“Off Radar” is episode six of season one of Manifest.
On Flight 828, a man is asking for help in a foreign language. Cal and Saanvi hear him, and Saanvi speaks to him. The woman behind her replies in the same language. In the present, Grace and Ben are woken by Cal yelling the same thing in the same language. He has a fever of 103.2 and they rush him to hospital.
Vance is watching the Flight 828 Investigative Forum and he isn’t impressed. He speaks to his deputy, Powell, about a DARPA report and wants the other agencies reminding this is a joint investigation. Powell asks if Vance is going to share that Jared became, in theory, their inside man in “Connecting Flights”. Vance wants to see how helpful Jared is first. And he expects Jared to lie to start with.
Michaela calls Jared from the hospital and explains about Cal. Dr Williams is with Cal, along with Saanvi. They’re going to run a full series of labs. Grace follows Dr Williams to ask her if there’s any chance it’s the experimental treatment making Cal sick. The doctor doesn’t believe so.
Ben is talking to Saanvi when Cal starts talking again. Saanvi recognises what he’s saying; she heard the same thing on the plane. Perhaps Cal heard the same thing. It was some guy who needed help with a customs form. Ben brings up his details on the flight. A Bulgarian, named Marko Valeriev. One of the few people Ben hasn’t been able to track down. Mostly foreign nationals, and presumably some people who went into hiding after Kelly’s murder. Saanvi remembers that the woman behind helped Marko. Ben has her; Anna Ross, a translator.
Michaela goes to see Anna at a motel. She says Marko needed help the entire time they were in the hangar. And that those with no place to go, like her and Marko, were taken on shuttles to government shelters.
Michaela phones Ben about this. Grace wants to know what Ben isn’t telling her. He isn’t sure if he can explain or if she’ll believe him. Grace asks Ben if he’s been keeping up with the news story about the dead people who came back to life on a magic aeroplane. Ben explains what he knows, and that he thinks Cal’s fever is connected to this. Grace is concerned he’ll go down the rabbit hole like he did last time Cal became sick. Ben says they need to find out what happened. Grace says that’s what other people need to do; he needs to concentrate on Cal.
Michaela is at the precinct with Anna. Jared sees her; he thinks she was lying about a personal day because of Cal. But he doesn’t care anymore. Michaela tells Anna the NYPD escorted four buses. Anna tells her there were five.
Ben and Saanvi are looking at the news footage. There are clearly five buses. The 11 people that Ben can’t find aren’t on this footage. They’re all either foreign nationals or have no living relatives. People easy to lose. Cal’s monitors start going off as he’s saying ‘Hurry’ in Bulgarian. As is Marko himself.
Ben narrows down the location that the fifth bus went to to a handful of locations. Michaela wants to check them out; Ben wants her to take Jared with her. She thinks that’s a terrible idea. Ben tells her it’s a necessary one. Jared is understandably reluctant, but agrees.
The missing passengers are being experimented on, and Cal seems to be connected to Marko in some way. What makes Marko ill, makes Cal ill. Grace may want Ben to focus on Cal, not the plane, but they are connected. She’s also getting worried. Concealing the truth isn’t helping, but telling it isn’t helping much either.