I'm so glad you asked! 👀 Sorry it took me so long. Since this is probably the only opportunity I'll get to talk about it (unless I wanna make my own post), I wanted to get all of my thoughts out in one go. Which ended up being very overwhelming, since I have so many 😂 So strap yourself in for a looooooooooooong rant.
Ben & Saanvi
I'll start with B*nvi because that's the shortest rant and because my dislike for the ship stems from their incompatible character arcs (and the shippers) and has nothing to do with a dislike for either of the characters involved in the ship.
Ben's biggest character flaw is that he's so afraid of losing his family that he gets too wrapped up in saving/protecting them in the long term that he loses sight of their emotional needs and even sometimes their safety in the here and now. He's a math guy and tries to "solve" all of their problems, because that's how he thinks he can protect them. But as we saw in season 1 and 3, that often backfires on him and causes tension between him and his family. Especially with Grace, as she's usually the one left to pick up the pieces and keep their family together while Ben is out taking all these huge risks.
Ben has always needed Grace to keep him balanced and to remind him of his family's (emotional) needs. She's what's held him back from going too far in the name of protecting his family, because going too far would mean losing them. And the two times he did go too far, she called him out on it and held him accountable. That's what Ben needs to grow and change for the better.
Saanvi, much like Ben, is obsessed with the mystery of the Callings. Though she comes at it from a slightly different angle: instead of focusing on solving it, she wants to save everyone and thinks it's her responsibility to do so. She's so wrapped up in saving everyone through her work that she neglects to take care of herself. As Alex says, Saanvi is "always looking out for other people at the expense of [herself]." Which is incredibly unhealthy, as we see when it's taken to the extreme in 2x13 when Saanvi kills the Major in a desperate attempt to save Zeke.
The problem with Ben and Saanvi as a duo is that they enable each other's bad habit of burying themselves into work. Which isn't to say that they're bad friends to each other. For example, Ben did encourage Saanvi to eat something once when they were working together. But they would never tell each other to stop and live a little. Which is something especially Saanvi needs to hear. Both Ben and Saanvi need someone who can pull them back and make sure they take care of their own emotional needs too. Grace does that for Ben and, from what little we've seen of her, Alex does that for Saanvi.
There's also the simple fact that Ben loves Grace and Saanvi loves Alex. Ben has called Grace his everything and even chose her over Eden in 2x10, and I highly doubt he'll be able to move on from her any time soon, if ever (and he may not have to, but that's a theory for another post). And Saanvi has called Alex her soulmate and said it felt like the universe wants them to be together. When has she ever talked about anyone else like that? If science-driven Saanvi talks about someone else that way, you know it's true love. While Ben and Saanvi have a wonderful and meaningful friendship, there's nothing in the show that suggests that they have the kind of love Gracen and Alexvi feel for each other. Let alone a romantic love that's stronger.
Jared & Michaela
Where do I even start? The list of reasons why they're a terrible match feels endless.
As the show starts, we're immediately told that we shouldn't expect Michaela to go back to her old life: "All I know is... it was the day my life changed forever. [...] Funny how one little decision can ruin your life. But also save it." Note how Michaela remarks that the Callings saved her life. That implies that she needed saving from what her life used to be. And while she says all this, we also learn that she has reservations about marrying Jared. In fact, her family has to talk her into it. Part of this is related to her guilt about what happened with Evie and how she feels about herself. But her father also says in 1x05 that she wasn't sure she wanted to marry Jared back in Jamaica, which implies that there was more to it.
Jared proposed IN PUBLIC despite knowing that it was probably too soon for Mick ("I should have never proposed so soon after the accident. I mean, she's not ready. Now she's gonna get off that plane and turn me down." - Jared in 1x05) and that she was still very much traumatized from the accident. To the point that she couldn't drive and was on desk duty.
Jared didn't go to the airport to see Michaela upon her return DESPITE later (1x10) admitting that he knew he would choose Mick over Lourdes. He strung both of them along for several weeks. All because he didn't think that Mick was going to accept his proposal (1x05), so he couldn't have her. But that didn't stop him from emotionally and physically cheating on Lourdes with Mick. Lourdes even asked him about his feelings, but he lied and said he was only looking after Mick because he felt bad for her.
