Cal's role in traumatic crimes: trusting the wrong person at a critical time
Cal's role in letting Angelina into the house, and in turn allowing her to murder Grace and take Eden is one that has stayed in viewers' minds for years to come. Many fans have expressed their anger and resentment towards the character for this action and inability to judge the credibility of one Angelina Meyer.
When the season finale dropped, fans were quick to assume that Cal's line "This is the way it has to be", and odd behaviour in 3x12 supported the belief that he knew that Grace would be murdered. However, after the release of the first half of season four, it's been made clear that hasn't been the case. After all, this was the same character who initially hid the Calling of the Death Date from his family the second he knew about it, until they figured it out for themselves. He was terrified of telling them. It's inconceivable to believe that Cal would have known about Grace's death and knowingly concealed it for "the sake of the greater good" as theorised by some.
It was in fact, Michaela's Calling that was warning her of a passenger saying or doing something that would end in a person's death - Adrian's words, which Angelina misinterpreted which then resulted in Grace's heartwrenching death.
Where Cal disappeared in the finale, how much time spent with Fiona and Daly - these are all things that I'm still fascinated to know about. But back to the topic -
Over the course of s3, Cal constantly says how he and Angelina are "connected", (and I'm not one to doubt messages from the Callings) and in those episodes, it's not hard to see why if we really do understand. Before she goes off the rails, Angelina seemed like a sweet person and there are certain things she says that stayed in his mind because of how she worded it, if we're talking about the manipulation before the bus drove off a cliff. But with her prior trauma and losing Pete, she gradually becomes unstable all the way to S4, eventually committing horrific crimes including threats of violence, (attempt of) detonating a bomb in a building full of 828ers, murder and kidnapping an infant. There's also the matter of knowingly keeping said child separated from her real family - a family that was torn apart and grieving because of her actions.
Cal's role in all of this is believably something that would feel like a sledgehammer to the gut. Imagine trusting someone, forging a friendship with them, feeling close to them and when you return home after certain life-threatening, world-scale level circumstances, thinking that the worst is over, it's to find your mother bleeding out in a room, alone. Crying over her dead body at twelve years old.
He made a mistake. It's as simple and as ugly and as complex as that. The parallels of Cal, Michaela and Zeke carrying the weight of their actions ending the life of someone they loved so deeply is a wound that takes years to recover from. And it means something that it's these two who try their best to look out for Cal as the (available) adult figures at a time in his life when he's so lost, and overall in a bad place.
Their circumstances are so different yet so similar. Between the three of them, Zeke's one is a little different. From the ep, it sounded like Chloe fell into the ravine when he wasn't paying attention, and by the time he did it was too late. On the other hand, Michaela was in a car accident while being the driver. She had decided to take the wheel after deciding that Evie was too tipsy to drive, (which she was) and she hadn't appeared to be affected as much. However, this ended tragically and she only manages to get what's closest to closure in S4 through a Calling. It took her such a long time to try and forgive herself.
The cold reception she receives from Evie's grieving parents feels like a parallel to the rejection and rough treatment Cal receives from Ben (and initially, Olive) throughout the first half of S4 (and probably two years before). His placing trust in the wrong person at the wrong time, especially someone his mom had already cast out only leads in a catastrophic disaster. Usually, the series present Cal's interpretations of the Callings to be correct, always, except this one last time (even if they did appear to be connected after all in another way, later). If this had happened in any other universe, Cal would have been known as one who teamed up with his mother's murderer and his sister's abductor. He would have gone on trial, and he might have possibly been convicted. Served jail time. Maybe, who knows?
I also feel that Cal's decision came from a place of sympathy, strong belief and not properly understanding the situation. When Angelina is upstairs with Eden, Cal is downstairs and later outside when Grace and Zeke come across that scene. Meaning he didn't actually witness the scene in person while Grace did. I feel like he might have behaved differently if he had seen it instead of hearing about it. No wonder he was so confused and conflicted.
Something about the situations between Cal, Michaela and Zeke. The car accident was months before they boarded Flight 828, and the way Jared talked about it was fairly recent, meaning it occurred when Mick was an adult while I'm assuming Zeke was a little younger - as he talks about the years and how he turned to drugs to cope. Cal, on the other hand, was twelve and was left to compensate for that loss, grief and shame in a body five years older, in unfamiliar circumstances and stumbling on this new terrain. It's a lot. For two years, he's struggling. Looking for answers. Trying to earn Ben's love back.
Cal was responsible for Grace's death. As horrific as it is, it's what happened. He never meant for it to happen, he never intended it. He disobeyed Grace, secretly let Angelina into the house, told her about the extra key, down to the exact location. And it got her killed. And he carried that guilt, that shame, that horror as long as he lived. And I'm glad for the new timeline, because as much as I wished that the Stones and the 828ers received the healing and therapy they deserved, regaining his innocence and childhood does make sense from a different standpoint. They'd have to explain everything to Grace. It wouldn't make sense to her, and this is just a suitable ending. He and Olive, they get to be twins, children again. Eden is going to be born and grow up knowing her real mother. Ben and Michaela have Grace and Zeke back.
