Now that fans know time travel is possible on Manifest outside of Flight 828, they're going to be watching for signs of more time travel possibilities. So, did Michaela and Zeke time travel on Manifest? The end of the Jan. 28 episode featured a lightning storm not unlike what the 828 passengers experienced that transported five years into the future.
Except, it would make more sense this time if the storm took Michaela and Zeke back in time. Both of them kept getting a calling to "go back" and a vision that featured a cliff surrounded by stars. At the end of the episode, both of them found the starry cliff, and that's when the lightning began. It also came very shortly after Michaela said, "I just keep wishing I could re-do my whole re-entry." Is she about to? If people can travel forward in time, it stands to reason that backwards travel is possible too.
But before you get too worried that Ben's about to lose his sister, the promo for the next episode shows that Zeke and Michaela are still very much in the real world trying to figure out what is going on with them and the other time travelers.
The synopsis for the episode also confirms that Michaela and Zeke are still around. It reads in part, "Michaela must face the consequences of her reunion with Jared. Zeke returns to New York and has an ominous calling." (Also of note in the synopsis, it's actually Saanvi who goes missing! Ben suspects the anti-Flight 828-ers may have taken her, so here's hoping they rescue her quickly.)
As far as what the lightning was that Michaela and Zeke saw, it could have just been a regular storm. Saanvi thinks the plane (either 828 or Captain Daly's stolen plane) caused an aftershock that triggered the earthquake Zeke experienced. The belief there is that the earthquake coupled with the dark lightning in the blizzard produced the same circumstances that the turbulence and the lightning storm did for the plane.
Plus, it's not just any lightning that will make people time travel, and the Washington Post reported that real life dark lightning is pretty rare. The outlet reported that the invisible radiation known as dark lightning only occurs once in every 1000 visible lightning flashes. It's mostly thought of to be a problem for planes, but the Washington Post reported that pilots actively avoid thunderstorms, so it's not really a concern. (Captain Daly, on the other hand...)
It looks like Michaela and Zeke may have found a place where lightning concentrates, which means — after a thousand flashes — they could find dark lightning again. They seem driven to figure out what that calling meant and how it's related to both of them, so expect that to play out in the next episode. But everything would have to come together perfectly to replicate what happened to the plane. Maybe if Captain Daly's plane returns in the future it could cause another aftershock and lead to more time traveling, but without that earthquake/avalanche and a dark lightning storm at the same time, Michaela and Zeke are going to remain firmly in the present timeline.