Remember this line from the pilot?
This is the original line in the Pilot script:
Note how Jeff decided to make Jared look worse and had him emotionally cheat on his wife. In episode freaking 1. That's a terrible look on him. These writers weren't trying to make him attractive from the start.
And speaking of how Jared treats his other love interests, do we really want Mick with a guy who 1) cheated on his wife, 2) lied to Tamara, who he was sleeping with, and used her to arrest her brother, and 3) emotionally cheated on Sarah (despite Mick not reciprocating at all)? This isn't attractive at all.
Jared also doesn't understand Mick's guilt. She outright told him in 1x01 that her lawyer convincing a judge that she was innocent won't make her feel like less of a murderer. And what does Jared tell her in 1x03 to try and comfort her? "Mick, it wasn't your fault. You were cleared. The department did an investigation, and they cleared you." He doesn't understand her core struggle and he never will. Because he doesn't feel any guilt himself. Ever. He has never once taken responsibility for his part in the shooting in 1x16, let alone apologised for it. Nor did he ever apologise for trying to get Zeke locked in prison based on false charges. Compare that to Zeke apologising to Mick in 2x01 for accidentally shooting her while she was bleeding on the floor, while Jared was too busy trying to get Zeke out of the way by calling the cops and putting the blame for the incident all on Zeke. Zeke took responsibility right away, and did so again by turning himself in. Because Zeke feels that same guilt Mick feels. That's what bonded them so strongly in 1x13.
Jared turns Mick back into a version of herself she doesn't want to be anymore: a wrecking ball in her friend's life. She thought Jared and the force were her path to redemption, but ultimately realised she was wrong and let go of both of them after they cheated. Even before that point, Mick was already trying to distance herself from him, though Jared and their work wouldn't let her.
Jared also doesn't respect the boundaries Mick sets with him. She told him in 1x14 that she couldn't talk about the right now because Lourdes had just left, and she leaves the conversation in tears. After Jared meets Zeke in 1x15, which is that same night, Jared asks Mick out for breakfast. This is HOURS after Mick told them she couldn't talk about them right now. All cause he was instantly jealous of Zeke and felt threatened by Zeke's presence in Mick's life, despite Zeke not having made any real moves on Mick (or Mick on him).
Speaking of Zeke, Jared 1) has judged him and written him off as a junkie without ever even knowing him, 2) stalked and assaulted him, 3) brought a gun into Mick's apartment and went looking for a fight with Zeke, 4) was willing to let Zeke go to prison while knowing Zeke never intended to harm Mick (and without ever taking any responsibility for his own part in the events of that night), 5) was disappointed when Zeke survived his death date DESPITE WHAT THIS MEANT FOR MICK'S HAPPINESS AND CHANCES OF SURVIVAL, and 6) has voiced OUT LOUD that Zeke should be dead. THIS MAN DOESN'T LOVE MICHAELA.
Jared knows his only tie to Mick is the force, so every time she quits or contemplates quitting, he shows up at her house at night, barges in (despite her protest and without waiting for permission), and tries to strengthen their bond in some way:
Note how none of this is his business.
Season 3 repeats their season 1 storyline in many ways, but with their situations reversed. But in both cases it's still Jared making moves on Mick while Mick holds him off. Even more so in season 3. Because Mick has moved on, but Jared still hasn't, and he can't accept that she's moved on from him and is happily married. This emphasizes how Jared hasn't grown AT ALL, while Mick has gone on a long journey of healing and finding true happiness.
Jared got her shot and never apologised for it or took any kind of responsibility for it. He was too busy trying to paint himself as a hero. Compare that to Zeke feeling so guilty that he went to jail for it. Not to mention that Zeke immediately apologised to Mick while she was still bleeding out on the floor.
After three whole seasons, Jared STILL doesn't have any faith in the Callings. Mick constantly has to explain to him why it's important to help her and why her Callings should be followed. Not only does Mick constantly need to convince Jared that he needs to help her with her Callings (especially when he doesn't think he'll get any kind of reward out of it), he ends season 3 straight up telling her that he doesn't care about the Callings. Don't get me wrong, he's allowed to be hurt by how the Callings mess up his life, but let's not forget that Mick has to follow all of her Callings TO SURVIVE HER DEATH DATE. AND JARED DOESN'T CARE. THIS MAN DOESN'T LOVE HER.
