Ben Stone can easily be called the lead investigator of all the supernatural occurrences in the Manifest universe. He and Saanvi Bahl didn’t leave any stone unturned to figure out what happened to the 828 flight on that fateful day, i.e., April 7, 2013. As Ben went down the rabbit hole, he realized their disappearance had something to do with the violent storm that had hit the flight. As per meteorologist Roger Mencin, the storm had some dark lightning that released a lot of ionizing radiation. Before Ben could investigate further, Roger was murdered. From hereon, every time a person disappeared in the Manifest Universe, these strange lightning phenomena were witnessed, suggesting a possible connection between the two. However, the series has yet to explain its origin explicitly. Many such links and mysteries from science and mythology keep turning up throughout Manifest‘s runtime; however, the mention of the 16th-century Egyptian scholar Yusuz Al-Zuras and a certain kind of lost gemstone called Omega Sapphires caught our attention the most. So, without further ado, let’s explore their link to the disappearance of Montego Air 828.
Yusuz Al-Zuras and His Journal
Olive, her boyfriend, and a passenger, TJ Morrison, came across a deck card given to Olive by a mysterious tarot reader after the disappearance of 828. The card belonged to the Al-Zuras deck and was created by a 16th-century Egyptian scholar, Yusuz Al-Zuras. According to Al-Zuras’s journal, he and his fellow passengers on the boat had been lost in the sea for ten long years. They mysteriously returned with no memory of their disappearance, just like the passengers of 828. After their return, they could hear strange voices in their heads similar to the callings of the 828-ers. Al-Zuras claimed that this was the voice of God, which made him a spiritual leader among his people. In his journal, he also mentioned the word “lumen” or “glow,” which could be similar to the glow on Ben’s hand in the Manifest Universe. Also, Al-Zuras knew about the death date, though it wasn’t mentioned in his journal whether he survived it or not.
Ben Stone believed that the silver dragon that Al-Zuras had mentioned could very easily be the airplane that went missing and reappeared. This further lays down the fact that both Al-Zuras’s ship and Flight 828 were at the same place at the same time, and the only connection between the two was the violent electrical storm that was probably the reason behind the mysterious disappearances. The silver dragon could also be linked to the scar on Henry’s wrist, which was later transferred to Cal. According to Henry, the dragon was the key to solving the greatest mystery, and we will likely witness its role in the Manifest finale.
The Omega Sapphire
The mention of Sapphire turned up quite often in the Manifest Universe. While working in Eureka, Saanvi figured that the mysterious marker or DNA anomaly found in every survivor’s blood had a unique combination of aluminum oxide, iron, titanium, and other components that crystallized to form Sapphire. This explained the glow on Ben Stone’s palms when he touched the missing 828’s tailfin. As per Saanvi’s hypothesis, Sapphire triggered the mysterious disappearance of all the people in the Manifest Universe.
Even the piece of driftwood fossil that Dr. Aria Gupta had brought to Eureka for testing had the same DNA anomaly that was found on the subjects that had disappeared and returned. Furthermore, this driftwood was found near eastern Turkey, the region of a dormant volcano called Mount Ararat. As per mythology, Mount Ararat could be the last resting place of Noah’s ark. Therefore, Saanvi concluded that the driftwood laden with Sapphire that had the genes of animals could be the surviving piece of Noah’s Ark. This ultimately suggests that both Flight No. 828 and Noah’s Ark had been struck by lightning and had disappeared from the face of the earth momentarily. Though the mystery of the driftwood and lost tailfin concluded at the end of Manifest Season 3, the theories around Sapphire were further developed in Season 4.
In Manifest Season 4, we come across a Chinese man named Henry who had the markings of a dragon on his wrist, which were caused by lightning, probably the same dark lightning that led to the mysterious disappearance of subjects. However, in Henry’s case, the phenomenon left a scar on his wrist that was laden with Sapphire like all other supernatural subjects in the Manifest Universe.
As Olive researched sapphires, she discovered that these gemstones had been referenced throughout myths and legends. For example, Moses was standing on a platform made of sapphire when he received the Ten Commandments from God. She further theorized that all communication with the divine had been linked to sapphires. The passengers could get unlimited callings through these gemstones and return to the realm of divine consciousness, just like Captain Daly and Cal Stone did. All subjects that returned to the human world were connected to the divine consciousness through their callings, and Sapphires could manually trigger them. However, as per the Major’s research, it wasn’t just any sapphire that triggered those callings; the Sapphire used for the purpose was called Omega sapphire, which was mined from a small quarry called Wadi Natrun, located in the depths of the Nile Valley. Coincidentally, traces of Omega Sapphire were found on the fossil driftwood that Saanvi threw into the fissures to stop the strange manifestation of Mount Ararat in New York.
Finally, at the end of Part 1 of Manifest Season 4, Eagan Tehrani found the lost gem under the ground in the Masonic Temple and stole it to use it for his sinister plan. However, Eagan was attacked by Angelina Meyer, who took the Omega Sapphire from him to serve her purpose. By the end of Part 1, the Omega Sapphire had been broken, and the remaining pieces ended up in Angelina’s burned hand. Yet she could still use the powers of the Omega Sapphire to generate the callings whose aftermath we will surely witness in the Manifest finale. It was theorized that if any passengers exploited the callings for their greed, the entire world would have faced its repercussions. Hence, if Ben Stone and his family don’t stop Eagan and Angelina in time, these two wicked souls will bring an apocalypse that will wipe out humanity.
Ma’at’s Scales of Judgment
In Manifest Season 4, Olive and TJ solved a puzzle and found a Draco constellation on the papyrus of Ma’at. The constellation symbolized the dragon, and the dragon’s tail touched the scales on Ma’at’s papyrus. Olive theorized that if the dragon is touched by the Omega Sapphire, it could tip Ma’at’s Scales of Judgment and save all the passengers, as they are all connected. A similar thing happened with the meth heads, where the wrongdoings of one brother led to the death of all. If Cal was the key to tipping the scales, then all the passengers could survive the death date.
At the end of Part 1, Angelina had the last remaining piece of Omega Sapphire, while Zeke had sacrificed his life to save the dragon, i.e., he absorbed Cal’s illness to give him a chance to protect humanity. To save all the passengers, Cal had to get hold of the last piece of Omega Sapphire before it was too late. However, the question is: would someone as delusional as Angelina let Cal get anywhere near her, especially after their one-on-one scuffle at the end of Part 1? According to the trailer for Part 2, Angelina wants to bring about the end of times, while Cal wants to save the world. These two people are working towards opposite goals, and only one would succeed. The finale of Manifest will be about the ultimate battle between Cal and Angelina.
