“Unclaimed Baggage” is episode four of season one of Manifest.
Director Vance orders that surveillance be cut on Kelly Taylor, who was killed in “Reentry”, and to keep looking for connections between the other 19 people who were there when the plane exploded. It goes back to one of them, the flight attendant Bethany Collins, on the plane being told by the captain they were being diverted and law enforcement would meet them on the tarmac. She heads back and retrieves something from a bag.
Saanvi is at the hospital when she briefly sees what looks like a statue walk past her, then sees wet footprints on the floor. She turns and the statue is behind her, alive. Then someone speaks to her and it vanishes. Saanvi asks if a neurologist, Dr Feldman, still works at the hospital.
Ben is at home talking to Grace when Olive comes in. Olive was supposed to have driving lessons later, but her grandfather and Cal are staying away longer and she doesn’t want Ben to teach her in a different car. Afterwards, Grace says Olive has a hard time with change and she’s been through a lot of that recently.
Michaela is at work where the captain is briefing them on a joint op with the ATF. She’s partnered with Jared, because the detective she was supposed to be working with isn’t coming in.
Saanvi is talking to Dr Feldman, claiming she has brain scans of a patient of hers who’s got an unusual blood marker and is having hallucinations. It’s her, not a patient. Feldman says that the area affected is consistent with hallucinations, and brings up the scan of a homeless man with schizophrenia with the same areas affected in a more pronounced way. Afterwards, Saanvi follows some wet footprints to a room. A man bursts out of it, babbling about Bethany, before being sedated by two orderlies.
At home, Grace receives a letter. Ben meets with Saanvi, who talks about what she saw and how it led her to the psych ward where a patient grabbed her, talking about Bethany. Saanvi wants to talk to Bethany, but lacks her contact details. Ben has them. He’s started a database on every passenger, to frame the information in a way he understands. Then Grace calls him, saying he needs to come home.
Michaela and Jared are in the car on stakeout, where they will be for the next 6-7 hours. He heads to get coffee and his phone gets a message.
Grace tells Ben she might have to sell the kitchen. They need the money. Ben reassures her that he will get a job in spring and some part-time lecturing prior. They’ll be fine. Grace tells him they won’t be. It’s a lot bigger than that. When he and Cal disappeared, she shut down but the world didn’t and bills kept rolling in. They almost lost the house. Then the insurance money came in. The death benefits. Now, the insurance company wants it back. It’s half a million. And there’s nothing left, as she paid everything off, then used the equity in the house to start the business.
Olive is out shopping with a friend, trying on makeup. She can’t afford to buy it and swipes some, and is promptly spotted by the security guard.
Jared returns to the car. Michaela says he got a text message from the person she was supposed to be with, thanking Jared for tickets to the game. Jared engineered it because he’s worried about her. He’s tried asking but couldn’t get a straight answer. The Michaela sees a statue, the one Saanvi saw, but with wings, and hears a voice saying to save him., She becomes convinced the undercover ATF agent inside is in trouble and everyone rolls in early. The agent is fine.
Saanvi heads to see Bethany who, it seems, knows the man who accosted her. Vance is being told about him as well; his prints weren’t in the police database, but were in theirs. They were taken from the plane. A stowaway. Bethany explains how she told the man, Thomas, to sneak out of the plane when they landed. Thomas was the boyfriend of her cousin Leo, and being gay in Jamaica is dangerous. After a friend was beaten to death, they posted a video calling out the cops for not investigating and became targets. Leo had a plane ticket, but Thomas couldn’t get a passport, and she smuggled him out. Thomas arrived in a strange city, not knowing five years had gone by.
Michaela has caused problems for Jared, as she misunderstood who she was to save. That being Thomas, who has his own problems.