Speaking of Mick trying to follow her Callings and Jared being difficult, this was especially evident in 3x12 and 3x13. Mick had a big Calling about someone's life being in jeopardy and she needed to speak to several passengers in holding, including Adrian. Jared refused to send a cruiser after Adrian after he was released from custody. And what did Adrian do next? His words caused Angelina to go and grab Eden. And kill Grace in the process. Jared's unwillingness to help Mick because he couldn't play the hero in her life anymore led to Grace's death. I'm not saying he willingly caused it, of course, but Jared's refusal to have faith and change for the better has led to terrible consequences twice now: Mick got shot in 1x16 and Grace died in 3x13.
A lot of Jared's other responses to Mick's Callings also haven't been good. He gets mad at Mick when he finds her, Zeke, and Drea in the interrogation room and at the end of that scene says to leave him out of it. Despite that being exactly what they had been doing when he came into the room. In S1, he's told Mick that the voices in her head were making her go soft, blinding her
Jared also straight up guilt trips Mick in 2x03: he tells her that he blew up his entire life for her, and that's why he now refuses to help her free Zeke, despite him knowing that Zeke is innocent. Blaming the mess that's his life on Mick is incredibly unfair, because he's a grown man who made the choice to cheat on his wife with her. Mick doesn't owe him a relationship just because they made a mistake together. To make her resentment even more evident to Mick, he tells her "Guess I'm not the only one who blew up their life. Hope it was worth it." in 2x03 after Mick manages to free Zeke. Which, again, makes it really clear that Jared resents Mick for not rewarding him for his "sacrifice" (aka a wife he didn't really want anymore) by being with him. This kind of guilt tripping is always disgusting, but especially with a character like Mick who's really prone to intense feelings of guilt. WHICH JARED IS AWARE OF. He saw the aftermath of Evie's death and Mick's feelings of guilt about it, even if he couldn't fully understand her guilt. He uses that against her, instead of being careful not to make her feel guilty about choosing her own happiness and healing.
The show has tackled toxic and/or abusive couples several times. And each time, they either directly compared Jared and Michaela's relationship to them (the wrecking ball comparison in 1x10) or it was easy to draw connections between them as a viewer:
Some of Mick's reactions to Jared's outbursts or the way she prepares herself before telling him something she'll know he'll respond badly too also remind me of someone in a toxic or abusive relationship. Which doesn't mean that their relationship was ever abusive before, or even toxic. We have no evidence to suggest that. But it is a red flag for the current state of their relationship and the direction in which it could be headed if they don't break out of this cycle.
But most importantly: Michaela doesn't want to be with Jared. No, I don't think her response to Jared and Sarah in S3 involved any jealousy. I think she was just genuinely suspicious of Sarah's intentions and worried she could pose a threat to the passengers, maybe even Jared. Every time Jared says they should be together (or some variation of that), she shakes her head. She did the same thing when Jared said that Zeke should be dead.
Mick has chosen to be with Zeke at every turn, even when that was the hard choice to make, and she's never regretted it. He has given her a life to fight for, and she's gonna make sure she makes it to the other end of her death date so she can be with him forever.
So in conclusion: Jared doesn't truly love or even care about Michaela, and is just resentful that he can't play the hero in her life anymore. That man isn't good for her and should stay far away from her.
you know, i was, um…i was just finally starting to get over you. please don’t do this. he was supposed to be gone, mick. i’m sorry, but he was supposed to be gone. that’s the only reason i stood there and watched him marry the love of my life.
tolive anon here. honestly I'm still super confused about what happened to olive so suddenly in e3 s9? in e3 s7 (or s6, not quite sure 😔) she told Angelina that she was family and did everything she could do get her to stay, and then in e9 she's suddenly being so bitter towards her. she literally told Angelina that the family was nice because she pitied her. thoughts on why?
The first thing that's important for you to remember is that quite a bit of time passes between 3x07 and 3x09. It's unclear just how many days/weeks pass between 3x07 and 3x08 (it's definitely at least a few days, though, since Olive is on a senior retreat in 3x08), but Saanvi mentions in 3x09 that they've been testing on the driftwood from the Vatican for 33 days. They started those tests in 3x08, so a month passes between those two episodes.
