Kevin was his best friend. She reminds him that she was his best friend but he points out that they’re not even twins anymore.

Vance shows up at the NYPD asking about Michaela. She’s a person of interest in his investigation and he asks Jared what Michaela is doing. He threatens his job and asks for tabs on what she’s doing, warning Jared not to cross him.

Jared finds Michaela waiting to see what Mr. Taylor said during his interrogation. He has an alibi while the other guy found at the scene had blood on him. Jared tells her to let it go because people are watching her.

Saanvi continues her own investigation and finds a link to ischemic strokes.

Ben gets home to find the front door open. He goes inside and grabs a bat. He finds a man in the closet and it turns out he’s a friend of Grace’s. Olive forgot her shinguards, and Lindsay went to get them for her. Grace gets home and Ben wants to know how many men have keys. Grace says she was on her own for over five years and Lindsay was there to help with Olive’s soccer, and others helped her take care of other things. Grace promises he won’t need to meet any of the other ones because he’s home.

Michaela goes to the holding cell to find the man who killed Kelly. Isaiah says he knows exactly who Michaela was. She returned to them. He didn’t kill Kelly, rather he held her while she died. He’s not worried about dying because when he dies he will return, pure, like the passengers.

Michaela goes to talk to Glenn and Beverly, and Glenn says he lost Beverly. The police said he needs to stay at the house so he gives Michaela his keys and tells her to go find her. Behind the wheel, Michaela has a flashback of when she and Evie were leaving the bar. Michaela tried to call an Uber but Evie took her keys and ran off. Michaela starts the car and drives off to look for Beverly. She finds her in the middle of the street and a car is about to hit her. Michaela swerves in front of the car and stops it. The driver of the car is Christine, the woman who was helping Mr. Taylor. She has Kelly’s necklace inside the car.

The police interrogate Christine, who was the maid until Kelly left on the plane, and then she and Kelly’s husband became lovers. Kelly was supposed to be dead. That’s why she killed her again. Outside, Jared asks what is happening to Michaela. She keeps landing in the right place at the right time. She admits something has changed inside her but she knows that the less he knows, the better.

Olive and Cal clear the air while Ben goes to help Grace clean the kitchen. He asks about the other guy and asks if she loved him. Grace says she loves Ben, and never stopped. Never once.

Michaela plays cards with Evie while Jared takes Vance’s card and rips it up. Olive and Cal play video games while Ben updates his resume. He has a PhD in Applied Mathematics. Michaela comes in and says Saanvi needs to see them.

Saanvi explains that the marker could be a sign that they were near death and brought back. She needs some brain tissue and was hoping to get some from Kelly Taylor but her body is missing from the morgue. Ben realizes that the feds have hidden her body from them.

Manifest airs Mondays at 10:00 p.m. on NBC.