That means that Angelina has been acting more and more like Olive for a whole month. She's been borrowing Olive's clothes since 3x08, getting closer with Grace, getting involved with Grace's family restaurant, and acting like Eden's big sister. Some of her phrasing also makes Olive feel like Angelina is trying to push Olive out of the family, instead of trying to create a space for herself. And now she's even dyeing her hair to look like Olive's.
What's important to remember here is that Olive has felt like an outsider to her own family before. At first, she and Grace were together in that:
But then Grace gets the Callings too while she's pregnant with Eden. And while Olive's biggest fear at this point is losing her family in 5,5 years, that doesn't mean she doesn't still feel like an outsider at times:
This feeling is something that helped push her to the Believers and that to this day hasn't fully been resolved. Which I think is a huge part of why Olive responded so poorly to what Angelina was doing. Angelina is a passenger and gets the Callings, just like half of Olive's family. She gets along with everyone and seems to be fitting in really well at this point, at least from Olive's POV. In fact, Cal has been waiting for her, so clearly the Callings want her with the Stones. I think it's completely understandable that Olive would feel insecure because of this and get more irritated with Angelina as time passes, until we finally get to her outburst where she tells Angelina that the Stones pity her.
I don't think Olive really meant that, though. Her face after Angelina runs off tells me that Olive immediately regretted saying that, even if she was still feeling uncomfortable about Angelina's behaviour:
Olive's only 18, and she's allowed to make mistakes. Teenagers mess up sometimes. Especially when they feel threatened and insecure.
Talking with Grace, however, makes Olive realise that she's not being fair to Angelina and that she's not seeing the situation from Angelina's perspective. So she goes to apologise to her and leaves her several voicemails. Olive's not unreasonable and is able to admit that she's made a mistake. But Angelina crosses a line when she tries to kiss Levi, whom she knows Olive has a crush on, and I think Olive's anger is absolutely justified here.
I think there's also an additional layer to Olive's changing feelings towards Angelina here that's less evident. As we now know, Angelina was being built up as an antagonist, who would eventually join up with Adrian and Eagan, kill Grace, and kidnap Eden. I don't think we're meant to see Angelina as an evil person, but she's certainly a very troubled and malleable person. When she put on Eden's clothes in 3x08, the score was pretty ominous. And after Cal promised her he'd keep her wearing Olive's dress a secret, he got the vulcano Calling again, followed by the one where we see him, Ben, Mick, and Angelina all scream together. It suggests that their lifeboat is in danger. After the season finale, we can interpret this as the Callings trying to warn Cal that Angelina poses a danger to their lifeboat (probably on top of the danger that Saanvi's research posed).
During Olive and Grace's talk about Angelina in 3x09, Grace says that Angelina looks at Olive and sees someone who has it all. Olive says it doesn't feel like that. At first glance, that could just be seen as Olive saying that she's having a hard time putting herself in Angelina's shoes and looking at this situation from a different perspective. But now, we have to wonder if Olive's feeling about Angelina may have been more than that. This show has been hinting about Cal and Olive's twin connection being special since season 1. It's possible that while Olive doesn't get Callings, she does instinctually feel more than the average human because of Cal and Flight 828. It could be something that's similar to Zeke's empathy powers. Whatever it is, Grace tells Olive that she was right about Angelina in 3x12.
So in conclusion, I think two things were going on here. Angelina's behaviour was playing into Olive's insecurities about her place in her own family, and Olive was acting based on a feeling that she can't quite explain but that ended up being right. That doesn't make her compassion for Angelina in 3x07 any less genuine. It just means that Olive's behaviour changed based on the way Angelina's behaviour changed.
do you think that tj might come back in s4 and restart his relationship with olive? also, was it mentioned in any episode that they broke up? bc she said her bf was in egypt and just a few episodes later she was kissing levi….
Okay, first of all: you have no idea how excited I was to wake up to a Manifest ask! I have so many thoughts on this show and I love talking about it, so thank you for sending me this!
I firmly believe that TJ is Olive's endgame and that he'll return in season 4. As far as I'm aware, Garrett hasn't filmed anything for season 4 yet, but he has been posting about the show and was in New York for a little bit around the time producting was getting started, so I wouldn't be surprised if he was there to prep for TJ's return later in the season. As for why I'm so sure that TJ is Olive's endgame, there are several things in the show that told me he is:
1. TJ, like Zeke, immediately started bonding with all the Stone family members upon his introduction. He has relationships with Ben, Grace, Cal, Michaela, Zeke, and even Zeke's dad. We also know his backstory and what his relationship was like with his mom. Contrast that with how Levi has only interacted with Olive and Angelina, and how we know nothing about his family.
2. The show had Ben talk about Olive's wedding in 2x04, which is also the episode in which we see Tolive's first meeting and them meeting again after Flight 828:
To me, that's pretty clear foreshadowing that TJ is the man Olive will eventually marry.
3. Tolive's story has been way too special and tied into the mythology for them to just be a midgame ship. I mean, the Callings kept him at the same age for 5,5 years so he'd be age appropriate for Olive to date. And the book he gave her, A Wrinkle In Time, even hints at that happening. How does that not tell you that the universe wants them to be together?
4. The show has a pretty important musical score called the Pilot Theme. It played in the first scene of the show and has played in several important or sweet Stone family scenes since. For example, we heard it when Grace found out Flight 828 had returned, during the Stone family Jamaica flashback, and when Zekaela got married. I made a Twitter thread with all the scenes in which we hear it. One of those scenes is the moment in which Olive references A Wrinkle In Time to TJ and he realises she does remember him. That indicates to me that TJ is a part of the Stone family and Olive's future husband.
5. During Zekaela's wedding vows, TJ looked at Olive when Zeke said this line:
Again, strong foreshadowing that he's her future husband.
Now, onto your questions about Levi. No, season 3 didn't specifically mention a break up. I do think I know what the writers were going for with Tolive's story, but I think that they handled it a bit clumsily. I think that we're meant to see Tolive's final scene in 2x12 as them taking a break of sorts. TJ said he's not breaking up with her, but he did ask her to not give up on him. I think that meant that he sort of set her free as he went to Egypt to ensure a future with her, and all he asked her is that she wait for him.
And that's what Olive did at first. She kept calling him her boyfriend, even though he was only that to her in name, since he wasn't around. But in 3x04 we already see that her waiting for TJ is one of the things that's holding her back from living her life. She didn't want to go to her own prom because she was supposed to go with TJ and because of everything that was happening surrounding Flight 828. But eventually she did go on her own and it was the right decision for her. I'm not sure exactly what we're meant to take as her main reason for deciding to give up on TJ (I still have to do a proper S3 rewatch), but I think the idea is that she eventually decided to stop putting her life on pause and start living it again, and that she couldn't keep waiting for someone who was not around to support her in her moments of need. And Levi was around, helping her and crushing on her, so she fell for him. The writers didn't make this very clear and handled it pretty clumsily, especially considering they went from Olive calling TJ her boyfriend to her suddenly acting like she's single, but I think this is what they were going for.
Something that TJ, Ben, Michaela, and Saanvi all have to learn is that they can't keep prioritising the future over their present, especially when it comes to the people they love. Yes, it's important to try and ensure that you get the future you want with your loved ones. But that shouldn't come at the cost of being there for those loved ones right now. Ben kept not being there for Grace emotionally because he was always too focussed on solving his family's problems, and now he has to learn to be there for them the hard way, because Grace's not there to take on that burden alone. Michaela was so focussed on following all her Callings this season so she could get her happily ever after with Zeke that she didn't see that he was feeling insecure about his place and usefulness in her life until the finale, and even then Zeke mostly worked through his insecurities himself as he came to better understand his powers. And Saanvi's focus on her work and saving all the people around her cost her Alex, because to Alex it always felt like their relationship was all about the work they did together, and once that ended, so would their relationship. And TJ has fallen into a similar pattern by prioritising solving the death date over being there next to Olive as she tries to help her family face all these issues. And that came at a cost. Just like Saanvi lost Alex and Ben lost Grace in S1, TJ has now lost Olive. So it's up to him to change for the better and show her that he can be the partner she needs in season 4.
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